Storm inside the cup: the story of a viral mistake named 'coffee enema'

It was nearly 11:30pm. Suppose a young woman in Dhaka is lying down scrolling through her phone, reel after reel. Suddenly she stops at a video. A smiling influencer is saying, “This one cup of coffee has changed my life. All toxins from the body have come out, the skin is glowing, energy is sky-high.” The caption reads—#CoffeeEnema #DetoxJourney. In the comment box there are thousands of people’s questions, praise and curiosity. Like that young woman, lakhs of people are now stopping in front of this same video, thinking—does the body really get ‘cleaned’ so easily?

The beginning of this story is of course not of today. Turning the clock of time backwards takes one to the chamber of a doctor in Germany in the thirties of the twentieth century. His name was Max Gerson. He believed that ‘poison’ accumulated in the body is the root cause of all diseases, and if that poison can be removed then even a terrible disease like cancer will be cured. His prescription was a strict vegetarian diet, and a special ‘enema’ made with coffee twice a day. The theory sounds wonderful—caffeine supposedly awakens the bile ducts of the liver and washes away the garbage inside the body. But even after nearly a hundred years have passed, science has not found any strong evidence in favour of this theory. Almost every major health organisation in the world including the National Cancer Institute of the United States has long ago warned that considering Gerson therapy or coffee enema as an alternative to conventional treatment is dangerous.

Yet the story has not died. After remaining silent for a few decades it has suddenly returned in a new dress. This time not in the quiet corner of a chamber, but rather in the bright feeds of TikTok, Facebook and Instagram. Holding the hand of ‘wellness’ culture this old idea is now being sold to the new generation wrapped in ‘detox’, ‘gut health’ and ‘natural living’. Video after video is claiming that energy increases, concentration increases, skin becomes bright, even cancer can supposedly be prevented. But the question that remains is—what is there behind these claims?

The answer is disappointing. Searching in the world of medical science one does not find any controlled research that supports these claims. What is found is mainly stories of personal experiences. Someone has claimed to have felt good, someone has made a video. Yet the human body has its own perfect purification system—the liver and kidneys, which are silently filtering out the ‘toxins’ of the body every moment without any break, from the time of birth. They do not need any ‘help’ in this work by inserting coffee through the anus.

And what is not needed, doing that can lead to serious accidents. Which is not at all desirable. One after another warning messages are documented in medical literature. Disturbance of electrolyte balance, burn marks on the delicate tissue of the intestine, infection, inflammation, and in the most terrible cases perforation of the intestine or spread of infection in the blood, which can be fatal. When caffeine mixes directly into the blood through the path of the rectum, its effect also becomes sudden and intense—palpitation, restlessness, sleep flying away. For people suffering from heart disease, kidney problems or inflammatory diseases of the digestive system and for pregnant women this risk is even higher, say the doctors. If something like severe pain in the abdomen, bleeding through the anus, fever or dizziness appears, it is the work of a wise person to rush to a doctor without delay.

Then what should that young woman, who had stopped after seeing the video at nearly 11:30pm, do? The answer is perhaps hidden in something much simpler, much less dramatic—adequate water, fibre-rich food, regular walking, good sleep. And if needed the advice of a doctor, not the caption of an influencer. Even a cup of coffee taken by mouth can be good for the liver—for that no one needs to travel the risky path of the anus.

Going viral does not mean being true—this simple truth is perhaps reminded once again by this story of coffee enema. The risk hidden behind the sparkling videos of the feed is often not visible until someone pays the price himself.