Diets are not the only way to cleanse and detoxify your system. Mind Your Body lists a few more popular therapies, along with how they work:
1: Colon cleansing
Considered an alternative medicine therapy, it removes faecal waste and toxins from a person's intestines and intestinal tract.
Colon hydrotherapy, or colonic irrigation, is one common method to achieve this. It involves using water - injected via a tube inserted in the rectum - to flush out the colon.
A few clinics in Singapore offer this service.
However, medical experts have questioned its purported benefits.
The procedure itself is not without risk. 'You do hear of cases of people perforating their rectum,' said gastroenterologist Alexius Chee.
2: Yoga
More than just a form of exercise, certain postures in yoga, along with the regulated breathing involved, can supposedly have detoxifying results.
Done in a heated room, the profuse sweating induced during 'hot yoga' sessions can produce a higher rate of detoxification than other forms, said a spokesman for True Yoga, one of Singapore's largest yoga centres.
One yoga form, Ashtanga, puts a lot of emphasis on diet and encourages its practitioners to follow a vegetarian one in order to ease the burden on the digestive system.
Such a diet would include fruit, vegetables, whole grains (like wheats and oats), along with natural syrups (honey or molasses) and plant-based oils (like sesame, olive or sunflower)
3: Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)
Acupuncture is a commonly used TCM procedure that can supposedly encourage the excretion of toxic substances through the stimulation of certain points on the body.
It is also claimed that traditional herbs like the pueraria flower and lallang grass rhizome have detoxifying properties that help remove the body's 'heat' and promote diuresis, in which urine is passed out.
4: Spa treatments
Many spas in Singapore offer herbal body wraps that claim to have detoxifying properties.
Seaweed and mineral salts are often used as part of the 'wrap', with the aim of rejuvenating the skin or re-energising the body.
5: Lymphatic massage
This treatment works to stimulate the lymphatic vessels through a gentle massage, either by hand or with the use of mechanical devices.
The human lymphatic system circulates lymph (a bodily fluid) throughout the body and is crucial in filtering out hazardous substances and maintaining our immune system.
The massage process supposedly enhances lymph circulation, boosting one's vitality and recovery from illness or injury.
This story was first published in Mind Your Body, The Straits Times, on Jan 1, 2009.
