Still Rusty Results in Aqua Detox Foot Bath
Just recently, the world of alternative medicine was treated to yet another fantastical braid of phenomenal health system. People of the United States saw the aqua detox foot bath, and how it was supposed to leech out from your body harmful toxins accumulated from years of smog, wrong diet, and medicines. Just by using a foot basin filled with salted water, plus a detoxifying array that subjects the water with low voltage electricity. And on the patients' part, they are treated to a convincing visuals that show clear water turning reddish brown with blobs of "cholesterol" grease floating thinly on the surface. Toxins do appear to be leeched from the body. Not only that, aqua detox foot bath is said to cure a humungous palette of diseases, ranging from the simple cold and flu to really grave ones like cancer and aids. Such wild health claims should have made critics and experts descend on the issue like an osprey to a mouse. But due to the potential of making a libellous claim, sceptics and experts instead bit their tongues.
Ben Goldacre, had stated in his article entitled Rusty Results (See Guardian Unlimited, Thursday September 2, 2004) that he could have, from the start, told everyone that is must be a scam. After all, says he, the aqua detox foot bath uses a pair of metal electrodes to pass an electric current using a salted water medium. When one thinks back of general chemistry, such electrolysis procedure can precipitate rust through oxidation. Water after all is one part oxygen and two parts hydrogen. There are important element to consider too, that one of the electrodes should be made of iron, and the water should contain an ion, whether by adding salt or chlorine. That is why some aqua detox foot bath practitioners uses the chlorine in the water (or else just plain tap water), with fabulous talks about the process also leeching out all the chlorine in the body. For a more in-depth explanation about electrolysis precipitating to rust, read Joe Schwarcz Ph.D.'s humorous article entitled ‘The Night I Bought a Water Filter'.
But because left unchecked, the alternative health method caught on like fire. With heavy endorsements, aqua d
etox footbath began appearing on prominent pages of magazines and newspapers. Aqua detox foot bath appeared star studded on The Sunday Post, dated 20th of October 2002, as well as on GQ, The Mirror Mag, Style, Tatler, Image, Hair & Beauty Inspirations and so many more. Television commercials began airing about these wonderful contraptions ensnaring converts by the thousands. The experts can only shake their heads.
