Commercial Enema Solutions

While the topics of Castille Soap and other soap products have been discussed here, I so far, haven't seen any discussion of other prepared solutions that were, at one time, available at the coner drug store.

I know of two, one off the market because the FDA determined it contained dangerous chemicals, and the other because I think the demand went away, just as a number of douche solutions have dissapeared from the market.

The banned solution was Lavema Enema Powder, because of suspected liver toxicity, and while never conclusively proven was suspected. Tests seem to indicate that it was no more dangerous than a soap suds enema, one of the principal ingredients was possibly a carcinogen. This goes back to 1971 when the product was withdrawn from the market.

I managed to obtain some of the packets and try it. And nearly 50 years later suffer no health issues. My recollection was that it was comfortable going in, less stimulating than a soap suds enema, easy to retain until, and rather suddenly, you had an explosive, but enjoyable expulsion where the entire enema came out in one long stream. Following the expulsion you were left with some urgency, which it took a plain water enema or two to relieve. One friend who also tried (and liked) it said, it was like his bowels had the dry heaves. Without a tap water enema following, you would make several, perhaps many, unproductive trips back to the toilet.

The other commercial solution was made by a company near Boston, so it may have had limited distribution. It was called Irrigol, " The powder of elegance for quality irritations." It was sold for both enemas and vaginal douches. When you opened a pack you got a hint of the smell of Vicks Vapo-Rub. I believe from eucalyptus powder. I found the last few boxes in a Watertown, MA drug store in about 1969 and have never seen it since. I learned about it from Midred Burgess, a colonic irrigation and enema provider in Boston.

This product was rather stimulating, and was best given with bag held fairly high so it ran in quickly, slow going it was very tough to get in 2 quarts. Mildred was one of those who could work a colon tube past the sigmoid flexure, and having the solution going in high up was a deliciously erotic experience. While never overtly sexual Mildred loved giving enemas, especially to a young person like me in my early twenties. She would suggest trying different things, and she would put maybe a pint of water in the bag, use it to he get the colon tube in, then pour the Irrigol solution into the bag.

I know it gave me a great feeling, usually a rather obvious erection, and a very pleasant feeling until finally the urge was strong. Keeping the eucalyptus away from the rectum and up high was a really sensational feeling.

Again the evacuation was enjoyable, leaving a tingly sensation in the colon, but with no feeling of urgency.

It was following one of these enemas when Mildred repeated the deep colon tube insertion and I emptied the bag, which she refilled and I joined gallon club.

I took a girl friend with me for colonics a couple of times, which became enema sessions, and it was irrigol and Mildred that helped her get from a couple of bulbs full to close to three quarts.... Pretty good for a woman 4' 11" and rather slim!

I often wondered about using other commercial douche preparations in enemas, but never tried. When Castille soap was hard to find baby shampoos were an interesting substitute, although some of them were detergents, which may have had safety issues.

But after thousands of enemas I have had no adverse health effects or any other issues the medical profession warned us about.

I wonder if anyone else had any experience with other commercial preparation, if there were/are any?

Lavema enema powder is Oxyphenasatin Acetate. It was banned because it was shown to cause liver damage, and the evidence was pretty convincing that in long term use it was a problem. The ban didn't come out of the 'blue sky'. Oxyphenasatin Acetate, Sodium Picosulfate, Bisacodyl and Phenolphthalein are all closely related compounds. The evicence that phenolphthalein is a carcinogen isn't especially strong (however the origin of the chemical, and it structure make it suspicious. It is a coal tar derivative, and coal tars are in fact known carcinogens).

Then there is a small matter of something called the DeLaney Amendment, which requires the FDA remove suspected and known carcinogens from the market place in food additives. While not strictly covered by the DeLaney Amendment, the FDA has traditionally taken a very dim view of known carcinogens in Over The Counter (OTC) products.

Fleet Enemas are essentially chemical They are too low volume for the volume itself to mean much.

Lisa k, - Yes, small volume, unless you buy 16 and fill a two quart bag full. Not much different from taking a sea salt enema, but with a lot more salt than you would probably want to add to an enema. Sometimes a small, but very saline enema will cause diarrhea, but for the most part I, and my playmates who have experimented with Fleet enemas find them pretty ineffective.

There was another product, Phisohex I believe, that was sometimes added to enemas, but it, too, was removed from the market because the ingredients were carcinogenic.

There were some steroid enemas for people suffering from colitis.

It is NOT like a sea salt enema!!

Sea salt is refined processed, and chemically pure SODIUM CHLORIDE no different in it's finished product than the sodium chloride mined under Detroit, except for the price.

Your body knows very well what sodium chloride is, it has NO CLUE whether it came from the Southern Ocean, or from under Detroit.

Fleet enema is SODIUM PHOSPHATE and SODIUM BI-PHOSPHATE!!

Also a salt. Has an isotonic effect much stronger than table salt. Not really functionally different from Epsom Salt (Magnesium Sulfate)

The best way to use Fleet enema is to put TWO AND ONLY TWO in two quarts of soapsuds and retain 15 minutes. Really no different from an ESS!

LisaK said

. . . Sea salt is refined processed, and chemically pure SODIUM CHLORIDE no different in it's finished product than the sodium chloride mined under Detroit, except for the price. . . .

NO, IT ISN'T.

Sea salt is a combination of all the salts and pollutants that are in the ocean from where it is harvested. It is NOT refined.

No two sea salts have the same chemical composition.

Sea salt is harvested in very salty shallow water where the salts are precipitating due to their high concentrations then dried.

Hopefully the water from which the salt is harvested isn't polluted.

You can look this up.

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Lisak said

. . . . Fleet enema is SODIUM PHOSPHATE and SODIUM BI-PHOSPHATE!! Also a salt. Has an isotonic effect much stronger than table salt. Not really functionally different from Epsom Salt (Magnesium Sulfate) . . . .

That's not right either.

How can one salt be more isotonic than another. Isotonic is isotonic. That means the osmotic pressures exerted are the same.

Didn't Lavenema Powder come with the purchase of an original JBL bag and also available in tins in pharmacies?

I really hope that sea salt IS refined today, because it's all over foods for purchase in groceries: Sea Salt potato chips, taco chips, etc.

I see no reason that bisacodyl liquid could not be sold in pharmacies in larger quantities to be added to enema solutions, except that 90% of the public doesn't take enemas anymore. (Same reason you don't find larger quantities of flat rubber goods in pharmacies anymore).

And this Washington thing with the FDA is another disgusting aspect of "The permanent political class" we have with BOTH parties. We have term limits on presidents; we need them on House and Senate members also. Make all of them go out there and earn a living in the private sector, like the rest of us.

Yes, Lavenema powder did come in tins and was sold otc in pharmacies in the 40s and 50s. I recall my grandmother having a tin of it standing on a back shelf in her bathroom when I was a kid in the early 50s. I asked her once about it and she said it was used to help my grandfather "go" when he was very ill before he died a few years before. For whatever reason after I asked her about it the tin disappeared, probably because of her memories of having used it? The topic never came up again and I didn't have reason to ask. I have no idea whether it was sold in later years or not since I never had reason to look for it. Most likely it went the way of lots of similar things such as bags and associated items that used to be prominently displayed.

I do get a kick out of the sea salt comments that have cropped up here and there on Zity over the years. Truth be known I think it is likely that all salt is technically sea salt since the deposits were formed eons ago by oceans that have since dried up or the movement of those deposits by glaciers to more remote locations. And yes, Lisa, I think it is highly probable that Detroit as you mentioned was most likely under an ocean at some time. I agree with Switchable that all salts are isotonic and one isn't really more so than any other if I recall her statement correctly. The concentrations that are used in the mixture administered may create more rapid water migration, but even so a very concentrated dose can only create a specific level of osmotic pressure across the cell walls and therefore the effective level of water migration is limited and diminishes as the concentration of the salt is diluted by the water migration. My days of chemistry and biology are long behind me so I'm open to correction on that statement. Bottom line (pun intended) is if you like salt, no matter the source, it will act the same. If you have other more mundane uses such as on your burgers, I think it unlikely in a blind taste test that you could tell the difference of one salt to another unless texture or other flavoring from deposited minerals in the salt changes the flavor ever so slightly. I'm sure that people with more sensitive taste buds can discern those subtleties.

I don’t think anyone in this thread except SwitchableSusie has any idea what ‘isotonic’ means. It makes no sense to say a salt is isotonic. A solution can be isotonic, which means it contains the same concentration of solute as your body fluids. If you take an isotonic solution as an enema, there will be no net gain or loss of solute, or water, to your body. If the solution is more concentrated than that (hypertonic), your body will lose water and gain solute until the balance is restored or you expel the enema.

Where do you get this rubbish, LisaK? People BATHE in seawater every day, certainly swallowing the occasional mouthful of it, and sea bathing is widely regarded as a quite healthy activity.

A life lived in fear is a miserable kind of life. A life lived in completely needless fear is tragic.

Does anyone know what was in Pazo enema powderr? I've seen a couple of references to it over the years, but there seems to be no information online.