A controversial health therapy that involves flushing the colon with water — it’s called a colonic or colon hydrotherapy — can cure constipation and a host of other maladies, say supporters of the procedure, which can cost $100 or more.
“You know, you’ve got to try it,” said Mary Ann Fitzgerald, 43, of Chicago. “I have not been sick in six years.”
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Doctors, however, are skeptical about health claims and point out potential risks. And many practitioners in the Chicago area apparently are violating state law by performing the procedure without a doctor’s supervision, the Tribune found.
There also appears to be little active state oversight of the treatment. At least seven practitioners scattered across Chicago and the suburbs told the newspaper they regularly performed colonics without a doctor’s involvement. All voiced the belief that state law doesn’t regulate the procedure.
“There are no rules,” said a woman who performs the procedure at a Chicago clinic.
Anyone who isn’t a physician and gives a colonic without the supervision of a doctor or osteopath is practicing medicine without a license, said Susan Hofer, spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. Those who violate the law could be fined as much as $5,000 for each procedure that isn’t performed, overseen or delegated by a doctor, she said.
The state is charged with enforcing medical licensing violations, but colon hydrotherapy appears to have drawn little attention from regulators. Departmental disciplinary reports don’t clearly detail how many colonic providers have been fined. Hofer said a department investigator recalled one such case but could not elaborate. She added there may have been other citations, but there was no easy way to review the matter.
Licensure department investigators look into potential violations when they are reported to the state or in the media, Hofer said.
Illinois does not specifically license colonic providers, but they need to know that state regulators consider the treatment a medical procedure, Hofer said.
“We clearly need to be doing more educational outreach,” she said. “The bottom line is if they’re doing a medical procedure, they need to be a doctor.”
The apparent lack of oversight didn’t surprise Sidney Wolfe, a doctor who runs the Health Research Group at Public Citizen, a Washington, D.C., watchdog group. Many states fail to enforce their medical rules, he said, adding that the unlicensed practice of medicine is a serious safety risk.
“Until and unless someone files a complaint with the medical board … the medical board wouldn’t know about it,” he said.
Although providers and clients testify to the colonic’s reported healing power, doctors say it is not proven to be useful or reliably safe.
“There’s nothing in the literature supporting these things, but there’s a lot of negative consequences that can occur,” said Darren Brenner, a gastroenterologist who teaches at Northwestern University’s medical school.
One theory behind the procedure — that toxins build up in the colon and pass into the body — is meritless, Brenner said.
Risks including electrolyte imbalances that can affect heart function, infections and colon perforation are documented, Brenner said. A check of news reports and online databases found no evidence anyone has been killed or injured through the procedure in the Chicago area.
In Texas, state authorities attributed a 72-year-old woman’s death to the practice in a 2003 lawsuit against a maker of colonic equipment. The company did not admit wrongdoing when the suit was settled for $63,000.
Some businesses advertise colonics as a cure for constipation; others pitch the therapy as a painless treatment for maladies ranging from headaches to depression to bad breath.
Some who have had the procedure — nearly all of whom asked not to be identified by name — credited it with various health benefits. One woman said it stabilizes her mood; another said it cleared her skin.
About 20 Chicago-area businesses advertise the procedure. About 2,350 practitioners in the U.S. and abroad belong to the International Association for Colon Hydrotherapy, a Texas-based training and certification group, said executive director Dick Hoenninger. That’s up from 115 in 1995, he said.
In calls to Chicago-area practitioners, the Tribune found widespread confusion about the state’s regulations. Only one colonic provider, in Chicago, said her practice is supervised by a doctor. Seven others said they were not supervised by physicians and were not aware of any state regulations governing their practices.
“It’s not really medical because we’re not really doing surgery. All we’re doing is preventative care,” said the owner of a center in Aurora.
Hoenninger said he would prefer that states more closely regulate the practice but doesn’t see a colonic as a procedure that only a doctor should perform. His group encourages members to require prescriptions.
“We would love to have every state be more regulated so that we could ensure the protection of the public,” he said.
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