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Detoxification (often shortened to detox and sometimes called body cleansing) is a type of alternative-medicine treatment which aims to rid the body of unspecified "toxins" – substances that proponents claim accumulate in the body over time and have undesirable short-term or long-term effects on individual health.
Bronze strigil (Roman, 1st century AD, Walters Art Museum The strigil (Latin: strigilis) or stlengis (Ancient Greek: στλεγγίς, probably a loanword from the Pre-Greek substrate) is a tool for the cleansing of the body by scraping off dirt, perspiration, and oil that was applied before bathing in Ancient Greek and Roman cultures.
Activated charcoal is available in powder, tablet and liquid form. Its proponents claim the use of activated charcoal on a regular basis will detoxify and cleanse the body as well as boost one's energy and brighten the skin. Such claims violate basic principles of chemistry and physiology.
[16] [17] Proponents also falsely claim that cupping "improves blood flow" to help sore muscles. [18] James Hamblin notes that a bruise caused by cupping "is a blood clot, though, and clotted blood is definitionally not flowing." [19] Critics of alternative medicine have spoken out against cupping therapy.
Gua sha, or kerokan (in Indonesia), is a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practice in which a tool is used to scrape people's skin in order to produce light petechiae. Practitioners believe that gua sha releases unhealthy bodily matter from blood stasis within sore, tired, stiff, or injured muscle areas to stimulate new oxygenated blood flow ...
TCM uses special terms for qi running inside of the blood vessels and for qi that is distributed in the skin, muscles, and tissues between them. The former is called yingqi ( 营气 ; 營氣 ; yíngqì ); its function is to complement xuè and its nature has a strong yin aspect (although qi in general is considered to be yang). [ 91 ]
Certain approaches in alternative medicine claim to remove alleged "toxins" from the body through herbal, electrical, electromagnetic or other treatments. These toxins may not be linked to symptoms and treatments have no scientific evidence, [ 20 ] [ 21 ] making the validity of such techniques questionable.
Qi was believed to flow from the body's primary organs (zang-fu organs) to the "superficial" body tissues of the skin, muscles, tendons, bones, and joints, through channels called meridians. [104] Acupuncture points where needles are inserted are mainly (but not always) found at locations along the meridians. [105]