Sole Therapy

[tamaranth]

An exciting Friday night in Hassocks, West Sussex. I put my feet in a basin of water and was plugged into the mains.
It was Fun.

Aqua Detox
Originally uploaded by tamaranth.

I was in Hassocks (just down the road) for an Aqua Detox session, as recommended by a friend who works in holistic medicine. "It's great," she said, "you sit there and the most amazing filth comes out of your feet. Like gravy."

My feet are not fab at the best of times, and I have recently been trying to get rid of a lingering under-the-weather feeling: so I thought I'd give it a try, despite (shall we say) some scepticism about the scientific basis of it.

Liz (who does not have a website because she already has more than enough clients, all via word-of-mouth recommendations) played me some soothing music: bade me stick my feet in that there basin of warm water; pointed out the surge protector at the wall socket; and switched me on.

All I could feel was a slight tingling or vibration against the soles of my feet: odd, but scarcely perceptible. Liz fiddled around with saline solution until the display stopped oscillating between negative and positive numbers. (Apparently the saline solution is designed to get the salinity of the water into balance with the individual's salinity. Does this make any sense? Anyway, once she'd added enough, the numbers steadied.)

We sat there staring at the perfectly clear water for some minutes. "I've never seen this happen before," said Liz, rather cautiously.

Shy toxin syndrome, eh? But after a few minutes the water began to turn an odd greenish colour. And then it yellowed. And then it got darker, and murkier, and scummy.

I swear I had a bath this morning. And yesterday. And the day before.

By the end of the 30-minute session the tops of my feet were starting to tingle slightly, and my knees ached -- but that might have been from leaning forward, fascinated at the sight of all the ickiness coming out.

The treatment concluded with a brief foot massage, something I usually can't stand but didn't mind this time -- though I still don't especially care for the smell of peppermint foot lotion.

Coming home, I felt rather light-headed and floaty. My feet smell as though I've been wading through a swamp. A slightly minty swamp. But I do feel good, though oddly -- physically -- tired.

Back next Thursday for a second session (special deal for friends of friends). Quick, quick: must retox!

Comments

[zotz]

There's a possible explanation here>/A>.

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

perfectly possible. (I make no claims!) Will be interested to see if the colour/time profile is the same next time.

[ivory-goddess.livejournal.com]

I was going to say that Grauniad 'Bad Science' had done something about that recently. But I probably wouldn't have gone & found the link...

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

Why stop with the feet? Next time you're in the bath, drop a live hairdryer in the water and see how much better you feel afterwards.

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

Funny you should say that: it's what one of my classmates at school did after a family argument. I did wonder, sitting there yesterday, if there had been a correspondingly greater 'release of toxins' as he died.

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

Wow! Weird!

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

oops, LiveJournal pointed me to wrong 'reply' thing! ... yes, it was weird, but very relaxing.

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

You had me goin' with that first reply. Had to see who it belonged to, and am now struck with the dark hilarity of it.

But stevegreen is essentially correct. Are you sure this is safe??

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

perfectly safe: electrical current is tiny, compared to your average appliance.

[akicif.livejournal.com]

water began to turn an odd greenish colour. And then it yellowed. And then it got darker, and murkier, and scummy.

Sounds incredibly like Fe⁺⁺ dissolving off one electrode, getting oxidised to Fe³⁺ and then reacting with OH^- to give you a nice scum of Fe₂O₃ - "what zotz said", basically....

[darth-tigger.livejournal.com]

It may all be scientifically bollocks (in fact I'm reasonably convinced it is). But look at what you did get out of it - 30 minutes of feeling important, worthwhile, pampered and the centre of the universe. 30 minutes of an Liz's time. 30 minutes being forced to sit still and relax. 30 minutes of being distracted from whatever usually stresses you while you stare at water going brown and think "cor, look at that!" And a relaxing foot massage to finish off.

Sounds to me like you definitely got something out of it, even if it's not what they claim you will. Which makes it worth it, in my book (as long as the treatment isn't actually harmful). Headology is often underrated.

[darth-tigger.livejournal.com]

Where did that "an" come from? Why did I type "an Liz"? I swear, the "Post Comment" button wakes up the computer gremlins who stick random words in the middle of my text.

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

As other people have noted, there's a rather more prosaic explanation (http://www.devicewatch.org/reports/aquadetox.shtml) for the murkiness. But I also agree with the view that any therapy that gets you to site with your feet in warm water for half an hour is likely to make you feel better.

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

absolutely -- and I reckon there's probably a little bit of massage-like stimulation going on, too. I do not buy the science, as 'explained' (or rather, alluded to) by Liz: but it was very pleasant and I left feeling better than when I went in.

Colour Change

[(Anonymous)]

There's another explanation for the colour change given over here (http://thedetoxteam.blogspot.com/2006/03/well-i-suppose-good-way-to-blast-off.html)

Colour Change

[(Anonymous)]

There's another explanation for the colour change given over here

http://thedetoxteam.blogspot.com/2006/03/well-i-suppose-good-way-to-blast-off.html"

Sorry first time at this, not got the hang of embeding links, maybe a mod can correct