Detoxes & Cleanses: Health or Hype?

As Spring draws near, ads begin to escalate across social media promoting Spring cleaning for your body—as in “colon cleanse” or “detox cleanse.” A variety of detoxification diets, regimens, and therapies have been suggested to remove toxins from the body, lose weight, or promote health. But are they healthy or simply a lot of hype? What are “Detoxes” and “Cleanses”? There are a variety of approaches to “detoxification,” including fasting, drinking only juices or smoothies, restricting certain foods, using dietary supplements or other commercial products, using herbs, cleansing the colon with enemas, laxatives, or colon hydrotherapy—also called “colonic irrigation” or “colonics.” RELATED: 3 Natural Detoxes To Spring Clean Your Body Does “Detoxing” or “Cleansing” Work? Despite their popularity and health claims, there have been only a small number of studies on “detoxification” programs in people. While some have had positive results on weight and fat loss, insulin resistance, and blood pressure, the studies themselves have been of low quality—with study design problems, few participants, or lack of evaluation by other experts to ensure quality. A 2015 review concluded that there was no compelling research to support the use of “detox” diets for weight management or eliminating toxins from the body....