The Kidney Cleanse - Does It Work?

A Slightly Contrarian View of Kidney Cleansing

If you type the words "kidney cleanse" into a search engine, you might notice something interesting.

Most health-related keywords return links from places like the Mayo Clinic or the National Institutes of Health when you search for them.

Not so with the keywords "kidney cleanse." You mostly find people trying to sell you something. 

Does this mean the medical community doesn't think there's much value to kidney cleansing? That there doesn't need to be anything written up about it because it's bogus--which, by the way, is what some people think about liver cleansing and colon cleansing.

Before trying to answer that question, let's look at what kidney cleansing is.

Like liver cleansing and colon cleansing, a kidney cleanse is supposed to remove toxins from your body--in this case, of course, toxins in the kidneys. It's also supposed to promote and maintain healthy kidney function, and possibly prevent the formation of kidney stones.

Most kidney cleanse products are described as herbal or "natural." You take them as supplements. Some naturopathic doctors believe you can cleanse your kidneys through eating certain foods, including parsley, lemon juice, watermelon, and various herbs and roots.

Okay, back to the medical community's opinion on kidney cleanse.

We went through page after page of links after putting the words "kidney cleanse" into a Google search box. Not much came up from the "usual suspects" like the Mayo Clinic or WebMD. The Mayo Clinic and WebMD publish thousands of pages on health and medical topics on the Internet.

We finally went to the Mayo Clinic website and did a search, where we found a general article on detox diets and cleansing programs. This one was authored by Dr. Michael Picco, M.D., a gastroenterologist. Dr. Picco wrote that detox diets and products stem

"from the belief that the food you consume contains a range of harmful substances, which accumulate in your body, causing fatigue, headaches, nausea and even disease. But there's no evidence that this is true or that detox diets have any health benefits. Also, in some cases, detox diets can have harmful side effects."

He wrote further that

"Some people report they feel better, "lighter," and more focused and energetic during and after detox diets. This may be due to their belief that they are doing something good for their bodies. But it may also be due to eating little -- if anything -- for several days. Calorie restriction can lead to heightened feelings of psychological well-being.

There is no evidence, however, that detox diets actually remove toxins from the body. Most ingested toxins are efficiently and effectively removed by the kidneys and liver and excreted in urine and stool."

So there you have it.

We're not here to tell you whether a kidney cleanse product will--or won't--work. But it's obvious some very smart people have their doubts, and therefore any purchase of a kidney cleanse product should be done only after thorough research--with a very skeptical eye.
 

 
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