Detox Cleanse: Things to Try At Home and What to Avoid (2024)

“Detoxes” or “cleanses” refer to various diets, programs, regimens, or therapies that claim to remove toxins from the body, aid in weight loss, or promote health.

Through everyday activities, people are exposed to chemicals, pollutants, heavy metals in food, and other environmental toxins. The premise for doing a detox is to eliminate these harmful toxins. However, there's little research that proves prepackaged detox regimes, products, and programs effective or even necessary.

This article discusses the safety and efficacy of various detoxes, how they might work, and how your body naturally detoxifies.

Types of Detox or Cleanse Diets

While there are endless detox offerings available on the market or offered by clinics or health centers, most of them will fall into one or more of the following categories:

• Fasting, such as total calorie restriction or intermittent fasting
• Restrictive diets include only eating certain foods or eliminating certain foods or drinks, such as a liver-cleansing diet, in which only plant-based, low-fat, high-fiber, and unprocessed foods are allowed
• Liquid-only diets involve drinking only juices or similar beverages; for example, the lemon detox diet is a liquid diet based on purified water, lemon juice, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper
• Dietary supplements like additional minerals, vitamins, diuretics, laxatives, herbs, or other products are sometimes used to detox the body; for example, incorporating Epsom salt, liver tonics, laxative herbal teas, probiotic capsules, or cleanse supplements and shakes to replace meals

Ways to Detox and Cleanse the Body at Home

Despite myriad detox programs and products on the market, the body is remarkable at cleansing and healing itself. Multiple organs and organ systems continually work to remove toxins from the body.

There are ways to support your body's natural detoxification system, including:

• Eating a balanced diet rich in fruits and vegetables
• Supporting your gut microbiome by increasing foods that contain prebiotics, fermented foods, and high-antioxidant foods
• Drinking enough water
• Exercising
• Getting enough sleep
• Cutting back, reducing exposure to, or eliminating alcohol, smoking, or other substances such as chemicals in household or personal care products
  

How Safe Are Cleanse Diets and Kits?

There is little long-term research on the safety of cleanse diets and kits. Some studies suggest possible adverse effects of cleanses or detox diets. Many detox diets are liquid-based, low in calories, and low in nutrients.

Detox diets may increase stress, raise cortisol levels, and increase appetite. Additionally, no regulatory body reviews their efficacy and safety or approves such products. Some detox and cleanse products have even been found to contain illegal and potentially harmful ingredients.

Take the following warnings from the National Institute of Health (NIH) into consideration before purchasing detox or cleanse products:

• Some juices or other liquids may not be pasteurized to kill harmful bacteria and other pathogens. This can cause serious illness, especially in children, older adults, or those with a weakened immune system.
• Some juices contain foods naturally high in oxalate, a naturally occurring substance. Drinking large amounts of high-oxalate juice can increase the risk of kidney problems.
• Very low-calorie or restrictive diets may result in short-term weight loss but do not provide all the nutrition you need.
• Colon cleansing products may have side effects that are potentially serious and dangerous for people with a history of gastrointestinal disease, colon surgery, hemorrhoids, kidney disease, or heart disease.
• Detox programs, including laxatives, can cause severe diarrhea, leading to dehydration and electrolyte imbalance.
  

Flushing Toxins: How Does the Body Eliminate Toxins

There are several ways that the body naturally flushes toxins from the body. Various organs and organ systems help the body eliminate toxins from chemicals you may be exposed to at work, at home, through personal care products, or your food.

Liver

Your liver is your body's primary filtration system by chemical conversions. It breaks down toxic substances, such as alcohol, drugs, or other chemicals, into safer (or even harmless) byproducts that are excreted into the blood or bile and released from your body in urine or stool.

Kidneys

Your kidneys filter your blood and remove wastes and toxins, including byproducts of metabolism, toxins made water soluble by the liver, and industrial toxins, such as heavy metals. They also help to excrete nutrients that have been consumed in excess, such as salt or water-soluble vitamins.

Digestive System

Your digestive system works to eliminate toxins in several ways. It can expel the toxic substance via vomit or diarrhea. The cells lining the inside of your digestive tract have enzymes that support detoxification, which convert harmful substances into less harmful substances that can be eliminated from the body.

Lungs

Your lungs are self-cleaning organs that filter and expel toxins that you breathe in, such as smoke, pollution, and viruses.

Skin

Your skin expels toxins through sweat, including heavy metals such as arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury.

How Does a Detox Cleanse Make You Feel?

While many detox diets promise a sense of well-being and feeling good, the method and products can produce various adverse side effects.

If the detox diet recommends limiting or eliminating calories and foods, you may experience the following:

• Hunger
• Irritability
• Headaches
• Weakness or fatigue

If the detox includes ingesting salt water, herbal teas, laxatives, or diuretics, you may experience the following:

• Dehydration
• Cramping or bloating
• Nausea or other gastrointestinal symptoms
  

Prevention

While avoiding exposure to all toxins that may require detoxification or cleansing from your system is impossible, there are ways to minimize or eliminate risks. You can protect yourself by:

• Eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, antioxidants, and fiber
• Reducing or eliminating smoking, vaping, alcohol, or drug use
• Avoiding secondhand smoke and indoor and outdoor pollution
• Washing your fresh produce thoroughly with running water, salt water, or a vinegar solution to remove dirt, germs, and pesticide residue
• Limiting foods known to have high levels of mercury, such as certain types of seafood, including king mackerel, marlin, orange roughy, swordfish, and bigeye tuna
  

Summary

Detox diets and cleanses are "quick fixes" to help rid the body of toxins or promote short-term weight loss. While the promised results are alluring, detoxes and cleanse products or kits are unnecessary and can be harmful, especially because they are unregulated.

Your liver, kidneys, lungs, and skin serve as your body's natural detoxification systems and help expel or convert toxins into harmless compounds. You can support your body's detoxification process by limiting exposure to potentially harmful toxins in your everyday life.