Before examining the various forms of colonic irrigation or internal bathing, let us review the requirements of the apparatus and the method of its application.
First of all it must be simple and easy to use. The reasons are obvious. A complicated contraption requires concentrated attention, for a slip-up in its handling would be disastrous. Naturally a person who is suffering from intestinal stasis does not feel like going through a lot of red tape. For that matter, most of the complicated mechanisms are designed to be used with the help of some other person, which is frequently embarrassing and inconvenient, to put it mildly.
In the second place it should be inexpensive. To pay a fancy price for a lot of shiny chromium gadgets is sheer folly. Such contrivances are often found in quack establishments and watering places which try to convince their patients that it is necessary to come to them for treatment since naturally the apparatus cannot be installed in the home.
In the third place, it must thoroughly flush the intestine of all the waste, and not just a part of it. And lastly and this is by far the most important requisite the cleansing should be of such a nature that the intestine is not injured either in functioning or structure, and should be so designed that the condition will gradually be corrected except in special cases in which extreme old age or extreme weakness due to chronic illness interfere when only amelioration of the condition can be expected. In other words, the treatment should aim to restore the proper muscular tone and functioning to the intestine the impairment of which has resulted in atonic constipation.
The J.B.L. Cascade is scientifically designed to give a self administered Internal Bath which meets all these requirements.
In the following chapter a complete description of the appliance and the way to use it will be given.
Here we shall give only a brief outline in order to help us point out the, superiority of the J.B.L. Cascade over other forms of intestinal irrigation.
The Cascade is, we have said, an appliance by which an Internal Bath of warm water in conjunction with a Cleansing Powder can be administered at home without the aid of a physician or nurse. The Internal Bath is taken by simply sitting on the Cascade. The weight of the body sends the cleansing solution gently to every part of the colon, flushing it and softening and removing the impacted fecal matter. The short injection point through which the liquid enters the intestine, is made with many perforations on the side instead of a single opening at the end. This is a special and unique feature the liquid, instead of being injected as a harsh stream, is gently diffused. The flow is further regulated by a special faucet. The injection point is attached to a dome which fits the rectal arch, supports the rectum and aids in retaining the water. The J.B.L. Cascade has another great advantage. When it is filled it forms a large, warm cushion upon which the user sits. This imparts a soothing sensation and tends to allay the desire to expel the water prematurely. In addition, the body can remain covered.
The J.B.L. Cleansing Powder, to which we have referred, is especially designed to fulfill five important functions which water alone cannot perform. It tends to soften and dissolve to a greater degree the hardened masses of fecal matter clogging the intestines; to neutralize acid conditions; to soothe and help restore the tone of the membranes of the colon; to stimulate peristaltic action that rhythmic, wavelike motion of the colonic muscles which propels the intestinal contents towards the anus; and lastly, it tends to make the water a medicated, saline solution.
It is obvious from our brief description of the J.B.L. Cascade that it is far different from the ordinary low enema administered to oneself with the ordinary wall syringe. Indeed, practically the only similarity between the low enema and the J.B.L. Cascade is that water is used with both. The enema reaches only the lower portion of the colon about one third of its length, while the Cascade flushes the entire length of the colon, if it is so desired. It is rightly called the Internal Bath. This is partly due to the manner in which the Cascade is applied, but it is also due to its construction. Most enema bags hold but two quarts of water. The Cascade, on the other hand, holds all of five quarts of water. Since the normal colon has a capacity of about four quarts, it is immediately clear. that the Cascade holds enough water to fill the entire colon which the low enema does not.
It is usually necessary, when using the ordinary low enema to assume various awkward positions in order to secure results. With the Cascade, on the other hand, the user sits in a natural position on a warm, comfortable cushion. He is able to assume this relaxed sitting position because the dome, fitting against the anus, aids in retaining the water and makes it unnecessary for one to strain to hold the water as in the case of the wall enema. This relaxed sitting position allows a free, generous flow of solution to enter the colon. Furthermore, the hands are free to massage the colonic region if desired. Not only does the sitting position allow a free flow of the solution into the colon, but because the colon is in its normal position, it makes it possible for the colon to be flushed its entire length.
The sitting position affords the Cascade another advantage over the ordinary low enema. In the use of the latter, the pressure of the flow of the water depends upon gravity. As the water in the bag becomes less and the resistance of the water in the lower portion of the colon becomes greater, a point may be reached where the pressure is insufficient to fill the bowel further. This is one reason why the enema usually reaches only about one-third of the length of the colon. With the Cascade, however, the pressure is always the same for it is proportional to the weight of the body bearing down upon it which is constant. This pressure is sufficient to fill the entire bowel.
The Cascade has another decided advantage over the enema. As you undoubtedly know, the rectal point of the enema has an opening which directs a single stream of water against one point of the colon. Very much as if you were playing a garden hose on a corner of a room, it hits the first bend of the colon, splashes around, and falls back again. The sudden, swift stream sets up a peristaltic action, thus creating a premature desire to expel. Naturally this makes it very difficult to hold the water. Herein we have another reason why the enema flushes only the lower part of the colon, and therefore does not give the best results.
But the Cascade point, with its many perforations in its side and no opening on the end, diffuses the inflow, creating a slowly, gently rising body of water which reaches every portion of the colon, without any tearing force against a particular spot and without setting up a premature desire to expel. The Cascade dome, fitting against the anus, also aids in the retention of water. Instead of making an effort to hold the water by contracting the anus and thereby setting up muscular activity as does the ordinary enema, one is in a relaxed condition which permits the free inflow of the solution without a premature desire to expel.
The handle of the Cascade, too, helps to regulate the flow. Indeed, it affords a perfect control of the rapidity of the inflow. It turns on and shuts off the solution in an easy, positive manner. The enema, on the contrary, depends upon certain finger pressure and unruly clamps.
Just as the J.B.L. Cascade has advantages over the low enema, it has advantages over high colonic irrigation. As the term implies, high colonic irrigation refers to the washing out of the lavage of the large intestine. It is not administered with the sole purpose of inducing defecation, as the low enema is, but to wash out the matter lodging above the defecation area and to cleanse the walls of the bowels as high as the water will reach. Hence it is sometimes called the “glorified enema”. In that it is used to cleanse out the entire bowel, it resembles the J.B.L. Cascade. But there the resemblance stops, for in construction, technique of administration and final results, it markedly differs.
While recently methods involving the use of a single shorter tube or two shorter tubes have been advocated, by the ordinary method a long tube is passed up through the colon directly into the cecum. Such a tube necessarily would be four feet in length or longer. The disadvantages are only too obvious. First of all it requires skilled hands to push the tube up the bowel. This involves a considerable expenditure and usually unnecessary expenditure of money. It may also involve considerable waste of time and energy since the patient frequently has to leave home for treatment. At any rate, the mere fact that such an irrigation must be administered by some one else entails a certain amount of embarrassment.
Even if applied by a very skilled person, the ordinary high colonic irrigation involves a certain amount of danger. Since the intestine cannot be seen while the tube is being passed through it, it is impossible to know exactly where the tube is going. Moreover, unless the tube is quite stiff and even then it is apt to coil up in the rectum instead of passing on to the cecum. And if the tube should be stiff and firm enough not to coil or kink, it is most likely to be hard enough to injure the delicate tissues lining the intestine. The use of the opaque enema in roentgen or x-ray work has demonstrated beyond a doubt that with the use of a short tube water, under the proper pressure, will reach the cecum in a very few minutes.
Since the sides of the long tube used in the ordinary high colonic irrigation are not perforated, only that portion of the colon beyond the long tube is medicated. The portion of the colon where the tube is receives practically no treatment, yet this is the part which usually requires the treatment the most.
On the other hand, with the specially designed short point of the J.B.L. Cascade, without the least possible danger, a column of the solution is maintained in direct contact with every portion of the colonic wall.
Now that we have reviewed the various treatments for constipation, let us look back in retrospect at our findings. We set out, you will recall, to find the safe, agreeable, convenient, economical way to prevent, relieve and correct atonic constipation. First of all we reviewed the mechanical laxatives, including both the food types and the medical types. While this group has many merits, and under certain conditions it might be advisable to use them, they frequently prove irritating and are not corrective. Quite the contrary, they often have the opposite effect, weakening instead of toning up the intestinal muscles and thus tending to be habit-forming.
Next we reviewed the chemically acting group of cathartics, only to find that they, too, failed to meet our prerequisites of an intestinal flusher. So, by the process of elimination we arrived at the conclusion that our remedy must be found among the various forms of colonic irrigation. In comparing them the low enema, the high colonic and the J.B.L. Cascade, we found that the J.B.L. Cascade used in conjunction with the J.B.L. Cleansing Powder best fills all our requirements.
The Cascade is safe it can render no harm to the intestines nor to any other part of the alimentary tract, nor to the system as a whole. It is pleasant to use, convenient and economical and can be administered in privacy by one’s self. And above all it is effective. By effective we do not mean that it merely relieves atonic constipation. The Cascade Internal Bath is a treatment designed to correct the abnormal condition and to bring about the normal functioning of the colon.
In the chapters in which we discussed the structure and functioning of the alimentary tract and the causes and symptoms of constipation, we have given you a word picture of how the large intestine works, both in a healthy and in a sickly condition. Normally, you will recall, the intestine works by squeezing in or contracting the bands of muscle surrounding the flexible tube. This action, coming in wavelike motions called peristalsis passes the debris onward towards the anus from which it is finally expelled. Modern foods in fact, modern life as a whole causes solid, impacted food debris to clog the intestines, thus preventing the contraction or squeezing in of the bands of the muscular fibers and thereby weakening them through lack of proper exercise. The J.B.L. Cascade Internal Bath does for you, living in this modern, over refined civilization, exactly what coarse, fibrous foods do for primitive folk. It makes the waste matter so loose and semi-fluid, so large in bulk, that the muscles perform their natural work easily and thereby gain strength through proper exercise. The expulsion of the water medicated with the Cleansing Powder, together with the accumulated waste, is accomplished entirely through the normal, natural action of the muscular bands. You do not strain. The muscles contract automatically, being stimulated and exercised by the medicated water.
It is because of these unique advantages of the J.B.L. Internal Bath that the need for its use becomes less and less frequent as the strength of the intestinal muscles is improved, and they become more able to do their work unaided.
Therefore, under the conditions of our modern life, we can recommend the use of the J.B.L. Cascade Internal Bath, in all honesty and sincerity, whenever you feel that you need a “cleaning out.” And in the next chapter we shall tell you how to use the J.B.L Internal Bath.