‘Lung Detox’ TikTok Myth of the Week

While browsing TikTok about health or fitness this week, you may stumble upon a video explaining that it will give you a test of your lung health. Instructions vary, but you’ll be prompted to hold your breath while you watch the animated timer tick. “If you can hold your breath from point A to point B, then you are in a safe zone,” advises a typical example. And if you’re wondering what to do with your supposedly unsafe lungs, sooner or later the algorithm will offer you lung detox recipes. All this is nonsense for a number of reasons.

Holding your breath is not a useful test of lung health

There is a little truth to this: if you have a serious health problem that affects your lungs, such as COPD or congestive heart failure , you may not be able to hold your breath for as long as someone who doesn’t have it. states.

But instead of taking TikTok breath-holding tests, the American Lung Association suggests you see a doctor if you notice shortness of breath, cough, wheezing, chest tightness, fatigue, or if you experience recurring lung infections. If you’ve been coughing up blood or coughing up mucus for a month or more, these are definitely signs that you should get tested.

So why is social media full of breath-hold tests? Because they are easy to make. The creators can spin them however they want: it’s a fun game. Or, let me make you worry about dying. Or here is a basic self-improvement test you can take.

The history of breath-hold tests is getting weird

The rabbit hole gets deep and weird. One video says that a certain breath-holding test is a “health test” and “the #1 longevity test,” and it’s called BOLT, which stands for “body oxygen test.” This test asks you to exhale and then hold your breath until you feel the urge to inhale, and appears to have been created or popularized under that name by Oxygen Advantage . This company sells, and I promise I’m not making up, lessons on how to breathe .

This version of the breath hold test has spin-offs all over TikTok. Some of them cite the scientific literature—often a 1975 article on the breath-hold test. But the test in this article allowed people to inhale first and hold their breath for as long as possible; in addition, the subjects breathed air mixtures containing a certain amount of carbon dioxide, and not room air. And most importantly: the test was offered to identify problems in people who could hold their breath longer than expected. In other words, it’s the opposite of everything TikTokers is saying.

In the past, breath holding tests have been suggested as a measure of fitness and health, but the reason you only hear about them on TikTok these days is because they don’t work. And we’ve known this for a long time: Here’s a 1947 study that presents data proving that breath-holding tests don’t correlate with cardio training at all (one of the things TikTokers claims you’ll improve if you can hold your breath longer ). ).

In the meantime, our friends at the American Lung Association, who actually study and treat lung disease, provide examples of lung function tests that doctors find helpful. These include spirometry (when you blow into the device), lung volume assessment, and exercise testing.

You can’t “cleanse” your lungs with herbs

So what does all this TikTok want you to do with your newfound knowledge that you can’t hold your breath for as long as you hoped and/or should have been able to? Well, a lot of them are trying to sell you stuff. (Mostly supplements, sometimes meditation gadgets , sometimes weight loss programs.)

But there are also detox recipes: “This is for my smokers and vapers,” says the host of one video, as they brew tea with ginger, ginseng, thyme, elderberry, and mullein leaves. Another recommends that “all my ston3rs” add “lung toning herbs like mullein and marshmallow root to save their lungs in the future.”

Some of these recipes and products are for people who are quitting smoking or vaping, but most seem to be the opposite: “If you’re going to keep vaping me, at least get that dirt out,” says a smiling pair of lungs in one herbal ad. additives. “POV: You smoke every day but use natural herbs to detoxify your lungs,” says another . Do you think your lungs look like this? the video reads showing you a pair of sooty lungs from a black smoker in an anatomy lab. “Then try this. All you need is ginger and water.”

It’s the classic “bait and switch”: swapping out something you know you need (to quit smoking) for something you want (to keep smoking because you’re drinking herbal tea).

You can’t actually do a lung detox . Drinking herbal tea has no special properties. And the inhalation of vapor, with or without the addition of herbs, such as mullein leaves, also has no evidence behind it . If it makes you feel good, fine; this is the traditional way of thinning mucus when you are sick. But it does nothing to counteract the damage that smoking or vaping has done to your lungs.

By the way, mucus is not the cause of lung disease (much less the sole root cause of all disease , as another video has claimed). This is part of how your body protects itself from damage and infections. So if you’re worried about your lung health, see a real doctor.