Can an Ionic Foot Bath Detox My Body?

The present ionic foot detoxification are MOSTLY fakes based on their claims for a couple of reasons. The real answer may surprise you, but it should be noted that it is not ONLY found in the ionic foot detoxification, and the healing effect does not come from pulling out toxic chemicals from the body using this "ionic" effect.

The method of ionic foot detoxification needs a water with added sea water for the electrodes, probably direct current, to conduct electricity to work. The electrodes used in ionic detoxification contains iron electrodes and causes discoloration responsible for the dramatic color changes.

As a proof, using an ionic foot detoxification machinery, a foot was never put into the solution, but the cloudy color appeared anyway. An analysis of this strange color were iron oxide, which is brown red, but color can vary depending on the salt impurities and salt concentration.

A home analysis can be done by evaporating the water solution and you should get the brown red powdered dust, which is mostly iron oxide which gets pulled out from the iron electrodes whenever electricity conducts and the iron gets loose.

This principle works the same way if you use silver electrodes and you get a cloudy gray color, which is mostly silver, silver oxide, and some silver chloride if a salt solution is used.

A colloidal silver is prepared in a distilled water you get mostly silver and a gray color. The color varies, depending on the salt concentration much like the colloidal silver experiment, where a black cloudy water appears if a lot of salt is used, but a white cloud if less salt or no salt is used.

So in this instance color variation of the iron electrodes, based on my experience, comes from different kinds of sea salt and different concentration of sea salt, much like the colloidal silver experiment. The fun occurs whenever various metal electrodes are used, and you can get blue, green, orange, red and yellow solution. So a creative marketer can used different metallic electrodes to display different colors as varying concentrations of water is revealed, some other possible electrodes can have various metallic impurities to reveal different colors with copper, chromium, vanadium and other interesting "imporities" of the electrodes.

This phenomenon can also be replicated by adding sea salt to two electrodes with iron nail (one on positive and one on negative charge with D.C. power from using a small electrical adapter could cause the same water color to change the same way.

Since the water gets cloudy with or without the foot into the solution, we can conclude it doesn't work in removing toxic chemical from the body. If this were real, then the Poisoning Control Center would be out of business!

It should be noted that certain foot detoxification do work, by providing negative electrical charges to the body, but such instances should not cause water color to change and it works similarly to those who are familiar with the negative ion air generator, or negative ion filtering to filter out microscopic bacterium and invisible virues and fungus from the air.

However, I have not seen these kinds of devices in the market and presently the manufacturer or marketers have not yet addressed this issue. However, in a traditional foot detoxification in Asians, used by Japanese sauna consists of simply using sea salt in hot sauna, so that it is the sea salt used for foot detoxification.

The sea salt has an alkaline nature and the salinity kills trace bacteria in the foot. Some alkalinity do get through the body, but in a traditional hot sauna used for the feet, certain sauna water are high in sulfides and sulfates and it is these sulfur compounds that does the biochemical detoxification. But it does not pull the toxins out of the body, the sulfur compounds usually enters the body transdermally during a hot sauna bath, and they neutralize the chemical oxidants in the body. Of course, I prefer a more concentional methods in many of my remedy, simply by detoxification from the inside, by simply adding drops of 10% sodium thiosulfate, such as 5 drops per 1/2 glass of water, and in instances of ADHD & autistic children with behavioral problem (the blood oxidants are high) as much as 15 drops of sodium thiosulfate is used to cause calming effect in children within minutes. The sodium thiosulfates can or maybe found in many hot water springs with its "sulfur smell" or rotten egg odor smell, although the smell is weak, but it can be noticed too in a a sodium thiosulfate. A sodium thiosulfate is a reducing agent that neutralize chemical oxidants in the body, the alkaline water also has some negative charge using the sea salt, or the use of vitamin C sodium ascorbate (alkaline vitamin C!) using an affordable, pocket Oxidation Reduction Potential Meter which measures whether our body is in antioxidant or oxidant, but can be used to test out the solutions. In general, the larger the negative value of the reading of ORP, in millivolts, the more antioxidant it is and the greater the reducing capabilities. In general, an antioxidant solution exists in alkaline, while oxidants exists in acid. There are certain exceptions to this, but the topic is beyond this posting.

In fact I also used foot detoxification, but not anywhere close to an ionic one, using the old sauna method, which obviously does not require an expensive ionic devices.

I used two methods to detoxify my body, but it should be noted taking bath in a hot sauna may be more effective than just the feet. But the best traditional way to detoxify, take your pick does work well. Here is a couple of example where a foot detoxification I used are most effective:

'1. In warm gallon of water, 20 tablespoons of sea salt, plus 20 tablespoons of baking soda. This can be used as a foot detoxification or just taking bath in it. But in a bath water, tablespoons become cups at roughly speaking.

2. About 10 tablespoons of sodium thiosulfate crystals (available as "Hypo" from a camera supply store, or dechlorinator Sodium thiosulfate from a swimming pool supplier, with 10 tablespoon of baking soda. This I used either for bath or foot detox.

Both methods work by transdermal absorption and neutralises toxin, rather than "pulling out" of toxins. These methods work in many ways. However, there is a limite pulling out as in the case of excess heavy metal toxicity as the body gets rid of it through the sweat glands during a hot sauna where the sodium thiosulfate once seeing the toxic sweat high in high heavy metals are then chelated and neutralize. Few people know that sodium thiosulfate chelates and remove mercury and other heavy metals but then so does N Acetyl Cysteine. In fact a weak tannic acid solution can chelate and neutralize and prevent the free radical metals by attaching themselves and reduces the free radical just the same. It is these less exciting methods that has worked for me well, but not it should be noted that I am not yet doing justice to the ionic foot detoxification.

As electrodes current moves in a water solution, a hydrogen gas and oxygen gas is liberated. In many healing water, or sacred healing water, or even in rain water, there is a high hydrogen content, but not high by absolute means in parts per billion. In a rain water it has both high hydrogen and oxygen, which causes the ORP meter to jump from positive to negative, as both exists in the solution much like small amount gas being liberated in electrodes as they liberate. But here is the strange thing, these hydrogen gas have NEGATIVE charges and you can easily prove this to yourself by liberating hydrogen gas (from a hydrogen tanks- quite expensive - but I have done it!) and measure the ORP, and the millivolts goes easily to negative -600 millivolts. A person with trace hydrogen gas with burn wounds can cause an accelerating healing effects in present of hydrogen gas, of only parts per billion or parts per million. In chemistry I do get exposed to disinformation now and then, such as whenever hydrogen gas is liberated in an electrolysis of water, where two parts hydrogen on one end (the ones with the most gas!) and one part on the other end, namely oxygen, the one end of hydrogen, in theory should be H2. However H2 gases should have NEUTRAL charges, which is does not, since the ORP would show a strongly NEGATIVE charges of at least -600 millivolts. A human urine, has only a negative ORP around -60 millivolts to -120 millivolts, but not nearly anywhere close to those value. And it is this that has the healing properties. Japanese researcher knew this and they market this product as Kangen water or Microwater, being rich in negative hydrogen, but interestingly, the negative hydrogen gas in most stable in an ALKALINE solution. Of course I can talk all day with this, but there is SOME healing effect from these liberating gases in an ionic foot detox machine.

But this too can be duplicated by developing two carbon electrodes (you DO NOT need iridium platinum electrodes, such as those used in Kangen water maker, perhaps to maximize their profit using expensive electrodes) and a show lace weak salt water bridge between two glass is used. One carbon electrodes is placed in one glass of weak salt water, and another carbon electrodes is placed in another weak salt water, and a shoelace "salt water bridge is formed". When a direct current from a milliamp, 12 volts or 24 volts is applied the gas liberate. Without the need to know which one is the antioxidant water, and which ones is the oxidant water, you can use either the ORP meter or the pH meter to find it. The antioxidant water will be the alkaline one, with the negative hydrogen, and the oxidant one will be the acid one, with the positive hydrogen. The basic chemical sequence in creating this in a salt water bridge will creeate this:

H2O NaCl -> HCl NaOH

The HCl goes on the acid side The NaOH goes on the alkaline side

But as electricity is applied this happens also:

2H2O -> 2H O2 O H2

The 2H has a strong negative charge, and some H2 appears on the alkaline side, while the O2 and O may appear on the other side of the oxidant end. I don't know if O exists very much as I never studied them, but there might be a slight trace. This part is never explained to you in Kangen water or microwater, otherwise they can't sell the machine if you just used only a carbon rod and shoelaces.

In summary, detoxification foot machine, as far as I am aware doesn't pull out the toxic chemical from the foot, most of them is iron being produced from the electrodes, when placed in a salt water solution. The unique color variation occurs because different concentrations of sea salt and metal impurities occur from the electrodes. There may be some detoxification but the mechanism at work may not be what is claimed by the marketer. A more practical method is to use the traditional sauna as part of the detoxification process.

Hello, I had a complimentary foot detoxification at a spa this past weekend. I not only felt the tingling, but like a burning sensation from time to time on different parts of my feet during the 30 minute process. I noticed when I got home that I have 4 circular red spots on my right foot.. Not painful, but they look like sores that are healing (that I did not have before)... Do you know what these are????