Enemas expunged from books on alternative health care

Hot take: enemas are no more charlatanesque than most of alternative health care.

And they disappeared not only from books and magazines, but from the day to day medicine as well. We are doing enemas exclusively in severe constipation cases and/or exam preparation. Same happened with RT and suppositories. The procedures (wrongly) considered as “invasive”. Unfortunately it is the trend and I cannot see any chance to reverse these processes. 😢

@Pecan_nutjob

With most alternative health remedies, results are all but invisible or take weeks or months to produce results. Often the customer is no longer in a position to complain.

Just try holding an enema for weeks or months. Enema, whether they are characterized as a modern medical marvel, an ancient cure, or holistic quackery work. Their efficacy is obvious to all within minutes in the toilet, potty, bedpan or diaper.

Its about time and money , an enema cost money , a rectal temp cost a fortune , and you know you are in a cheap ass hospital when just before they wheel you in for surgery they ask you , oh did you bring the sewing kit from home like you were told

@Sean Enemas are indeed instant relief for constipation (though they don't cure its cause). This is not quackery.

What's quackery is enemas for cold and other illnesses. What I say is that they are no more quackery than homeopathy and other fake medicines.

After surgery in February, I got badly constipated. The hospital gave me Mirilax and a stool softener but it took several days to get relief. I do wa Ted an enema!

If they gave them now, they wouldn't be paying nurses to give them. It would be a medical assistant or other low function person.

It wouldn't be like yesteryear.

I really do not agree. I had a prostate biopsy last fall. I was told to use a fleet enema before. Go into any drug store and why some no longer sell enema bags or combination bags, there are many facings of fleet like enemas. Giving a bag a enema for most people is a “lost art”. I personally hate Fleet enemas. If forced to use one, I empty out the contents and just fill my self with 4 or 5 or 6 bottles of water if I cannot use a bag.

Fleets are another big pharma brand. They are contraindicated for hypertension.

Hospitals don't give enemas because people didn't want them. The majority of people would rather subject their body to chemicals then just some water.

Hospitals don't give enemas because people didn't want them. The majority of people would rather subject their body to chemicals then just some water.

People don't want things going in their butt, that's embarrassing and invasive. That's literally why I have a fetish for them, because it's humiliating, lol. Chemicals are easy and effective, and swallowing a small pill is normal and doesn't involve you exposing your ass to some strangers who otherwise would have no reason to see you in a state of undress. That said, stool softeners take 6 hours to a day to work.

@bob1952: After I had surgery after my bike accident, I got awfully constipated. Anesthesia, painkillers, and laying in bed, I suppose. The nurses handed me a glycerin suppository (that I was to insert myself, to preserve dignity) and some oral laxatives. No effect. I was then released from hospital. The problem was cleared by an enema at home.

And I agree with @arika.

@arika

Exposing your butt is not an issue. If you're confined to bed, you must poo in a bedpan and the nurse cleans your but of poo. This is pretty messy because bedpans are poorly designed and odds are the pile of poo will be in contact with your butt. In fact, I've not been able to poo completely because the pile of poo in the pan blocks a complete evacuation.

After you're done, the nurse wipes and washes the area, and you are fully exposed.

I agree with you Sean. As far as exposing yourself to another persons view, after many surgeries and hospital stays, I've found that your modesty is best left hanging on a hook by the door on your way in. Modesty is a “you” problem, not a “their” problem. I just had a second prostate surgery about 6 weeks ago. A contraption was affixed to my leg to clamp the foley, but it was pulling at the catheter and was becoming very uncomfortable. I called for a nurse and had absolutely no problem exposing my poor abused penis. She was an angel and helped my get the clamp loosened from the industrial strength glue holding it down. These medical professionals have seen more naked bodies in a week than the rest of us in like a life time. So loosen up, they are there to help.

Modern culture (including under the influence of pharmaceutical industry) has reduced the practice of “domestic medicine”.

Children at a habit forming age are not exposed to enemas even when it would benefit their well-being out of fear of accusations.

In a medical setting, a traditional enema requires more effort, takes vastly more of a nurses time, and most importantly leaves the hospital liable for a lot more accidents (easily at the fault of the patient) and accusations of improper conduct.

Hopefully, the normalization of kink will alleviate this somehow, but there are several independent worldwide trends threatening good old enemas.

Hopefully, the normalization of kink will alleviate this somehow, but there are several independent worldwide trends threatening good old enemas.

Normalizing kink will just lower the odds of this being done in a professional setting again, and anyone requesting one will get even weirder looks and will assumed to be someone who just wants it for sexual reasons. They're not going to restrain patients because bondage is becoming mainstream for instance. It needs to be normalized outside of kink, which is going to be hard with non-evidence-based-medicine like coffee enemas being memes and jokes at the moment (as they should be, but there needs to be legit usage of them).

There's issues with there not being enough nurses though. When there's a “hand the patient a pill and leave” option and not enough nurses to do everything, of course something as labor intensive as an enema won't be considered in a million years, even if they weren't considered weird in a professional setting.

@arika

Yes, modern nurses are busy. I've thought about the time issue some and tried to estimate the increased time to give a bag enema compared to a stool softener or laxative. My estimate is:

Read order and get med or bag from supply: Same

Unwrap med or fill bag w/ water: and hang on IV stand: +3 minutes

Get bedpan or commode and put down Chux pads : +1 minute

Give pills or enema: +3 minutes

Get patient onto bedpan: Same

Remove and empty pan and cleanup patient: Same

Log results: Same

So an enema takes less than 10 minutes of a nurses time, and prompt, complete results are all but certain. Furthermore, as anyone who has tried it knows pooing on a bedpan is not easy and the poos are not complete, so repeated bedpan requests are likely, especially if a laxative and/or stool softener has prompted the urge.

YMMV.

Keep in mind that with a bedpan they have to wait for expulsion, which takes… I don't know, with the few I've tried (under 8oz) it takes at least half an hour for everything to finish. Then there's also the matter of a bedpan not being designed to hold everything that would come out from an enema, since that's a lot of water.

Obtaining a bag is going to take over 10 minutes as sometimes there aren't even any in the building, but that's just a direct result of them not being used.

The average person also isn't going to be forced to stay in bed either or use a bed pan instead of walking a few feet to the toilet unless there's something super serious, but I forget I'm talking to 60+ year olds, lol.

If you are talking in a hospital setting it goes like this. Having worked in the hospital the nurses are doing less hands on unless it is administering narcotics, working in ICU's or other more specialized areas. Your tech's are doing the vitals, walking the patients, taking patients to bathroom and giving the enema if need be.

But on the average floor it is what the doctor writes in the orders. Here is how it usually is done. If they say give enema then that is what the patient gets. There is a supply room on all floors. Go to supply room and get enema bag, scan to patients account. Walk to the patients room, knock, knock, you say hello, doctor has ordered an enema for you, so let's get started. You chit chat, look to see if there is a bed pan or potty chair or ask patient if they can hold and walk to bathroom or need a bed pan or if you are lucky you can have patient bend over in the bathroom and administer to them there. In reality the whole process of giving the enema can be done in about 30-40 minutes, for 2-3 enemas till patient's expulsion is clear including documenting what you did. And most RN's and or LPN's do not want to give enemas because it takes to much time for them away from doing all the documenting they have to do and in some cases they may have 8-9 patients.

And Arika some people here are in their 70's. I am a Colon Hydro Therapist and many of the Natural, NMD's, Wellness, Naturopathic doctors, basically all those that are not MD's still believe in cleansing the colon. Many have the machine in their offices and make a lot of money off this procedure. The popularity of the Colonic and enemas is different everywhere in the world.

And Arika some people here are in their 70's. I am a Colon Hydro Therapist and many of the Natural, NMD's, Wellness, Naturopathic doctors, basically all those that are not MD's still believe in cleansing the colon. Many have the machine in their offices and make a lot of money off this procedure. The popularity of the Colonic and enemas is different everywhere in the world.

Exactly, isn’t that why they do them?

I remember that some years back when I started to put on a few pounds, I tried a couple of diets that were the fad at the time. There were a number of them that included one or more enemas as part of a cleanse to start the diet. Being no stranger to enemas, I found that part one of the better parts of the diet! Now, most diets consist of drinking some sort of green slime or expensive shakes, but no enemas.

I can sort of see why enemas are no longer promoted for dieting and weight loss. They do not work for that. If enemas really did cause you to lose weight, I would weight something less than twenty pounds by now.

@Cheryl77177

Enemas are near worthless for long-term weight loss. By the time the poo gets down into you colon a lot of the caloric value has already been absorbed.

That said, if you want to get into some tight clothes for a party or something taking a bag of (soapy) water can remove the poo in you colon. And, even if you've had a ' natural poo recently, odds are there is still a bunch of it in your bowel.

Many years ago, I was on an open system colonic machine and the therapist asked me if I'd be willing to end the session a few minutes early. Since the water had pretty much done its job I agreed. The therapist told me the daughter of a long time client wanted to get into a tight prom dress and her mom had arranged for her to be cleaned out of poo. The pretty teen came in as I was leaving and I knew with certainty she'd be pooing very soon.

Colonics and enemas do essentially the same thing. But an enema bag costs under$20 and lasts many years. A colonic session costs about $100 per session. I suspect that enemas have been removed from alternative medicine books because of the profit motive. While some people want to be cleaned out without the yuk factor of the bag, you pays your money and take you choice. A colonic is pretty much a series of 4 to 8 enemas without having to arise and poo on the toilet. Usually, there are no smells and the whole procedure in 'nicer' than the bag.

But in the medical literature and medical practice, the enema has not gone away. And in pediatrics, the drugs did not touch her at all.