Does High Voltage Detox work for addiction? In short, no.
High Voltage Detox is a brand of drinks and supplements that is supposed to help remove “toxins” from your urinary tract. These detox drinks are meant to help people pass urine drug tests.
To do so, the product can dilute drug metabolites. The detox drink also has B vitamins and creatine to replenish the color of diluted urine.
The dilution process is a way for drug users to pass a urinalysis lab test, regardless of why you have to take it.
Using this product, you would not pass a blood test, hair test, or saliva test. Using a detox drink can theoretically help you pass a urine test in a short period. Even so, this has nothing to do with actually detoxing from a substance or dealing with addiction.
What is High Voltage Detox?
High Voltage is a range of products that claim to speed up the removal of toxins from your body. The ingredients are supposed to stimulate metabolic processes in your kidneys and liver.
Then, in theory, that would remove toxins via your urinary tract. People also use homemade detox drinks and online options like High Voltage.
Ingredients include:
- Burdock root is a diuretic that might make you urinate more often.
- Caffeine can promote your liver’s detox response.
- Creatine monohydrate helps your urine appear less diluted.
- Echinacea purpurea extract is a laxative and diuretic.
- Milk thistle extract detoxifies the liver and boosts metabolism.
- Guarana seed extract can cleanse the bowels and urinary tract.
- Uva ursi leaf increases how much you urinate.
- Vitamin B complex to restore the yellow color to your urine.
- Vitamin C releases toxin levels built up in fat cells.
Overall, a detox drink isn’t a good quick-fix if you want to pass a drug test. They aren’t reliable, even though they may work for some people.
If you’re trying to go through detox at home quickly as a way to stop using drugs, these drinks aren’t the answer either. Using a liquid detox drink can be ineffective and can even be unsafe.
Why Would Someone Use High Voltage?
If you use drugs, by prescription or illegally, you could theoretically use a detox drink to pass a drug urine test.
A drug test can look for the presence of one or multiple illegal or prescription drugs in your urine. There are also blood, saliva, hair, and sweat drug tests. Urine tests are the most common screening. Drugs that are most often tested for include:
- Marijuana
- Opioids like heroin or prescription medications such as oxycodone
- Methamphetamine and other amphetamines
- Steroids
- Cocaine
You could have to undergo drug testing for employment, to participate in sports, or for legal purposes. If you use prescription opioids for chronic pain, your doctor may also require a drug test to make sure you’re taking the correct dose.
If your drug test results are negative, it means no drugs were in your body, or the levels were below an established level. If the results are positive, there’s the presence of drugs. False positives can happen, so you may have to undergo more testing if you get a positive outcome.
How Long Do Drugs Stay In Your System?
Individual factors play a significant role in how long drugs stay in your system. For example, your health, age, weight, sex, and the dose you use are relevant.
- A drug’s half-life is part of how long it will stay in your system too.
- The half-life of a drug is how long it takes for the concentration of the substance to drop by 50% in your body.
- A drug with a longer half-life will stay in your body longer.
- That means the drug will be detectable on a drug test for longer.
- The half-life of a substance is relevant if you’re going through withdrawal symptoms too.
- Drugs with a short half-life, such as heroin, will create withdrawal symptoms faster than substances with long half-lives.
You could expect heroin to appear on a urine drug test for one to three days. Cocaine might show up for two to three days, and marijuana up to seven days after your last use. Meth can appear on a urine drug screening for up to three days and MDMA for four days.
Detox Kit vs. Medical Detox
If you want to detox from drugs, the best thing you can do is go to a professional substance or opiate detox center rather than buying a detox kit or supplement online.
- Medical detox includes supervision, so you stay comfortable and safe as your body eliminates harmful toxic substances.
- At detox facilities, based on your needs, you might receive medication, fluids, or supplements.
- Someone will be monitoring you around the clock for withdrawal symptoms and providing medical care.
Using a detox kit or drink will in no way eliminate or reduce withdrawal symptoms. The two have nothing to do with one another. Withdrawal occurs when your body is trying to readjust to a sense of stability after extended drug or alcohol use.
If you don’t receive medical supervision during the detox process, you could face dangerous or life-threatening withdrawal symptoms.
There are both inpatient and outpatient supervised detox options available. There are also FDA-approved medications for withdrawal, particularly for opioids. Medication-assisted treatment for opiate addiction can help reduce withdrawal symptoms and cravings for prescription painkillers and heroin.
Detox vs. Addiction Treatment
When you detox from drugs or alcohol, this is a way to deal with the physical symptoms of dependence. Drug dependence is a physiological response to ongoing substance use.
Your brain and body start to depend on the substance with repeated use. Your brain chemicals change to accommodate your substance use. This impacts the function of your brain.
If you stop using the substance you depend on, your body’s sense of “normalcy” is disrupted. That disruption causes the withdrawal process.
According to the Mental Health Services Administration, withdrawal from benzodiazepines and alcohol tends to have the most severe potential side effects. For example, in severe but rare cases, detoxing from alcohol can cause delirium tremens. Delirium tremens can lead to seizures and death if not appropriately managed.
Withdrawal from other drugs like opioids is not usually life-threatening but is very hard to deal with.
Symptoms of withdrawal can include:
- Anxiety
- Changes in blood pressure
- Problems sleeping
- Flu-like symptoms
- Gastrointestinal problems like nausea or diarrhea
- Cramps or body aches
- Sweating
- Runny nose
- Goosebumps
- Hot and cold flashes
Treating withdrawal symptoms is essential for your recovery journey, but this doesn’t address your addiction.
Addiction is separate from physical dependence. Addiction to drugs or alcohol is complex and involves your brain’s function and mental health. Addiction treatment targets the underlying factors leading to substance abuse, such as mental health disorders, through an individualized treatment plan.
You can fully detox from drugs without receiving treatment for your actual addiction. If that’s the case, the chances of relapse are incredibly high. Comprehensive treatment, including behavioral therapy, is needed for long-term recovery from a substance use disorder.
Seeking Treatment in Southern California
If you’d like to learn about healthy, effective medical detox programs and addiction treatment options, please reach out to The Right Time Recovery team by calling 800-630-1218. We can help you get on the road to recovery and drastically improve your quality of life.
