Today, I'm going to share how to use an enema for digestive health.
So stay tuned.
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Hi, there.
My name's Amanda Malachesky.
I'm a Functional Nutrition Coach and a Digestive and Allergy Detective.
I bring you videos every single week to help you figure out what's causing your digestion
problems and how to fix them at the roots.
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when I post a new video on Tuesdays.
So I've been talking about making this video for quite some time because I mentioned using
enemas as a digestive support technique and several of my other videos, but I realized
that some of you may be feeling squeamish about using them or have no idea how to do
them.
So by the end of today's video, you'll have full instructions about how to do an enema
at home.
I've personally used enemas to help clear out intestinal parasites and relieve chronic
constipation.
I personally have used enemas to clear out intestinal worms and relieve chronic constipation
as well as support my body through detox and herxheimer reactions.
And I know that you can too, even if you feel a little squeamish about it.
So let's get started.
So first I just want to place the technique of enema in a little bit of context.
It's an intestinal cleansing method that has been actually used since ancient times all
over the world.
So it's nothing new, but it's definitely fallen a little bit out of favor, especially here
in the US maybe, because understandably it involves getting up close and personal with
a part of our anatomy that we're not often used to dealing with.
But I think the benefits of enemas are highly undervalued and I personally find them invaluable
for those of us with food sensitivities, autoimmune digestive flares, chronic constipation, and
other health conditions.
So how to do an enema?
Well, the first thing you need is an enema kit and there's basically two different kinds
on the market.
One is sort of an orange rubber bag that sort of looks like a hot water bottle.
And the other type is a stainless steel bucket that kind of looks like a water pitcher.
And they each have a tube coming out the bottom that has a clamp on it that you use to control
the flow of water and then a nozzle at the end that you use to insert into the rectum.
I'll leave a link to the kit that I use so you can buy one if you want, but really it
doesn't matter.
You can buy whichever kind you want.
I have found it's a little hard to find basic enema kits, even at the drug store.
You're probably going to have to order one online.
And I personally prefer the stainless steel kits because I feel like stainless steel is
a very sanitary material and it's easy to clean.
Whereas I feel like the rubber kits are a little harder to get into to clean, but you
can do whatever you like.
And just to be clear that I don't recommend the fleet enema, which is sort of an over-the-counter
enema preparation you can buy in the drugstore.
I don't like those because they have additives in them that I don't trust.
But you could certainly make use of those if you like.
Next you'll prepare the enema liquid, which in most cases is usually just plain water.
In my house, we have spring water.
So I boil my water on the stove top in a pot.
But you could also use an electric kettle or use your tap water if you like or you can
buy spring water at the store and heat that up.
And you want the water to be about body temperature.
So somewhere between 98 to 101 degrees.
I usually overheat it just a little bit because by the time I get it into the kit and everything,
it cools down a little bit.
So that makes it just about perfect.
And I use a thermometer in the water while I'm heating it to get it to the right temperature.
Or another technique that I use is I fill with cold filtered water in a half gallon
Mason jar.
That's with cold water.
I fill it to like four to five cups and then I add hot boiled water to that to get the
temperature just right.
Sometimes people include other kinds of liquids in their enemas, so you've probably heard
of things like coffee enemas, which are a very specific detox type of enema and I'm
not necessarily advocating that here.
It can be useful in certain situations.
Or you can also make herbal preparations like for example the herb Quassia.
I'm not sure if that's how you say that is a great anti-parasitic herb that you can make
into a tea and add to your enema.
But for all intents and purposes, the basic enema is just plain water.
Next I prepare the kit for you.
So I take the water that I've heated, I pour it into the kit and then I set that bucket
or bag, if you have a bag, up on my bathroom counter and it's extremely important that
you drain the air bubbles out of the hose, you don't want to introduce those into your
belly.
That'll cause a little bit of bloating and gas and won't feel very good.
So I take the hose and open up the clamp to let some of the liquid drain out into the
toilet and then I close it again, hold it up so that the air bubbles go up to the top
and then I open it one more time to get all of those air bubbles out of the hose.
Once that's done, then I add a little bit of lubrication to the nozzle.
So I usually use coconut oil, but you could use any body safe lubrication that you like.
So now it's time to actually use the enema.
And I'll tell you that the first time I tried this I was terrified.
I don't really know why I was so afraid, but you'd think I was being held up at gunpoint.
My heart was beating super fast.
My palms were sweating and I was feeling super nauseous.
I'm not really sure what I was scared of because in the end I've really found that enemas help
me feel a lot better.
Anyway, leaving the bucket on the bathroom counter, I lay a towel down on the floor and
I laid down on the floor with my knees up and I gently insert the nozzle into my rectum.
And then I use the nozzle to open up the flow of liquid.
And you know if you're not used to this at first, you might want to go really slowly.
You can get a little bit of cramping sometimes as the water is coming into the rectum and
the colon.
And if that happens, you can close the clamp and just wait a moment.
Usually that cramp passes.
If it doesn't, then you can get up and empty out your bowels on the toilet.
And then I resume filling until either I feel full or the bucket is empty.
Now comes the step where we leave the water inside our belly for a little while, ideally
10 to 15 minutes or even longer if you want or can hold it that long.
And while you're doing that, it's nice either to give yourself a little bit of belly massage
in a counterclockwise motion, which can encourage the liquid to travel throughout the colon
and you just relax and hang out, or you can even get up and walk around.
People often feel like that's terrifying, but actually it's usually okay.
You can get up and walk around while you're waiting for the urge to release to come.
Then when you get a strong urge to release, you simply sit on the toilet and it's just
like going to the bathroom.
You hang out and it can take a few minutes, 10 to 15 sometimes to get all of the material
out of your colon, but you just hang out and relax and enjoy yourself.
It's a nice time to have some reading material and wait until you're done.
Sometimes this elimination is really strong, like you can really feel your abdomen and
your belly contracting to squeeze out the material and this is a good sign because that
squeezing is really fully eliminating and releasing what's in the colon.
Finally, once you're all done and cleaned up, then you can make sure to drain the hose
fully and you might run some water with hydrogen peroxide through the hose and through the
kit just to clean it out and then you let it air dry after that and you're done.
Since enemas are kind of a little bit of a weird topic, I'm curious to hear what your
biggest obstacle is to trying an enema.
Go ahead and leave a comment below.
So I hope that today's video helps you get over any reservations you may feel about enemas
and gets you using this really fantastic technique to help support your digestion.
Please let me know if you have any questions about this information.
You can leave that below in the comments.
I'll be sure to get back to you about that.
If you need some additional support with your digestive challenges, I really encourage you
to download my Roadmap to Gut Recovery.
It's an action guide that helps you take steps starting right now and some longer term steps
to get started on figuring out and identifying what your root causes of your digestive challenges
are so you can resolve them.
You can find that guide by heading over to confluencenutrition.com/roadmap and I will
also leave a link for that below this video.
And if you've already done a bit or even a lot of this work and you're still feeling
really confused, I would love the opportunity to meet with you for a free 30-minute assessment
session where I can get a sense of what's happening for you, what might be your next
best steps, and you can get a sense of what it might be like to work with me further.
You can schedule that by visiting confluencenutrition.com/contact.
Be sure to leave me a comment about your personal enema obstacles or be sure and ask me a question
that you have about this video or a question about digestion that you'd like me to answer
in another video.
I'll look forward to seeing you all next time.