For hundreds of years, medicine was driven by anecdote and personal beliefs, without the slightest supportive evidence. In the nineteen twenties the most common operation done was ‘removal of toxic colon.’ Toxic colons were believed to be responsible for almost any symptom you could think of.

• Headache…..toxic colon
• Anxiety…toxic colon
• Stomach pain…toxic colon… obviously
• Cramps…toxic colon, etc. etc.

Surgeons became blindingly wealthy cutting out significant lengths of the large bowel in those who could afford it. This operation, and the greed and stupidity that drove it, is outlined in the book ‘Doctors Dilemmas’, by George Bernard Shaw.  He went on to say that: ‘If you pay people to cut things out of you, then that it exactly what they are going to do.’

Not many people have their toxic colons removed nowadays, in fact no-one does, as the condition no longer even exists. But many people still have…