Aqua Chi: The Ion Foot Bath needs an ats debunkin

Ok... so I've got heavy metal issues... played with mercury as a child... swim in lead paint as a professional... yuk

So I was recommended to a local "alternative medicine" establishment by a friend to get a foot bath that supposed-bly (this is ats) pulls heavy metals and toxins out of the soles of your feet.

Well... I walk into the place and there is a lady in the midst of a foot bath session; ankles deep in barley soup looking water.

The "nurse" "practitioner" tells me that different colors in the solution are indicative of different toxins... she hands me a chart:

Ammonia = kidney
Chlorine = whole body
Bubbling = gas in the gastrointestinal tract
Black = liver
Black flecks = Heavy metals
Brown = liver / pollution
Dark Green = gall bladder
Orange = stiff joints / muscular pain
Red flecks = blood clot material
White foam = mucous from lymph system
White particles = yeast
Yellow/green = kidney bladder, urinary/prostate
Oily surface = fatty lactic or uric acid

Hrmmm...

So next up in line I take off my socks and stick my feet into the warm water. The woman performing the detox adds a scoop of salt to the water and then plugs me in.... YES SHE PUTS AN ANODE AND CATHODE into the salty brine bath that my feet are in.

"well... here ya go..."

and the water begins to make little white bubbles; before long it begins to turn yellow. 15 minutes in I'm soaking in barley soup and chlorine gas is puffing up in my face... I think to myself... "I'd like to get my feet out of that nasty water now..." but I keep with it.

30 minutes in I've got thick barley soup with black pepper flakes.

So I was convinced and I paid for a session for the wifey.

We went back together a week later and this time the water was just a little nastier but about the same.

But wifey is getting skeptical (could you imagine that, my wife a skeptic?)

So we get into the internet research... oh Lord is there a paper trail on this one:

www.detox-online.com...
www.marystaggsdetox.com.au...
curezone.com...

Well I read and read as a good scholar should... whew...

I don't know what to think now.

Apparently the colors in the water mean nothing... and nothing is actually extracted from your feet... and the anode/cathode/salt water produced all the color changes in and of themselves...

but.

Allegedubly...

your internal organs are now ionically balanced and more likely to function properly leaving you more likely to thereby perhaps remove toxins yourself?

uh... help guys... I still have one more session in the electrofied salty brine paid for...

What do you think?

I am,

Sri Oracle

ps ATS SEARCH: "ion footbath" or "aqua chi" and you get the following google ads next to your search results:


The Ion Cleanse foot bath
The Original Ion Cleanse® foot
bath. Made in the USA.
www.amajordifference.com

Foot Detox Compare
Professional & Home Ion Detoxx
Safety Certified & Personal Service
www.footdetoxx.com

The Original Ion Cleanse®
Detox Footbath to Remove Toxins
Distributor Pricing
www.ioncleansedetoxfootbath.com

Detox Foot Spas on Sale
Improve your Health and Enhance Bio
Energy - Untis Starting at $299.99.
www.HikePro.com

Home of the Aqua Chi
Ionic Detox Foot Bath + Bonus DVD
5Yr Wty $1395 Natl Rep 800-349-6962
www.AquaChiFootBath.com

Ionic Foot Bath
100,000 Stores. Deals. Reviews.
Ionic Foot Bath & More!
shopping.yahoo.com

Ionic Detox Foot Spa
Professional Ionic Detox Foot Bath
models starting at just $279.99..
www.RicheSpa.com

Affordable Ionic Footbath
Detox Foot Bath Spa. US Mfg. &
sale of Ionic Foot Baths $460-$515
www.IonicOasis.com

Takara Detox Foot Patch ™
Detox your body while you sleep.
Authentic patch. Doctor recommended
www.TakaraPatch.com

I do so love a challenge !

"We did find a high amount of iron which again is a component of rust, iron oxide. So kind of supports the theory that the electric current is just oxidizing the metal rods and not really affecting your feet."

From Here.

What did P.T. Barnum used to say ?

Regards,
Lex

I'd look into actual Chelation Therapy before going to a practitioner of alternative medicine. DMSA and EDTA are the substances used for heavy metal detoxification. DMSA apparently can cross the blood-brain barrier so can get the pesky molecules that have taken up residence in your gray matter.

But taking stuff out through your feet? Even without Lexion's post, it sounded like so much hogwash to me.

The first thing that would raise the "scam alert" in my brain would be the simple claim of the process saying they can expel toxins through the feet. There are only a few things that are allowed to leave the skin tissue in humans through reverse osmosis, and toxins are not one of them. Human skin tissue is covered with a fibrous protein called Keratin that prevents the release of most everything through the skin, and if it wasn't for this protection your blood would be able to seep through your skin quite easily. There is absolutely no way that an electrical current, even at a higher voltage, will displace the bonds held by Keratin and skin cells.

Here is something I found about this Aqua Detox program and it's supposed "inventor" Mary Staggs:

www.devicewatch.org

Some marketers admit that the colors are due entirely to electrode conversion, and there is less emphasis on toxin removal and more emphasis on the "balancing" of "energy" that is not measurable with scientific instruments (and is therefore untestable.)

www.devicewatch.org...

Can Ions "balance your energy"?

Can you come out of a foot bath with your chakras more in line?

Can having balanced energy promote the natural removal of toxins by your own organs after your treatment?

I personally am leaning "blair witch" on this one... but I have a customer/friend who does rave about her weekly footbath and insists that I should consider addtional treatments for my heavy metals.

MM, on the subject of chelation... I have read up on and to this point avoided such as I am really anal retentive about no preservatives or chemicals in my diet. EDTA is something that I have already "given up" as a preservative and I am not ready to cast my faith in intensive EDTA treatments. My concern is largly in what does the edta do besides bind to metals and does it ALL leave your system?

For now, I think I'm sticking to the high fiber diet... wild rice, barley, and oatmeal.

I do have one more treatment bought and paid for in the electrofied brine...

Should I go?

“There's a sucker born every minute” - PT.... or wait... was it David Hannum?

Sri

from wiki
EDTA is mostly synthesised from 1,2-diaminoethane (ethylenediamine), formaldehyde (methanal), water and sodium cyanide. [2] This yields the tetra sodium salt, which can be converted into the acidic forms by acidification.

For some reason I was more cool with sticking my feet in electrified brine to get rid of some of the headaches than I was consuming something brewed of cyanide and formaldehyde.

Sri