A claim that drinking water with a few drops of calamansi juice for 120 days cleanses the liver and subsequently resolves poor eyesight is making the rounds on Facebook (FB). This is not true.
Neither hepatologists nor experts in traditional and alternative medicine in the country recommend this practice. There is also no literature that supports this, based on a review done by VERA Files Fact Check.
The FB Reel with the false claim was published on Aug. 17 and continued to receive engagement from netizens this October, raking in 9.6 million views as of publishing. Its narrator claimed:
“Alam niyo ba na kaya nating ibalik ang linaw ng inyong paningin sa pamamagitan lamang ng disiplina nang 120 days? At ang ginagamit natin dito ay walang iba kundi tubig at kalamansi lang?
Hinahalo ito sa tubig – limang patak sa isang basong tubig – at iinumin nang tatlo hanggang apat na beses araw-araw for 120 days. Gagawin niyan, lilinisin niyan ang ating liver kasi ang sanhi ng pagkalabo ng paningin ay maduming liver o kaya maduming pancreas.”
(Did you know that we can restore good eyesight by being disciplined for only 120 days? And the only things we’ll use are water and calamansi?
This is mixed with water – five drops (of calamansi) in a glass of water – and drank 3-4 times every day for 120 days. It will clean our liver, because the culprit behind blurry vision is an unclean liver or pancreas.)
This claim is not true according to the Hepatology Society of the Philippines, a national association of physicians who specialize on the liver.
In an email sent to VERA Files Fact Check on Oct. 8, they said they do not recommend cleanses like the above-mentioned calamansi juice concoction. Instead, to maintain a healthy liver, they recommended the following:
“(Have an) active and healthy lifestyle, avoid alcohol intake, and get tested and vaccinated for hepatitis A and B.”
The Philippine Institute for Traditional and Alternative Health Care (PITAHC) also did not endorse the concoction as a legitimate method to “cleanse” the liver.
PITAHC is the primary attached agency of the Department of Health that conducts research, formulates guidelines, and promotes traditional and alternative healthcare.
In a letter to VERA Files Fact Check sent on Oct. 10, PITAHC wrote:
“[T]here is no substantiated scientific research or validated evidence within its records or in extant international literature to support the claim that the consumption of a concoction of water and calamansi juice is effective in cleaning the liver.
While calamansi (Citrus microcarpa) is recognized within traditional remedies for its high vitamin C content and various health benefits, the notion of its efficacy specifically for liver detoxification remains largely anecdotal.”
It said the use of calamansi for liver detoxification “lacks the requisite scientific validation for it to be considered an endorsed therapeutic practice”.
PITAHC recommended practicing a healthy lifestyle, and the following herbal interventions under the supervision of qualified health practitioners to promote liver health: silymarin, ampalaya, sambong and lagundi.
In VERA Files Fact Check’s review of the Philippine Traditional Knowledge Digital Library on Health – a national database of traditional medicine gathered from work by researchers and scholars – it found no records of calamansi being used for liver detoxification or cleansing in the 100 entries concerning the plant and its fruit.
The circulation of the Reel bearing the false claim coincided with the peak harvesting season for calamansi, which happens from August to October. The publisher of the Reel is the FB page Pinakbaw Vlogs (created on Dec. 15, 2022), which calls itself an entertainment page.
