Katy Perry is extolling the benefits of colon cleanses – a "useless" practice doctors have warned against for decades.
Appearing on an Australian radio show, the pop star spoke about doing Panca Karma, a treatment that is part of India’s ancient Ayurveda healthy-living belief.
“You do lots of enemas,” Perry said. “It basically gets all the crap out of you, every pun intended.
“You definitely feel more energy.”
Medical professionals, though, caution against colon “cleanses” and point out that the human body naturally eliminates waste and bacteria.
“Colon cleansing is a dubious and almost always useless procedure,” Dr. David Gorski wrote at Science-Based Medicine. “Colon cleansing is a load of…well, you know.”
According to the website of the Mayo Clinic, “there's no evidence that colon cleansing … is beneficial at all” and that it can, in fact, be harmful.”
The Harvard Medical School agrees. “The human body can defend itself very well against most environmental insults and the effects of occasional indulgence … concentrate on giving your body what it needs to maintain its robust self-cleaning system — a healthful diet, adequate fluid intake, regular exercise, sufficient sleep, and all recommended medical check-ups.”
In a 2014 report in The Guardian, Dara Mohammadi wrote: “Detoxing – the idea that you can flush your system of impurities and leave your organs squeaky clean and raring to go – is a scam,” wrote “It’s a pseudo-medical concept designed to sell you things.”
He quoted Edzard Ernst, emeritus professor of complementary medicine at Exeter University, as saying: “The healthy body has kidneys, a liver, skin, even lungs that are detoxifying as we speak. There is no known way – certainly not through detox treatments – to make something that works perfectly well in a healthy body work better.”