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Let Go of Toxic Crap | Doody Free Girl
By Jen Gonzalez, Doody Free Girl
Did you know that Benjamin Franklin, one of our Founding Fathers, was also a scientist, inventor, and philosopher obsessed with making farts smell like perfume? In the famous book, Fart Proudly, Benjamin Franklin writes:
“It is universally well known, that in digesting our common Food, there is created or produced in the Bowels of human Creatures, a great Quantity of Wind.
That the permitting this Air to escape and mix with the Atmosphere, is usually offensive to the Company, from the fetid Smell that accompanies it.
That all well-bred People therefore, to avoid giving such Offence, forcibly restrain the Efforts of Nature to discharge that Wind.
That so retained contrary to Nature, it not only gives frequently great present Pain, but occasions future Diseases, such as habitual Cholics, Ruptures, Tympanies, &c., often destructive of the Constitution, & sometimes of Life itself.”
Holding in gas and other bodily waste is worse for our health than we may suspect. In fact, medical journals have directly linked constipation to breast cancer and other chronic illness. As an alternative health practitioner for almost ten years, I have seen how bowel health can affect seemingly unrelated organs like the skin and the liver. The unnatural world in which we live subjects us both voluntarily and involuntarily to toxic overload, which increases the toxic burden on the rest of our organs. It is not until we embrace our ability to eliminate these toxins that we experience true freedom and inner peace.
Doody Free Girl, my colon hydrotherapy practice and blog, serves as both a physical and a virtual refuge for those suffering from either physical or emotional constipation because ultimately, constipation can become a source of depression, anxiety and illness. As a society, we have been an anal retentive culture since the discovery of the New World. I believe a simple shift in perspective can change the nation’s health.
I founded Doody Free Girl in 2012 in an effort to erase the social stigma surrounding our human right to take a shit. I had received my Gravity Colon Hydrotherapist certification in 2009 from the Wood Hygienic Institute and immediately started working in Manhattan at a gravity colonic establishment appropriately named Release NYC. While constipation does not discriminate, I noticed a pattern among most of my female clientele. Many of them seemed to notice the decline of their bowel health begin during a first vacation with a new boyfriend, where they held in their poop for days! Bowel anxiety undoubtedly ruined the trip and ultimately, the relationship. This prompted me to start a fun, relatable blog about poop called Doody Free Girls because I believe that you can’t know shit about a person until you start talking about a bunch of crap. There’s a level of intimacy that just cannot be achieved when you refuse to discuss every “dirty” bodily evacuation.
Fast-forward to 2015 and Doody Free Girls became my very own gravity colonic business in Jersey City called Doody Free Girl (referring to me rather than my female clients because constipation is gender neutral after all). Gravity colonics (also called high colonics) are the most natural, old-school method of colon cleansing that was actually administered in hospitals before laxatives gained popularity. Using only an elevated tank of filtered water, gravity gently pulls water simultaneously in and out of the colon (also known as the Large Intestine), similar to a douche. This machine-free, drug-free treatment can immediately improve one’s health and mood.
Science is now focusing on gut health as the center for both immune and emotional health. 70% of our immune system lies in the gut microbiome. The microbiota (or bacteria) in our gut discern what gets absorbed into the blood stream from the digestive tract. When an imbalance of malevolent to beneficial bacteria occurs, dysbiosis occurs, which can manifest itself as chronic bloating, fatigue, candida, weight gain, irritable bowel disease and even depression to name a few symptoms. The role our bacteria play in our general health and wellness is proving to be a promising field of scientific study. Scientists are just scratching the surface and already making strides in the cure for obesity, Lyme disease and chronic disease. And while this field of study is only recently earning the respect it deserves, there is one hard scientific fact that everyone can secretly appreciate: nothing is as satisfying as a voluptuous bowel movement.
Gut health controls our emotions more than we may realize. Our nervous system runs through our bowels via the vagus nerve, which connects the brain to the rest of the body. The digestive tract is lined with neural tissue containing just as many neurons as your brain! These neurons release neurotransmitters, which communicate with the brain and there is actually more communication traveling from the gut to the brain than vice versa. 90% of the neurotransmitter, serotonin (our feel-good, anti-anxiety and anti-depression chemical) is produced in the gut, not the brain. In fact, electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve is an effective treatment for depression and scientists are starting to relate diseases like osteoporosis and multiple sclerosis to compromised serotonin levels. Unfortunately, it is hard for our internal network to communicate efficiently when it’s full of shit.
Now imagine a world where everyone's less full of shit and a revolution is born. With regularity comes the extraordinary. Doody Free Girl offers a safe space to let go of all the toxic crap in your life. I encourage you never to hold it in and to always take your time squeezing out every last drop of what’s on your mind and in your bowels. And according to Benjamin Franklin, it is your utmost “doody” never to deny yourself these freedoms. Let freedom ring!
xoxo Jen Gonzalez, the Doody Free Girl