Ionizing footbaths may remove heavy metals, relieve stress and pain, and relieve headaches.
Ionizing footbaths go by many names, including detox footbath, cell spa footbath, ionic detox foot bath, water detox, aqua detox and energetic footbath. Practitioners who offer ionizing footbath treatments such as chiropracter Sandra Talt claim that they detoxify the body through the pores in the feet. Massage Midwest, a Kansas massage clinic that offers the footbath treatments, reports that clients may need daily footbath sessions during early detoxification, then weekly or monthly sessions to maintain health. However, speculation exists as to the veracity of manufacturers' claims, and some people, including Dr. Andrew Weil of DrWeil.com, suggest ionizing footbaths are a scam.
Purpose of an Ionizing Footbath
According to her article in "Alaska Wellness," Sandra Talt, D.C., who offers ion detoxification treatments in Alaska, the purpose of an ionizing footbath is to draw toxins out of the body through the feet. She says that toxins accumulate throughout the day from the environment, pesticides in food, hormones, antibiotics, exhaust fumes and stress. The cleansing of toxins from organ systems such as the lymphatic system, kidneys and liver may improve your quality of life, restoring energy and health, she says.
How Ionizing Footbaths Work
Ionizing footbaths are tubs filled with water, salt and a coil, which iodizes the water, says manufacturers. You sit with your feet in the water for approximately 30 minutes. Your feet contain more than 2,000 pores, so they are considered the best place from which to excrete toxins from the body. According to footbath manufacturers, the toxins pulled from the feet change the color of the water. Massage Midwest reports that the colors may represent the different organs being cleansed: yellow for kidney and bladder; orange and brown for the joints; and green-brown and black for the liver, gallbladder and bowel.
Who Shouldn't Use Ionizing Footbaths
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not evaluated the ionizing footbath for medical purposes, as of 2011. Wellness centers that offer the treatments recommend that some people avoid using the footbaths. They include: pregnant women, lactating women, children under age 4, people with pacemakers, organ transplant recipients, people with hemophilia and people medicated with blood thinners, anti-spasmodics, psychotic episodes and epilepsy medicines. The reason behind the contraindications, according to Talt, is that detoxification through the feet may pull medications out that are necessary to maintain health, or that the detoxification may stir up additional toxins that can be transferred to a fetus through the placenta or through the breast milk to a breastfeeding infant.
Potential Scam
Little research has been done to prove the integrity of the ionizing footbath. In a February 2007 Q&A article on his website, DrWeil.com, Dr. Andrew Weil pointed to ionizing footbaths as being a scam, citing an investigation conducted by Ben Goldacre, a writer for the British online newspaper "Guardian Unlimited." Goldacre collected samples from a co-worker's footbath and also from a bowl of salt water with two metal nails, charged by a car battery. Upon testing the samples, Goldacre discovered that both samples were brown because of increased iron content. His determination was that the brown color in the footbath water came from the corrosion of the electrodes or coil in the salt water, and that the water would have changed color whether there were feet in the bath or not. Talt claims that anyone can monitor changes in toxin levels through hair analysis and blood tests as well as by having the sediment water tested after ionizing footbath sessions.
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