Ionic foot baths have become a popular method to detoxify the entire body and re-balance the bio-energy field as well. The foot baths are based on the idea that by soaking your feet in a gentle (1.5 volt) galvanic (battery) current, all the toxins in your body will leave through your feet. Many people have proven this is a hoax, although the foot baths can make you feel better due to the electric current running through your body.
History
In the Victorian era, as electricity became more mainstream, many people tried to harness its power and use it for all manner of things. According to Elizabeth de la Pena in an article in the "Journal of Design History," electric belts were popular up until the 1920s as a way of adding vitality and strength to the body. This is the era when electroconvulsive therapy was used to treat depression. Though it is restricted now, ECT is actually a success story. Many people have and can be safely treated for depression through electric currents being run through their bodies.
Features
The bath is a small, white foot bath. This is filled with salt water, and your feet are placed in it. A metal "array" is placed in the bath, which is attached to a machine that acts like a transformer, taking the electric current from the wall and converting it to a lower charge. The array is attached with a plastic-coated wire. Another wire comes from the transformer and is attached with a strap to the patient's wrist. This completes the electric circuit. Now the feet are soaked for about 30 minutes while a 1.5-volt battery charge courses through your body.
Benefits
There is evidence the electric current can make changes in your body chemistry by a process called ionization. This theory suggests the ions in the water create the same energizing effect as standing near a waterfall or taking a walk on a beach at the ocean side. There is also the claim the foot bath balances the Chi in the body. The idea is that the electric current running through your body subtly balances the bio-energy field in the body, resulting in the feeling of calmness many people experience after the foot bath.
Detoxifying
We live in a world of polluted food, air and water. The Center for Disease Control has shown more than 60 toxic compounds in the 2000 people it tested in 2005, according to a news report on WPXI in Pittsburgh. According to the same news report, in 2004, the Environmental Working Group found an average of 200 industrial chemicals in the umbilical cord blood of 10 infants born in U.S. hospitals in August and September of that year. We do excrete toxins from our skin, via sweating, but not from soaking our feet in a warm bath of ionized water. The small amount of toxins eliminated through this method would not amount to much, if any at all, according to a well-researched report in "Spa Index."
Misconceptions
As your feet soak in the warm salty bath, the water begins to turn a gunky brown-orange color. Many people selling this device tell their clients this is due to toxins leaving their bodies. What is actually turning the water these colors is a process called electrolysis. The metal begins to rust in the salty water, letting off more and more gunky looking material into the water. This material, interestingly enough, according to a video on YouTube, does not change if left at room temperature for more than 10 days. If this material were organic---in other words, if it were bacteria---yeast and other toxins from your body, it would begin to decompose. It would stink, and the bacteria, for example, would flourish. Instead, since the substance is almost entirely iron oxide, it remains the same as when it came out of the bath. A simple proof has been done many times: place anything in the foot bath (a Barbie doll, a carrot, a piece of celery), and the same gunk comes out.
Tags: your body, electric current, foot bath, through your, your feet, foot baths, Many people