The human colon looks like a tube and it runs from the stomach to the anus. There are four parts to the colon caecum, ascending, transverse, descending, sigmoid and rectum.

Only parts of the food we consume are actually digested by us, the rest which remains undigested accumulates into the colon which acts like a reservoir. This waste material needs to be eliminated from the system as soon as possible, preferably within 24 hours. However if the waste material stays over a day inside the colon it starts forming toxins and your colon begins to suffer.

If you want to have a good colon it must be functioning at its optimal level. It should be free of any toxins which can lead to allergy symptoms, bad breath, infection and much more. Regular colon cleansing would help avoid such symptoms.

Colon cleansing is not something new and its roots can be traced back to as far as the Egyptian civilization when colon was thought to be the cause of all ailments. The idea was pretty much in vogue even during Restoration England. There has been a renewed interest in colon cleansing in the recent years. Colon cleansing is performed to keep the colon completely free of any toxic substances. It is also ensured that the colon retains its proper shape and size and can function at its optimal levels.

Ilya Metchnikoff, won the Nobel Prize for medicine in the early years of the 20th century. A highly respected scientist of his day he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work with white blood cells and conclusion that they help in fighting infections inside our body. As he started to grow old a new topic entered his mind how to prolong one's life. He found a community of people who lived in the mountains of Hungary to live to an extremely old age. He knew that these people had yogurt in their regular diet. Somehow he came to the conclusion that lactobacilli, the bacteria present in the yogurt actually fights against the harmful bacteria inside their intestine and thus helps them to live longer. In others who don't have yogurt regularly the harmful bacteria can thrive and produce toxins which shorten our lives.

However, modern medicine has disproved such claims. In fact the people whom Metchnikoff thought to be living longer than usual actually didn't have prolonged lives. It was only that they looked much older at a younger age.