Supporting The Liver With Coffee Enemas, Fact or Fiction

“The only thing really, that is going to detoxify the body, as a diseased patient needs, is the coffee enema. There simply is nothing that can promote that kind of detoxification. Nothing,” says Patrick Vickers, Director and Founder of the Northern Baja Gerson Clinic. (36:40).

Cleansing the bowel and supporting the body with enemas dates back to Biblical times. Enemas were used by ancient Egyptians, documented in the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Coffee enemas became popular during World War I, 1914-1918, when morphine was hard to supply the abundant numbers of wounded. Medical Doctors gave patients coffee enemas to effectively reduce their pain.

“In the 1920s, German scientists found that a caffeine solution could open the bile ducts and stimulate the production of bile in the liver of experimental animals,” says Gallbladder Attack.
Dr. Max Gerson used coffee enemas shortly thereafter, in the 1930s, in an effort to treat tuberculosis and cancer patients.
Gerson attributed coffee enemas with liver stimulation, allowing the body to flush toxins.

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The Merck Manual included coffee enemas until the 1970s as a beneficial procedure for colon and liver cleansing. In later years, not so much. For example in the 2003 manual (second home addition) they mention using coffee in enemas saying, “Some practitioners of alternative medicine use colonic enemas in the belief that cleansing the large intestine is beneficial. Tea, coffee and other substances are often added to colonic enemas but have no proven health value and may be dangerous.” (page 754).

The Merck Manual, Tenth Edition is reported as saying, “The Merck Manual has long been considered the Bible for Physicians. Few are aware that from 1899-1977 coffee enemas were included in the Merck Manual, a compendium of orthodox research techniques. Coffee enemas were not removed from the Manual because of their ineffectiveness, but rather to make room for newer material.”

Every four minutes the portal system pulls fluid from the intestines into the liver. Once in the liver it reaches all areas through dendritic branching. During a coffee enema the concept of cleansing the system runs off this function. The caffeine is absorbed from the bowel into the portal system. This stimulates hepaocellular function which in turn pulls toxins such as tumor cells, parasites in all their stages and chemicals from the cells. 

Some Medical Doctors warn against coffee enemas saying they are dangerous.

The American Journal of Gastroenterology describes one case of concern occurred where a 60-year-old woman in Korea was admitted to the hospital with bloody stool, urgency to move her bowels and pain in the anus. She had used a coffee enema for constipation with one liter of water and 2 tablespoons of coffee with no additives, was cooled and administered four days prior to her hospital visit. A colonoscopy showed geographic ulcers, caused by the herpes virus and included mucosal layer damage. The patient recovered with antibiotics.

Coffee enemas are reported in 1980 by JAMA as responsible for two deaths, from electrolyte imbalance, and one case of septicemia in an advanced breast cancer patient. No cases of inflammation from coffee enemas have been reported.

Electrolyte imbalance is seen when frequent multiple use coffee enemas are done daily while on a raw vegetable and juicing protocol. This is why the Gerson Protocol calls for 4 juices per coffee enema.

The septicemia occurred in a 24-year-old woman with advanced breast cancer who opted for treatment in a facility in Tijuana, Mexico. While there, coffee enemas were regularly administered. She was admitted to the hospital suffering from liver failure. Two blood samples showed Salmonella enteritidis  Group D and Campylobacter fetus subspecies intestinalis. These are both commonly seen in those with advanced Intestinal Permeability, Leaky Gut in layman’s terms. The family declined an autopsy so no further information is known.

Even when reporting the two deaths JAMA said, “Although these therapies may be of questionable therapeutic value, they are usually considered harmless.”

Thieme Endoscopy reported the dangers of hot coffee enemas referring to a case in Seoul, Korea, where they proclaimed the heat of the coffee made a hole in the upper portion of the rectum as well as wall thickening of the rectum, which happens following a burn.

Coffee enemas, as well as any other enemas, should not be administered too hot or too cold. If you can stick your finger in the liquid and stir your finger around for at least ten seconds without it being too hot or too cold, you’re in the right temperature zone. 

Pharmacist, by training, Scott Gavura wrote for Science Based Medicine, “Coffee enemas are considered unsafe and should be avoided.”

He goes on to say the concept that the human body is toxic, or collects toxins, is prescientific and unscientific. He says, “The idea that you are contaminated with parasites or candida are just that – ideas.”

The Gerson Method is arguably the most vocal for the healing aspects of coffee enemas. The protocol calls for daily coffee enemas to flush the toxins from the body that are causing cancer and disease. Cafestol palmitate and kahweol in coffee are known as a glutathione S-transferase activators and as N-acetyltransferase inhibitors. This means they stimulates repair, have anti-cancer properties as they stimulate tumor cell metabolites and are anti inflammatory. The caffeine dilates the bile ducts allowing toxins and gallstones to evacuate the body, as well as stimulates toxins to flow from the blood. 

In addition, the process of roasting forms melanoidins which inhibit oxidation of fats. It also contains chlorogenic and caffeic acids which are antioxidant phenols. The metabolites of the caffeine, theobromine and xanthines, are antioxidants which are responsible for protecting DNA. 

Glutathione S-transferase is maybe the most important aspect of the whole process. It is an enzyme produced by the liver which, “Is the most potent detoxifying enzyme in the body,” says Dr. Patrick Vickers. “When you do one coffee enema, the production of glutathione transferase, by the body, goes to 6-700 percent greater than normal.” (1:29:17).

He goes on to say, “Coffee increases bile flow. It’s also a natural form of dialysis. When you do a coffee enema your blood circulates through five times. That’s effective dialysis or cleansing of the blood.” (1:30:38).

The stimulating effect from caffeine doesn’t work the same from a coffee enema. Many people doing coffee enemas regularly can not tolerate the stimulation of drinking a cup of coffee. Through an enema, it in essence, makes your liver hick up. This hick up flushes toxins and causes a feeling of health that is often not seen in chronically ill people. For this reason, many say they are addicted to coffee enemas. 

Coffee enemas should only follow a cleansing enema, 1 liter of water, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon mineral salt brought to a boil then cooled and administered.

The recipe for a coffee enema is take one liter of filtered or spring water with three tablespoons of organic coffee,  (or this one, or this one) or coffee enema coffee, tied up in a coffee filter in a pot on the stove. Bring the pot to a boil for three to five minutes, turn off the heat and cover for 15 minutes. Remove the coffee cache and cool the pot in a sink filled with ice water or cold tap water. Once you can put your finger in the pot and swirl it around for ten seconds, you are at the appropriate temperatures to administer. It is important to do a cleansing saline enema first which is made from heating up one liter of water with one teaspoon mineral salt and one teaspoon baking soda. If not, the fecal matter is flushed through the liver, sending toxins where we desire to flush. 

Enema bags come in an inexpensive disposable form, more expensive stainless steel buckets as well as a high quality kit or even a gallon jumbo size. If you are going to be cleansing with a prolonged agenda it is better to buy a quality enema kit so that plastics or other chemicals are not introduced into the system.

Clear the enema bag tube of liquid so that no air is introduced to the system which will cause gas. Lubrication of the tube tip and insertion point can be done with coconut oil. Delicate insertion is important. 

More toxic people can not hold coffee water for long. The more you do them and flush the toxins, the longer you will be able to hold the contents. Desired effect is hit after holding the enema for 20 minutes. 

To read more on coffee enemas click here and here. 

*Nourishing Plot is written by Becky Plotner, ND, traditional naturopath, CGP, D.PSc. who sees clients in Rossville, Georgia. She works as a Certified GAPS Practitioner who sees clients in her office, Skype and phone. She has been published in Wise Traditions, spoken at two Weston A. Price Conferences, Certified GAPS Practitioner Trainings, has been on many radio shows, television shows and writes for Nourishing Plot. Since her son was delivered from the effects of autism (Asperger’s syndrome), ADHD, bipolar disorder/manic depression, hypoglycemia and dyslexia, through food, she continued her education specializing in Leaky Gut and parasitology through Duke University, finishing with distinction. She is a Chapter Leader for The Weston A. Price Foundation. becky.nourishingplot@hotmail.com

“GAPS™ and Gut and Psychology Syndrome™ are the trademark and copyright of Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride. The right of Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Patent and Designs Act 1988.