Cleansers...have you used them? Which ones? Are they safe

I don't believe cleanses are necessary, and in my opinion, they're unwise and a waste of money. The basic strategy behind any 'cleanse' is to deprive yourself of a significant number of calories for a given period of time. Some cleanses also include laxatives (either natural or man-made) and/or diuretics. You often do lose a lot of weight and you lose it fast. Some of the weight loss is water-weight. Some of it might be fat and/or muscle. Regardless, it's hard to sustain a cleanse and it's probably common for people to 'binge' and regain shortly after a cleanse.

Regarding safety... that depends entirely on the cleanse and the length of "treatment". Your body can endure a lot of abuse So... odds are, you're not going to cause permanent damage with a cleanse. However... you're not really doing your body a favor by depriving it of needed nutrients. I can't imagine you'll feel your best on a prolonged cleanse, but some people swear that they do (I chalk that up to a strong placebo effect, but that's just me).

I will always be in favor of 'slow and steady'. You just can't go wrong with that strategy.

OxyClean is amazing. It got red wine out of a white fabric chair before our very eyes! It's also good in laundry as a color-safe bleach, and does a swell job cleaning brewing equipment.

I agree with LabRat529 and would like to provide you with some additional reading/listening:

Skeptoid about detoxification myths: http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4083

The Skeptic's Dictionary on detoxification: http://www.skepdic.com/detox.html

Also, if you're interested in how to apply a skeptical eye to weight loss claims, my favorite "diet" book at the time is Tom Venuto's book The Body Fat Solution: http://www.amazon.com/The-Body-Fat-Solution-Maintaining/dp/1583333290 which has great goal setting tips, as well as real healthy fat burning advice (eat right, exercise, set realistic goals to get there.)

one product called Advocare

Notice how on the website for Advocare everything they sell has * next to the claims of what it can do? That points to this statement:

* These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Meaning they're selling BS. They can't actually make the claims that these things work because they don't. They leave those statements to their dealers and customers to make... your friends' anecdotes are supposed to compel you to buy the product. Then once you've done that, you may as well become a distributor to save money buying the stuff, right?

More Skeptoid, more interesting facts about network marketing. I hope you're not taken in by the scam and maybe you can even help your friends stop falling for it as well.

http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4176

For example:

In a Wisconsin lawsuit, the tax returns of the top 200 of 20,000 network marketing participants were examined by the Attorney General. The average income of this top 1% was -$900.