The medical consensus in the early 1900’s was that constipation was becoming more common because of the pace of life associated with urbanization and was the foremost disease of industrialized societies. “Autointoxication” was coined and became the catchall medical diagnosis for headache, indigestion, impotence, nervousness, insomnia, heart disease and cancer and other deadly ailments.
The market became flooded with anticonstipation foods, drugs, laxatives, enema and colonic irrigation equipment, abdominal support belts, abdominal massage machines, electrical stimulators, rectal dilators. Extreme cures for autointoxication included surgery, colectomy to be precise,
This seemed to contribute to the “golden age” of enemas back in the 1900’s. Certainly, a more sedentary lifestyle has evolved over the past 150 years – and “convenience” food has probably contributed to todays bowel problems as well as more “convenience” products to resolve it. The autointoxication belief seems to not be held by mainstream medicine, nor is bowel cleansing
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1119264/