Detoxification and bowel cleansing pills

Most of the pills currently on the market that are advertised as "detoxifying and cleansing the intestines" do not have the effect of "removing intestinal toxins, beautifying and slimming the abdomen" as advertised. Long-term use may also cause irreversible damage to intestinal function. There is no need for healthy people to take them. If you really have bowel troubles or intestinal problems, you should first seek evaluation from a gastroenterologist. Don't buy such products blindly.

A while ago, I was helping my distant aunt organize the family medicine box, and I dug out half a drawer full of colorful pills: small powder pills brought back from Japan by a trustee, "Fruit and Vegetable Enzyme Colon Cleansing Tablets" sold for 99 yuan for 6 bottles in the live broadcast room, and so-called "herbal detox pills" sold in Wechat Moments. My aunt said it succinctly: "If you take one pill the night before, you will definitely be able to fill the entire toilet the next morning, and your belly will be smaller. Look at my face, which is brighter than before." ”This is also the first feeling of most people who buy this type of product. The effect is quick and the body sensation is obvious. Naturally, they are willing to believe in the "detoxification" theory.

The merchant's theoretical system is self-consistent: there are 6-10 pounds of feces piled up in the human intestines. Repeated absorption of toxins will cause obesity, spots, acne and even cancer. The intestinal cleansing tablets help you "scrape" these feces and expel them. They are all natural and have no dependence. Pregnant women and children can take them. Don’t underestimate this rhetoric. The last time I picked up a package at a community express delivery station, I heard several ladies discussing which brand of bowel cleansing tablets “clears the bowels more efficiently.”

Last year, I stayed in the outpatient clinic for a week with my classmates in the Department of Gastroenterology, and I encountered more than a dozen patients who had problems just because of taking these intestinal cleansing tablets. The doctor's statement is very clear: There is no concept of "defecation" in modern medicine. The 1-3 day cycle from the time when normal food residue enters the colon to being excreted from the body is completely normal. Those dark “poisonous stools” excreted after taking medicine are essentially a mixture of stimulant laxatives stimulating excessive secretion and shedding of the intestinal mucosa, along with a large amount of water and electrolytes. After having a bowel movement, you feel like your stomach is small. This is purely an illusion caused by dehydration and has nothing to do with “detoxification”.

I know a friend who competes in a bodybuilding competition. In order to quickly remove water from his waist and abdomen before the competition, he secretly took Internet celebrity intestinal cleansing tablets for more than 20 days. After the competition, he stopped taking the medicine and did not have bowel movements for a whole week. He went for a colonoscopy. The entire intestinal wall turned brown and black. He was diagnosed with melanosis of the colon. It took him almost a year to recover his intestinal function. Now when he sees a video of a bowel-clearing tablet, he reports it, "It's purely harmful. If you don't understand, taking it for half a year will paralyze your intestines."

Of course, you can’t beat them to death with a stick. There are indeed pills or granules in the hospital that are specially used for bowel cleansing, such as compound polyethylene glycol electrolyte powder to drink before colonoscopy, or osmotic laxatives for short-term use by patients with severe constipation as directed by the doctor. These are clinically proven, safe and controllable, but only if they are used according to the dosage and prescribed by the doctor. If you buy it yourself and drink it every day to "detoxify", it will still disrupt the normal rhythm of the intestines, and the gain will not be worth the candle.

There is also a category of intestinal cleansing tablets that claim to be "purely extracted from dietary fiber", and are sold more expensively under the banner of "no additives, conditioning type". I have previously dismantled several internet celebrity products and sent them to a friend's laboratory for testing. Among the three products claiming to be "completely free of laxatives", two of them tested positive. There is unlabeled sennoside, which is the active ingredient of senna leaves. To put it bluntly, laxatives are secretly added under the guise of dietary fiber. If you eat it and feel it has a good laxative effect, it is not the dietary fiber that is playing a role. It is the laxatives that are urging your intestines to twitch and wriggle.

In fact, to put it bluntly, our intestines have a mature metabolic system. As long as you eat more whole grains and green leafy vegetables, drink enough 1.5 liters of water every day, and take time to walk thousands of steps, normal defecation is not a problem at all. There is no need to spend a lot of money to buy those pills to torment your intestines. If you really have difficulty defecating for several days in a row, or your stool suddenly becomes thinner or contains blood, it only costs more than ten yuan to go to the gastroenterology department for a consultation. It is much more effective than taking intestinal cleansing tablets for half a year.