Bowtrol & Weight Loss

Bowtrol Colon Health Support is a company that manufactures products to promote colon health. Although they also produce probiotic supplements and products for people with irritable bowel syndrome, Bowtrol's Colon Cleanser is its only product that boasts weight-loss benefits. While such products might play some role in weight loss, the effectiveness of Bowtrol's Colon Cleanser is limited.

Ingredients

Bowtrol promotes all of its products as being all natural. The ingredients in its Colon Cleanser support this claim, with each gelatin capsule containing only Chinese rhubarb, cascara bark powder, bentonite clay, cape aloe, flax seed powder, senna, slippery elm bark, wormwood, black cumin seed, olive leaf extract, thyme leaf powder, garlic extract, clove powder and peppermint leaf. While this list of barks, wood, clay, leaves and other plant extracts verifies Bowtrol's claims that their Colon Cleanser is all-natural, little evidence supports its claims of the product's effectiveness.

Claims

Bowtrol's website contains a disclaimer warning consumers that claims of the effectiveness of their products have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Further, its disclaimer acknowledges that its products are not suitable for treating or curing any disorders. Despite these disclaimers, however, Bowtrol claims that its Colon Cleanser will help you to lose weight, although it provides no research or customer feedback supporting these effects.

Weight Loss

In a review published in the March 2010 issue of The International Journal of Clinical Practice, Dr. Edzard Ernst of the Peninsula Medical School in Exeter, U.K., evaluated the research on colon cleanses. Although he states that such products are generally safe, he notes that their side-effects may include nausea, diarrhea, cramps, electrolyte depletion, damage or tears to your colon, and intestinal infections. Despite its claims of aiding weight loss, Ernst states that no evidence support any colon cleanse's claims of effectiveness. As such, he suggests that you do not use colon cleanses for weight loss.

Fecal Impaction

While Bowtrol's Colon Cleanser may not help you to lose weight, Dr. Arnold Wald of the University of Wisconsin Medical School in Madison, Wisconsin, suggests that colon cleanses might help prevent weight loss. In the October 2008 issue of Current Gastroenterology Reports, Wald states that colon cleanses may help to relieve fecal impaction, a condition caused by chronic constipation. As fecal impaction can cause sufferers to lose weight, Wald states that regular colon cleanses may help to prevent unwanted weight loss. Although this is not true of all people, Wald's research suggests that Bowtrol's Colon Cleanser may play a role in colon health and weight maintenance in people with chronic constipation.