June 9, 2026 • 40 mins
Can detox teas, juice cleanses, and parasite cleanses actually flush toxins out of your body or is the wellness industry overselling the science?
In this episode of Health vs Hype, Trace sits down with gastroenterologist Dr. David Purow to unpack one of the biggest wellness trends online: detoxing. Together, they break down what toxins really are, how the body naturally detoxifies itself, and why many popular detox products may be unnecessary or even harmful.
The episode explores social media claims surrounding heavy metals, microplastics, “detox pathways,” parasite cleanses, brain fog, bloating, inflammation, and fatigue. You’ll hear insights from wellness creator Mina Adams alongside evidence-based medical perspectives on whether detox regimens actually work. You’ll also hear from Steve Lutsk, an online fitness coach and detox doubter.
Dr. Purow explains how the liver, kidneys, lungs, skin, and even the brain already have built-in systems designed to remove waste and harmful substances. He also discusses why healthy habits like sleep, hydration, nutrition, movement, and exercise support the body far more effectively than trendy and expensive detox products or quick-fix cleanses.
The conversation also tackles:
- Juice cleanses and detox teas
- Parasite cleanse trends on TikTok and Instagram
- Heavy metals and microplastic fears
- “Resetting” your gut or digestive system
- The psychology of wellness quick fixes
If you’ve ever wondered whether detoxes are science-backed, this episode separates health facts from wellness hype.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Ruby if you go on the internet. Detoxing is huge
and everyone wants to drink.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
This eth that the best thing you could do with
this is actually flush it down the sink, because cleanses
and detoxes don't actually work.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Detoxing is something that's become very popular, largely due to
social media, which is where a lot of the population
now gets their information.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
It seems like every few weeks there's a new social
media trend on how to detoxify your body.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Maybe you've been.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
Tempted by one. Maybe you've tried one. Juice, cleanses, detox supplements, teas, saunas,
and fasting. They all promise more energy, quick weight loss,
and relief from things like brain fog or fatigue. And
who doesn't want those things? I mean, right now, I
have monosaccharides, dihydrogen monoxides, deoxyribonucleic acids one three seven, trimethyl xanthenes,
(00:56):
bilo keinoe all up in my body, and they're all
chemicals and they're all well actually completely essential for life.
You know. Those are the chemical names for glucose, water, DNA, caffeine,
and vitamin k okay. Strictly speaking, Caffeine's not essential for life,
but it's pretty important for me personally. The thing is,
when we read long, unfamiliar chemical names on household products,
(01:18):
personal care items like lotions and makeup, even plastic used
in our water bottles, it can be overwhelming and even
a little alarming. There's no surprise that many people turn
to detoxification in an attempt to try and rest a
little control over what goes in and comes out of
their bodies. This push to clear things out and start
(01:38):
fresh has even become a popular way of saving people
from well themselves a little late night of drinking, or
a work trip that turned into a fast food tour,
or simply a decadently indulgent vacation. Plenty of people are
turning to detox trends to find a quick and easy
reset button when life gets a little out of hand.
But is that what they're really doing? Are we really resetting?
(02:00):
Are we really detoxing? Not everyone is convinced detoxing is
the answer to these concerns. Steve Lutzk, a fitness influencer
known as Dad Bod, thinks these cleanses are frankly a
bunch of bulls.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
We have all kinds of quacks online toting their magic
cures that I wish they were true. More than anything,
I wish there was something magic you could take that
solved all of the health and nutrition problems that this
country is facing, and sadly that's not the case.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
While wellness influencers like Mina Adams say detoxes and cleanses
are a healthy part of everyday life, although her approach
might surprise.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
You, we all feel like crap, but the way we
feel is from years of not taking care of ourselves
and for me holding this sign just take better care
of yourself. You're like, lady, shut up, what are you
talking about. We're trying to drink this and feel better.
Buy tomorrow.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
And of course, doctors have plenty to say about the
evidence behind some of the most viral social media claims
around detoxing. David Puro, a gastor entrologist from hunting To
New York and the vice president for the Department of
Medicine Service Line of north Well Health's Eastern market, joins
us to set the record straight.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
My general feeling about most of the things that we
see online is that we have to be careful. So
detoxing in the medical world usually means when we have
someone who has taken an overdose of something, we need
to detoxify them. But what it really means in the
world now is something very different, whether it's via influencers
or throughout various different platforms ways to detoxify what's coming
(03:31):
into our bodies.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Welcome back to Health Versus Hype with the American Medical Association.
I'm your host. Trace to me a guest. Today, we're
answering questions about detoxes and cleanses. What does it really
mean to detox What are we all detoxing from? Does
detoxing actually remove anything from our bodies? Join me as
we find out whether detoxing is all health or just hype.
(04:06):
People have been relying on different kinds of detoxes to
improve their health for centuries. In fact, its modern popularity
goes all the way back to the nineteen twenties and thirties.
Back then, detox diets were promoted as a cure for
everything from migraines to tuberculosis to cancer. The widespread popularity
of detoxing rebounded in the early two thousands as trendy
cleanses and diets were featured in hit books and endorsed
(04:29):
by celebrities with such a long history in our culture,
it's no wonder our current social media environment has poured
fuel on the detox fire. These days, it feels like
there's a detox diet for every bad feeling in a
person's life, from being hungover to feeling bloated, to feeling
like your metabolism just needs a little fix. Of course,
not every social media influencer has bought into this hype.
(04:52):
Steve Lutsk, the Dadbod fitness coach, believes these detox trends
only serve to confuse and distract people from much healthier
hea habits.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I think people like the idea of a quick fix,
and I think there are some bad apples out there
who want to take advantage of people who you know
that they don't have time to study nutrition all day.
They get a lot of their nutritional information from social media.
Maybe they heard that their favorite celebrity took a cleanse
(05:21):
and that's responsible for making them look as good as
they did. And as long as there are I hate
to say it, but gulble or misinformed people, there's always
going to be people who take advantage of that and
have something to sell. They want to tap into that
bank account, and they want to take advantage of people
who think that if I just do this detox diet
(05:42):
for three days, it's going to give me a kickstart.
It's going to cleanse me of all of the toxins
that have accumulated in my body.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Steve is right, detoxing products are big business. Last year,
the worldwide market for the detoxification industry was over seventy
one billion dollars. Considering the average detox or cleanse product
costs around thirty dollars, that would be like two and
a half billion detox products sold just last year, and
it's only going to grow from there. Some estimates show
(06:12):
this market reaching more than one hundred and twenty billion
dollars annually by twenty thirty four. In other words, the
detox market could rival the GDP of Venezuela. That's a
lot of money spent on detox pills and diet plants.
Like Steve said, most people don't want to spend the
time or the energy to get better slowly. Instead, the
(06:32):
detox industry promises getting something, anything done quickly. Perhaps nobody
knows this better than Mina Adams, a wellness influencer who
tries to convince her followers to slow down and take
their time getting healthy. Here's Mina's take on detoxes and cleanses.
Speaker 5 (06:49):
Most people tried to do the quick fix. Right.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
If you drink this, it will solve all your problems.
And as a mother of five without money to waste,
like I don't have money or time to I'm just
trying to get people to go through their process that
I went through, and that's understanding. Oh wow, if I
take care of my body, my body will take care
of me. It's very simple. We want big drama. We
want to buy this and buy that and buy this,
(07:13):
But don't buy anything yet until you learn how to
show up for yourself, until you learn how to be
very intentional about what you feed, it about what you use,
and you're focusing more on how your body feels and
functions versus how it looks.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
The detox market strives on this idea of a quick fix.
It translates a complicated goal like being healthy into a
solution that feels fast and simple. It tells us that
we don't need all this time to get healthy. We
just need to take this pill or drink this tea
and then voila, the nebulus toxin that was holding you
back is gone. It's cleansed. That's the essence of quick
(07:49):
fix culture. Of course, as we've learned through our previous episode,
staying healthy is complex and takes time. There are few,
if any quick fixes when it comes to being healthy.
Mina says, these products, the liver detox is, the gut cleanses,
and full body reset drinks are almost too much to
keep up with.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
I would love to start doing, you know, let's split
screen videos where I show someone marketing a detox method
or product and I say, well, actually, you know, it
doesn't quite work like that.
Speaker 5 (08:19):
I scroll on only.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Because I realize that people hear what they want to hear,
and people relate to what they feel is the right thing.
And so if I tell you exactly what you want
to hear, then you're going to share that video, save
and you're going to do.
Speaker 5 (08:31):
Exactly what that person said do. So, if that person is.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Telling you all you have to do this one thing,
this one thing, you like that message and you're going
to listen to that message and you're going to apply
it and you're going to promote it. But people who've
been following me for a long time know that I
mostly preach lifestyle. Let's change the way we think about
the things that we are putting on our bodies. Let's
question it, let's look it up ourselves. Let's make whatever
(08:54):
changes are possible in this season of life. You don't
have to change everything, just change one thing. Should probably start,
you know, being a little bit more disruptive on the internet.
I think that I'm not willing to do what it
takes to continue to be relevant on social media. You know,
on social media, you have three seconds to get someone's attention,
and then you have an additional five to convince them
(09:15):
to listen, right, and mostly no one's going to make
it to the end of the video. I have a
very balanced approach to life. And it's not what we
do every now and again that makes us feel the
way we do. It's what we are doing regularly. Because
those same people who'll take a drastic detox approach won't
focus on what they're doing every day, and that's the problem.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
Yeah, they'll like jump into something and take a cleanse
for a week, yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
And then go right back to eating the junk. And
what you did was you wasted time and money. They're like,
wait a minute, I thought we were on Celery juice
and and be juice. That was amazing. And then you
come right back in with the junk. And then they're
just like, oh, I guess we have to work again.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
What do you think people are looking for when they
turn to a detox, physical results something else.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
I think that most people are looking for the physical.
They're looking to change the way that they look like.
They're convinced that the reason why they have stubborn belly
fat is because they need to detox. They're thinking that
their skin looks the way it is. It's spotty, it's
not smooth. Their pores are huge, just because they need
to detox. So I think their original reason why people
come to detoxing is because of the way that they look.
(10:20):
I think once you've kind of been in the wellness
field a little longer, you're it's more about how you feel.
You start to recognize, Okay, I've been eating like crap,
and now my body feels like this. It's time for
me to take a break and change some things up.
I think we all feel like crap and we want
to feel better fast, and that's where the word comes detox.
(10:43):
You need to detox.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Our detox Doubter Steve has a similar take on why
detoxing is so enticing to so many people.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
I think a lot of people will come off of
a bad weekend where maybe they indulged a little bit,
maybe they drank a little bit too much. Then Monday
comes around and they're like, all right.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
This is it.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
I feel terrible right now. I feel like crap. I
had too much pizza and pasta and I drank a
case of beer. I know I need to lose the weight,
and I'm gonna kick it off the right way. I'm
gonna get rid of all these toxins. I'm gonna flush
out everything I did on the weekend, and then that's
gonna set me out for long term success. I just
need to cancel out this weekend. Then that's when I'm
(11:24):
gonna start eating healthy. I'm gonna start going to the
gym six days a week, and I'm gonna do a
ton of cardio to sweat out all of the badness.
So this is gonna be the big kickoff that's gonna work,
and this time I'm gonna stick to it.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
At this point, you may be like trace, are any
of these detox trends worth following. We're gonna get to
the science in a minute, but first Mina has one
last thought about how she thinks about detoxing and her
own health.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Before I go asking how could on detox? I have
to look in word? Okay, what am I doing? Can
I identify a lease three ways that my body detox
is and ways to support that I look inward, I
tell myself in order to stay on the internet, I
have to stay off the Internet. And it's not really
it's fully social media because if you go on social media,
you're like, oh my god, this man told me that
(12:10):
I can you know, I can rind my body of
all mucus in twenty four hours with this supplement that
I have to pay just ninety nine dollars for. It's
just like and I promise if my message was more
dramatic like that, I would have millions of followers and
make millions of dollars. But I cannot sleep at night,
you know, trying to sell someone something that their body
(12:31):
already does naturally.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
All right, I think it's time to bring in our
medical expert. Doctor David Piro has been a gastro enterroologist
for more than twenty years, and this is what he
has to say about the view of detoxing from the
medical side of things.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
So, detoxify from our perspective is if someone shows up
in the emergency room with an overdose of something that
we may need to detoxify what they've done. That is
not how it's typically spoken of online and in the
general world. It's basically in that sense, the people trying
to detoxify are trying to remove sub substances that are
(13:06):
getting into our bodies.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
Yeah, So when people talk about toxins that they're trying
to detox what are they usually referring to.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Yeah, So there's a lot of different substances with a
lot of different fancy letters. So there's the pfas, the
polyfloralkal substances, there's the BPA's the best phenales, and those
are basically different substances that are present in things that
we can come in contact with. So, whether it's you know,
water bottles, people talking about microplastics, which you're going to
have both some of the pfas and the BPAs in
(13:37):
addition to you know, the nonstick coding on pans that
we use.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
Why is it about detoxing that you think has made
it become so popular.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Yeah, I think there's a few different things that contribute
to it. I think it's a lot of people fear
a lack of control, and as a result of this,
this is the way of them trying to make sense
of the world and try to take control over their
own body bodies. So by actively doing something, I'm going
to detoxify things. Therefore I'm going to feel better. I
think is absolutely one of the reasons that it's you know,
(14:10):
detoxifying has become so popular. In addition, I think that
there's a significant placebo effects, So just by buying into
whatever they're trying, they're going to see some improvements. And
in general, also, I think as the world has evolved,
there's a lot more environmental anxiety. So I think that,
you know, the generations now feel very different than we
(14:33):
did in the past. When I grew up, you know,
I would have during high school, I would have, you know,
twinkies and a wine punch for breakfast, just because I could.
Now my son would be horrified, as much as you
love twinkies to consider that because of you know, the die.
So I think there's more of a general awareness of
what's out there and the effects that it may have
in our body. And when you start looking and again,
(14:54):
there are going to be things that we find and
a lot of household you know, regular household use appliances,
deodorant may have something in there. So I've heard that
some younger people don't want to use certain deodorants because
they have certain substances there that could be harmful to someone.
They could be harmful to someone in much higher concentrations
than their bodies are ever going to see. The other
thing I think is that we get a lot of
(15:15):
our information now from social media. I think there's some
general medical distrust that was really probably exacerbated by everything
that happened with COVID in our country. So as a result,
people are trying to seek information elsewhere. And it's not
just the younger generation. I think we absolutely have people
who are getting information online, whether it's from Google. Searchers
(15:38):
are using AI now, whether it's you know, Chat, GBT
or Gemini, in addition to you know, TikTok and Instagram.
That's where we consume a lot of our information. And
when we hear and see things there, there's a tendency
say well, maybe there is something to that. So I
think the people that have taken advantage that the detoxifying
movement are really feeding on the fact that there's a
(15:59):
lot of anxiety in the world. That's a way of
ore taken control of our own bodies to maybe help
make some sense and make us feel better.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
Yeah, what are some of the medical issues when people
come in that they're trying to solve with a detox regimen.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
So, you know, fatigue is a major one brain fog.
You know, as a guest neurologist, we're seeing a lot
of bloating. Bloating is a really common common symptom and
probably the most frustrating symptom for gas neurologists and other
physicians to treat. There were so many various things that
can lead to it, and there's actually no prescription medication
(16:32):
to treat it. You know, a lot of bloating is
you know, the term we like to use in medicine
is multifactory. A lot of different things can lead to it.
You know, there can be disruptions of the microbiome, which
is you know, the bacterian organisms that live with us
that help with our own digestion. You know, diet can
absolutely play a role. So, you know, bloating is definitely
(16:52):
a symptom people trying to get a handle on, but
I'd say more commonly it's going to be fatigue and
brain fog, and there's a lot of different other reasons
for that other than really needing to detoxify.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
Okay, doctor Piro, I want to play you a few
clips from one of the social media influencers I spoke with.
I want to get your gut reaction. Mina Adams had
an interesting way of describing how she thinks about detoxing.
Here's the clip.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
You have your kidneys, you have your liver, you have
your skin, you have your lungs, and so like when
people say, well how do you detox, Well, I'm like, well,
technically taking you know, a few deep breaths is helping
to support a detox pathway because your lungs. How often
do we intentionally do that? So if you go to
the bathroom, that is your your body releasing waste through
your urine through your bowels. Right when you sweat, that
(17:38):
is your body releasing waste through your skin. But how
often are we being intentional about sweating? Right? I mean,
your body is literally made to, you know, work efficiently,
but our diets, our lack of movement, the you know,
the loads and loads of skincare and hair care products
that we load on our bodies. It puts a heavy
load on our detox pathways, and we need to try
(18:00):
our best to release that as much as possible. I'm
just asking myself, how am I supporting my detox pathways today?
Speaker 5 (18:06):
What does my lungs need? What do they love?
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (18:10):
They love a good deep breath. Okay, let me do that.
Water helps me flesh out toxins through my urine. It's
like what, I'm just trying to support my detox pathways.
So sweating is a way that your body releases waste.
If you go into asana and you sweat for forty minutes, congratulations,
that is a quote unquote detox. You are supporting one
of your detox pathways. If you haven't had a bowel
(18:31):
movement in days and you drink celery juice and it
forces everything out of you, then congratulations, you have just detox.
I think anything that supports a detox pathway is a detox.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
So she's talking about detox pathways in like these are
ways to help detoxify your body or work with your
body to do it. So what's your reaction to what
Mina shared there?
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Yeah, I think she's absolutely right, and I think what
she's trying to do is augment or be more focused
on the natural ways to detoxify things. So any benefit
that anyone sees from their other regimens are because they're
basically pigging backing on what the body's doing. What Mea
is talking about is focusing on what those are and
trying to augment them as best we can without necessarily
(19:17):
doing any specific detoxification. So we're focusing more on sleeping,
if we're focusing more on trying to sweat, if we're
focusing on being hydrating or eating well, all these things
are going to help augment the kidney, deliver the lungs,
the brain, and the skin, which are our ways of
natural ways of detoxifying things. So, you know, the detoxic pathway.
(19:37):
She's just talking about what our bodies are ready doing
and how to maximize that.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
Is there a term in medicine or like clinical sense
for a detox pathway?
Speaker 3 (19:46):
Nope, other than elimination.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
Yeah, yeah, because this is a term I hadn't heard
before either, but it's a term that she uses pretty
regularly in her content as like, thinking about all these
different ways that your body is going to detoxify.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
I think it's smart. And again, because of how you know,
detoxifying it has become so popular. Which she's basically doing
is saying a lot of stuff similar to what I'm saying,
but saying in a different way. And I think by
using the detox and the pathway, it's going to resonate
with some people in the public and then basically have
them understand a little bit more about how their bodies work,
(20:18):
and therefore they might be more likely to do that
and less likely to do some of the potentially harmful
detox regimens that you know that we hear and see about.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
Yeah, sometimes it seems, and this is sort of an aside,
but sometimes it seems. It's like when we say things like, oh,
you just need to get good sleep, you need to
drink your water, you need to you know, take care
of your body, have a good diet, regular exercise, people
just kind of brush it off and say, but there's
got to be a juice I can drink. There's got
to be a pill I can take. That's going to
(20:47):
make all this easier.
Speaker 5 (20:49):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
And that's kind of I think the quick fix control
that we were kind of talking about it, you know
earlier they're saying, well, well, that's a lifestyle change. I
just want to quick fix. I feel like crap, I'm
exhausted all the time, and I brain what can I
do to fix that? And certainly, you know, in this
day and age, you can go online and find twelve
different ways to do that very very quickly, and it's bought.
(21:09):
It's just not needed, got it, nor is it going
to be effective.
Speaker 4 (21:14):
Let's do another clip from Mina. This one is a
little bit about what we're talking about here, which is
detoxing is kind of a quick fix.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Everyone wants to feel better quickly, and they want to
know what is that one thing, that one thing that
can help me.
Speaker 5 (21:28):
Feel better fast?
Speaker 1 (21:29):
And so that's the question I get all the time,
and I have to leave them a nice little voice
note and say, first of all, let's dial it back and.
Speaker 5 (21:36):
Let's look at what you are doing. What are you
doing daily?
Speaker 1 (21:40):
And then once I point to okay, well it's your
lack of movement, it's the food that you're eating, it's
the fact that you're either not eating or you're eating fast.
You're not supporting your body. And of course there's crickets
after that because I'm not pointing to the one thing.
I'm requiring you to support your body in a way
that it feels supported.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
Yes, so I agree. We do get asked for how
do I fix this or how can I fix this quickly?
And there's not one thing. I think it's a combination
of a lot of things that you know, MENA seems
to promote and that you know, we've discussed earlier. Sometimes
we may need to try various things. It's not easy
to sleep more, it's not easy ness, say, to exercise more,
to change our diet or our habits. So I think
it's really an investment in doing so. And some people
(22:21):
don't want to make the investment that that requires. And
that's one of the reasons that some of these detoxifying
you know methods have become so popular.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Yeah. Yeah, they either don't want to, they're not able to,
they don't see a way to do it within the
lifestyle they have.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
I mean, and you know, and then there's time, you know,
and you know, is there enough time to exercise. I'm
too busy. I'm too busy to do it, so let
me just do something that's quick.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
Yeah, we've got one more clip from Mina. This one's
about toxins and for her what they mean.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
So for me, detoxing is just to cleanse, just to
get rid of. Probably the most popular, well known talks
in that people are exposed to daily is heavy metals.
Heavy metals are in pretty much everything, so.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
I think we certainly hear about heavy metals. While they are,
you know, somewhat omnipresent, the concentrations amount that our bodies
are exposed to are very limited, and the body is
very good at getting rid of heavy metals, So you know,
I certainly heavy metals I think are something we hear about.
And again we're hearing more and more about the BPAs
as well, So those are the toxins I think people
are most concerned when they come to me about. I'm
(23:26):
actually probably hearing a little bit less about heavy metals
and then more about some of the other ones because
of the fact that we know, keep talking hearing about microplastics.
That's what we're hearing about, the microplastics everywhere, and those
are the ones that are going in the water bottles
and the nonstick pans that have gotten you know, a
lot of press over the last year or two.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
We've hinted at this throughout the episode, but I think
this is a good place to really break down our
body's role in detoxing some of these things we've been
talking about, you know, the heavy metals, microplastics, forever chemicals
like BPA or bispinal a. Mina says it took her
time to realize that our bodies are capable of removing
these unwanted toxins through natural processes. Here's the advice that
(24:06):
she would give her younger self, based on what she
knows now.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
I would tell myself to figure out what my body
needs and am I giving my body what it needs daily?
Speaker 5 (24:19):
I would go so simple, how does my body detox?
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Would I be on Earth without a detoxing process already
built in?
Speaker 4 (24:26):
Right?
Speaker 1 (24:26):
It's like, I don't think I would be here if
if my body didn't detox on its own. If everyone
needed a manual detox button that they had to go
and get, they had to go, and do you know,
we would be in a world of trouble. So, how
does my body detox? On its own, and am I
helping or hurting that process? That that's where I will start,
and I would just stay focused there. I wouldn't need big,
(24:48):
drastic detox methods if I supported my body regularly.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
And doctor Puro confirms this for us.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
Different objects that we come in contact with are going
to have small amounts of of what some people are
going to label our toxins.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
Yeah, and are those actually toxins? Would medicine say that
this is a toxin?
Speaker 3 (25:08):
There are going to be studies that for all of
those that show that very very high concentrations of those
might have the potential to have deleterious effects on the
human body. However, the amounts that are really present in
most people, or the amount they're able to get from
water bottles, etc. Are really very very small because of
(25:29):
the natural ways of the fence that we have to
detoxify things that are coming into our body.
Speaker 4 (25:35):
Yeah, and just for maybe people don't know what are
those ways that our body is detoxing itself.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Yeah, So the main ways are going to be through
the liver, the kidney, the skin, the lungs, and even
newer research actually shows the brain can basically have mechanisms
via which to get rid of what we'll call metabolic waste,
where essentially the brain can flush out some byproducts of
reactions that can be considered metabolic waste. And interestingly, this
(26:04):
is most active when we sleep cool.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
What do you think about this like detoxing trend generally
that you see online?
Speaker 3 (26:11):
So, what I would say is that my general feeling
about most of the things that we see online is
that we have to be careful. A lot of the
things that are being promoted online or via social media,
there are no studies that demonstrate their efficacy. Now, there
is still a chance that those are effective in work,
but the concern is is that without those being well
regulated or well studied, is there any potential to doing
(26:34):
harm by doing some of these ingesting certain substances or
using various methods to try to detoxify or to gain
other benefits.
Speaker 4 (26:44):
Yeah, Like some of these detox programs circulating claim to
improve your energy, make your skin better, make your digestion better.
Is that kind of stuff exaggerated? What does the evidence say?
Speaker 3 (26:57):
So? Really, what's interesting is is that the various ways
that are being promoted to detoxify probably do actually help
our bodies. But they're not doing it via directly detoxifying
things as they are promoted to do. The main manner
in which they're effective is they probably support our natural
methods for detoxifying things. So, for example, I mentioned sleep earlier,
(27:21):
So if someone isn't sleeping well, they may get brain fog.
If they just sleep better, they might have less brain
fog as opposed to ingesting something that's going to get
rid of their brain fog. And some of the other
things they are going to be whether it's improving hydration,
eating better, and making healthier choices in addition to exercising,
all of those things are going to be helping to
(27:42):
promote our natural barriers and our natural ability to detoxify things.
So some of the detoxifying regimens are helpful, but not
for the reasons that they're proclaiming they will augment our
own natural ways to detoxify things than really ever actually
detoxifying subset themselves as they proclaim to do.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
Yeah, so you're saying potentially that people could feel better
on a detox for reasons unrelated to removing toxins.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
Absolutely correct, and it's smarter the people that are promoting
them because they can be affected people absolutely could feel better.
The concern, as I mentioned a little bit earlier, is
that people are ingesting certain things that have the potential
to cause harm. And that is something that we'll see
when people are trying to whether it's detoxify or do
these cleanses where they're eliminating parasites, etc. That likely don't
(28:33):
need to happen at all.
Speaker 4 (28:35):
Ah, Yes, the parasite cleanse. Let's just touch on this
for a minute. If you're not familiar with these social
media promoted parasite cleanses, there are kind of detox that's
meant to rid your body of parasites, you know, little
organisms that survive by making themselves at home in your gut.
Online influencers promote commercial products and homemade detox concoctions with
(28:56):
things like wormwood, black walnut, clove, apple cider, or vinegar.
Medical experts warned there is little to know scientific evidence
that these general over the counter cleanses or home remedies
are effective or even necessary at all. It's true that
some parasites can get into your gut, like giardia or tapeworms.
That's rare, and it would require you to go see
(29:18):
a doctor for treatment. Detox products are classified as supplements,
typically which are not approved by the FDA or often
studied in clinical trials, and they have even been known
to cause side effects like diarrhea or dehydration. Doctor Puro
explains the risk of trying any detox.
Speaker 3 (29:35):
Yeah, So some of the things that are potentially concerning
are dehydration would be one. An additional one would be
to cause other issues with nutritional deficiencies. So these are
some of the things that might be concerned about. Is
and are they ingesting higher levels of other things that
actually could become toxic in and of themselves. So those
(29:55):
are the things that I would be most concerned about,
would be dehydration, detoxifying things, and then other nutritional deficiencies.
Speaker 4 (30:03):
Are there people that should just like avoid these trends
altogether or are these detoxification programs or whatever they're called.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
Yeah, I would say anything with any significant chronic medical
illness should absolutely avoid them. And then because pregnancy has
a lot of changes the body, it is something that
I would discourage in someone that's pregnant because of the
potential that if there is someone that gets a little
dehydrated while they're pregnant. Through our ramifications. So I would say,
you know, again pregnancy, people with other chronic medical issues,
(30:31):
and I think as people age, in addition, their bodies
may not handle certain things as well as they would
when they were a little bit younger.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
A lot of the messaging around these detoxes focuses on
quote unquote resetting the body. Does that concept exist in
the world of medical science.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
No, it doesn't, you know, as I guess neurologists, how
a lot of people say I'm going to go do
a cleanse. You know, I got to in and there
was some you know, radio commercials saying that you know,
there's stool content stuck in our testines like speckle and paste,
and if we don't get rid of them, they're going
to be stuck in there forever. Our bodies are pretty
darn effective at get ridding that stuff. And this is
(31:09):
someone who is frequently who spends you know, several days
a week, you know, literally inside people's and testines with
a scope. There's not spakle and paste in there. Regardless
of what we hear online.
Speaker 4 (31:19):
When a patient comes to you and they said I
would like to do a cleanse, I'd like to do
a detox. How would you guide that conversation.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
Yeah, so what I think is really important. I trained
in traditional Western medicine. I'm not arrogant enough to think
that I know everything, or that we in Western medicine
know everything. There's a lot to be said for Eastern medicine.
So a lot of these herbal remedies that have been
used for hundreds thousands of years. In fact, there are
some larger major health systems that partner with Eastern medicine,
(31:47):
and you can get some of these herbal remedies in
a more standardized, regulated well way. So I'm open to considering,
you know, other treatments alternatively. So, you know, if I
roll my eyes when someone causes something, regardless of whether
I think about it, I've lost that person as a patient.
And that's not someone who's gonna, you know, see me
as an authority. You see me as someone they really
(32:08):
want to work with. I think the doctor patient relationship
has really evolved over the years. So for me, regardless
of whether I think it's something that makes sense or not,
you know, I think it's always important to engage the
patient and say, look, let's talk through this. What are
we trying to accomplish what's the goal for which we're
trying to accomplish here, and what's the problem for which
we're trying to solve. And then when they you know,
(32:29):
kind of meet them halfway and say, okay, well let's
talk through that a little bit. Why did you find
this one? And what I'll say is, look, I don't
know whether it's going to work or not, so let's
talk through it and say, look, let me know what
you want to do, and let me do my own
independent research, and I'll let you know whether I think
it's something that makes sense or not. If it's you know,
not something they think that can lead to dehydration, nutritional deficiencies,
(32:50):
or other potential bad outcomes of doing it, then it's
something I would say, you know, maybe we consider. But
if it's very high concentrations of certain substance or whatever
it is, that as the potential across harmed about it
and say, look, I'm a little nervous about it. And
when I have the conversation with patients meeting them one
on one, I'm not belittling anything that they're considering. Then
they'll say, all right, you know what I think that
(33:11):
makes sense?
Speaker 4 (33:12):
What are the warning signs? That a detox regimen is
going to be harmful.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
Right, So you know, if you start to feel worse
during a detox, then something's probably wrong. There are some
people that say you should feel worse now, you shouldn't
really feel worse when you're doing a detox. That might
be an indicator that something's wrong. So again, whether they're
in saying and what do I mean by feeling differently?
If you see increase fatigue, then you may not be
getting some of the nutrients that you need. If you're
(33:38):
feeling more dehydrated or more tired, then you're probably doing
something to your body that you're not getting enough rest
or not getting enough fluids.
Speaker 4 (33:45):
Okay, So we have some common online claims that we
want to address and just have you do like a
true or false kind of situation.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
Okay, do I need to give you either a true
or false or can I waffle?
Speaker 4 (33:56):
You could waffle if you want, if it makes sense
to you, I just might ask you to explain why
you're waffle.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
Yeah, I was gonna say, if I waffle, I'll explain.
I think that's fair. Okay, Okay.
Speaker 4 (34:05):
Detoxing helps your body quote flesh out toxins.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
So this is on which I'm gonna waffle because it's
neither true nor false. It's both true and false, meaning
that it's not truly detoxifying itself, but does augment that
we're not ability to detoxify substances.
Speaker 4 (34:21):
Right, true or false. Juice cleanses give your digestive system
a beneficial reset.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
I'm gonna go with false on this one.
Speaker 4 (34:29):
Detox teas and supplements actually remove harmful substances from.
Speaker 3 (34:33):
Your body wholeheartedly, emphatically false in fact, could be harmful.
Speaker 4 (34:38):
Ooh, we're coming back around from false.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
Let's go.
Speaker 4 (34:41):
Yeah, feeling better during a detox means that it's working false,
and feeling worse during a detox means it's working false,
So you don't feel better or worse.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
So again, you know, I think maybe you can waffle
on the first one, because again, some people will feel
better during certain detoxes, but it's not that they're truly detoxifying.
So people might feel better, but it doesn't, but it's
not because of the detox. It's that they're taking other steps,
meaning exercises, sleeping, you know, maintaining hydration, etc. Which will
all help augment our natural responses to detoxify.
Speaker 4 (35:15):
Yeah, true or false. Most people need to do a
detox to stay healthy completely false, true or false. Eliminating
toxins will alleviate fatigue and brain fog false true or false.
Supporting detoxification reduces inflammation and can lead to clearer, more
radiant skin.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
I mean by support I'm going to waffle on that
one and say fru or talse and say that if
we augmant that our natural bodies response to getting rid
of toxins, then that could help, but not from the
way of thinking that truly detoxifying is going to help
(35:58):
our skin.
Speaker 4 (35:59):
Yeah, Okay. Last one, true or false. Toxins are often
stored in fat, and reducing them may assist in releasing
excess fat and reducing bloating.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
This one is both true and false because it's a
multi part question. So toxins can be stored in fat. However,
reducing them is not going to help us lose the
fat or weight.
Speaker 4 (36:22):
Yeah. So when you hear influencers talking about detoxing online,
what do you think that they're getting right and what
do you think that they might be misunderstanding or misrepresenting?
Speaker 3 (36:31):
So what I Yeah, what I would say they're misrepresenting
is that what they're doing is going to be directly
detoxifying thing. It's not like they're going to be doing
this and it's going to be doing anything to specifically
remove the toxins. What they're getting right is they're piggabyy
packing on some of the stuff that Nina was saying
in that by doing this, they're going to naturally be
augmenting some version or multiple versions of our bodies to detoxify.
(36:56):
Whether they're going to be helping our liver and kidneys,
or our braines, or our lungs or skin. A lot
of the detoxifying regimens have something to do to help
one of those natural ways to do it. So that's
what they're getting right. If they're helping people focus on hydration, sleep, exercise,
those things are beneficial. What they're misrepresenting is that any
(37:17):
of the regimens they're doing are really needed to directly
to detoxify anything at all.
Speaker 4 (37:22):
Yeah. I just had this image of somebody who's like,
I'm going to sell you this bottle of amazing car
wash fluid, and what you do is, right before you
go in the car wash, just spray a little bit
on your car. It'll come out perfect.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
That's a very very very good analogy. Yes you can
keep that. No, I may use that trace man, that's
a dude. That's good.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (37:43):
So I have one more thing for you, and that's
How concerned should the average person be about toxins in
our body?
Speaker 3 (37:50):
Minimally so, because, as I said, our bodies have a
lot of natural ways to help someone that's not necessarily
taking good care of themselves. Maybe it slightly increased risk,
but even then I think their chance of have anything
significant happen as a result of the toxins are very
very limited and minimal. We have enough to worry about
(38:11):
in our crazy world without overworrying about what we're doing
to our bodies or being exposed to is going to
hurt us. Not to say that we shouldn't try all
to eat well, sleep well, exercise, but I don't feel
that people need to be concerned that we're living in
a world of toxins that are all out to get us,
and they give us cancer and put us into an
(38:32):
early demise.
Speaker 4 (38:35):
Detoxes and cleanses are often marketed as quick fixes for
better health, but the reality is that most fall somewhere
between unnecessary and in some cases potentially harmful. While it
is true that our bodies are exposed to various chemicals
and toxins every day, we already have built in systems
like the liver and kidneys that evolved specifically to remove
(38:56):
toxins from our bodies, and they do this process dreamily effectively.
I mean, if they didn't, we'd never have made it
far enough to invent podcasts, and we wouldn't be having
this conversation right now. For most people, supporting your natural
systems through consistent, basic healthy habits is far more beneficial
than relying on trendy detox products. Either way, always check
(39:18):
with your physician first before trying a detox or a cleanse.
In the end, you're probably just not as toxic as
you might feel. Sometimes. Please let us know what you
think in the comments. We're curious to hear what you
have to share. Thanks again to doctor David Puro for
breaking down the science behind detoxes and cleanses, and thanks
again to Mina Adams and Steve Lutsk for sharing their
(39:39):
stories and experiences with us. We are on a roll.
We unraveled yet another popular health trend. I think this
is great, but of course there is still more to
come in the next episode. We're going to stick to
the gut check and answer your questions about intermittent fasting
and all the social media claims about it too. We'll
see then. If you have it already, please hit the
(40:01):
subscriber follow button and join us next time on Health
Versus Hype with the American Medical Association. For more information
on all the topics we're covering, visit Amahealth Versus Hype
dot org. That's am Health vs Hype dot org. Health
Versus Hype is a production of Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia
and the American Medical Association. I'm traced to him Iguez.
(40:22):
Our producers are Matt Stillo and Pamela Lawrence. Michael Depoe
Wilson is our writer. The show is engineered and features
original music by Matthew Ernest Filler. Health Versus Hype is
intended for educational and informational purposes only and does not
constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice
of your physician with any questions you may have regarding
(40:42):
a medical condition.
Ruby if you go on the internet. Detoxing is huge
and everyone wants to drink.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
This eth that the best thing you could do with
this is actually flush it down the sink, because cleanses
and detoxes don't actually work.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Detoxing is something that's become very popular, largely due to
social media, which is where a lot of the population
now gets their information.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
It seems like every few weeks there's a new social
media trend on how to detoxify your body.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Maybe you've been.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
Tempted by one. Maybe you've tried one. Juice, cleanses, detox supplements, teas, saunas,
and fasting. They all promise more energy, quick weight loss,
and relief from things like brain fog or fatigue. And
who doesn't want those things? I mean, right now, I
have monosaccharides, dihydrogen monoxides, deoxyribonucleic acids one three seven, trimethyl xanthenes,
(00:56):
bilo keinoe all up in my body, and they're all
chemicals and they're all well actually completely essential for life.
You know. Those are the chemical names for glucose, water, DNA, caffeine,
and vitamin k okay. Strictly speaking, Caffeine's not essential for life,
but it's pretty important for me personally. The thing is,
when we read long, unfamiliar chemical names on household products,
(01:18):
personal care items like lotions and makeup, even plastic used
in our water bottles, it can be overwhelming and even
a little alarming. There's no surprise that many people turn
to detoxification in an attempt to try and rest a
little control over what goes in and comes out of
their bodies. This push to clear things out and start
(01:38):
fresh has even become a popular way of saving people
from well themselves a little late night of drinking, or
a work trip that turned into a fast food tour,
or simply a decadently indulgent vacation. Plenty of people are
turning to detox trends to find a quick and easy
reset button when life gets a little out of hand.
But is that what they're really doing? Are we really resetting?
(02:00):
Are we really detoxing? Not everyone is convinced detoxing is
the answer to these concerns. Steve Lutzk, a fitness influencer
known as Dad Bod, thinks these cleanses are frankly a
bunch of bulls.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
We have all kinds of quacks online toting their magic
cures that I wish they were true. More than anything,
I wish there was something magic you could take that
solved all of the health and nutrition problems that this
country is facing, and sadly that's not the case.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
While wellness influencers like Mina Adams say detoxes and cleanses
are a healthy part of everyday life, although her approach
might surprise.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
You, we all feel like crap, but the way we
feel is from years of not taking care of ourselves
and for me holding this sign just take better care
of yourself. You're like, lady, shut up, what are you
talking about. We're trying to drink this and feel better.
Buy tomorrow.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
And of course, doctors have plenty to say about the
evidence behind some of the most viral social media claims
around detoxing. David Puro, a gastor entrologist from hunting To
New York and the vice president for the Department of
Medicine Service Line of north Well Health's Eastern market, joins
us to set the record straight.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
My general feeling about most of the things that we
see online is that we have to be careful. So
detoxing in the medical world usually means when we have
someone who has taken an overdose of something, we need
to detoxify them. But what it really means in the
world now is something very different, whether it's via influencers
or throughout various different platforms ways to detoxify what's coming
(03:31):
into our bodies.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Welcome back to Health Versus Hype with the American Medical Association.
I'm your host. Trace to me a guest. Today, we're
answering questions about detoxes and cleanses. What does it really
mean to detox What are we all detoxing from? Does
detoxing actually remove anything from our bodies? Join me as
we find out whether detoxing is all health or just hype.
(04:06):
People have been relying on different kinds of detoxes to
improve their health for centuries. In fact, its modern popularity
goes all the way back to the nineteen twenties and thirties.
Back then, detox diets were promoted as a cure for
everything from migraines to tuberculosis to cancer. The widespread popularity
of detoxing rebounded in the early two thousands as trendy
cleanses and diets were featured in hit books and endorsed
(04:29):
by celebrities with such a long history in our culture,
it's no wonder our current social media environment has poured
fuel on the detox fire. These days, it feels like
there's a detox diet for every bad feeling in a
person's life, from being hungover to feeling bloated, to feeling
like your metabolism just needs a little fix. Of course,
not every social media influencer has bought into this hype.
(04:52):
Steve Lutsk, the Dadbod fitness coach, believes these detox trends
only serve to confuse and distract people from much healthier
hea habits.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I think people like the idea of a quick fix,
and I think there are some bad apples out there
who want to take advantage of people who you know
that they don't have time to study nutrition all day.
They get a lot of their nutritional information from social media.
Maybe they heard that their favorite celebrity took a cleanse
(05:21):
and that's responsible for making them look as good as
they did. And as long as there are I hate
to say it, but gulble or misinformed people, there's always
going to be people who take advantage of that and
have something to sell. They want to tap into that
bank account, and they want to take advantage of people
who think that if I just do this detox diet
(05:42):
for three days, it's going to give me a kickstart.
It's going to cleanse me of all of the toxins
that have accumulated in my body.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Steve is right, detoxing products are big business. Last year,
the worldwide market for the detoxification industry was over seventy
one billion dollars. Considering the average detox or cleanse product
costs around thirty dollars, that would be like two and
a half billion detox products sold just last year, and
it's only going to grow from there. Some estimates show
(06:12):
this market reaching more than one hundred and twenty billion
dollars annually by twenty thirty four. In other words, the
detox market could rival the GDP of Venezuela. That's a
lot of money spent on detox pills and diet plants.
Like Steve said, most people don't want to spend the
time or the energy to get better slowly. Instead, the
(06:32):
detox industry promises getting something, anything done quickly. Perhaps nobody
knows this better than Mina Adams, a wellness influencer who
tries to convince her followers to slow down and take
their time getting healthy. Here's Mina's take on detoxes and cleanses.
Speaker 5 (06:49):
Most people tried to do the quick fix. Right.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
If you drink this, it will solve all your problems.
And as a mother of five without money to waste,
like I don't have money or time to I'm just
trying to get people to go through their process that
I went through, and that's understanding. Oh wow, if I
take care of my body, my body will take care
of me. It's very simple. We want big drama. We
want to buy this and buy that and buy this,
(07:13):
But don't buy anything yet until you learn how to
show up for yourself, until you learn how to be
very intentional about what you feed, it about what you use,
and you're focusing more on how your body feels and
functions versus how it looks.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
The detox market strives on this idea of a quick fix.
It translates a complicated goal like being healthy into a
solution that feels fast and simple. It tells us that
we don't need all this time to get healthy. We
just need to take this pill or drink this tea
and then voila, the nebulus toxin that was holding you
back is gone. It's cleansed. That's the essence of quick
(07:49):
fix culture. Of course, as we've learned through our previous episode,
staying healthy is complex and takes time. There are few,
if any quick fixes when it comes to being healthy.
Mina says, these products, the liver detox is, the gut cleanses,
and full body reset drinks are almost too much to
keep up with.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
I would love to start doing, you know, let's split
screen videos where I show someone marketing a detox method
or product and I say, well, actually, you know, it
doesn't quite work like that.
Speaker 5 (08:19):
I scroll on only.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Because I realize that people hear what they want to hear,
and people relate to what they feel is the right thing.
And so if I tell you exactly what you want
to hear, then you're going to share that video, save
and you're going to do.
Speaker 5 (08:31):
Exactly what that person said do. So, if that person is.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Telling you all you have to do this one thing,
this one thing, you like that message and you're going
to listen to that message and you're going to apply
it and you're going to promote it. But people who've
been following me for a long time know that I
mostly preach lifestyle. Let's change the way we think about
the things that we are putting on our bodies. Let's
question it, let's look it up ourselves. Let's make whatever
(08:54):
changes are possible in this season of life. You don't
have to change everything, just change one thing. Should probably start,
you know, being a little bit more disruptive on the internet.
I think that I'm not willing to do what it
takes to continue to be relevant on social media. You know,
on social media, you have three seconds to get someone's attention,
and then you have an additional five to convince them
(09:15):
to listen, right, and mostly no one's going to make
it to the end of the video. I have a
very balanced approach to life. And it's not what we
do every now and again that makes us feel the
way we do. It's what we are doing regularly. Because
those same people who'll take a drastic detox approach won't
focus on what they're doing every day, and that's the problem.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
Yeah, they'll like jump into something and take a cleanse
for a week, yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
And then go right back to eating the junk. And
what you did was you wasted time and money. They're like,
wait a minute, I thought we were on Celery juice
and and be juice. That was amazing. And then you
come right back in with the junk. And then they're
just like, oh, I guess we have to work again.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
What do you think people are looking for when they
turn to a detox, physical results something else.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
I think that most people are looking for the physical.
They're looking to change the way that they look like.
They're convinced that the reason why they have stubborn belly
fat is because they need to detox. They're thinking that
their skin looks the way it is. It's spotty, it's
not smooth. Their pores are huge, just because they need
to detox. So I think their original reason why people
come to detoxing is because of the way that they look.
(10:20):
I think once you've kind of been in the wellness
field a little longer, you're it's more about how you feel.
You start to recognize, Okay, I've been eating like crap,
and now my body feels like this. It's time for
me to take a break and change some things up.
I think we all feel like crap and we want
to feel better fast, and that's where the word comes detox.
(10:43):
You need to detox.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Our detox Doubter Steve has a similar take on why
detoxing is so enticing to so many people.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
I think a lot of people will come off of
a bad weekend where maybe they indulged a little bit,
maybe they drank a little bit too much. Then Monday
comes around and they're like, all right.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
This is it.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
I feel terrible right now. I feel like crap. I
had too much pizza and pasta and I drank a
case of beer. I know I need to lose the weight,
and I'm gonna kick it off the right way. I'm
gonna get rid of all these toxins. I'm gonna flush
out everything I did on the weekend, and then that's
gonna set me out for long term success. I just
need to cancel out this weekend. Then that's when I'm
(11:24):
gonna start eating healthy. I'm gonna start going to the
gym six days a week, and I'm gonna do a
ton of cardio to sweat out all of the badness.
So this is gonna be the big kickoff that's gonna work,
and this time I'm gonna stick to it.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
At this point, you may be like trace, are any
of these detox trends worth following. We're gonna get to
the science in a minute, but first Mina has one
last thought about how she thinks about detoxing and her
own health.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Before I go asking how could on detox? I have
to look in word? Okay, what am I doing? Can
I identify a lease three ways that my body detox
is and ways to support that I look inward, I
tell myself in order to stay on the internet, I
have to stay off the Internet. And it's not really
it's fully social media because if you go on social media,
you're like, oh my god, this man told me that
(12:10):
I can you know, I can rind my body of
all mucus in twenty four hours with this supplement that
I have to pay just ninety nine dollars for. It's
just like and I promise if my message was more
dramatic like that, I would have millions of followers and
make millions of dollars. But I cannot sleep at night,
you know, trying to sell someone something that their body
(12:31):
already does naturally.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
All right, I think it's time to bring in our
medical expert. Doctor David Piro has been a gastro enterroologist
for more than twenty years, and this is what he
has to say about the view of detoxing from the
medical side of things.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
So, detoxify from our perspective is if someone shows up
in the emergency room with an overdose of something that
we may need to detoxify what they've done. That is
not how it's typically spoken of online and in the
general world. It's basically in that sense, the people trying
to detoxify are trying to remove sub substances that are
(13:06):
getting into our bodies.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
Yeah, So when people talk about toxins that they're trying
to detox what are they usually referring to.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Yeah, So there's a lot of different substances with a
lot of different fancy letters. So there's the pfas, the
polyfloralkal substances, there's the BPA's the best phenales, and those
are basically different substances that are present in things that
we can come in contact with. So, whether it's you know,
water bottles, people talking about microplastics, which you're going to
have both some of the pfas and the BPAs in
(13:37):
addition to you know, the nonstick coding on pans that
we use.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
Why is it about detoxing that you think has made
it become so popular.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Yeah, I think there's a few different things that contribute
to it. I think it's a lot of people fear
a lack of control, and as a result of this,
this is the way of them trying to make sense
of the world and try to take control over their
own body bodies. So by actively doing something, I'm going
to detoxify things. Therefore I'm going to feel better. I
think is absolutely one of the reasons that it's you know,
(14:10):
detoxifying has become so popular. In addition, I think that
there's a significant placebo effects, So just by buying into
whatever they're trying, they're going to see some improvements. And
in general, also, I think as the world has evolved,
there's a lot more environmental anxiety. So I think that,
you know, the generations now feel very different than we
(14:33):
did in the past. When I grew up, you know,
I would have during high school, I would have, you know,
twinkies and a wine punch for breakfast, just because I could.
Now my son would be horrified, as much as you
love twinkies to consider that because of you know, the die.
So I think there's more of a general awareness of
what's out there and the effects that it may have
in our body. And when you start looking and again,
(14:54):
there are going to be things that we find and
a lot of household you know, regular household use appliances,
deodorant may have something in there. So I've heard that
some younger people don't want to use certain deodorants because
they have certain substances there that could be harmful to someone.
They could be harmful to someone in much higher concentrations
than their bodies are ever going to see. The other
thing I think is that we get a lot of
(15:15):
our information now from social media. I think there's some
general medical distrust that was really probably exacerbated by everything
that happened with COVID in our country. So as a result,
people are trying to seek information elsewhere. And it's not
just the younger generation. I think we absolutely have people
who are getting information online, whether it's from Google. Searchers
(15:38):
are using AI now, whether it's you know, Chat, GBT
or Gemini, in addition to you know, TikTok and Instagram.
That's where we consume a lot of our information. And
when we hear and see things there, there's a tendency
say well, maybe there is something to that. So I
think the people that have taken advantage that the detoxifying
movement are really feeding on the fact that there's a
(15:59):
lot of anxiety in the world. That's a way of
ore taken control of our own bodies to maybe help
make some sense and make us feel better.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
Yeah, what are some of the medical issues when people
come in that they're trying to solve with a detox regimen.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
So, you know, fatigue is a major one brain fog.
You know, as a guest neurologist, we're seeing a lot
of bloating. Bloating is a really common common symptom and
probably the most frustrating symptom for gas neurologists and other
physicians to treat. There were so many various things that
can lead to it, and there's actually no prescription medication
(16:32):
to treat it. You know, a lot of bloating is
you know, the term we like to use in medicine
is multifactory. A lot of different things can lead to it.
You know, there can be disruptions of the microbiome, which
is you know, the bacterian organisms that live with us
that help with our own digestion. You know, diet can
absolutely play a role. So, you know, bloating is definitely
(16:52):
a symptom people trying to get a handle on, but
I'd say more commonly it's going to be fatigue and
brain fog, and there's a lot of different other reasons
for that other than really needing to detoxify.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
Okay, doctor Piro, I want to play you a few
clips from one of the social media influencers I spoke with.
I want to get your gut reaction. Mina Adams had
an interesting way of describing how she thinks about detoxing.
Here's the clip.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
You have your kidneys, you have your liver, you have
your skin, you have your lungs, and so like when
people say, well how do you detox, Well, I'm like, well,
technically taking you know, a few deep breaths is helping
to support a detox pathway because your lungs. How often
do we intentionally do that? So if you go to
the bathroom, that is your your body releasing waste through
your urine through your bowels. Right when you sweat, that
(17:38):
is your body releasing waste through your skin. But how
often are we being intentional about sweating? Right? I mean,
your body is literally made to, you know, work efficiently,
but our diets, our lack of movement, the you know,
the loads and loads of skincare and hair care products
that we load on our bodies. It puts a heavy
load on our detox pathways, and we need to try
(18:00):
our best to release that as much as possible. I'm
just asking myself, how am I supporting my detox pathways today?
Speaker 5 (18:06):
What does my lungs need? What do they love?
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (18:10):
They love a good deep breath. Okay, let me do that.
Water helps me flesh out toxins through my urine. It's
like what, I'm just trying to support my detox pathways.
So sweating is a way that your body releases waste.
If you go into asana and you sweat for forty minutes, congratulations,
that is a quote unquote detox. You are supporting one
of your detox pathways. If you haven't had a bowel
(18:31):
movement in days and you drink celery juice and it
forces everything out of you, then congratulations, you have just detox.
I think anything that supports a detox pathway is a detox.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
So she's talking about detox pathways in like these are
ways to help detoxify your body or work with your
body to do it. So what's your reaction to what
Mina shared there?
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Yeah, I think she's absolutely right, and I think what
she's trying to do is augment or be more focused
on the natural ways to detoxify things. So any benefit
that anyone sees from their other regimens are because they're
basically pigging backing on what the body's doing. What Mea
is talking about is focusing on what those are and
trying to augment them as best we can without necessarily
(19:17):
doing any specific detoxification. So we're focusing more on sleeping,
if we're focusing more on trying to sweat, if we're
focusing on being hydrating or eating well, all these things
are going to help augment the kidney, deliver the lungs,
the brain, and the skin, which are our ways of
natural ways of detoxifying things. So, you know, the detoxic pathway.
(19:37):
She's just talking about what our bodies are ready doing
and how to maximize that.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
Is there a term in medicine or like clinical sense
for a detox pathway?
Speaker 3 (19:46):
Nope, other than elimination.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
Yeah, yeah, because this is a term I hadn't heard
before either, but it's a term that she uses pretty
regularly in her content as like, thinking about all these
different ways that your body is going to detoxify.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
I think it's smart. And again, because of how you know,
detoxifying it has become so popular. Which she's basically doing
is saying a lot of stuff similar to what I'm saying,
but saying in a different way. And I think by
using the detox and the pathway, it's going to resonate
with some people in the public and then basically have
them understand a little bit more about how their bodies work,
(20:18):
and therefore they might be more likely to do that
and less likely to do some of the potentially harmful
detox regimens that you know that we hear and see about.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
Yeah, sometimes it seems, and this is sort of an aside,
but sometimes it seems. It's like when we say things like, oh,
you just need to get good sleep, you need to
drink your water, you need to you know, take care
of your body, have a good diet, regular exercise, people
just kind of brush it off and say, but there's
got to be a juice I can drink. There's got
to be a pill I can take. That's going to
(20:47):
make all this easier.
Speaker 5 (20:49):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
And that's kind of I think the quick fix control
that we were kind of talking about it, you know
earlier they're saying, well, well, that's a lifestyle change. I
just want to quick fix. I feel like crap, I'm
exhausted all the time, and I brain what can I
do to fix that? And certainly, you know, in this
day and age, you can go online and find twelve
different ways to do that very very quickly, and it's bought.
(21:09):
It's just not needed, got it, nor is it going
to be effective.
Speaker 4 (21:14):
Let's do another clip from Mina. This one is a
little bit about what we're talking about here, which is
detoxing is kind of a quick fix.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Everyone wants to feel better quickly, and they want to
know what is that one thing, that one thing that
can help me.
Speaker 5 (21:28):
Feel better fast?
Speaker 1 (21:29):
And so that's the question I get all the time,
and I have to leave them a nice little voice
note and say, first of all, let's dial it back and.
Speaker 5 (21:36):
Let's look at what you are doing. What are you
doing daily?
Speaker 1 (21:40):
And then once I point to okay, well it's your
lack of movement, it's the food that you're eating, it's
the fact that you're either not eating or you're eating fast.
You're not supporting your body. And of course there's crickets
after that because I'm not pointing to the one thing.
I'm requiring you to support your body in a way
that it feels supported.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
Yes, so I agree. We do get asked for how
do I fix this or how can I fix this quickly?
And there's not one thing. I think it's a combination
of a lot of things that you know, MENA seems
to promote and that you know, we've discussed earlier. Sometimes
we may need to try various things. It's not easy
to sleep more, it's not easy ness, say, to exercise more,
to change our diet or our habits. So I think
it's really an investment in doing so. And some people
(22:21):
don't want to make the investment that that requires. And
that's one of the reasons that some of these detoxifying
you know methods have become so popular.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Yeah. Yeah, they either don't want to, they're not able to,
they don't see a way to do it within the
lifestyle they have.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
I mean, and you know, and then there's time, you know,
and you know, is there enough time to exercise. I'm
too busy. I'm too busy to do it, so let
me just do something that's quick.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
Yeah, we've got one more clip from Mina. This one's
about toxins and for her what they mean.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
So for me, detoxing is just to cleanse, just to
get rid of. Probably the most popular, well known talks
in that people are exposed to daily is heavy metals.
Heavy metals are in pretty much everything, so.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
I think we certainly hear about heavy metals. While they are,
you know, somewhat omnipresent, the concentrations amount that our bodies
are exposed to are very limited, and the body is
very good at getting rid of heavy metals, So you know,
I certainly heavy metals I think are something we hear about.
And again we're hearing more and more about the BPAs
as well, So those are the toxins I think people
are most concerned when they come to me about. I'm
(23:26):
actually probably hearing a little bit less about heavy metals
and then more about some of the other ones because
of the fact that we know, keep talking hearing about microplastics.
That's what we're hearing about, the microplastics everywhere, and those
are the ones that are going in the water bottles
and the nonstick pans that have gotten you know, a
lot of press over the last year or two.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
We've hinted at this throughout the episode, but I think
this is a good place to really break down our
body's role in detoxing some of these things we've been
talking about, you know, the heavy metals, microplastics, forever chemicals
like BPA or bispinal a. Mina says it took her
time to realize that our bodies are capable of removing
these unwanted toxins through natural processes. Here's the advice that
(24:06):
she would give her younger self, based on what she
knows now.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
I would tell myself to figure out what my body
needs and am I giving my body what it needs daily?
Speaker 5 (24:19):
I would go so simple, how does my body detox?
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Would I be on Earth without a detoxing process already
built in?
Speaker 4 (24:26):
Right?
Speaker 1 (24:26):
It's like, I don't think I would be here if
if my body didn't detox on its own. If everyone
needed a manual detox button that they had to go
and get, they had to go, and do you know,
we would be in a world of trouble. So, how
does my body detox? On its own, and am I
helping or hurting that process? That that's where I will start,
and I would just stay focused there. I wouldn't need big,
(24:48):
drastic detox methods if I supported my body regularly.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
And doctor Puro confirms this for us.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
Different objects that we come in contact with are going
to have small amounts of of what some people are
going to label our toxins.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
Yeah, and are those actually toxins? Would medicine say that
this is a toxin?
Speaker 3 (25:08):
There are going to be studies that for all of
those that show that very very high concentrations of those
might have the potential to have deleterious effects on the
human body. However, the amounts that are really present in
most people, or the amount they're able to get from
water bottles, etc. Are really very very small because of
(25:29):
the natural ways of the fence that we have to
detoxify things that are coming into our body.
Speaker 4 (25:35):
Yeah, and just for maybe people don't know what are
those ways that our body is detoxing itself.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Yeah, So the main ways are going to be through
the liver, the kidney, the skin, the lungs, and even
newer research actually shows the brain can basically have mechanisms
via which to get rid of what we'll call metabolic waste,
where essentially the brain can flush out some byproducts of
reactions that can be considered metabolic waste. And interestingly, this
(26:04):
is most active when we sleep cool.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
What do you think about this like detoxing trend generally
that you see online?
Speaker 3 (26:11):
So, what I would say is that my general feeling
about most of the things that we see online is
that we have to be careful. A lot of the
things that are being promoted online or via social media,
there are no studies that demonstrate their efficacy. Now, there
is still a chance that those are effective in work,
but the concern is is that without those being well
regulated or well studied, is there any potential to doing
(26:34):
harm by doing some of these ingesting certain substances or
using various methods to try to detoxify or to gain
other benefits.
Speaker 4 (26:44):
Yeah, Like some of these detox programs circulating claim to
improve your energy, make your skin better, make your digestion better.
Is that kind of stuff exaggerated? What does the evidence say?
Speaker 3 (26:57):
So? Really, what's interesting is is that the various ways
that are being promoted to detoxify probably do actually help
our bodies. But they're not doing it via directly detoxifying
things as they are promoted to do. The main manner
in which they're effective is they probably support our natural
methods for detoxifying things. So, for example, I mentioned sleep earlier,
(27:21):
So if someone isn't sleeping well, they may get brain fog.
If they just sleep better, they might have less brain
fog as opposed to ingesting something that's going to get
rid of their brain fog. And some of the other
things they are going to be whether it's improving hydration,
eating better, and making healthier choices in addition to exercising,
all of those things are going to be helping to
(27:42):
promote our natural barriers and our natural ability to detoxify things.
So some of the detoxifying regimens are helpful, but not
for the reasons that they're proclaiming they will augment our
own natural ways to detoxify things than really ever actually
detoxifying subset themselves as they proclaim to do.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
Yeah, so you're saying potentially that people could feel better
on a detox for reasons unrelated to removing toxins.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
Absolutely correct, and it's smarter the people that are promoting
them because they can be affected people absolutely could feel better.
The concern, as I mentioned a little bit earlier, is
that people are ingesting certain things that have the potential
to cause harm. And that is something that we'll see
when people are trying to whether it's detoxify or do
these cleanses where they're eliminating parasites, etc. That likely don't
(28:33):
need to happen at all.
Speaker 4 (28:35):
Ah, Yes, the parasite cleanse. Let's just touch on this
for a minute. If you're not familiar with these social
media promoted parasite cleanses, there are kind of detox that's
meant to rid your body of parasites, you know, little
organisms that survive by making themselves at home in your gut.
Online influencers promote commercial products and homemade detox concoctions with
(28:56):
things like wormwood, black walnut, clove, apple cider, or vinegar.
Medical experts warned there is little to know scientific evidence
that these general over the counter cleanses or home remedies
are effective or even necessary at all. It's true that
some parasites can get into your gut, like giardia or tapeworms.
That's rare, and it would require you to go see
(29:18):
a doctor for treatment. Detox products are classified as supplements,
typically which are not approved by the FDA or often
studied in clinical trials, and they have even been known
to cause side effects like diarrhea or dehydration. Doctor Puro
explains the risk of trying any detox.
Speaker 3 (29:35):
Yeah, So some of the things that are potentially concerning
are dehydration would be one. An additional one would be
to cause other issues with nutritional deficiencies. So these are
some of the things that might be concerned about. Is
and are they ingesting higher levels of other things that
actually could become toxic in and of themselves. So those
(29:55):
are the things that I would be most concerned about,
would be dehydration, detoxifying things, and then other nutritional deficiencies.
Speaker 4 (30:03):
Are there people that should just like avoid these trends
altogether or are these detoxification programs or whatever they're called.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
Yeah, I would say anything with any significant chronic medical
illness should absolutely avoid them. And then because pregnancy has
a lot of changes the body, it is something that
I would discourage in someone that's pregnant because of the
potential that if there is someone that gets a little
dehydrated while they're pregnant. Through our ramifications. So I would say,
you know, again pregnancy, people with other chronic medical issues,
(30:31):
and I think as people age, in addition, their bodies
may not handle certain things as well as they would
when they were a little bit younger.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
A lot of the messaging around these detoxes focuses on
quote unquote resetting the body. Does that concept exist in
the world of medical science.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
No, it doesn't, you know, as I guess neurologists, how
a lot of people say I'm going to go do
a cleanse. You know, I got to in and there
was some you know, radio commercials saying that you know,
there's stool content stuck in our testines like speckle and paste,
and if we don't get rid of them, they're going
to be stuck in there forever. Our bodies are pretty
darn effective at get ridding that stuff. And this is
(31:09):
someone who is frequently who spends you know, several days
a week, you know, literally inside people's and testines with
a scope. There's not spakle and paste in there. Regardless
of what we hear online.
Speaker 4 (31:19):
When a patient comes to you and they said I
would like to do a cleanse, I'd like to do
a detox. How would you guide that conversation.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
Yeah, so what I think is really important. I trained
in traditional Western medicine. I'm not arrogant enough to think
that I know everything, or that we in Western medicine
know everything. There's a lot to be said for Eastern medicine.
So a lot of these herbal remedies that have been
used for hundreds thousands of years. In fact, there are
some larger major health systems that partner with Eastern medicine,
(31:47):
and you can get some of these herbal remedies in
a more standardized, regulated well way. So I'm open to considering,
you know, other treatments alternatively. So, you know, if I
roll my eyes when someone causes something, regardless of whether
I think about it, I've lost that person as a patient.
And that's not someone who's gonna, you know, see me
as an authority. You see me as someone they really
(32:08):
want to work with. I think the doctor patient relationship
has really evolved over the years. So for me, regardless
of whether I think it's something that makes sense or not,
you know, I think it's always important to engage the
patient and say, look, let's talk through this. What are
we trying to accomplish what's the goal for which we're
trying to accomplish here, and what's the problem for which
we're trying to solve. And then when they you know,
(32:29):
kind of meet them halfway and say, okay, well let's
talk through that a little bit. Why did you find
this one? And what I'll say is, look, I don't
know whether it's going to work or not, so let's
talk through it and say, look, let me know what
you want to do, and let me do my own
independent research, and I'll let you know whether I think
it's something that makes sense or not. If it's you know,
not something they think that can lead to dehydration, nutritional deficiencies,
(32:50):
or other potential bad outcomes of doing it, then it's
something I would say, you know, maybe we consider. But
if it's very high concentrations of certain substance or whatever
it is, that as the potential across harmed about it
and say, look, I'm a little nervous about it. And
when I have the conversation with patients meeting them one
on one, I'm not belittling anything that they're considering. Then
they'll say, all right, you know what I think that
(33:11):
makes sense?
Speaker 4 (33:12):
What are the warning signs? That a detox regimen is
going to be harmful.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
Right, So you know, if you start to feel worse
during a detox, then something's probably wrong. There are some
people that say you should feel worse now, you shouldn't
really feel worse when you're doing a detox. That might
be an indicator that something's wrong. So again, whether they're
in saying and what do I mean by feeling differently?
If you see increase fatigue, then you may not be
getting some of the nutrients that you need. If you're
(33:38):
feeling more dehydrated or more tired, then you're probably doing
something to your body that you're not getting enough rest
or not getting enough fluids.
Speaker 4 (33:45):
Okay, So we have some common online claims that we
want to address and just have you do like a
true or false kind of situation.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
Okay, do I need to give you either a true
or false or can I waffle?
Speaker 4 (33:56):
You could waffle if you want, if it makes sense
to you, I just might ask you to explain why
you're waffle.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
Yeah, I was gonna say, if I waffle, I'll explain.
I think that's fair. Okay, Okay.
Speaker 4 (34:05):
Detoxing helps your body quote flesh out toxins.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
So this is on which I'm gonna waffle because it's
neither true nor false. It's both true and false, meaning
that it's not truly detoxifying itself, but does augment that
we're not ability to detoxify substances.
Speaker 4 (34:21):
Right, true or false. Juice cleanses give your digestive system
a beneficial reset.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
I'm gonna go with false on this one.
Speaker 4 (34:29):
Detox teas and supplements actually remove harmful substances from.
Speaker 3 (34:33):
Your body wholeheartedly, emphatically false in fact, could be harmful.
Speaker 4 (34:38):
Ooh, we're coming back around from false.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
Let's go.
Speaker 4 (34:41):
Yeah, feeling better during a detox means that it's working false,
and feeling worse during a detox means it's working false,
So you don't feel better or worse.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
So again, you know, I think maybe you can waffle
on the first one, because again, some people will feel
better during certain detoxes, but it's not that they're truly detoxifying.
So people might feel better, but it doesn't, but it's
not because of the detox. It's that they're taking other steps,
meaning exercises, sleeping, you know, maintaining hydration, etc. Which will
all help augment our natural responses to detoxify.
Speaker 4 (35:15):
Yeah, true or false. Most people need to do a
detox to stay healthy completely false, true or false. Eliminating
toxins will alleviate fatigue and brain fog false true or false.
Supporting detoxification reduces inflammation and can lead to clearer, more
radiant skin.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
I mean by support I'm going to waffle on that
one and say fru or talse and say that if
we augmant that our natural bodies response to getting rid
of toxins, then that could help, but not from the
way of thinking that truly detoxifying is going to help
(35:58):
our skin.
Speaker 4 (35:59):
Yeah, Okay. Last one, true or false. Toxins are often
stored in fat, and reducing them may assist in releasing
excess fat and reducing bloating.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
This one is both true and false because it's a
multi part question. So toxins can be stored in fat. However,
reducing them is not going to help us lose the
fat or weight.
Speaker 4 (36:22):
Yeah. So when you hear influencers talking about detoxing online,
what do you think that they're getting right and what
do you think that they might be misunderstanding or misrepresenting?
Speaker 3 (36:31):
So what I Yeah, what I would say they're misrepresenting
is that what they're doing is going to be directly
detoxifying thing. It's not like they're going to be doing
this and it's going to be doing anything to specifically
remove the toxins. What they're getting right is they're piggabyy
packing on some of the stuff that Nina was saying
in that by doing this, they're going to naturally be
augmenting some version or multiple versions of our bodies to detoxify.
(36:56):
Whether they're going to be helping our liver and kidneys,
or our braines, or our lungs or skin. A lot
of the detoxifying regimens have something to do to help
one of those natural ways to do it. So that's
what they're getting right. If they're helping people focus on hydration, sleep, exercise,
those things are beneficial. What they're misrepresenting is that any
(37:17):
of the regimens they're doing are really needed to directly
to detoxify anything at all.
Speaker 4 (37:22):
Yeah. I just had this image of somebody who's like,
I'm going to sell you this bottle of amazing car
wash fluid, and what you do is, right before you
go in the car wash, just spray a little bit
on your car. It'll come out perfect.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
That's a very very very good analogy. Yes you can
keep that. No, I may use that trace man, that's
a dude. That's good.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (37:43):
So I have one more thing for you, and that's
How concerned should the average person be about toxins in
our body?
Speaker 3 (37:50):
Minimally so, because, as I said, our bodies have a
lot of natural ways to help someone that's not necessarily
taking good care of themselves. Maybe it slightly increased risk,
but even then I think their chance of have anything
significant happen as a result of the toxins are very
very limited and minimal. We have enough to worry about
(38:11):
in our crazy world without overworrying about what we're doing
to our bodies or being exposed to is going to
hurt us. Not to say that we shouldn't try all
to eat well, sleep well, exercise, but I don't feel
that people need to be concerned that we're living in
a world of toxins that are all out to get us,
and they give us cancer and put us into an
(38:32):
early demise.
Speaker 4 (38:35):
Detoxes and cleanses are often marketed as quick fixes for
better health, but the reality is that most fall somewhere
between unnecessary and in some cases potentially harmful. While it
is true that our bodies are exposed to various chemicals
and toxins every day, we already have built in systems
like the liver and kidneys that evolved specifically to remove
(38:56):
toxins from our bodies, and they do this process dreamily effectively.
I mean, if they didn't, we'd never have made it
far enough to invent podcasts, and we wouldn't be having
this conversation right now. For most people, supporting your natural
systems through consistent, basic healthy habits is far more beneficial
than relying on trendy detox products. Either way, always check
(39:18):
with your physician first before trying a detox or a cleanse.
In the end, you're probably just not as toxic as
you might feel. Sometimes. Please let us know what you
think in the comments. We're curious to hear what you
have to share. Thanks again to doctor David Puro for
breaking down the science behind detoxes and cleanses, and thanks
again to Mina Adams and Steve Lutsk for sharing their
(39:39):
stories and experiences with us. We are on a roll.
We unraveled yet another popular health trend. I think this
is great, but of course there is still more to
come in the next episode. We're going to stick to
the gut check and answer your questions about intermittent fasting
and all the social media claims about it too. We'll
see then. If you have it already, please hit the
(40:01):
subscriber follow button and join us next time on Health
Versus Hype with the American Medical Association. For more information
on all the topics we're covering, visit Amahealth Versus Hype
dot org. That's am Health vs Hype dot org. Health
Versus Hype is a production of Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia
and the American Medical Association. I'm traced to him Iguez.
(40:22):
Our producers are Matt Stillo and Pamela Lawrence. Michael Depoe
Wilson is our writer. The show is engineered and features
original music by Matthew Ernest Filler. Health Versus Hype is
intended for educational and informational purposes only and does not
constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice
of your physician with any questions you may have regarding
(40:42):
a medical condition.
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