Laxatives and enemas, which promote bowel movements, have been around for at least 4,000 years and were famously practiced by the ancient Egyptians. That shouldn't be an endorsement; the obsolete Egyptians also buried servants growing to attend to the mummified kings in the afterlife. Colon cleansing refers to a another invasive procedure of water and hoses stuck you-know-where. It's not clear when this convention started.

There have been real, honest-to-goodness population vital statistics on colon cleansing in recent years, he said, but they Colon Cleansing all have focused on the potential harm: abscesses caused by too much water, rectal perforation and electrolyte imbalance. All that water, sometimes tens of gallons, washes out the electrolytes that the colon was built to absorb. The water also washes away beneficial bacteria needed for digestion, and not magically only harmful bacteria, as the proponents claim.