It’s meant to boost your health but Minnesota doctors caution that this alternative health remedy can send you or a loved one to the emergency room.
Six people have been treated at Hennepin County Medical Center this year for injuries sustained after accidentally drinking highly concentrated hydrogen peroxide.
Although these were accidental cases in which the patients thought the odorless, colorless liquid was water, there are people intentionally drinking diluted hydrogen peroxide as a natural treatment for sinus infections, inflammation and other ailments.
“The way people describe it is that they take three drops of concentrated peroxide and dissolve it in about eight ounces of water and take it three times a day,” explained Dr. Ann Arens, a medical toxicologist at the Minnesota Poison Control System. “There are a bunch of websites and YouTube videos. There’s no science behind any of it helping. There’s no benefit of doing it, and it really opens you up to a lot of potential harm.”