Health officials inspected a well-known dhamma retreat centre in Bangkok on Wednesday, following a report about a woman thought to have died after detox therapy at the centre and at her home in Nakhon Ratchasima.
Boonruang Triruangworawat, director-general of the Department of Health Service Support, said a team from the department's Bureau of Sanatorium and Art of Healing was sent to inspect the dhamma retreat centre, which also offers detoxification treatments.
This type of health service comes under the spa health category in the Public Health Ministry's announcement on outlets offering health promotion services and beauty salons, Dr Boonruang said.
If the team finds the dhamma centre is not registered under the ministerial announcement, it will be considered illegal, he said.
No further information about the inspection was immediately available.
Dr Boonruang was responding to a post on a Facebook page by a woman calling herself Phi Aew, who related a story about the sudden death of another woman named Aoy. She is said to have died after undergoing multiple detox treatments at the centre.
According to Phi Aew, Aoy returned home on Tuesday evening after spending two or three days at the dhamma retreat for herbal detox therapy during which she was allowed to only eat some fruit and drink coconut juice and bai ya nang (Tiliacora triandra) concoctions.
Upon arriving home, Aoy complained she had a headache and chest pains, according to the Facebook post.
She sought advice from the centre but was assured the symptoms were common signs of toxins being flushed out of the body.
Aoy was also told by the centre to apply hot and cold compresses to her head and rinse her hair with water, which she did and went to bed.
After waking up the following morning, Aoy complained she was starving but did not have anything for breakfast except coconut juice, under instructions from the centre, said the post.
Aoy was too weak to cut open a coconut to drink its juice and she went to lie down on a sofa while waiting for Phi Aew to prepare coconut juice for her, according to the post. Suddenly, Aoy began suffering seizures and died before an ambulance arrived.
Phi Aew said she tried to resuscitate Aoy but was unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, Suriya Wongkongkathep, director-general of the Department for Development of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine, has warned practitioners that multiple detoxification treatments can cause severe reactions including death.
He said the human body has ways to rid itself of toxic substances, but detoxification treatment may remove larger amounts. Multiple detoxification treatments can be harmful especially if the practitioners do not consume anything besides juice, Mr Suriya said.