Last summer, I bought a coupon for wellness services at Spice Wellness here in Calgary, mainly because one service was the ionic foot bath. I had heard stories about how effective this process was at removing toxins from the body and just wanted to try it out for myself.
An ionic foot bath, or detox, is a painless, relaxing treatment that uses salt water and electrodes to draw toxins from the body's various organs. Though not backed up by scientific research, this process has been used for generations as a way to heal the body and maintain overall health, especially in the Asian circles. As you sit through the 30 minute session, the water that your feet sit in changes colors - it initially turns are deep yellow, followed by various stages of orange, and sometimes even green/black. Each color means a different area of your body is getting cleansed:
Yellow - Kidneys/Bladder
Orange - Joints
Brown/Black - Liver
Green - Gallbladder
There are a few other signs of detoxification that you may see, including black flecks (indicating heavy metals), white foam (lymphatic mucous), and red spots (blood clots). Needless to say, once the session is over, the water is absolutely disgusting!!
Back to my Spice Wellness experience: The coupon also included Full Body Vibration sessions for 4 weeks, which I attended as regularly as I could with my busy schedule. Between these sessions and the foot baths (I had two), my skin cleared up dramatically and even had a healthy glow with minimal markings! My ND attributed this change to both the foot baths and the vibrations, proving to me that a healthy immune system is critical to managing this problem. The vibrations helped stimulate the movement of lymphatic fluid throughout my body, allowing it to more easily eliminate wastes and toxins that build up there. The foot baths pulled additional toxins out, further helping clear up my skin.
Now, a year later, as I fight my way through to the end of a summer cold (the worst!), my skin is bad again and I know I have a ton of toxins and lymph fluid that needs to be moved out of me. Last week, I had a scheduled foot bath appointment on Day 2 of this nasty cold, purely by coincidence. Going into the session, I felt horrible and just wanted to go home - my nose would not stop running, my sinuses were so plugged that my eyes were constantly watering, and my head hurt. But, I figured I could sit in a chair for 30 minutes, despite how awful I felt.
20 minutes into the foot bath, my water was a dark orange color, but absolutely filled with white foam! It was the worst I had ever seen it, and typically I have a lot of white foam. My boyfriend, conversely, had dark brown water and no foam, which I expected from someone who drinks a lot of diet coke and eats McDonald's almost every day (liver cleanse!).
And, then, almost instantly, as soon as the foot bath was over, I felt so much better. My nose had stopped running, my head hurt only slightly and my sinuses felt as though they'd opened up. For the remainder of the evening and into the next day, I still felt exhausted from fighting this cold, but the congestion had cleared up dramatically. Feeling less congested helped me sleep better, which incidentally sped up my recovery. Whether this is coincidence or not, I have to attest that I felt so much healthier after my foot detox, as I do after each and every one. It may be a farce, but I think there is benefit to taking part in a session every once in awhile.
Ironically, my holistic nutrition school researchers did a study on ionic foot baths and found that no actual detoxification occurs during a session. They determined that the water changed color because of rusting and heavy metal interactions between the water and electrodes. Water composition tested both before and after a session showed no signs of a change.
Whether you believe in ionic detoxification or not, it has helped me both with my ongoing acne battle and to reduce the length and severity of a head cold.
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