People often want to know if they should do a detox or cleanse, hoping it will remove toxins from their bodies. Dr Jen Gunter says that isn't going to happen.

The value of a detox

The liver is about the size of an American football and weighs three pounds. It does many jobs to keep our bodies running, from helping the immune system to creating proteins for blood clotting.  The liver also deals with harmful substances, almost like a factory. It takes nutrients from the food and drinks we consume and breaks them down to be packaged in a usable way while removing the waste in the bile or via the kidneys, usually in the form of urine.

Understanding how the liver works

The idea of cleansing has been around for thousands of years. For centuries, there was a lot of focus on ridding the body of impurities and sickness. Bloodletting, purging and fasting were all well-guarded treatments.  Today's wellness industry picked up on our desire to get rid of things. The word "detox" is a medical treatment for people with drug and alcohol addictions, yet the wellness industry uses it to make it sound like getting rid of all the dirty stuff. It sounds right to us because of our lack of understanding of how our liver works.

The idea of cleansing is age-old

The best things you can do:<ul><li>Don't smoke</li><li>Eat a balanced diet</li><li>Exercise regularly</li><li>Get enough sleep</li><li>Don't consume too much alcohol as it can cause problems over time, such as fatty liver disease, cirrhosis of the liver or liver cancer.</li><li>Some medications can damage your liver.</li><li>Be careful with supplements and herbs.</li></ul>

A healthy liver is extremely important

A popular cleanse is the cayenne pepper and lemon juice drink to "help your liver flush toxins."  You drink it, and it gets digested. Nutrients get absorbed in the blood and arrive at the liver. But the liver processes these nutrients the same as everything else. It packages what's useful and disseminates it throughout the body. What it can't use becomes waste. So there's nothing exceptional about mixing cayenne and lemon. It doesn't "clean the pipes." You might lose a few pounds at best because you aren't eating much. At worst, you could go into starvation mode.

Popular cleanse myth

Put down the cayenne-lemon water and step away from the herbal tea. Cleanses and detox products like these don't remove toxins, says Dr. Jen Gunter, and some of them may even be hurting your health. Learn how your body rids itself of harmful substances and what you can do to keep this system running smoothly. Think you know how your body works? Think again! Dr. Jen Gunter is here to shake up everything you thought you knew -- from how much water you need to drink to how often you need to poop and everything in between. This TED original series will tell you the truth about what's *really* going on inside you. Want to hear more from Dr. Jen Gunter? Follow Body Stuff on Apple Podcasts: https://link.chtbl.com/BodyStuffYT Visit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more. The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. Become a TED Member: http://ted.com/membership Follow TED on Twitter: http://twitter.com/TEDTalks Like TED on Facebook: http://facebook.com/TED Subscribe to our channel: http://youtube.com/TED TED's videos may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) and in accordance with our TED Talks Usage Policy (https://www.ted.com/about/our-organization/our-policies-terms/ted-talks-usage-policy). For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request at https://media-requests.ted.com

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Put down the cayenne-lemon water and step away from the herbal tea. Cleanses and detox products like these don't remove toxins, says Dr. Jen Gunter, and some of them may even be hurting your health. Learn how your body rids itself of harmful substances and what you can do to keep this system running smoothly. 

Think you know how your body works? Think again! Dr. Jen Gunter is here to shake up everything you thought you knew -- from how much water you need to drink to how often you need to poop and everything in between. This TED original series will tell you the truth about what's *really* going on inside you. 

Want to hear more from Dr. Jen Gunter? Follow Body Stuff on Apple Podcasts: https://link.chtbl.com/BodyStuffYT

Visit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.

The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. 

Become a TED Member: http://ted.com/membership
Follow TED on Twitter: http://twitter.com/TEDTalks
Like TED on Facebook: http://facebook.com/TED
Subscribe to our channel: http://youtube.com/TED

TED's videos may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) and in accordance with our TED Talks Usage Policy (https://www.ted.com/about/our-organization/our-policies-terms/ted-talks-usage-policy). For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request at https://media-requests.ted.com

The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know.

TED's videos may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) and in accordance with our TED Talks Usage Policy: https://www.ted.com/about/our-organization/our-policies-terms/ted-talks-usage-policy. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request at https://media-requests.ted.com