Detox And Purification Treatments – Nonsense With Potential For Rip-offs?

An entire industry has specialized in purification and detoxification cures and is promoting it vigorously. The usefulness of such cures is of course not questioned, but simply assumed that toxins and toxins would accumulate in the body, which could then be flushed out with juices, smoothies, powders, teas and pills.

If we ignore the accumulation of environmental toxins in people's fatty tissue, there is no reliable scientific evidence for the accumulation of metabolic waste in the human body. Of course, purifying and detoxifying would only make sense if these basic requirements were met.

The question is therefore whether at the end of the metabolism of food in our body there is an accumulation of toxins and toxins, which could then be eliminated through detox and purification treatments.

Detoxification Treatments Are Not Scientifically Relevant

A search in the medical scientific database PubMed provides a first impression of the scientific relevance of detox and purification treatments. The search term “Detox” returned 133 hits for the last 5 years, including no clinical studies. A search for “Detox Diet” during the same period resulted in a total of 10 hits, again without any clinical studies. 

The scientific database for the 1.8 billion Google hits for the keyword “detox” is extremely thin.Even this very superficial comparison of hit frequencies for the terms purification and detox on Google and PubMed clearly shows that there is hardly any scientific relevance behind the topic of purification treatments. This impression is confirmed by a literature search.

No Proof Of Effectiveness Through Clinical Studies

A scientific review published in 2015 (see below) looks at the facts about detox treatments and comes to the conclusion: that there is very little clinical data to support the use of commercial detox regimens.

And this despite the fact that there is a booming detox industry behind the products.Nothing has changed in these facts. Since then, no clinical studies have been published that would change the practically non-existent data situation.

Slags As Metabolic End  Products Are A Myth

Advocates of purification cures and detox diets assume that, as a result of modern lifestyles, too many harmful substances are absorbed, with which the body's metabolism is overloaded. Therefore, they would be disposed of as waste in organs and connective tissue and ultimately stored.

The question therefore arises as to what these slags should be, where they are deposited and whether they can be detected in the corresponding tissues or made visible. There are no publications on this in the PubMed database either.

So you can't help but notice that toxins, as advocates of detox cures believe, simply do not exist and are most likely located in the realm of myths.

Environmental Toxins Accumulate In Various Tissues

The facts are different when it comes to environmental toxins, which include heavy metals as well as residues from industry and agriculture. Substances such as lead, mercury, dioxin, PCBs and many more accumulate in the food chain and are ultimately found in the organs and fatty tissue of exposed people. The toxins can be detected using laboratory diagnostic analyzes of blood and urine. In individual cases, tissue samples can also be analyzed.

To a limited extent, environmental toxins can be excreted naturally through urine and faeces. The physiological excretion pathways are not sufficient for complete detoxification of the body when the toxin load is high.The question therefore arises as to whether environmental toxins can be flushed out or discharged using appropriate processes.

In the case of acute poisoning with heavy metals, chelation therapy is used, with the help of which water-soluble chelate complexes of a heavy metal are disposed of naturally through the urine. This type of therapy is scientifically proven. There is no scientific evidence from relevant clinical studies for the elimination of environmental toxins and heavy metals as part of detoxification diets.

Evaluation

There is neither a nutritional necessity nor sufficient scientific evidence for frequently advertised detox and purification treatments.

A healthy body can cleanse itself and dispose of everything it doesn't need naturally. A healthy, balanced diet supports the natural elimination pathways.