Episode 332: Coffee Enemas: The Whys, Whats and Hows
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify
Are you experiencing bloating, belching, pain with eating, or heartburn? These symptoms can be due to constipation, sluggish bowels or trapped gas. To find relief in times of digestive discomfort, coffee enemas can be a great resource. Learn how coffee enemas can support your body’s natural detoxification process and gut-brain connection as well as how to properly set one up and what to expect afterwards.
If you’re having any of these chronic digestive symptoms, our team would love to work with you 1:1 within our Functional C.A.R.E. Method™. We’d love to see your application!
In this episode:
Benefits of coffee enemas [1:26]
Do coffee enemas really increase glutathione levels? [7:45]
Should we support detoxification? [9:42]
Using coffee enemas to strengthen the gut-brain connection [16:20]
How to do a coffee enema [24:40]
How to know when you might need a coffee enema [38:05]
Resources mentioned:
Functional C.A.R.E. Method™ 1:1 Services
Ned Natural Remedies (get 20% off your order with code FUNK)
LMNT Electrolyte Replenishing powder (Use code FUNK get a free sample pack with any purchase!)
Qualia Mind (Get up to 50% off and an extra 15% off your first purchase with link + code FUNKS)
Organifi supplement powder (save 20% on your order with code FUNK)
Learn more about Gut Health & Functional Nutrition
Related episodes:
331: All About Digestive Enzymes
A Special 200th Episode: How it Started, How it’s Going & Answering Other Listener Questions
-
Erin Holt [00:00:02]:
I'm Erin Holt, and this is the Funk'tional Nutrition Podcast, where we lean into intuitive functional medicine. We look at how diet, our environment, our emotions, and our beliefs all affect our physical health. This podcast is your full bodied, well rounded resource. I've got over a decade of clinical experience, and because of that, I've got a major bone to pick with diet culture and the conventional healthcare model. They're both failing so many of us. But functional medicine isn't the panacea that it's made out to be, either. We've got some work to do, and that's why creating a new model is my life's work. I believe in the ripple effect.
Erin Holt [00:00:39]:
So I founded the Funk'tional Nutrition Academy, a school and mentorship for practitioners who want to do the same. This show is for you if you're looking for new ways of thinking about your health and you're ready to be an active participant in your own healing. Please keep in mind this podcast is created for educational purposes only and should never be used as a replacement for medical diagnosis or treatment. I would love for you to follow the show, rate, review and share because you never know whose life you might change. And of course, keep coming back for more. Hey, podcast pals and buddies. Last week we got into digestive enzymes because they are one of my first go tos when I'm experiencing any digestive wonkiness or funky guts. But I also mentioned coffee enemas.
Erin Holt [00:01:26]:
I've talked about coffee enemas like here and there on Instagram, and I always get a handful of questions of people being like, okay, what is it? How do you do it? Tell me everything. So today is the tell me everything show about coffee enemas. If you are experiencing bloating, belching, gas, heartburn, pain with eating, a lot of times it can actually be due to constipation or sluggish bowels, things not moving through your GI tract quickly and efficiently. And this can cause fermentation. It can cause trapped gas. If you have trapped gas, that can cause a lot of bloating, distension, and just like stomach pain. So this is a way to alleviate some of those symptoms, if that is what is contributing to those symptoms. I love to use coffee enema enemas for exactly that.
Erin Holt [00:02:19]:
If I just feel like things are not moving quickly or if I'm actually constipated and I haven't been able to move my bowels, I tend to get constipated with travel. So I love using coffee enemas on the other side of travel. And sometimes, if I'm going away for a while, I will actually pack my enema kit. It's like a security blanket for me. There's nothing worse than being constipated on vacation. I think I've told you guys this before, but on our honeymoon in Costa Rica twelve years ago, I did not poop for over ten days. So very, very uncomfortable.
Erin Holt [00:02:53]:
So coffee enemas can be super helpful for that. I do want to say, if you're having a lot of these chronic gut symptoms, like, they're just ongoing, it's probably a smart bet to get a full gut workup. Work with my team. This is one of our big areas of specialization labs we might look at. If you're coming to us with a bunch of gut stuff, it's an extremely individualized approach, so we're doing a really extensive health history so we can discern what information, what data do we need, need to collect in order to help you the best. So, labs that we might run: a functional stool test that looks at a lot of different markers. It looks at over 80 markers, so it really can tell us a lot. That's one of our first places that we start.
Erin Holt [00:03:35]:
We might also do a leaky gut and gluten panel. I was just talking to somebody yesterday, and she's like, well, I know that everyone really should be gluten free. And I'm like, well, not necessarily. I don't actually agree with that. So a lot of people are carrying around this idea that they should be gluten free for their health, but they have a hard time upholding that, so then they carry guilt and shame around their food choices, which we know can actually contribute to high inflammation and chronic gut stuff. Just feeling shame around your food choices and feeling like you're doing something that you shouldn't be doing that really influences your overall digestion. So it is a way for us to see and to really understand and assess.
Erin Holt [00:04:17]:
Is gluten contributing to your symptoms? Is it something that you absolutely should avoid, or do you not need to worry about it as much? Again, we're also looking at leaky gut, um, and whether things are getting into your overall system that should not belong there. We might do a SIBO breath test, depending on your symptoms. If there's a lot of consistent, ongoing bloating, we might consider a SIBO breath test, which is really the only way to diagnose SIBO. And then we might also, potentially, depending on your symptoms, uh, do an Organic Acids Test if we suspect yeast, but it's not showing up anywhere else. So on a stool test, we might see yeast, but it doesn't always show up there. So if you're really showing a lot of signs of yeast overgrowth, we might run that. So that's a starting point of what we can do and the tools that we have in our arsenal that we can help you with. And it really does go beyond what your doctor or even a GI specialist might be able to look at, which is not a critique against a doctor or a gastroenterologist.
Erin Holt [00:05:19]:
Of course, we work hand in hand with a lot of them often, but it's just that they have certain tools. We have certain tools, and our tools can look for different things than, say, a stool test that your GI doc is looking for. And it's just the way that I consider it, too, is it can be a second set of eyes on your situation if your doctors have told you that everything is normal, because we know how frustrating and quite frankly, demoralizing that can be to not feel good, and then to have your healthcare provider say, no, you're normal. And so we've almost normalized this feeling not so great. And that shouldn't be the case, because you deserve so much more than that. It's not normal to feel shitty all the time. It's not normal to have so much bloating and distension and stomach pain that you can't zip up your genes.
Erin Holt [00:06:10]:
It's not normal to only poop every couple of days. It's not normal to feel like you need to run to the bathroom when it's time to go. If you can't go on a road trip without worrying where every single bathroom is, like, that's not normal. This is quality of life we're talking about. And you deserve way more than that. And there are solutions. That's the thing. There's solutions.
Erin Holt [00:06:29]:
But in order to know what the solutions are for you, we also need to know what the problem is for you. And so that's what these lab tests can really show us. And when you work with my team, you're getting experience. We see hundreds and hundreds of these labs, so we know what we're looking for. So I wanted to say all of that because just doing a coffee enema is probably not going to fix all of your gut issues. If there's a pathogen, if there's leaky gut, if there's food allergy or immune system regulation going on or dysregulation going on, it's probably not just going to fix those. Okay, just like a quick coffee up the butt probably not going to erase all of your issues. So if you're dealing with those ongoing issues, please reach out to my team.
Erin Holt [00:07:13]:
We can help you. There's a link in the show notes to learn more about how we work with clients one on one. So if you've got ongoing GI issues, if you've got chronic constipation, we want to look to see if there's a pathogen or other things that could be contributing to that. But sometimes it's more of a brain-gut axis issue. And if that's the case, that's where coffee enemas can really potentially be helpful. So let's get into it. Let's explain the whys, the whats, and the hows of coffee enemas. You ready? Let's go.
Erin Holt [00:07:45]:
So coffee enemas are purported to be great for detoxification. That's why a lot of people will talk about them or recommend them. It's for detox. Why? It's because there is a claim that they can increase glutathione levels in the body. Now, glutathione is considered our body's main antioxidant, and it's used in both phase one and phase two of hepatic biotransformation. That's a really fancy word for saying liver detoxification. There is this quote unquote study that is often talked about in referenced, saying that coffee enemas stimulate an enzyme in the liver called Glutathione S-transferase by 600% to 700%. And so by doing coffee enemas, you can increase your body's own production of glutathione.
Erin Holt [00:08:39]:
That stat is repeated over and over again. And I actually don't know where it comes from. Some people say it's from the Gerson method, which utilizes a lot of coffee enemas. I have no idea. And there's really not any research that I've seen to back it up. If you have research that proves that coffee enemas do increase glutathione, please send them my way. But that is like the one stat that's often referenced, and it's just not really validated by any research as far as I've seen. There is this one little study that looked at it.
Erin Holt [00:09:16]:
They took eleven healthy individuals and gave them coffee enemas three times a week for six visits. I don't know how long, how long the timeframe was, and they saw no discernible difference in glutathione serum levels. So they are basically saying coffee enemas don't increase glutathione. But again, super, super small study. It's eleven people. So back to the claim. Do coffee enemas actually increase glutathione levels in the body? I have no idea. I don't know.
Erin Holt [00:09:42]:
There's really no evidence to suggest that. But do they support detox? They do, and I'm going to tell you exactly why. But first, let's talk about what detoxification actually is. That biotransformation word that I use, bio meaning body transformation. Meaning transformation. It transforms something. Your body transforms something. So detoxification is the process of inactivating and removing toxins from the body.
Erin Holt [00:10:09]:
We take toxins coming in, we transform them into something else, and then we eliminate it from the body. Bingo, bango, dodge, durango. That's detoxification. Do we have to support detox? Yes, we do. I really don't think this should be a debate. Yes, of course. You do have a liver. You do have kidneys.
Erin Holt [00:10:27]:
You do have a gallbladder. Maybe. You do have a gut. All of these things are necessary to appropriately clear toxins from your body, but they're not always functioning optimally. And that's where the whole camp of, like, you don't need to detox, you've got a liver. That's where that ideology, that argument can fall short. Because those organs that are responsible for detoxification aren't always functioning optimally for a lot of folks. And in a addition to that, we have far more environmental pollutants and toxicants than ever before that our bodies have to contend with on a daily basis. On top of that, some people have better biotransformation pathways than others.
Erin Holt [00:11:13]:
So the ones, those of us that might struggle with clearing toxins from the body. Genetics play a huge, huge role in this. Some of us have to utilize ongoing support for detoxification for these biotransformation pathways because we're just extra sensitive. So that's also a real thing.
Erin Holt [00:13:03]:
So supporting your detoxification is really important for health. There are three main phases of detox. The first two happen in the liver. Phase one and phase two happen in the liver. Phase one is all about taking toxins and making them less volatile, less harmful to the body.
Erin Holt [00:13:37]:
Phase two is packaging these less harmful substances up, and then phase three is elimination. So these things need to be eliminated from the body. We have to eliminate the toxins all the way out of the body. And phase three is mostly gut related. It involves the kidneys, but it also involves bile in the gut and the microbiome. Microbes themselves, the bacteria in our gut, are really part of biotransformation. They can alter the metabolic outcome of the toxins that we are exposed to, but before it even gets there, before it even gets to the microbiome in the colon, when the liver breaks things down from phase one and phase two, that stuff gets released into your body through bile. So those toxic end products get released into the stool, into the colon through bile, which requires gallbladder contraction.
Erin Holt [00:14:31]:
Now, we think about bile as the substance that helps us break down fat, but it also plays a key critical role in removing toxins from the body. So it's a really, really necessary part of the detoxification process. Bile has a huge role as a portal for the exit of those biotransformed toxins. So we need free flowing bile to detoxify and flush out all of the toxins that your liver processes. And then we need appropriate gallbladder contraction, because the gallbladder is the thing that stores and releases the bile. So if the gallbladder is not contracting appropriately, then we're not going to release bile appropriately either. And I bring this up because, yes, we have these organs of detoxification baked into our bodies like we have them, they're there, but not all of them are functioning optimally.
Erin Holt [00:15:22]:
And if they're not functioning optimally, if any of these systems are impaired in any way, then we are not appropriately clearing toxins out of the body and they can be reabsorbed back into circulation. I've talked about gallbladder stuff on the show before. Gallbladder disease affects more than 20 million adults in the US every single year. That includes 14.2 million women and 6.3 million men. Yes, you heard that right. It disproportionately affects women, women at a much higher risk of gallbladder issues. So it's really important that we support the health of our gallbladder. We need this for appropriate detoxification.
Erin Holt [00:15:59]:
We also need appropriate motility, moving things through the body appropriately so that we can poop them out. So if you're constipated, your detoxification isn't working appropriately either. Because we have to take toxins all the way to the toilet, we have to poop them out. Now, everything that I'm talking about right now can be impacted by the gut-brain connection. So this is where we want to talk about the vagus nerve and vagal dysfunction. The vagus nerve is part of the autonomic nervous system. It is a nerve that connects the brain to pretty much every organ in your body, including the gut. And it helps with movement of food through the intestines.
Erin Holt [00:16:43]:
That's motility. So we eat food, and then it has to move through the intestines appropriately, swiftly and efficiently. But not too swiftly, not too swiftly. It activates digestive enzyme release. We talked about that last week. And hydrochloric acid, stomach acid and bile release. So we need to have good vagus nerve function, good vagal tone, in order to appropriately release these digestive enzymes that help us break down our food. It helps with blood flow to the gut.
Erin Holt [00:17:14]:
So it carries blood, it carries oxygen, nutrients, immune cells to support gut health and repair. This is oftentimes overlooked, but it is critical that we have appropriate and healthy blood flow to the GI tract to allow for GI tract to heal. We can't heal parts of our body. Our body is a self healing machine, to be clear, but we can't do that without blood flow to these parts of our body that need to heal and to regenerate. So the vagus nerve helps us do all of this. The vagal nuclei are a cluster of nerves in the brainstem, and they help to activate smooth muscle contractions. This is important because our gut is essentially smooth muscle. So this helps with gallbladder contractions, like we were talking about earlier.
Erin Holt [00:18:00]:
This helps with intestinal motility. This helps to close valves. So we have a series of valves in our GI tract. They're also called sphincters. And they open and close so that food is moving through the digestive tract appropriately, and it's not moving in the wrong direction. One of the sphincters that you probably know really well is the anal sphincter. And so if our valves, if our sphincter muscles are not working correctly, then we might see things like anal leakage. With vagus dysfunction, we can also see low motility.
Erin Holt [00:18:36]:
So things moving through the GI tract too slowly. Chronic constipation, that is a really, really big one. It's a really big key sign that something might be going on with your gut-brain access. We can see low enzymes. So low digestive enzymes, we talked about that last week. We can see with the gallbladder, we can see sludge formation. So most of us are familiar with gallstones. Sludge is the thing that happens before gallstones.
Erin Holt [00:19:00]:
It's the thickening of bile. And as it said before, we need free flowing bile in order to properly detoxify. So any and all of these things is going to impact that elimination phase of detoxification. And this is where coffee enemas can really, really help. This is why coffee enemas can be useful in supporting detoxification. Whether or not they increase glutathione levels, they're still helping with a lot of other aspects of detoxification. Coffee has caffeine. We know this.
Erin Holt [00:19:35]:
Caffeine activates nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, and that activates the contraction of gallbladder and activates smooth muscle receptors. So the putting coffee in your intestines helps to activate the smooth muscles there and get that contraction going. So we can increase motility, we can increase movement, we can increase that contraction, which is important if you have low motility or constipation. That's why I like to use them when I'm constipated, when I'm backed up, after traveling, when I've got funky gut, so you can use them as needed, just like that when you feel backed up. But you can also use them more regularly to essentially retrain the gut-brain access. When the enema distends the intestines. So with an enema, you're putting liquid through your rectum, and so it's filling up the lower part of your large, large intestine. And when you fill it with liquid, it activates the vagus pathway. With the caffeine from the coffee, this is going to increase those contractions, so it's going to make you want to feel like you have to go to the bathroom.
Erin Holt [00:20:50]:
And with a coffee enema, especially if the goal is to retrain the this brain-gut access, you want to actually suppress that urge. And so when you feel the need to go and you suppress that urge, it is a really powerful way to stimulate the gut-brain access. So essentially with coffee enemas, if the goal, again is to retrain that pathway, it's to hold that bowel urgency as long as you can. We'll talk about exactly how to do this in a little bit. If you don't feel that urgency when you do a coffee enema, you just might need to increase the caffeine. So increase the coffee to water ratio. I always recommend starting with a very diluted mixture and then gradually increasing the strength of the coffee. But I, again, I will explain this to you in a minute, but I just want you to understand that the stronger the coffee, the more it's going to activate those receptors, the more intensely they will get activated.
Erin Holt [00:21:46]:
These things do take time. So you can do a coffee enema and release the constipation in real time, it's extraordinarily effective for that. But again, if your goal is to retrain the gut-brain access, if a lot of what I was talking about just now sounds like you, or you've been working with a practitioner like myself and my team, and we've told you, like, hey, there's probably an issue with your brain-gut access. This is a really, really useful tool, but it does take time. You kind of want to, want to think about it, like strengthening a muscle. Like, you're not going to go to the gym and do, like, one bicep curl and have, like, you know, ripped guns. It's going to take time to build that muscle. So just know that that's the case.
Erin Holt [00:24:01]:
So let's talk about the hows. How to do it.
Erin Holt [00:24:41]:
There is a right way, and you can google how to do a coffee enema. So I'll explain to you what the process looks like and then how I actually do it. I am. I don't follow rules. I don't know. I don't. That's not true. I don't follow templates.
Erin Holt [00:24:56]:
I don't. I just like. I'm like mix master mic. I'm just gonna do it my way. I'm gonna take a little bit here, a little bit here, and then just do it the way that feels good to me. So I'll explain to you how I do it. The very first thing you want to do is obviously get the tools. So I'm going to link up the enema kit that I have.
Erin Holt [00:25:12]:
There's no affiliation, it's just on Amazon. It's pretty affordable. It is a stainless steel bucket, so you can do enema bags. I really like the stainless steel bucket. It's just easy to clean and I just like it. And then there's tubing that attaches to it. That's around a $30 investment. And so you'll be able to reuse the stainless steel bucket over and over and over again.
Erin Holt [00:25:33]:
That's just a one time purchase with the tubing. So I used to clean the tubing and then I just like got a. It's just plastic tubing, by the way. I got like a PVC. I got a little sketched out with that, to be honest with you. And so. And I think perhaps like a little lazy too. So now I buy replacement tubing.
Erin Holt [00:25:54]:
If I was doing them every day or at a greater frequency, I would probably take the time to clean the tubes. One from a waste perspective, I just don't like throwing that much stuff away now because I only do it every so often, I just buy replacement tubing. It's $15 for three sets of tubes. So that would be $15 like $5 per enema. So I'll link to all the stuff that I purchase and you can go nuts and stock up. But. So the first thing is have the tools ready.
Erin Holt [00:26:26]:
Then from there you want to set up the space and the time. Especially if this is your first go round, you need quiet, undistracted time. So this is not the thing to do with your kiddos running around. I let Scott and Hattie know I'm going up and doing an enema, so they leave me alone and I am in a bathroom with the door shut. And I would give yourself a solid hour for your first one. Just because you're not sure how your body's going to react. You might be on the toilet for a while after this. So you just want to build out the space, the undistracted space and time to do it.
Erin Holt [00:27:01]:
Don't do it on a day where you're like going somewhere. This is like, do it on Sunday, a lazy Sunday when you're gonna be close to home. Okay, again, just for your first one or two, because you want to see how you will react. You can do this after your daily bowel movement. If you're constipated, obviously you didn't have a daily bowel movement. So just do it whenever. There's no, like, right or wrong way to do this.
Erin Holt [00:27:30]:
If you haven't pooped yet for the day, trying to hold the urge to move your bowels gonna be a lot harder. Alright, so once you have your tools and you have the time and the space mapped out, then you want to actually prep the coffee and prep the enema. So make like about two cups of coffee. You want to use organic coffee. There's you can buy like, specific coffee for coffee enemas online. I just have never done that. We get high quality organic coffee and I just use the stuff that we drink. And you want to use filtered water to make it.
Erin Holt [00:28:06]:
That's another thing. Of course, don't use decaf because we're relying on the caffeine to stimulate the contraction. So we want the caffeine. I would recommend grinding your own beans right before you do the enema. And just like when drinking coffee too, I don't love pre ground beans. Coffee beans have oil in them.
Erin Holt [00:28:25]:
And so when you ground them, grind them ahead of time, there, it's exposed to a lot more surface area. There's more likelihood that those oils can go rancid. It's the way I don't like pre ground flaxseeds. Same deal. So grind your own beans if that's available to you. And I think a good place to start is around two tablespoon of coffee grounds to two cups of water. And so I do this in a pot. You can just put the coffee grounds in the water together and then boil it and then simmer it for about five minutes, up to ten minutes.
Erin Holt [00:28:59]:
And then strain the grounds out. So you have coffee. If you are brand new to enemas or you know that you're very sensitive to caffeine, start with a lower amount, maybe like a teaspoon to two cups of water, and then work your way up. As I said before, the stronger the coffee, the stronger you brew it, the more stimulating it is. How I do it now is I do like a quarter cup of coffee grounds. And I boil that with one cup of water. So that makes a really, really strong concentrate. I'll simmer it for about ten minutes.
Erin Holt [00:29:34]:
Okay, so super strong. And then I will mix it with two to three cups of filtered water. So all in, I will have about four cups of liquid that is going into that stainless steel bucket. That's what we're looking for. About two to four cups of liquid to be in the bucket to start with. Okay. So shoot for that. And then I, like, you want to kind of tinker around with how strong you want to brew the coffee, but err on the side of caution and do it not so strong to begin with.
Erin Holt [00:30:05]:
And then once you have your coffee brewed, let the coffee cool. You want to let it cool to room temp temperature. I'm mixing mine with filtered water, so I'm using cold filtered water with hot coffee. That kind of does the job, but you need to make sure it's cool enough. Otherwise you can burn yourself. You can actually get rectal burns. So the way to test that it's cool enough is to put a finger into the coffee or a whole hand, and make sure you can leave it there for at least 5 seconds. You can put your skin in the liquid for 5 seconds and it doesn't feel too hot.
Erin Holt [00:30:41]:
That's when you know it's a good temperature. If you use cold liquid, that also doesn't feel so great. It's, it's pretty uncomfortable. Um, I've used, um, cold liquid. It's really, really uncomfortable. So I wouldn't recommend that. Room temperature is about exactly where you need to be. And then once you have the coffee brewed, you want to set yourself up.
Erin Holt [00:31:01]:
So I like doing it in the bathroom. If you have carpeted bathrooms, maybe not, but because it can leak in the beginning and are you like freaking out when I say that? I don't mean your butt will leak. I mean, that's a possibility. It's never happened to me. It's just that like, when you're playing around with the tubing, sometimes the coffee mixture can leak and it's brown, so it can stain. So have some like towels around that you don't mind if they get stained. And have a space on your bathroom floor, because you're going to be on the floor for this. Set yourself up.
Erin Holt [00:31:32]:
I like getting a good podcast ready. Maybe you get a book, something to take your mind off of it, because you're gonna be here for a few minutes and so you need something to distract you. I've tried meditating. It doesn't really work very well. It's not, it's not enough of a distraction. So I like listening to a podcast. And then make a comfy little place on the floor. Again, have some towels nearby.
Erin Holt [00:31:56]:
And then you want to position the bucket about two to 4ft above where you are. So I just put it on my counter, like my bathroom counter, and then I'm on the floor. So that's about 3-4ft ish. I think some people, some of the buckets come with a little hook, and some people will hang it on their shower curtain rod. I've tried that before. If you have a long enough tube, great. It's just that, like, you can't reach the bucket, and, I don't know, it's a little too far away. And then, of course, gravity is going to have the liquid come in a lot faster the higher up it is.
Erin Holt [00:32:32]:
So just keep that in mind when you're positioning the coffee enema. And then you want to, before you put the coffee in the bucket. So I usually have it in a glass measuring cup, a four cup glass measuring cup. You want to attach the tube, and I usually run some water through it to make sure that any air is released from the tubing. So you want to attach the tube. Make sure the clip at the bottom is closed. Otherwise, whatever you pour into the bucket is going to come rip roaring out of the tube. And then you're going to lose your coffee mixture and make a humongous mess.
Erin Holt [00:33:09]:
So make sure the clip is closed. And then you add the coffee. So then you pour the coffee into the bucket. You'll see it move down the tube. Once it's filled, the tube, you know you're ready. So lubricate, might I suggest lubricate the enema tip. So the tube is going to have a plastic tip that comes with it.
Erin Holt [00:33:34]:
I usually use coconut oil or olive oil. And then you lay yourself down and you insert that tip into the rectum. The valve is still closed at this point. Okay. Some people will tell you to lie on your right side so the coffee can access the portal vein to the liver. That's the rationale behind it. I do whatever side is more comfortable. That's where I don't.
Erin Holt [00:33:55]:
I don't really go street legal with this one. I'm just making up my own rules, depending on how I feel in the moment. And then you want to slowly, once you've inserted the tip into your rectum, you want to slowly open the clamp to slowly release the liquid. And there's like, different settings you can put it on. So it's like fast, completely open or slow, a little pinched off, and I would start slow. And, and you, you can keep your finger on the tip so you can control the flow of the liquid into your bum. Um, when you do this, it's not uncommon to notice some cramping, um, some just discomfort. It feels weird, especially if you've never had an enema before.
Erin Holt [00:34:36]:
It feels weird to all of all of a sudden, put liquid in your butt. Like, totally feels weird. But cramping is not uncommon either, especially if there's trapped gas there. And then, like I said earlier, you're going to feel the urgency to eliminate your bowels. Like you're going to want to go to the bathroom. And if you've been constipated for a while, you might just be like, great, I'm going to get up and run to the toilet. I would recommend trying to get as much liquid into you as possible. So again, two to four cups ish.
Erin Holt [00:35:05]:
And then once you get the liquid in there, the goal is to hold it anywhere from five up to 15 minutes. I've reached 15 minutes before. It's not comfortable, and you have to kind of do a lot of breathing, but holding it is what is going to activate the vagus nerve. So if that is the goal for you, then I would recommend holding it as long as you can. Again, up to 15 minutes. There's no need to go beyond 15 minutes if it feels really easy to hold it. If there's no urgency whatsoever, that means you can strengthen the concentration of coffee the next time that you do it. Or you might take in even more liquid.
Erin Holt [00:35:43]:
Like maybe it's only two cups. Maybe you move up to three or four cups so you're trying to hold it for as long as you can. Sometimes I don't make it all the way. Like, sometimes I'm like, five minutes and then I'm done. So do your best. And then it comes time to move to the toilet. So you take the tube tip out of your bum, and then you move over to the toilet and you sit there. We have a squatty potty, so I always have my squatty potty below me.
Erin Holt [00:36:07]:
So I'm anatomically correct in the correct position. And I am also listening to a podcast or doing something distracting during this time because it's uncomfortable. And you'll probably be on the toilet for a little while. You'll, like, have a big release. A lot of it will be liquid. You'll see brown liquid because the coffee is brown. And then also, ideally, you'll see stool come out with it. And this is especially true if you have been constipated.
Erin Holt [00:36:34]:
If you have been backed up, you'll see a lot of stool move out. Afterward, you will feel a little tender in the belly. So let's talk about cleanup and care. Clean up. Clean all the stuff. I put it through my dishwasher. There's no poop. Just to be clear, there's no poop in the bucket.
Erin Holt [00:36:54]:
There's no poop in the tube. Like, the poop doesn't go anywhere. It's all just coffee. That's what you're dealing with. So if you're going to reuse and repurpose the tubes, make sure you clean them with hot water and soap and really rinse them out. Make sure you can dry them so, like, mold isn't gathering up in the tube. And then the coffee enema bucket, I just put that right into the dishwasher. Stay home and stay close to the toilet.
Erin Holt [00:37:18]:
Even after you've evacuated everything from your bowels. You might have, like, a little bit of leakage in the beginning if you just don't, you just don't want to be anywhere else. If you don't know how your body's gonna respond. So just stay home close to the toilet. Like I said, your stomach might feel a little sensitive. I notice this if I've been backed up after I do a coffee enema, I feel a little tender in my belly for a few minutes, up to an hour. That usually goes away. When I first started doing coffee enemas, I would get headaches, and I don't get those anymore.
Erin Holt [00:37:49]:
So just take good care of yourself afterward. Um, and that's just my pro tip to you. It's not uncommon to feel a little uncomfortable in the belly, but that really should dissipate pretty quickly. Um, how often should you do those? Some will do them every day as part of a detoxification protocol. Number one, it's a huge time commitment. So you're like, you know, in the bathroom for an hour every day. Um, my concern, it's less from a time commitment perspective and more so, like, is that overly aggressive to our cold? Is it just too agitating? Coffee is acidic. Is it? Is it, is it just too agitating? That would be my concern.
Erin Holt [00:38:31]:
So I have never recommended somebody do them every single day, and I've certainly never done that myself. If your goal is to strengthen vagal tone, I would say two to three times a week is really reasonable to do these, and it's not going to be your forever thing. You're going to do these, like, repeatedly for a few weeks, maybe six weeks, and then ideally, you are strengthening that brain-gut connection and then use as needed. So if you are constipated, if you did travel, if you do have funky guts, then you can pull out the coffee enema as a tool. That's really how I use it now, so I hope this cleared up the whys, why we would do coffee enemas, the hows and the whats. And you feel if you're interested in trying coffee enemas, you feel equipped to try them now and feel a little less scared. So here's to coffee up the butt. I hope you have a great week.
Erin Holt [00:39:32]:
Thanks for joining me for this episode of the Funk'tional Nutrition podcast. If you got something from today's show, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, share with a friend, and keep coming back for more. Take care of you.
