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After the holiday season, it’s common for people to start the new year off with a juice or food cleanse, or try another method of going through a detox to “reset” their body after eating so much rich, sweet foods.
Some of these detox methods are healthy and safe to practice – even on a regular basis. Others, however, are actually rather dangerous.
A 47-year-old woman in the UK discovered this the hard way.
To kick off her new year, the woman (whose identity remains anonymous) began to drink more water and tea than she usually did. This was, actually, very healthy for her to do.
She also, however, took at least nine herbal supplements (for small remedies like removing stress and improving mood) on top of that, because she believed each of these supplements would have a positive effect on her body.
It wasn’t long until the woman suffered a seizure and collapsed.
At the hospital, doctors diagnosed the woman with hyponatremia, a condition where the body’s sodium levels have fallen too far. This isn’t usually a symptom of drinking more fluid.
However, in the woman’s case, she had also been taking the herbal supplement, valerian root, which aggravates a person’s vulnerability to the hyponatremia condition.
Thankfully, the woman was quickly treated with sodium replacement at the hospital and later released without any lingering negative effects.
But doctors are now using her medical case to warn others against the dangers of extreme detoxing and dieting.
“When you think of detoxing, most people think of the liver, because it’s the main organ that metabolizes toxins,” says Courtney Peterson, PhD, an assistant professor of nutrition sciences at the University of Alabama Birmingham. “But when you fast or do a detox, there are many different organs involved, and those organ systems can react in many different ways.”
If you’re also thinking of doing a detox to honor the new year, you might want to reconsider before doing a complete overhaul of your diet. Don’t throw your body into something too extreme and jeopardize your health.
