This sounds like something straight out of a 19th-century novel, but a celeb really did this. In 2008, Demi Moore told David Letterman: “I was in Austria doing a cleanse and part of the treatment was leech therapy. These aren’t just swamp leeches though — we are talking about highly trained medical leeches.” Demi claimed she felt fantastic, and the leeches helped “clean her blood.” But what’s the real deal?

“[Leeches] are an old Asian remedy, and it’s not really detoxing,” says Lipman. “It may work on a small part of the detox system, but you need to support the liver and the gut for a true detox.” If you really want to try a cleanse, Lipman suggests the Be Well Cleanse, $199, which uses supplements and probiotic shakes — and two small meals a day. Eating sounds good to me.