At the turn of the 20th century, Ilya Metchnikoff won a Nobel Prize for his discovery of how your body uses its white blood cells to fend off infections. He was one of the most respected scientists of his time. As he grew older, he set out to find out how he could prolong his life. He noticed that people who lived in the mountains of Hungary appear to live to a very old age. He knew that they ate yogurt every day and that yogurt is loaded with lactobacilli, bacteria that can grow in your intestinal tract. He felt that these good bacteria displaced bad bacteria that normally live in your intestines and secrete toxins that shorten your life.

Dont laugh: the autointoxication theory was a respected scientific theory in the early 20th century. Many people took enemas regularly because they thought that it would clean out their colons and help to prolong their lives. The theory of autointoxication was that food that is not absorbed in the upper intestinal tract passes to your colon, where bacteria ferment it to form poisons that are absorbed into your bloodstream to shorten your life and even cause cancer. To prevent this, its practitioners taught that you should get enemas to rid yourself of the unabsorbed food.

No scientific evidence supports this foolishness. While many of you will find this story funny, realize that enemas were part of John Harvey Kellogg's treatments at the Sanitorium in Battle Creek, Michigan where he treated the Roosevelts, Fords, Chryslers, Rockefellers and other prominent people of the early 20th century. Some entrepreneurs who try to sell you colon cleansing products still promote these outdated ideas today.

If you suffer from constipation, check with your doctor to see if you have thyroid disease or an obstruction. If you have no disease, the odds are overwhelming that you can be cured by avoiding white flour and bakery products, eating whole grains, beans, vegetables and fruit so you get lots of fiber; drinking enough fluids and getting plenty of exercise.