Actress and comedian Tiffany Haddish, 38, is fast becoming a fan favorite, thanks to widely-praised performances in tv sitcoms like The Carmichael Show and movies like Keanu and Girls Trip, along with her boisterous, earnest persona off-screen and on the stand-up stage. But for the love of god, do not take her health advice.
In an otherwise charming profile by GQ Magazineâs Caity Weaver out todayâwhich also features an anecdote about seeing BeyoncĂ© chomped on by another actressâHaddish is quoted offering Weaver an unique home remedy.
ââA teaspoon of turpentine will not kill you,â says Haddish with the breezy confidence of an unlicensed doctor. âThe government doesnât want you to know that if you have a cold, just take some turpentine with some sugar or castor oil or honey and itâll go away the next day.ââ
To Weaverâs credit, she gently tries to persuade Haddish that turpentine isnât the best thing to gulp down, given that itâs a toxic paint thinner, but to no avail. Haddish brushes aside Weaverâs appeal by pointing out that she got her information from a government source. She also adds that itâll give you âthe best doo-doo of your fucking life.â
Haddish isnât wrong that turpentine, a âvolatileâ solvent made from tree resin, probably wonât kill you if swallowed, according to Alfred Aleguas, managing director of the Florida Poison Center in Tampa. But it can definitely be serious trouble if it goes down the wrong pipe to your lungs.
âYou can white out a lung if aspirated either going down, or coming back up (if vomited, which is a real possibility),â he told Gizmodo via email. Whiting out is what happens when your lungs become so inflamed or surrounded by fluid that they look haunted when x-rayed. Itâs usually caused by other joyful complications such as a severe lung infection, traumatic injury, or cancer.
According to a lengthy rundown of case reports and studies collected by the National Toxicology Program (another evil government-run organization, it should be said), turpentine can be awful for the body no matter how youâre exposed to it. It can cause allergic rashes if it gets on the skin in large enough amounts; severe pain and swelling when it gets in your eyes; and the fumes it generates when used as a paint thinner can cause nausea, vomiting, and headaches when inhaled.
And if you inject it straight into your leg, as one misguided soul did in an effort to cure his chronic knee pain, you might end up in the hospital for three weeks with an infected knee.
Shockingly, thereâs not any peer-reviewed research about turpentine curing your sniffles, though. âNever mind that if there was such a simple cure for the common cold someone would have been all over it,â noted Aleguas.
Yet Haddish is hardly the first person to exalt the benefits of turpentine. She told Weaver that she learned about its miracle properties on YouTube. And a cursory glance there reveals dozens of videos, some with hundreds of thousands of views, that promote turpentine (rebranded as pine tree oil) as a panacea for all that ails us. Itâll destroy yeast infections, cure cancer, eliminate parasites, and somehow ward off gayness, these videos blare.
Try as I might, I couldnât find any results on Pubmed for âgay cureâ + âturpentine.â
Of course, thereâs no shortage of celebrities endorsing or selling absolutely bewildering health fads. But itâs always tantalizing in the worst way to see someone wander straight into Alex Jones land in real time. Celebs: Theyâre just like us!
If you suspect you or a loved one has been exposed to a hazardous substance or would like more information, please call the national poison help hotline at 1-800-222-1222 or text POISON to 797979 to save the number in your phone.
