Coffee Enemas Are Trending On Social Media. Here Are The Dangers

When you order some coffee at say a coffee shop, you may be asked whether you’d like it in a mug or a cup. But, on social media, numerous posts are telling you to put your coffee somewhere else. Yep, on TikTok, Instragram, X and other such platforms, you’ll find folks touting the supposed “perks” of getting coffee enemas, ranging from relieving bloating to “detoxing” you to preventing and treating cancer. But you’ve got to wonder how many of these claims are backed by real science or whether in the end a coffee enema may do you more harm than good.

What Is An Enema?

This isn’t the first time I have written about enemas or even coffee enemas. I covered in Forbes previously the coffee enema kit that was being sold on Goop for $135 back in 2018. But given that coffee enema claims seem to be coming out even more in 2025, it is probably worthwhile going over what we know about it and whether any new evidence has since emerged.

If you don’t know what an enema is, here’s a suggestion: don’t ask someone for one until you for sure know what it is. Otherwise, you may be in for a bit of a surprise. An enema is when you inject some type of fluid up into your rectum and potentially even further up into your colon. Once in your colon, the enema typically will further stimulate peristalsis of your colon. Peristalsis is the involuntary contractions that the muscles of your intestines make to move food and other stuff along. Causing your colon to contract more aggressively will soon expel the enema liquid along with a lot of the contents of the colon, meaning a lot of poop there is.

There are legit medical reasons to get an enema. One is prior to a medical procedure like a colonoscopy. The doctor may want to empty out the contents your colon as much as possible in order to get a clearer look at the colon itself. After all, you don’t want your doctor to say, “I can’t see [bleep]

,” because there is too much bleep in there.

Another legit reason is to treat fairly severe constipation. That doesn’t mean that you should opt for an enema as soon as you feel constipated. A doctor will usually first suggest lifestyle changes such as changing your diet, drinking more water and getting more physical activity to get your gut moving more. While enemas can unclog things quite effectively, using them too often can disrupt your intestinal lining and electrolyte and water balance. Therefore, using an enema as a first-line treatment for all types of constipation would be sort of like using an axe to cut a piece of cake.

But once an enema is needed, there are already a number to choose from at your local CVS, Rite Aid or Walgreens with ingredients that you don’t typically find at your local Starbucks. For example, a Fleet’s Phosphosoda Enema has as it’s main component sodium phosphate. Saline solution enemas consist of a salt water solution. Mineral oil enemas are comprised of mineral oil. So why then would you even consider putting coffee up there?

What Claims Are Being Made About Coffee Enemas?

Well, some wellness influencers are claiming that coffee enemas can help “detox” you. These claims are based in large part on the so-called “autointoxication” theory, that over time undigested food, toxins and other things harmful to your health build up in your body, especially in your colon. The argument is that periodically getting enemas can essentially flush all of this bad stuff out of your colon, sort of like how you would flush a toilet, except the toilet is you. The assertion is that coffee is particularly good at promoting peristalsis and thus good at cleaning out your colon.

In addition, there are claims that different compounds in coffee can further decrease the toxins and inflammation in your body. For example, coffee has palmitic acid and cafestol, which supposedly can stimulate the production of a detoxifying enzyme called glutathione S-transferase in your liver. It also has some theophylline, which supposedly has an anti-inflammatory effect on your intestines.

Are The Coffee Enema Claims Backed By Any Science?

But are these claims sound enough to justify getting coffee, well, up your butt? Are they actually backed by science? Or are they full of you know what? Well, most of these wellness influencers and social media posts haven’t been citing any real scientific studies to support what they are saying. Offering anecdotes and “reports” of what’s happening with their clients is not the same as rigorous independent scientific studies that have undergone scientific peer-review and been published in reputable scientific journals. You can claim that your clients feel better and have more energy after getting a coffee enema. But who knows if the clients really felt that way and what may be behind those effects.

Speaking of scientific peer-reviewed studies, searching PubMed won’t reveal much support for these claims. A publication in the Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology chronicled how the “autointoxication” theory has been around since ancient times but has never really been supported by enough scientfic evidence. Yet, this theory has continued for years—centuries, in fact—to give rise to a wide range of colonic quackery.

There has also been a systematic review that was published in a 2020 issue of the journal Medicine of all coffee enema-related scientific publications.