An Interview with Renee Schirmer
By Mike Bundrant

Colon Hydrotherapy. The mere mention of those words creates an association in my mind that I don’t care for. Words like colonoscopy, enema and fecal matter come to mind. I prefer to avoid these uncomfortable references to the underworld of my physiology. With more and more evidence of the importance of colon health, however, you won’t want to miss what Renee Schirmer of Regenesis Integrative Health in Encinitas, CA has to say.

Renee is part of an exclusive group of people who use the Angel of Water, a proprietary new development in the field of Colon Hydrotherapy. When it comes to the essentials of colon health, the Angel of Water is a long awaited blessing.

HT:  Just so you know, I’ve had a session of colon hydrotherapy before, but it’s been five years.  I did it once because I had heard about it and was curious.  But I haven’t gone back to have it done again.

Renee:  Why is that?  Did you get good results from it?

HT:  I felt less bloated afterwards.  I felt thinner.  I felt really good, actually.  But, the procedure was a little uncomfortable.  It certainly wasn’t my favorite position to be in.

Renee:  Do you know if it was the Closed System or the Open System? 

HT:  I don’t know the difference.

Renee:  The Closed System is where the therapist is controlling the water for you.  She is controlling the pressure and she’s telling you to how long hold the water in and when to let it go. It can get uncomfortable because you will want to let it go sooner than she wants you to. 

HT:  It was the closed system.  She was controlling the water and sort of asking me questions and taking feedback.

Renee:  Uh-huh.  What we have is the open system.  The water enters through a gravity feed and you hold it as long as you are comfortable – it allows for a more natural ebb and flow. The open system is much more comfortable because you are in control and can go at your own pace.  I’m in there the first time with the people, sometimes the whole time. But the good thing about the open system is that you can be completely private.

HT:  Sort of like self-service, right?

Renee:  Yes.  I do like to be in there the first time so that people know what to expect; because a lot of times you don’t know if this cramp is normal or if it’s normal to feel nauseous.  Or, what are all those bubbles in there?

HT:  Yeah, I do remember all the bubbles, which were gas bubbles.  It’s the main thing I saw through the glass tube.  I must have had a lot of gas and that was the main thing I accomplished through that session - getting a lot of that out.  That is why I felt less bloated, right?

Renee:  Yeah.  And then you have a lot of little bubbles.  When it comes out and it looks like it’s boiling, that’s acid.  You’re removing the acid from your colon.  Our large intestine is acidic naturally, but when we drink coffee and eat a poor diet it makes our colon more acidic, causing distress and poor digestion.    A colonic is like water going in and just washing that out. 

HT:  I do know the Baked Lasagna Metaphor. Essentially, years of poor eating causes an overload to our system – our digestive tract can’t remove all the toxic waste as quickly as we consume it. So, the excess gets stored along the walls of our colon - all that caked material on the walls of our large intestine like cheese baked onto a lasagna pan. How does water get it out?

Renee:  We use a twelve-gallon tank. You may not see anything come out until there are three gallons left and so that tells me a lot.  There’s impaction in there and the water has to go in and really loosen things up, just like you’re soaking dishes.  It goes in and hydrates it and we massage the abdomen so it starts to loosen things up in the wall.  You can literally jiggle it around and things will start to break up. 

HT:  Is it safe to introduce a lot of water into the colon?  Are there any concerns about doing that?  Is there any danger of backing things up too far?

Renee:  It is completely safe. I can control the water.  You don’t want them to fill up too much if they are not expelling it.  So, I’ll turn it off and then I’ll work on their belly and then I’ll turn it back on.  If they don’t start to expel then I’ll send them home and take stool softener and drink a lot of water, do something to break it up in there even more.  People who have been on medication for years often take more time to cleanse.  Most of the side effects from medication are constipation.

HT:  That is pretty common, isn’t it?

Renee:  Yeah.  It’s really sad.  I don’t want to get too much into that.  People are given the wrong message on how to take care of their colon.  So, doing the colon hydrotherapy or colonic is very simple.  It’s basically a high tech enema.  The enema goes in about twelve inches, but this cleans out the entire five feet of colon.  This usually takes about four visits.  By the fourth visit, the mother load usually comes out.  People are just amazed. The first time they are like, “Oh my gosh, it was just continuous!”  And the next week they are like, “Wow, I must be pretty cleaned out.”  And then they come the next week and even more comes out than the third and fourth time - it’s just amazing how much we can store in our colon! 

Once you get it out you feel better.  You get your energy back.  You start wanting to eat better.  You don’t want to start putting that stuff back in there.  After an average of four sessions, you just have to come for maintenance. 

HT:  Is that like once a month?

Renee:  Yeah.  You know, everybody is different.  Anywhere from three to six weeks is how most people do it.  Some people come and they are doing a cleanse or a fast and they come in three or four more months and do another one. They will come as the seasons change and do another cleanse.

HT:  Let’s say that I am an average client. I’m doing well. I’m not on alot of medication, but I’ve got low energy, a few extra pounds and not totally proud of how I eat.  I’m interested in taking a step in the right direction and Colon Hydrotherapy is among the various options that are available to me. Why would I choose it?  What’s it going to do for me?

Renee:  The colon is where we store all our crap.  Our blood goes through colon.  If we have a dirty colon, our blood is going through that dirty colon and it is backing up into the rest of our system.  That‘s when things start breaking down in our system.  If our colon is clean then the rest of our system is going to perform better.  Our liver, kidneys - it just takes the burden off the rest of our systems.  They don’t have to work as hard.

I think a colonic can benefit everyone.  We’ve literally seen people come in and they’ve just been sick.  After their third or fourth time they are like a new person.  They are so thankful and happy to be feeling good again.  They are on their way making their health good again. 

HT:  I’ve heard of the Second Brain Theory.  We have half as many neurons in our intestines as we do in our brain and if we’re not taking care of or intestinal tract - if it’s full of toxicity - it makes a lot of sense that we may not be thinking as clearly.

Renee:  Some people come in with a headache, do the colonic and go home without the headache.  People have come in and thought they would give it a try and “what was that?”  It was a parasite.  They didn’t even know they had it.  Most people know they have parasites and they come in to clean them out of there.  But there are little surprises in there once in a while.

HT:  So you do programs with people, wellness programs where you make nutritional recommendations and supplement recommendations? 

Renee:  I do.

HT: What are the primary challenges people face in order to get well?  What holds them back? 

Renee:  A lot of people are just not willing to give up their poor eating habits.  But, usually when people come in here they are ready.  When you don’t feel good, when your stomach is not feeling well, like when you eat something and you’re feeling really bad, when that starts to happen on a daily basis, people generally start looking at what’s really going on.

HT:  That’s pretty fascinating.  I get that whole concept of not being willing to do what you need to do.  Your eating habits are causing you pain and you can tolerate that pain; it’s bearable as long as you get to indulge. Then there comes a day when the price paid is simply too high.

Renee:  Yeah, or you end up going to the doctor and just putting a band-aid on it with a drug, then that causes more problems after a while.  It becomes a vicious cycle.

HT: It sounds like once you have people who are ready, you’ve got some great tools.

Renee:  It’s been such a blessing for us.  We’ve really seen people get well again and that’s been a joy for us to be part of that and to help someone move ahead in a healthy way.

We all have our weak points.  Some people might get headaches, some get respiratory stuff, so it manifests in everyone’s body in different ways.  It’s just whatever they are going through, cleaning the colon out can definitely give them a head start.