Our colons were designed to act as a smoothly-flowing sewer system to rid our body of waste products shortly after the waste has been separated from usable nutrients. But instead, most colons have become stagnant cesspools, collecting layers and pockets of toxic and putrid feces and mucus that poisons the blood stream and every cell and organ in the body. It has been estimated that the average American colon carries five pounds of putrid, partially-digested meat, and another five to ten pounds of toxic fecal matter that has been packed with mucus for years to form a hard lining in deformed folds of the colon.

The colon (also known as the large intestine) is about five feet long, and is the final stop-over for the bulk of the waste from food after it has passed through the stomach and small intestine. The colon begins at the ileo cecal valve (which separates the small and large intestines), and ends at the rectum. The colon is lined with nerves, blood vessels and muscles. These muscles create wave-like motions known as peristaltic waves that propel waste through the colon and out the rectum.

In Colon Health: the Key to a Vibrant life, Dr. Norman Walker notes that in addition to forming these peristaltic waves, the first half of the colon performs two other vital functions. First, blood vessels lining the colon extract from the waste any available nutrients the small intestine did not pick up. Dr. Walker writes: "Obviously, if the feces in the colon have putrefied and fermented, any nutritional elements present in it would pass into the blood steam as polluted products. What would otherwise be nutritional becomes, in fact, the generation of toxemia ..., a condition in which the blood contains poisonous products which are produced by the growth of pathogenic, or disease-producing, bacteria."

The other function performed by the first half of the colon is gathering from glands lining its walls the intestinal flora necessary to lubricate the colon. But in a typical American unhealthy colon, Dr. Walker notes that hard, densely-packed layers of fecal incrustation interferes with all three vital functions of the colon - the formation of peristaltic waves that move waste matter through the colon, absorption of nutrients into the blood stream and the infusion of intestinal flora for lubrication of the colon. (Note: Intestinal flora have many functions including the production of the B vitamins and critical pro-biotic effects.)

In an effort to minimize toxins absorbed into the blood stream from the colon, mucus is created to encapsulate the waste of certain foods, such as meat, dairy, white flour and other processed foods. This mucus build-up is a natural defense mechanism, and could be efficiently eliminated through the colon if it occurred only rarely. But people who eat mucus-producing foods every day create a toxic buildup of layers and pockets of mucus and decayed fecal matter, remnants of which can stay in the colon for 20 to 30 years or longer.

Dr. Walker's book also explains another way in which the colon has a direct effect on the health of every part of the body. Similar to a foot reflexology chart that shows how certain points on the feet are correlated to specific parts of the body, Colon Health: the Key to a Vibrant Life contains a colon chart showing locations on the colon that are correlated to specific organs and glands. "Every time waste matter accumulates in the colon, which results in fermentation and putrefaction, a disturbance takes place both in the afflicted area of the colon and in its corresponding part of the anatomy," Dr. Walker writes. Examples he provides of short-term afflictions resulting from the absorption of mucus and toxic waste from the colon into the rest of the body include pimples, sore throats, colds, hay fever, sinus; eye and ear problems. Afflictions of a more long-term nature caused by a constant influx of toxemia into the body from the colon include degeneration or cancer in vital organs.

In addition to physical ailments, Dr. Walker writes: "It is almost impossible to maintain a clear mind and proper mental and spiritual equilibrium when we allow the colon to go unattended for too long a time."

Dr. Walker refers to constipation as "the number one affliction underlying nearly every ailment; it can be imputed to be the initial, primary cause of nearly every disturbance of the human system. The most prevalent ailment afflicting civilized people is constipation." He writes "to be constipated means the packed accumulation of feces in the bowel makes its evacuation difficult." He adds, "constipation can also exist when movements of the bowel may seem to be normal, in spite of an accumulation of feces somewhere along the line of the colon."