Colonic irrigation is lauded by its advocates as providing relief from a number of complaints, while improving also the general health and wellbeing of the irrigation patient. Many mainstream medical professionals, however, as opposed to the alternative practitioners who usually provide the colonic irrigations, remain less than enthused by the treatment, and claim that the procedure merely provides an expensive version of a detox that the body is more than capable of performing by itself. So is the cost of colonic irrigation really justified, or would the consumer be better off with a store bought laxative? The difference, perhaps, between the colonic irrigation and the laxative is that the first is said to be conducive to maintaining health, while the second is usually only taken as a quick fix when something is clearly wrong with our digestives systems. Not purporting to offer anything other than the most immediate and minimal sort of detox, a laxative makes no lofty health claims for itself. Supporters of colonic irrigations, however, claim that the procedure can be helpful in alleviating the symptoms of a variety of different conditions, from chronic fatigue to arthritis. Those patients enduring the daily difficulties associated with such conditions would most readily agree the cost of colonic irrigation to be cheap at half the price if the procedure did indeed bring some respite, and while scientific evidence is lacking in the support of this, the anecdotal affirmation brought to the table by those who have found relief after a colonic irrigation detox cannot easily be ignored. So what do colonic irrigations actually involve? The procedure is, in the grand scheme of things, a relatively simple one – large amounts of water are introduced into the rectum by the use of a tube and syringe, and removed again after a period of time. The colon, literally, experiences an irrigation, which is thought to remove any fecal build up that exists in the colonic area that might be causing symptoms for the patient because of the seepage of toxins into his or her body. Just as the effectiveness of the treatment is doubted by mainstream medical professionals, so is the problem the colonic irrigation is designed to cure – doctors claim that the material found in our intestines is not damaging to us at all. For many people, the purpose of a detox is to remove material that might not be forthcoming of its own accord, in which case a laxative – at a cost of just a couple of dollars a pack – would seem to be just the thing. But for those patients who have found relief from a variety of symptoms in its aftermath, the cost of a colonic irrigation would seem to be well worth it. Those with an extra seventy to eighty dollars to spend might just like to find out for themselves.