Are Diet Teas Or “chinese Slimming” Teas Safe?
Hi everyone!
My mom is 49 years old and she’s been taking all these types of teas for about a year now. My mom has a lot of digstive problems, and she has gone to many herbalist who give her teas for this. Many of them have given her these “slimming, diet teas” that contain laxative ingredients. My mom has no intention of losing weight, but she wants to drink the stuff so she can actually go to the bathroom. She can go on for 3-4 days without using the bathroom, which yes, I am aware- it’s bad!
We have tried foods, other medications (my mom also suffers from a kidney complication) so she can’t take many of them, especially over the counter things. I don’t know what to do, and it srot of scares me that she comes home with a different tea every month. I mean, these things are supposed to “slim” you down and get you on a diet, but I fear my mom will get sick from trying all these teas that may affect her health. Although most of the teas say “natural”, “organic” “herbal” I still worry. Can anyone tell me if there’s any side effects to these teas?
Here’s some she’s recently been taking: (she sometimes mixes them after being constipated for about 3 days):http://www.tripleleaf-tea.com/supslim.ht…http://www.healthandbeauty.net.au/china-…http://www.herbalremedies.com/hk-06b.htm…
February 15th, 2010 at 4:47 pm
The reason that her herbalist is giving her teas with laxatives in them is simply to break up the feces and get it out of her system more easily. As long as they are natural laxatives and she is able to take them in spite of her kidney issues, they should make her b.m.’s (bowel movements) much easier and more comfortable.
I think that you also have a little bit of a wrong perception about laxatives. Laxatives weren’t created to make people lose weight. It’s when people abuse them and take too many that they become a weight-loss method (a very unhealthy one). The teas that your mom is taking might be marketed as ‘miracle teas’ for weight-loss or something along those lines, but they almost always mild laxatives, and are marketed as diet supplements with the hopes that they’ll sell more and make more money. People who use them to lose weight are the people who don’t need them, which is not your mom’s case.
The reason why they work for weight-loss is kind of gross, actually. A lot of the food that we eat remains in our body for much, much longer than we like to think. When our bodies digest food and it travels through the system, little particles get caught and remain in the colon for a long time. Particles continue to get caught and build up, eventually causing some blockage, which might be part of the reason why your mom is having issues with her b.m.’s. If the herbs work, they will be digested and will cause the bonds holding those particles together to loosen and she will pass them, clearing out her colon and making b.m.’s easier. She might lose some weight as a side-effect, but that’s simply because she is able to digest food the way her body is meant to. As long as they aren’t abused, laxatives are okay.
February 15th, 2010 at 9:51 pm
Lol @ your randomly placed quotation marks.
February 15th, 2010 at 11:30 pm
Well there is no SCIENTIFIC proof that such “teas” work…
so why risk your health and life?
Tell your mom to join a gym and get fit
February 16th, 2010 at 5:39 am
wow, whoever answered before me, didn’t even read what you were saying. SHE’S NOT TRYING TO LOSE WEIGHT! anyway, i think she can’t go because she’s taking all of these laxative-type teas. they’re probably good sorta as a last resort, but not regularly i don’t think. if you use laxatives, even herbal ones, your body can get used to them. if i were your mom, i would go to a more traditional doctor to get a colonoscopy or some kind of digestive test. i think taking fiber (like psyllium husks) can help regularity, but can sometimes bloat you. however, your body adjusts to psyllium, whereas, with laxatives, your body will eventually be dependent on them. senna, cascara sagrada, and other herbs that are laxatives are not good in the long-run, it doesn’t matter if they’re “all natural”. cocaine is all natural too
anyway, that’s really sweet of you to take the time out to consider her health like this. good luck. !
-e
p.s. also look into wheat/gluten/dairy allergies, that can make it hard to take a crap too