Sigmoid colon

“ He does not seem able to escape from his enemies anywhere.
The mucous membrane lining the orifices of the body is nothing more than the skin turned in to line canals for air, gases, liquids, and solids to pass in and out in order to keep up the physio-logical functions of the body. Very rarely, indeed, do we find, from childhood to old age, the orifice of the intestinal sewer otherwise than chronically inflamed, the invasion extending, moreover, the whole length of the rectum for some distance into the sigmoid colon. ”

“ A patient will habitually take considerable quantities of some article of food which he does not readily digest, but which is not at all acutely irritant: under these circumstances a simple accumulation is apt to take place in the colon, especially at the top of the ascending colon, the top of the descending colon, or just above the sigmoid flexure, or else in the cæcum. The result of accumulation in the last of these places is not unfrequently typhlitis and perityphlitis, this part of the bowel having (for some reason) a special tendency to inflammation. ”

“ The rectum was so narrowed by the thickening of its wall that a female catheter could not be passed through it.7 In chronic catarrh the mucous membrane [p. 701] of the colon and of the lower part of the ileum is the seat of the most characteristic lesions. The colon was alone the seat of disease in 9 out of 99 cases analyzed by Woodward; in the remaining 90 the two were involved together. In these the lesions in the colon (especially in the rectum and sigmoid flexure) were always more advanced and more serious than in the small intestine. ”

“ It is readily seen that adhesion between the left leaf of this free descending mesocolon and the parietal peritoneum down to the level of the iliac crest would produce the conditions found in the human adult, with an attached descending colon and a free sigmoid flexure ”

“ They are found in the iliac, lumbar, or hypochondric regions, and sometimes in other parts of the abdomen. The most common seat is in the sigmoid flexure and descending colon. They are nodulated, movable, painless, can be made to change shape or are indented by pressure, and have a doughy feel. Exploration of the rectum, by detecting impaction, will make the diagnosis clear when the obstruction is low down. The distension of the abdomen above the point of obstruction is limited at first to the region of the colon ”

“ Stricture of the bowel is most commonly found low down in the rectum or sigmoid flexure, within reach of the finger or exploring bougie. If high up, it can only be diagnosed by exclusion and by its slow progression from bad to worse. Syphilis or dysentery has nearly always preceded the development of stricture.
Tumors in the abdomen or pelvis compress the colon, and while they are small they may be overlooked; sooner or later they grow so as to be recognized. ”

“ The most remarkable instance has been reported by Formad. The patient, known as the "balloon-man," aged twenty-three at the time of his death, had had a distended abdomen from infancy. Postmortem the colon was found as large as that of an ox, the circumference ranging from 15 to 30 inches. The weight of the contents was 47 pounds. Cases are not uncommon in children. Osler reports three well-marked cases under his care. Chapman mentions a case in which the liver was displaced by dilatation of the sigmoid flexure. ”

“ The woman recovered, but died five months later from a second attack of intussusception, the ileum rupturing and peritonitis ensuing. There is a record in this country of a woman of forty-five who discharged 44 inches of intestine, and who survived for forty-two days. The autopsy showed the sigmoid flexure gone, and from the caput ceci to the termination the colon only measured 14 inches. Vater gives a history of a penetrating abdominal wound in which a portion of the colon hung from the wound during fourteen years, forming an artificial anus. ”

“ The flushing of the rectum, sigmoid flexure and colon with water is not a cure-all, but it is one of the means of treating a grave chronic disease, a disease insidious and far-reaching in its poisonous effects on the human organism. ”

“ The phenomenon of vicarious excretion may occur through the kidneys, lungs, skin, throat, nose, vagina, or uterus, thus keeping up chronic diseases and discharges that would not exist but for the chronic constipation or even for incomplete action of the bowels each day. Over-distention of the rectum, sigmoid and colon, due to the pressure of gases and the impaction of feces, results in inflammation, ulceration, stricture, appendicitis, abscess, strangulation, intussusception, and abnormal ballooning or roominess in certain portions of these intestines or conduits. ”

“ Diseases of the colon itself, including chronic constipation, colitis, diverteculitis, hemorrhoids, irritable bowel syndrome, and mucous colitis, are often cured solely by an intensive series of several dozen colonics given close together. Contrary to popular belief, many people think that if they have dysentery or other forms of loose stools that a colonic is the last thing they need. ”

“ Proctologists who have written on the subject of mucous colitis have noted the many symptoms very accurately, but have missed the usual location of a most aggravating disease from which mankind suffers early and late in life. Authors of books on stomach and intestinal troubles are also groping very much in the dark and are unable to diagnose the cause of a very common functional disturbance of the whole digestive apparatus, caused by proctitis and sigmoiditis, bringing numerous and severe primary and secondary symptoms to which other diseases may be traced. ”

“ Anyone who plans to give themselves therapeutic enemas while fasting would be well advised to first seek out a colonic therapist and receive two or three colonics delivered one day apart while eating lightly and then immediately begin the fast. Three colonics given on three successive days of a light, raw food diet are sufficient to empty all recently eaten food even from a very constipated, distended and bloated colon, while acquainting a person with their own bowel. Having an empty colon is actually a pleasant and to most people a thoroughly novel experience. ”

“ The average person also has a prolapsed (sagging) transverse colon, and a distorted misplaced ascending and descending colon. I took a course in colon therapy before purchasing my first colonic machine. The chiropractor teaching the class required all of his patients scheduled for colonics to take a barium enema followed by an X-ray of their large intestine prior to having colonics and then make subsequent X-rays after each series of 12 colonics. ”

“ In addition to the fact that diseases are caused and encouraged by this state of the colon, it is a fact that one is far more likely to contract contagious diseases, and diseases like typhoid fever, etc., by reason of a neglected colon furnishing a fine breeding place for the germs of these diseases. ”

“ In catarrh limited to the colon there are essentially the same symptoms as in ileo-colitis, inasmuch as the inflammation of the colon gives to that form its characteristic features—borborygmi, diarrhoea, and tympanites. When the disease in the colon preponderates or exists alone, the pain and tenderness are more superficial and confined to the line of the large intestine. ”

“ The colon is subject to three main forms of inflammation. In simple colitis the mucous membrane of the colon is intensely injected, bright red in colour, and secreting a thick mucus, but there is no accompanying ulceration. It is often found in association with some constitutional disease, as Bright’s disease, and also with cancer of the bowel. But when it has no association with other trouble it is probably bacterial in origin, the Bacillus enteritidis spirogenes having been isolated in many cases. The motions always contain large quantities of mucus and more or less blood. ”

“ But, as over half of the people who are mentally asking us this question, have colons more or less filled with old, hardened, impacted, faecal matter, of an almost green color, which has been there for months, perhaps longer, we must give them a more radical remedy. As they have gone away from nature in contracting this trouble, we must aid nature somewhat in restoring lost conditions so that she may thereafter have a clean colon to work with. ”

“ As a rule, the symptoms are proportioned to the extent of the disease, but they are not necessarily so. In certain cases they may be extremely urgent and in apparent disproportion to the area of bowel affected; or they may be, in comparison to the extent and the degree of the anatomical lesion, disproportionately trifling; or they may be altogether absent, even when the colon is extensively diseased. There is, therefore, endless variety in their character, urgency, and significance. As a general rule, the nearer to the rectum the lesions, the more urgent the tenesmus ”

“ Out of all proportion to all other causes which lead to the formation of body poisons, is the production of toxins in the colon or large intestine. Metchnikoff’s studies show beyond a doubt that there is a close connection between the size of the colon and the duration of life in various birds and animals. Where the colon is used, and has attained large proportions, as in man, in the horse, and many other animals, life is comparatively short, and death is premature. Where the colon is rudimentary, or where only such foods are eaten as do not decay or ferment in the colon, then life is long. ”

“ In the further development of the adult human arrangement the changes below the level of the transverse colon and mesocolon result in the fixation of the ascending and descending colon to the background of the right and left lumbar regions. ”

“ This is not true when it comes to colon cleansing. Do not make more than three attempts to fill and clean the colon with an enema bag. Usually the colon begins to protest and won't accept any more fill-ups. When having colonics on a colonic machine it is a good idea to continue until the water comes back reasonably clear for that session. It is not a good idea for a faster to have colonics that last more than three-quarters of an hour to an hour maximum, or it will be too tiring. Even non-fasters find colonics tiring. ”

“ Up to the present time proctologists have paid little or no attention to proctitis and sigmoiditis, which is a grave disease, with a far more serious symptom, that of mucus fistulæ of great length and diameter, extending in all directions in the pelvic cavity and tissues of the buttocks, the large area of tissue found so full of holes, might be likened to a sponge occupying the same space. ”

“ The post-mortem examination revealed a healthy condition of the whole of the intestines, save slight thickening of some parts of the colon and rectum, which contained, enclosed in the mucous membrane, in cysts or minute sacs, worms coiled upon themselves. Each cyst, containing one worm, was best seen by transmitted light. The colon was nearly full of fæcal matter, which contained thousands of parasites scarcely visible. ”

“ Americans in general suffer from dyspepsia, biliousness, con­sti­pa­tion, uric acid, etc.—all of which disorders are symptoms of that world-wide disease, proctitis: inflammation of the anus, rectum, and often the colon. Nor is it any wonder that unwashed humanity suffers from proctitis and its consequences. The unwashed have no bath-tubs and practically no water-closets. ”

“ It is only when the patient is not well, in some way, that these spots are noticed. They are infinitely more common in women than in men. It is easy to see that their sedentary life is more apt to lead in them to the filling of the colon. Absorption from the colon produces a poisoned blood, which in turn deranges every organ of the body, among others the liver. ”

“ It requires the stuff heroes are made of to endure chronic mucous proctitis and sigmoiditis for ten, thirty, or forty years without the disease being accurately diagnosed, and to be told that all treatment is useless and that the trouble is in the head of the sufferer, that he is a hypochondriac, and a neurasthenic, terms often used by doctors who are unable to make a proper diagnosis of a case. ”

“ They do not attain a large size, and being light do not drag injuriously on the intestine and mesentery. They do, however, retard the movement of the ingesta, and when grown to a considerable size they may block the intestine, more particularly the pelvic flexure, the floating colon or rectum. Under such conditions they produce colics which may be slight, transient, and recurrent, or severe and even fatal, having all the characteristics of complete obstruction from other causes. Fermentations, tympanies, and straining without defecation are common features. ”

“ Whatever the predisposing causes may be in any given case, the exciting cause is always some infectious material. The colon bacillus is always present in the lumen of the alimentary canal and, although it is harmless under normal conditions, when these conditions arc changed and there is an abrasion, an abnormal condition of the circulation, or a lack of drainage, it becomes at once actively pathogenic. ”

“ We should remember that ulcerative proctitis and colitis have made the use of the enema a necessity; that, accordingly, the diseased, constricted gut or canal must be treated very gently and not irritated in any avoidable way. The least irritation will result in still greater muscular contraction. It stands to reason that the effort to reach the healthy portion of the bowel with a slightly flexible colon tube frustrates its own purpose, and that it is besides a source of serious and unnecessary irritation. ”