{"id":6594,"date":"2015-05-18T07:26:55","date_gmt":"2015-05-18T12:26:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/?p=6594"},"modified":"2021-08-19T10:22:01","modified_gmt":"2021-08-19T15:22:01","slug":"on-good-bacteria-enemas-and-your-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2015\/05\/18\/on-good-bacteria-enemas-and-your-health","title":{"rendered":"On Good Bacteria, Enemas, And Your Health"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In certain cultures, like middle class Jews growing up in Hyde Park in the 1950s, everyone remembers being chased through their home by a well-meaning mom armed with an enema bag. \u201cDr. Nachman said you needed this for a poopy!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am tearful, dressed only in whity-tighties until caught in the steel grip of my father, probably grateful he wasn\u2019t next on the list.  I lose the battle, but since I\u2019m right at Sigmund Freud\u2019s anal stage of development, I probably lay still and rather enjoyed the experience. I simply don\u2019t remember, which is just what Freud expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Decades later, when I was establishing what would ultimately become WholeHealth Chicago, I sampled just about every form of alternative therapy available at the time. During my encounter with colon therapy, comfortably lying on my side, a hose snaking upward from an irrigating pump, my tummy being gently massaged by my therapist, I thought\u2026of mom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Probiotic enemas<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When I first encountered the research into using enemas containing probiotics, the whole thing made a lot of sense. With an enema, you\u2019re simply inserting water into your rectum to clean it. A probiotic enema adds a small amount of powdered probiotic to the water. There are a lot of DIYs online, but here\u2019s a good one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until recently, conventional medicine paid virtually no attention to the concept of good bacteria\u2014probiotics\u2014focusing its narrow-minded thinking solely on bad bacteria as the cause of most illnesses, battling them with the single tool in its arsenal: antibiotics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good-guy probiotics were highly suspect by MDs, since they were found in health food stores and the offices of clinical nutritionists, chiropractors, and naturopaths. Imbalances of intestinal bacteria (called intestinal dysbiosis) were so foreign to the conventional health care system that to this day, if a physician orders a test looking specifically for dysbiosis many health insurance providers will deny coverage, claiming it\u2019s an unproven condition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our understanding of intestinal dysbiosis has changed dramatically over the past decade despite the deliberate reluctance of the insurance industry to keep abreast with the times. Read this piece for a solid overview<\/a>. Scientists ultimately calculated the following, which still feels a little sci-fi to many of us:<\/p>\n\n\n\n