Re: Colon Cleansing, Avoiding vata aggravation

Dear Chetana,

I can very much associate with what your are going through. During my Ayurveda training I also studied Panchakarma and had numerous 2-week PKs over a period of many years, but without improvement. During the last treatment while in day 3 of the ghee-day, I passed out and died. My heart stopped for five minutes. When I returned to my body, I was very ill for 2 months, with several gallbladder attacks. With every PK pree-treatment I had done I suffered a gallbaldder attack. But after the last one I never had A PK again and focused on experiementing with other approaches. The final relief came when I did colonics and liver flushes combined. I never suffered a gallbladder attack again, but it took me 12 liver flushes to feel myself again.

PKs can be wonderful and make you feel very good, but they are not suitable and can be risky for those who suffer major liver and gallbladder problems. Administering so much oil at the beginning of the PK squeezes the gallbladder empty and may dislodge some stones from both the liver and gallbladder. But since there is no Epsom salts to relax the bile ducts and the stones are not softened by malic acid (apple juice, cider vinegar, cranberry juice), stones can get stuck in the common bile duct and cause an attack. I extreme cases you can die, as I did. It is not a good idea to force so much bile out of the liver for so many consecutive days in individuals like myself.

Panchakarma was designed many throusands of years ago when there was no pullution, no impure foods sprayed with chemcials, no major stress factors, when water was still pure and a powerful cleanser, and people followed the cycles of nature. It was almost impossibe then to create stones in the liver and gallbladder. Today, almost everything that man has created can produce stones. So naturally, to trap the poisons we create today, he majority of people are filled with stones, and quite a few of these should definitely not do a PK pre-treatment.

With regard to water-based enemeas, they are a part of the original PK treatment, alternating oil with water-based enemas. To say that they dry out the colon reflects ignorance about the colon. I did research on colon hydration through colonics and found that a person weighed more after a colonic than before, right afterwards and lasting for several days. This despite the fact that the person has lost considerable amounts of fecal matter. What happens is that a previously congested and, therefore, dehydrated, colon becomes properly hydrated during a colonic, which explains the weight gain afterwards.

It is unfortunate that when you have a an acient scripture like the 6,000-year old Charaka Samhita which doesn't include the newer health tools we have today, they are being dismissed as harmful or ineffective by those who guard the tradtional knowledge. Although, those in Ayurveda who make such claims have never done a colonic or liver flush, they seem to know everything about them. Yet their beliefs are only formed by fear of making mistakes or going against the rules laid out by others. Your are responsible for you health and must decide what works best for you.

I can only share with you what I know based on my experiences with many people. Doing a liver flush without first doing a colonic can greately diminish the results, especially in those with sluggish colons. During most liver flushes there will be stones getting caught in the colon, especailly in Vata types. Not doing a colonic or colema after the liver flush can make you feel, ill, toxic, overtax the liver with toxins, affect the thyroid, reprodcutive oragans, congest the lymph and blood, and make you feel very tired. Ask around how many people who follow the directions given in my book The Amazing Liver & Gallbladder Flush have released stones (from a dozen to hundreds of them) during the colonic or colema within three days after the liver flush. Keeping these stones in the colon can lead to many illnesses, and it is not worth taking that risk. Part of your healing process is to trust your self, and do the things that feel right for you. Relying on information that others give you out of fear or ignorance is not in your best interest. It is better to try things out yourself and then form an opinion. Your problems are certainly liver-related, but there are aslo emotional causes. Trusting in yourself more helps with both.

Andreas