Colonic Hydrotherapy

Whilst a colonic has never been number one on my list of health and beauty treatments to have, when I was given the opportunity to visit hydrohealing spa for colonic hydrotherapy, I was too intrigued to say no. After all, if it’s good enough for Kate Moss, it’s good enough for me!

I was surprised to find the spa nestled away in Notting Hill – had it not been for Google Maps I think I may have walked straight past it. I arrived early for my appointment and was greeted by a very friendly receptionist, who gave me a registration form to fill in whilst I took a seat in the tranquil waiting area. The form was quite lengthy, and covered everything from my diet to health problems and my alcohol/cigarette intake to my most recent bowel movements! Well, I supposed I better get over my embarrassment about discussing such things, given the treatment I was about to undergo.

My therapist arrived shortly after this, and introduced herself as Caitlin. She then led me down to the treatment room – I wasn’t sure what to expect from the room and was just praying I wouldn’t be greeted by a toilet with a big bucket underneath it. Luckily, it was a lot more civilised than that! Although it wasn’t your average luxurious massage suite with plinky plonky music and candles, it looked very clean and professional – which I guess is all you can hope for in such circumstances. Caitlin asked if I had any questions, and informed me the treatment would take about 45 minutes. She then asked me to strip down in the toilet and wrap a towel around my lower half. When I came back in to the room I was asked to lie on the bed on my side, facing the wall. Caitlin then took me through what was going to happen – at this point I felt slightly apprehensive, but nowhere near the bundle of nerves I thought I would be. I think this was due in most part to Caitlin’s calm and professional nature, which put me at ease straight away.

Once the tube was inserted, I rolled over onto my back with my knees bent, feeling surprisingly more comfortable than I thought I could be! Caitlin then angled a mirror towards my ankle so I could see the tube that was coming out of me and advised we’d be ‘discussing’ what came out… nice. Whilst I’ll spare you all the details of this, suffice to say it’s strangely fascinating to watch! The procedure works by warm water being flushed into your system, which starts to break down any build up of waste. As this was happening, Caitlin would build up the pressure of water every few minutes and then release it, allowing the waste to pass. Again, this wasn’t at all painful and actually felt quite relieving.

Caitlin took turns between doing this and massaging my abdomen to get everything moving, and whilst she worked she talked through my diet, things I can do to improve my digestive system and different supplements to try. She was incredibly knowledgeable without baffling me too much with science, and has just about convinced me to try a 3 day juice detox – stay tuned to hear my blog results on that one.

The treatment seemed to go pretty quickly, and the worst pain I experienced was a slight stomach cramp (similar to period pain) at one point. Once it was over, Caitlin got me a green detox drink, which tasted a lot nicer than it looked, and I was on my way.

One day later, I’m feeling healthier and much less bloated. I’m trying to maintain my ‘clean insides’ and have cut out caffeine and cigarettes entirely – surprisingly the act of having a colonic has made me want to keep my body healthy, and when I tried eating a few crisps last night, my stomach didn’t like it! Perhaps this colonic is exactly the kick start I need to bin the bad foods and fags once and for all!

I’d highly recommend having colonic hydrotherapy to anyone, whether you have a great diet and digestive system or not. I feel healthier and really cleansed, and the whole experience was actually really interesting and not the traumatic scare-fest I had imagined. The therapist at hydrohealing was fantastic, and it’s a great place for first timers as they put you at ease right from the start.

Colonic Hydrotherapy, £85, www.hydrohealing.com