Last night’s episode of T.I. & Tiny: The Family Hustle focused on health, fitness and fads. The Harris family patriarch, Tip “T.I.” Harris, decided his family was eating too much junk food and not exercising enough. So Tip put his children on a healthy exercise regimen involving aerobic and non-aerobic exercises for kids of all ages.

The episode also called attention to a dangerous fad — specifically colonics, or colon cleansing. Tameka “Tiny” Harris‘ hair stylist Shekinah subjected herself to a colonic for laughs, but it is not a laughing matter when colonics introduce deadly bacteria into the colon or rupture the colon.

Colonics uses a tube to inject water into the bowels. A colonic is not much different from an enema which can be performed at home. Colonics do not cleanse the entire intestines, which are about a mile long.

Doctors medically cleanse or evacuate the entire intestines by asking the patient to drink a large amount of an electrolyte solution called GoLYTELY that flushes out the entire intestine to prepare for surgery or other medical procedures.

Colonic “clinics” won’t tell you they can’t clean out your entire intestines because GoLYTELY is available by prescription only — and colonic clinics are not run by doctors.

The body does a great job of cleaning the colon naturally. The bacteria that resides in the colon is supposed to be there, and should not be flushed out unless a certified doctor is preparing your bowel for a medical procedure, such as a colonoscopy or polypectomy (removing polyps).

Colonics clinics have sprouted up everywhere over the last 20 years to take advantage of gullible people who believe the lies that colonics help you lose weight and remove “toxins” from your body. The so-called benefits of consumer colonic cleansing has been disputed by the medical establishment. The only purpose of these colonic “clinics” is to separate you from your money.