This is not photoshop.
What is colon hydrotherapy, you ask? It’s an enormous enema. A Dieticians of Canada publication describes it as follows:
Colonic cleansing or irrigation, touted as a treatment for cleansing the colon, involves the insertion of a rubber tube through the rectum into the large intestine. A continuous forced flow of up to 20 gallons of warm water eventually causes the body to expel the contents of the colon with the water. Colonic cleansing has been legally approved by Health Canada for use before radiologic endoscopic examination. Various peer-reviewed scientific studies were also found exploring pre-operative colonic cleansing as a means to prepare patients for a medical examination of the colon. A meta analysis investigating the efficacy of such treatment, for other than medically necessary purposes, concluded that there are no benefits derived from mechanical bowel cleansing; on the contrary, such a treatment may lead to further complications. Medical doctors do not recommend colon cleansing unless it is performed by a physician in preparation for a medical examination of the colon.
They offer gift certificates!
Wouldn’t your mom be thrilled!
This kind of crap (pun intended) is only possible due to an overlap of legislative, enforcement, and educational voids.
Health Canada does regulate “natural” health products (though what’s natural about sticking a rubber hose up your bum is beyond me). I’m not a lawyer so I can’t say whether any laws are being broken. Allergies and congestion aren’t on the schedule of diseases you’re not allowed to make claims about without actual scientific evidence – they reserve that for things like acute psychotic state, cancer, and heart attacks. On the other hand, I really doubt that the licensing for colon hydrotherapy equipment includes this particular intended use.
Regardless of whether this company is doing anything illegal, enforcement is limited to the very most serious cases. Stuff does get done when there are documented injuries or supplements full of lead and arsenic, but there simply isn’t the manpower to deal with the bullshit and bogus and borderline claims where there isn’t a clear and immediate risk to life and limb. Proactive surveillance is non-existent.
And finally, this nonsense can only proliferate in an environment of profound ignorance. In a market where citizens had even barely basic scientific literacy, services like this would be laughed out of business. While I haven’t actually contacted the business in question to find out their rationale for offering giant enemas to treat upper respiratory congestion, most purveyors of enemas as treatment for anything other than constipation subscribe to auto-intoxication theory. The major paper debunking auto-intoxication was published in 1919.
Autointoxication is an ancient theory based on the belief that intestinal waste products can poison the body and are a major contributor to many, if not all, diseases. In the 19th century, it was the ruling doctrine of medicine and led “colonic quackery” in various guises. By the turn of the century, it had received some apparent backing from science. When it became clear that the scientific rationale was wrong and colonic irrigation was not merely useless but potentially dangerous, it was exposed as quackery and subsequently went into a decline. Today we are witnessing a resurgence of colonic irrigation based on little less than the old bogus claims and the impressive power of vested interests.
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
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