Richard: He tried the sort of traditional treatment through the specialist but didn't seem to be getting anywhere. He eventually drifted off to alternative medicine and went to a homeopath and dieticians. His progress seems to have been fairly up and down over the last year or so. The latest thing he tried was colonic irrigation. I'd like to know what this is, and your opinion on it.

Harry: Colonic irrigation involves irrigation or cleaning out of the colon, which is the large bowel. The object of doing this is to remove poisons, which may be causing various symptoms. As to my verdict on it: it is absolute nonsense. There is no evidence whatsoever that this thing works, nor is there any basis for it. The toxins or poisons which they describe as being present in the colon and which you are supposed to be washing out are mythical. Not only is it useless, but it may also be dangerous. You can imagine that if you are over-vigorous with this cleaning up of the colon, it can be dangerous. From time to time what we have seen is that over-vigorous cleansing of the colon has sometimes damaged it. And I know of at least one case where the colon was actually perforated, which is a very serious matter because the colon has got bacteria. Now these are good bacteria and for the most part they are very useful to us. There are two parts of the body that are full of bacteria - one is the mouth and the other is the colon. And the colonic bacteria are extremely useful, but when these bacteria go through a perforation into the abdominal cavity, they can then cause very serious problems. I know of at least one patient who died as the result of a perforation of the colon following colonic irrigation. So all in all it is useless; there is no evidence of any benefit and it is possibly dangerous.

Richard: Right. In your opinion, what should he do about this ME or whatever it is that he's got?

Harry: The important thing is to make a diagnosis. It seems that he has seen a number of doctors. Who did he see originally? Who was the first doctor that he saw?

Richard: I don't know what his name was - he was a GP. And then he was sent to a specialist physician at Morningside.

Harry: Is this specialist physician still around?

Richard: Oh yes, he saw him 18 months ago at Morningside.

Harry: All right, let me make a suggestion to you. That original physician has got his records there and he's got a baseline. Let your son go back to him now so that he can compare what his condition was like at that time with what his condition is now. Let's assume there was nothing found at that time. It is possible that now, 18 months later, there may be signs which weren't present originally. And that may enable you to make a diagnosis. Because you can't really treat him meaningfully unless you make a diagnosis.

Richard: Is ME per se a mythical thing or does it exist?

Harry: No, it is a diagnosis but don't call it ME because ME implies that it is an infection. There is no evidence whatsoever that it is an infection and that has been rejected. We rather use the term chronic fatigue syndrome and that is a preferable term because it tells you what it is about and makes no assumptions about cause. And the fact of the matter is that we still do not understand the cause of this condition.

Richard: Thanks very much.