| Posted 21 March 2023 Two recent articles expose the false notion that popular detoxification regimens are health-enhancing: - Jonathan Jarry notes: “Binders are just the latest products to be added to the detox economy. Its end users, already choked by consumerism and trained to see evil lurking in their modern surroundings, are again told they’re not spending enough money keeping themselves healthy.” [Jarry J. You don’t need a binder in your detox kit, and you don’t need a detox kit. McGill Office for Science and Society, Jan 13, 2023]
Source: Consumer Health Digest #23-03, January 15, 2023 … Read the rest Posted 30 January 2019 Physicians at the Memory and Aging Center at the University of California, San Francisco have written a viewpoint article critical of: - the dietary supplement industry, which sells and estimated $3.2 billion per year of products claimed to improve cognition and brain health
- licensed medical professionals who offer interventions (such as intravenous nutrition, personalized detoxification, chelation therapy, antibiotics, and stem cell therapy) to address unsubstantiated causes of neurodegenerative disease (e.g., metal toxicity, mold exposure, and Lyme disease)
- medical professionals who combine supplements and unproven lifestyle changes with known dementia interventions (e.g., cognitive training, exercise, and a heart-healthy diet) and misrepresent that program as a unique holistic and personal approach.
Refernce: Hellmuth J. Rabinovici GD. Miller BL. The rise of pseudomedicine for dementia and brain health. JAMA, Jan 25, 2019 January 25, 2019 The Rise of Pseudomedicine for Dementia and Brain Health… Read the rest Posted 14 January 2019 Vox has published a brief article accompanied by an informative four-minute YouTube video explaining that unless you are a heroin addict or are at risk of alcohol poisoning, you probably don’t need a ‘detox.’ Belluz J, Haubursin C. Products that promise “detox” are a sham. Yes, all of them. Vox. Jan 2, 2019 … Read the rest Posted 03 September 2018 ‘Appetite suppressant’ lollipops and ‘detox’ teas have been promoted by the company’s hand-selected celebrities and Instagram models. The product for sale – 35 calories worth of flavored cane sugar laced with an extract of saffron that supposedly curbs hunger – sparked immediate backlash for a company that had built its brand selling so-called “detox” teas. Good Place actor Jameela Jamil called out Kim Kardashian West for promoting the lollipops to her 116 million Instagram followers (“You terrible and toxic influence on young girls,” Jamil tweeted), and more than 100,000 people signed an online petition calling for the billboard’s removal. “Dietary supplements sold for detox or weight loss are snake oil, plain and simple,” said Dr S Bryn Austin, a Harvard Medical School professor who specializes in eating disorder risks. “The liver and kidneys already do the the so-called detox and adding junk products into … Read the rest Posted 08 January 2018 - Detoxing by drinking juices, going on cleanses, or using other formulas is unnecessary and may be dangerous.
- Juicing fresh fruits and vegetables also strips them of some of their most beneficial ingredients.
Ever wished there was an easy, quick way to cleanse your body of all those 2017 toxins? Turns out you’re already equipped with everything you need. They’re called your liver and kidneys. Together, these two toxin-bashing organs act as a super-efficient system for filtering out the vast majority of the harmful substances we eat and drink. In other words, you never need to detox. Not for New Year’s Day. Not after too much Thanksgiving turkey. Not even because you spent most of last year subsisting on greasy take-out from the C-rated “restaurant” next door. Here’s how it works: While our kidneys filter our blood and remove any waste from our diet, our liver processes … Read the rest Posted 29 December 2017 From Science Based Medicine As we prepare to welcome 2018, it’s time to start thinking about your New Year’s resolutions. And what better way to start fresh in 2018 than by literally purging yourself of 2017, inside and out? You may already been seeing advertisements for all forms of detox products and services: Your local pharmacy likely has a shelf of supplements and kits that promise a svelte, glowing you within a few days. A Facebook post is promoting lemon juice, cayenne and maple syrup as a cure-all. Or there’s your local naturopathic clinic promoting IV vitamin infusions – not only will a detox make you feel better, you’ll look better too. Unfortunately, most of the hype around detox is useless at best, and expensive and potentially harmful, at worst. Most detoxes are only successful at cleaning you of your savings, not your toxins. Here are … Read the rest Posted 02 October 2017 It is surprisingly easy to sell snake-oil. I know, because I’ve done it. In 2014, I helped create and sell The Right Detox. This was a bogus detoxification program that purported to improve anyone’s well-being and perhaps, cure disease. I was the face of the scam. I launched The Right Detox at a spring-time women’s health expo in Tucson, Arizona. This article, written by Britt Hermes, a Naturopath, argues that all forms of detox are scams. We agree. Read the complete article at Naturopathic Diaries … Read the rest Posted 26 May 2017 The myth of the juice cleanse is a stubborn one – and one frequently promoted by celebrities – but it’s both wrong and unhealthy. First of all, your body naturally removes harmful chemicals through the liver, kidneys, and gastrointestinal tract – there’s nothing about juice that will hurry that process along. Secondly, juicing is mostly a way of removing helpful fibre from fruits and vegetables – many sugary fruit juices are as bad for you as sodas. You’re making the fruit less healthy by ‘juicing’ it. Source: Science Alert … Read the rest Posted 03 February 2017 If the “central dogma” of alternative medicine is that wishing makes it so, one of the most important of the other organizing dogmas of alternative medicine is that “toxins,” whether they come from inside or outside, are making us sick and that we can’t be healthy until we “detoxify.” This is far more a religious belief than a science-based one. [quote]I hate this analogy. The body is not a car; it is orders of magnitude more complex than a car. More importantly, a car is not designed to fix itself or replenish its own fluids. In contrast, the human body has evolved over billions of years, all the way back to the simplest one cell organisms, to be self-sustaining and self-“detoxifying,” needing little more than adequate nutrition (fuel), water, and activity to maintain itself. Yet quacks like Bollinger often make this analogy, selling “detox” pseudoscience as… Read the rest Posted 02 February 2017 A self-confessed glutton, Jay Rayner has always been wary of the ‘January detox’. But after talking to experts and sampling some of the products, he’s discovered the truth is even worse than he imagined An article in The Guardian … Read the rest | |