#29: Total Body Detox-Sadly, Where Hype Outpaces Science

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Episode Summary:
Detox programs promise to rid your body of toxins, boost your energy, and restore balance—but is there any credible science behind them? In this episode, we break down the claims, explore the evidence (or lack thereof), and discuss why detox diets and supplements may be more about profit than actual health benefits.

Key Topics Covered:

🔹 The Detox Hype & Marketing Pitch

• Detox cleanses claim to remove toxins like heavy metals, pesticides, and plastics.
• Programs promise benefits like increased energy, improved digestion, and reduced inflammation.
• Many naturopathic practitioners promote detox therapies, despite limited scientific backing (study on detox therapies).

🔹 How Detoxes Are Supposed to Work

• Short-term fasting, juice cleanses, or restrictive diets.
• Addition of "cleansing" foods like coriander and supplements.
• Methods like saunas, enemas, diuretics, and laxatives to "flush out" toxins.

🔹 Does Detoxing Actually Work?

• Your kidneys and liver already detox your body—detox programs claim to enhance this process but lack scientific proof.
• Studies on coriander and citric acid showed toxin reduction—in mice and fish (study on toxin reduction).
• A systematic review found no reliable human trials showing benefits (NIH detox overview).
• A randomized control trial of detox supplements (papaya, peppermint, ginger) showed no difference in GI symptoms or health markers (RCT on detox supplements).

🔹 Can You Sweat Out Toxins?

• A systematic review of 24 studies found metals in sweat—but in minuscule amounts (sweating and detox study).
• Most toxins are removed via the liver and kidneys, not sweat.

🔹 Why Do People Feel Better After a Detox?

• Placebo effect: Expecting to feel better often leads to feeling better.
• Water weight loss: Temporary weight loss can create a sense of improvement.
• Psychological agency: Taking action makes people feel empowered.

🔹 Is Detoxing Safe?

• Short-term detoxing may be harmless, but long-term detoxes can cause nutrient deficiencies, electrolyte imbalances, and risks for diabetics or kidney patients.
• The supplement industry is unregulated, making detox products a potential safety concern.

🔹 What Should You Do Instead?

• No strong evidence supports detox cleanses, but if you’re determined to try one, consider an N of 1 trial (self-experimentation). Discuss with your doctor first.
• Measure baseline health markers before and after, and consult your doctor.
• For guidance, check out Episode 27 on how to conduct an N of 1 trial.

Takeaways:

✅ Your liver and kidneys already detox your body—no supplement or cleanse is necessary.
✅ If detoxing makes you feel better, it’s likely due to a placebo effect, temporary water loss, or increased self-awareness of diet.

Chapters

• 0:02 Total Body Detox
• 10:39 Debunking Detox Cleanses
• 23:03 Health and Longevity Podcast Review

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Does total body detox with fasting or juice cleansing work? Well, I don't think so. There are no credible studies that show benefit. Risks are possible and everyone is trying to get your money for supplements, programs and books. Let's explore the evidence together. Hi, I'm Dr Bobby Du Bois and welcome to Live Long and Well, a podcast where we will talk about what you can do to live as long as possible and with as much energy and figure that you wish. Together, we will explore what practical and evidence-supported steps you can take. Come join me on this very important journey and I hope that you feel empowered along the way. I'm a physician, ironman, triathlete and have published several hundred scientific studies. I'm honored to be your guide. Hello, my listeners, and welcome to episode 29,.

Speaker 1: 1:20

Total Potty Detox Sadly, where hype outpaces science. Well, you've probably heard this Detox your body of toxins. Do a juice cleanse or a fast, take supplements, sweat and you will feel better. Well, there's a whole lot of claims, there's a whole lot of money going after this, but, sadly, no credible evidence that any of it works. It may be the world's record of the most claims of benefit and the least amount of evidence to support it. Now I think this is a perfect time to talk about this topic because over the last month, we've had a number of episodes that lead us right here. Well, we talked about health headlines and whether to trust them, and, of course, there's lots of health headlines on total body detox. We talked last week about the placebo effect and, frankly, I think where a lot of these claims come from may well be the placebo effect. And finally, we've talked about the N of 1 testing in yourself, and this may be something to consider if you were thinking about doing a detox cleanse. If you wish to look at any of those prior episodes, listen away and it might help you get some further understanding about today.

Speaker 1: 2:55

Well, in this episode, I want to walk through five questions why should you detox? Two, how is it done? Three, does it work? Four, is it safe? And five, what do you do with this information and can you put it into perhaps an end-of-one approach? Well, as always, I like to begin with the story.

Speaker 1: 3:22

As some of you may know, I grew up in Los Angeles and then had been in Texas for the past 11 years or so, but I have family and friends in LA and was watching very carefully what was going on with the fires and all the devastation and loss that was associated with that. And I read this article in the Wall Street Journal about social media influencers and supposed experts saying that people exposed to smoke from those fires should drink lots of bottled water to flush out the fire toxins. My reaction to that was well, that sounds interesting, but is there any evidence that it would actually work? Now I have a sauna and Gail and I use it regularly and I sweat a lot in the sauna and I'm feeling like, wow, it's flushing me of toxins or bad things in the sauna. Well, again, interesting theory, but is there any evidence?

Speaker 1: 4:26

And then, finally, my oldest daughter, rachel, has had a series of chronic symptoms that she hasn't been able to figure out. What's the cause, and Western medicine really hasn't helped her solve it. And so she came to me and said you know what about these detox programs? Might this help flush out something that's in my system that could be problematic? I said, look, it's a very interesting question, but is there any evidence? So down the rabbit hole I went. What did I find? What did I learn? And let's dive in together. So let's begin with why you might consider a total body detox and let's begin with the marketing pitch.

Speaker 1: 5:16

What do those headlines talk about? What do the advertising talk about? Well, the first is they claim we live in a world of toxins in our air, in our food, in our water, all around us, and that can't be a good thing. Those toxins get inside us. It could be air pollution, it could be microplastics in our foods, it could be heavy metals like mercury, lead or arsenic pesticides that may be on our foods and in the environment. This sounds bad and we know in medicine, in Western medicine, that there are known toxic syndromes. So, for example, we used to hear a fair bit about lead in paint and little kids chewing on the paint and having problems with their mental capabilities. This was a very known and real issue. There's a genetic disorder called Wilson's disease where your body doesn't handle copper. Copper is a metal and we know it causes damage and we know it can be treated by removing it. So there's a basis to believe this. The second is the claim kind of a broader claim that our systems are, just frankly, out of balance. Now that out of balance may cause inflammation or chronic fatigue, chronic pain, autoimmune diseases, and those claims would also be that our gut microbiome is a mess and those advertising say well, let's do something about that. And the third, as I was mentioning earlier about my daughter Rachel, is that Western medicine may not be helping you. You may have something that's been going on for years and you can't find a solution In our health quiz and the five different types.

Speaker 1: 7:18

One is the hopeful health seeker. These are folks who've struggled with one health problem or another and haven't found relief. The good news with the hopeful health seekers they don't give up, they keep at it. But these are folks who may feel like maybe a detox cleanse would work for them. If you haven't taken the quiz just takes a couple of minutes. Go to my website. Haven't taken the quiz, just takes a couple of minutes. Go to my website, drbobbylivelongandwellcom and take it and see if it fits for you, what your type is. Also, if you're interested, you can go to my website. If you're interested in working with me and the six-month mastermind class is about to kick off in about 10 days, and there's one slot remaining Again, go to my website if that's of interest. All right.

Speaker 1: 8:08

So that's the claims about how you might benefit, and then there's all this advertising. So maybe what you need is what's advertised the 10-day detox program which will reset your metabolism, restore your energy, rebalance your hormones, and that's about $500. You get a guide, you get some supplements and this will help. It's claimed brain fog and fatigue and chronic pain, and in four to five to six days there are testimonials of people who've gotten so much better. Well, maybe it's the 45-day total detox restorative program at a mere $1,400. And this was created, they say, to detoxify heavy metals and chemicals and unwanted organisms and it's going to help eliminate acidity and restore alkaline reserve and so on and so forth. And you get with that $1,400, some supplements and a guidebook and so on and so forth.

Speaker 1: 9:19

Well, there's lots of books on cleanses, lots of books on cleanses. Their titles are things like Cleanse to Heal, 10-day Green Smoothie Cleanse, dr Sebi's Mucus Cleanse, parasite Cleanse, the Panacea Cleanse, the Liver and Gallbladder Miracle Cleanse no lack of books. And then there are supplements that are advertised everywhere. They may cost $10, $40. They may cost more. You can get a seven-day detox cleanse for your whole body with various pills that might have senna leaf and vitamin C and apple cider vinegar and so on and so forth. And lastly, a lot of practitioners are pushing it Now, not typically Western practitioners, but 95% of naturopathic doctors in a recent survey used detox therapies. So it's a perfect, perfect storm of compelling theories, unmet needs where people do have problems, and for-profit incentives. So that's kind of why it's done. Now let's explore a little bit about how it's done. Now.

Speaker 1: 10:39

These are generally short-term diet and activities that will supposedly eliminate toxins. So there's a couple of components of a typical detox cleanse. The first is take less bad stuff in. So for a period of days maybe a week or two or more you'll do either total fasting with just water it might be a juice fast or a very restricted diet, so less stuff goes into you that might be causing you problems. So that's the first element. The second element is adding good stuff, or supposed good stuff, to your body. So there may be cleansing foods and spices like coriander or citric acid or supplements that will help your body. And then, lastly, many of these include a flushing process, which could be diuretics to promote kidney flow, laxatives for your GI tract to flush things out of your system they might suggest that you do lots of sweating in the sauna or something like that or they may even include colonic cleanses like enemas and laxatives. So this is what it entails.

Speaker 1: 11:59

And now part three, the all-important question does it work? Question does it work? Well, god created us and gave us kidneys and livers, and the kidney and the liver are already in the toxin removal business. So now the question is do these additional programs and supplements and approaches, does it add to what our liver and our kidney already does for it? So what's the best case that this might actually have a role in helping people feel better?

Speaker 1: 12:41

As I mentioned earlier, there are known overload diseases iron overload, arsenic overload, lead overload and there are medicines called chelating agents that you take and it binds to the toxins and then that's removed from the body. Now this is really really true and very helpful for these very uncommon situations. Very helpful for these very uncommon situations. If you had a poisoning, maybe a drug overdose or something like that, we might give you activated charcoal which you would take by mouth. It would bind the toxins in your gut and excrete it, so your body didn't absorb it. And there are really true known food intolerances, whether it's eggs or nuts or something like that, and removing that from your diet can actually help you feel better. So these situations there is a role for removing toxins, but those are the rare, rare, rare circumstances.

Speaker 1: 13:45

The ones that are being advertised are really about everybody else that has fatigue or their brain is not as sharp as they would like it to be, or they don't have the energy they wish, or something like that. Now is there any evidence that it works? These approaches work for the more typical symptoms and I did find some evidence that it works. That is, if you're a fish or you're a mouse. So one set of studies looked at coriander and citric acid that could potentially bind metals and in fact in rainbow trout it reduced cadmium levels and in mice it reduced lead. Again, not in people, in smaller, lesser organisms, organisms. There's a study of chlorella, which is a green algae, and it removed mercury, but removed mercury in mice. But when we turn to people, which is really what we care about, we're not necessarily trying to help our mice or our trout.

Speaker 1: 15:12

No credible evidence. Let me repeat that no credible evidence. And there's three ways to look at this. The first is there was a systematic review Again, this will be in the show notes if you're interested in going and taking a look at it and they looked at all the human studies they could find. And there were some studies, but they were all highly flawed and there was no randomized placebo-controlled trial that showed benefit. So that's the first. The second is a branch of the NIH which is called the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health came out with its statement Again, no credible evidence that any of this works.

Speaker 1: 15:51

And then, lastly, dr Bobby's assessment. I've looked at all these documents, I've looked at literature. I have not found credible controlled trials with scientific rigor and placebos to show that the benefits they purport to cause actually happen. Now, if you have some evidence, by all means send it to me. I would always want to learn and do better. Now there was a rare study where they did a randomized trial with placebo of a supplement packet that had papaya and peppermint and fenugreek and ginger and cinnamon and folks took it for four weeks. There was also a placebo control and these are folks that had some GI problems, tummy problems. They also looked at blood markers and body composition. What happened? There was no difference. So the one study that was published that I could find that was done in a rigorous fashion showed no benefit. So that's where I am.

Speaker 1: 16:59

But what about sweating? I'm in my sauna, sweat's coming off of me. Maybe bad stuff is coming out of my body into my sweat. Well, there was a systematic review of 24 studies and it turns out your sweat does contain certain metals, but it's in tiny, tiny amounts. That won't accomplish the goal of removing large amounts from our body. And those studies had a lot of flaws. They didn't just take sweat that dripped off you. As you might anticipate, you would need to kind of scrape your skin and get the sweat and put it in a little container and then measure things. But when you do that, you're actually scraping your skin cells as well as just having the sweat. So there's a lot of contamination and it's not clear what's going on. But in any event, it was a very small amount and it doesn't look like you can sweat your way.

Speaker 1: 18:13

People say to me well, but, dr Bobby, I read about how people said it worked and how they felt so much better, so quickly, and the rubber meets the road. What is truth here? Well, I am guessing that you have an inkling, if you've listened to my prior episodes, about where some of those testimonials are coming from, and I'm assuming that these are genuine patient experiences. Well, the first is the placebo effect. These are individuals who feel like it's going to help them and they feel better. Again, the scientific studies don't show objective improvement, but people feel better and it may well be the placebo effect. Do take a look, a listen to my last episode.

Speaker 1: 19:08

The other thing that happens with these cleanses is you may lose water, weight, because, again, you're not eating very much for some number of days, and so when that happens you might feel skinnier, feel lighter and feel better. That's not because of the cleanse per se, it's just because you've lost a little bit of weight, water or otherwise, and you temporarily feel better. Of course, when you start eating again, you temporarily feel better. Of course, when you start eating again, that weight may be back in a couple of days and then the symptoms return. And finally, doing something like this gives us agency. It feels like we're being proactive, we're doing something and we always feel better, or we may feel better when we feel like we're taking charge of our health. So to sum up that section, I don't feel there's evidence that supports the claims.

Speaker 1: 20:05

Now, is it safe? Because, dr Bobby, what have I got to lose Now? Generally these are safe, but it's not without risks. This industry with supplements and claims about cleanses, it's not regulated. So there's really not much out there about safety. We don't really know. Now, for a short term a couple of days it sure seems okay. Now, of course, you should talk to your doctor.

Speaker 1: 20:35

But if you do something like this for a long period of time 10 days, two weeks, three weeks you could get nutritional deficiencies because you're not eating your normal diet. You might get some protein deficiencies, which will help hurt in terms of your muscles, and you might get vitamin deficiencies. And that's where some of the supplements are touted to kind of support that. If you're a diabetic and your blood sugar is up and down and you basically stop eating normal foods and you're still on your diabetic medications, that can cause real problems for your blood sugar. So for a diabetic it can be a problem. And if you have kidney disease and you're not managing your fluids and electrolytes as well as you could, again this could be problematic. And anytime you use diuretics or laxatives for a prolonged period of time, yes, you can get into some electrolyte imbalances.

Speaker 1: 21:39

Okay, so what do we do with this information? Well, I don't find credible evidence that total body detox works and I want to save you, as always, time, money and potential side effects If you feel like you really have nothing else to try and you want to try a detox cleanse, okay, but maybe do it in the setting of an N of 1 trial, where you're very careful about measuring your baseline with something objective. You try it, you then measure it again, you then go back to your prior diet, et cetera, and repeat that as often as you wish, but, of course, always talk to your doctor before. And if you're interested in the N of 1 approach, go to episode 27 of mine or on my website you can find an article about N of 1 and how to approach it and how it might be helpful for you. So, to wrap things up, we all want to live long and well. I don't, however, find evidence to support detox cleanses as the solution. By all means, let me know other topics you're interested in and for now, goodbye.

Speaker 1: 23:03

Thanks so much for listening to Live Long and Well with Dr Bobby. If you liked this episode, please provide a review on Apple or Spotify or wherever you listen. If you want to continue this journey or want to receive my newsletter on practical and scientific ways to improve your health and longevity, please visit me at drbobbilivelongandwellcom. That's, doctor, as in D-R Bobby. Live long and wellcom.