Jaap Seidell on detox: “Our body is a detox machine”

Cleanse your body of waste and toxins with colonic irrigation, hot water baths, or detox. Denise Ermes, 37, had such a cure in Mexico, but it ended in complete disaster: she ended up in a coma. Marjan van Hessen, spokesperson for Friends of Denise, has already raised 90,000 euros for medical costs in Mexico and nutrition and health professor Jaap Seidell discusses the dangers of detoxification.

Detox–cures are extremely popular. The idea is in the body cleanse and detoxify. What is the meaning and nonsense of detox? “Detoxification is very important. Our body is a detoxification machine. We have a liver, we have kidneys, we have a gastrointestinal tract, we have skin, and we have lungs. They try to get rid of everything that is not good for us. In fact, we can do it very well,” says Jaap Seidell.

The dangers of detox

Doesn’t all this extra detoxification we do these days have dangers? “Most are harmless and they are juices and drinks and things like that. But when people cross borders, it can be dangerous. You have to be very careful about that. The problem is that if a Dutch doctor did that, he would be in all sorts of trouble. Anything can go wrong in these cases, but no one is ever held responsible. No one will be prosecuted for wrongdoing in Mexico either, and I think that’s a problem,” Seidell concludes.

Watch the whole conversation here.