Heidi Klum is the latest celebrity to hop on the cleanse trend, believing she has parasites and worms and that a flush of her system is necessary — though doctors have weighed in and warn others against it.
Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, Klum said that while she doesn’t follow a specific diet, she was “doing a worm cleanse and parasite cleanse” with her husband, Tom Kaulitz.
“Apparently, we all have parasites and worms,” she said. “Everything I’m getting on my Instagram feed at the moment is about worms and parasites.”
When asked to further elaborate, Klum said she was just now starting the cleanse and that it was a months-long process. “There are pills [to get rid of them], they have all of these herbs,” Klum said. “There’s a lot of clove in there. The parasite hates clove. They also hate the seeds from a papaya.”
“I heard that you’re supposed to do this once a year, and I’ve never done it,” she said of the cleanse. “So I feel like I’m really behind. I don’t know what the heck is going to come out.”
Klum did not say whether she has been formally diagnosed with a parasite or similar infection requiring treatment. But as she told The Wall Street Journal, the discourse on parasites and worms has certainly picked up in recent years.
Kim Rogers is just one of the many influencers who have either promoted parasite and worm cleanse products or created their own. The self-proclaimed “Worm Queen” went viral for documenting a parasite cleanse, and now sells her own treatments under RogersHood Apothecary, which she co-founded in December 2021.
She invented the ParaFy Kit, consisting of “high-quality, hand made herbal tinctures aimed at detoxing unwanted parasites, worms, candida, heavy metals & toxins while also promoting well-being,” according to the RogersHood Apothecary website. The $100 30-day cleanse promotes “potential benefits,” while also clearly stating the products have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
That poses the question: Are these cleanses necessary without a confirmed parasite or worms diagnosis? Multiple doctors have weighed in.
For starters, a parasite was defined by former Baltimore health commissioner Dr. Leana Wen as “organisms that live on or inside a host and feed off it to survive.” Speaking to CNN, Wen distinguished parasites from parasitic worms, which are “a type of internal parasite that live most frequently in the gastrointestinal tract.” Parasitic worms can infect someone who consumes water, food, or soil contaminated with worm eggs or larvae.
There are multiple common parasitic worms that can affect humans and cause infection. Some, like ascariasis caused by a roundworm, can render an infected person asymptomatic. Others, however, such as pinworm infections, can cause symptoms including diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain, and nausea.
“Not all people have parasites and worms as part of their normal microbiome,” gastroenterologist Dr. David Purow told the New York Post.
“There are no clear, proven benefits to these cleanses,” he continued. “It is unlikely that we will ever see someone fund a study to see if these natural herbs and byproducts can be proven to be effective.”
Purow did, however, note that some of these treatments could potentially be beneficial. But until research is done, these supplements, herbs, and oils remain unregulated and not FDA approved.
“Hearing that someone is advocating a ‘worm and parasite cleanse’ is alarming because it is a medically unfounded practice that could potentially be harmful,” infectious disease expert Choukri Ben Mamoun, PhD, told MedPage Today.
Mamoun also refuted Klum’s claim that we all have worms and parasites, saying there is “no credible medical evidence that the average person harbors hidden parasites that require cleansing.”
