The Ionic Foot Bath

 Many years ago when I operated a health practice in Newcastle (Australia), I used micro current therapy to help my patients. That micro current therapy often showed astonishing results.

Electrotherapy certainly is not a new invention. In Germany health practitioners have been using micro current therapy (Feinstromtherapie) for over 100 years and it is believed that electrotherapy in one way or the other was used thousands of years ago. The Germans have developed a rather sensible theory around their micro current therapy. The theory says in short that every cell is a bit like a battery. If the battery is full it works well, but if it is empty it does not. Lately we hear a lot about ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate) which living beings can use like a battery ( http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/Hbase/biology/atp.html ). If the energy is high, the cell can function well, i.e. can take in nutrients and expel toxins. If the energy is low, this mechanism does not work well and toxins will build up.

The above web site explains how that works: The structure of ATP has an ordered carbon compound as a backbone, but the part that is really critical is the phosphorous part - the triphosphate. Three phosphorous groups are connected by oxygens to each other, and there are also side oxygens connected to the phosphorous atoms. Under the normal conditions in the body, each of these oxygens has a negative charge, and as you know, electrons want to be with protons - the negative charges repel each other. These bunched up negative charges want to escape - to get away from each other, so there is a lot of potential energy here.

As you can see there is a lot of electron involvement…and electrons are important for energy production and determine the health of individual cells and hence the organism as a whole.

An electric current is defined as a flow of electrons. Just as we can recharge a battery by plugging the power pack into the socket of an electric power outlet, we also can recharge the batteries of our cells through an electric current. There are many interesting articles on the internet dealing with that ‘re-charge’.

Here I will simply cite a couple of these web sites to arouse your interest.

http://www.medcareservice.com/Microcurrent-Therapy-Wave-of-the-Future-Article.cfm

http://www.biomsi.com/pdfs/PhysiologicalbasisofMicrocurrentTherapy2.pdf.

Famous German bio physicist, Professor F.A. Popp, states that all life processes are determined by electromagnetic phenomena. This is quite well understood today. The heart would not pump unless it receives an electro magnetic command from the brain. The heart muscles would not contract unless electro magnetic energy is involved. Cells even talk to each other by means of electromagnetic information. This is called cell it cell to cell signalling…and so we could go on.

Recently on one of my trips to China I came across a different form of electro therapy…the ionic foot bath. Actually I had been involved with ionic foot baths before.

Initially I was quite excited about the potential of the ‘ionic foot bath’. Here was a rather simple device with the potential to heal without doing any harm. But when I looked at the claims of those people selling it, I became a bit suspicious.

It was claimed that the detoxification of the body could be seen in a dark and sometimes black discolouration of the water in the foot bath. If that were true, literally ‘tons’ of toxins would have to be removed from the body. Of course I wanted to know more about that ‘miraculous’ device. When I was offered to have one such ionic foot bath sent to me for evaluation I accepted and agreed immediately.

The ionic foot bath basically consists of a plastic basin, and an ‘array’ which is in most cases a wire coil in a plastic casing. The coil is placed in the basin with water to conduct electricity. The water has to have a certain conductivity which can be adjusted by means of salt, for example. There should be not too much conductivity since otherwise the metal coil will dissolve very quickly. On the other hand there should not be too much resistance (too little conductivity) either since the current could not flow.

All that made sense. The only thing that worried me was the ‘black water’ and the claim that all this ‘horrible stuff’ came out of the body.

When the device arrived I did some simple initial tests. First I filled the basin with water to the level where it should be and then I added some salt until the conductivity meter indicated that the conductivity was right. Now I switched on the electricity and placed my feet in the water.

It did not take long and the water changed colour. Wow…that was quite impressive. Could it be that I was really so full of toxins that they changed the colour of the water so dramatically?

Now I emptied out the basin and made it ready for my next test.

Again I filled the basin with water and added salt as per instruction until the meter showed the correct conductivity and switched on the electricity. This time I did not place my feet in the water.

After a while the water took on exactly the same colour as before when I had my feet in the water.

I had a closer look at the coil, or ‘array’ as the users of the ionic foot bath call it. The coil looked as if it were made of stainless steel (SS). I rang the sender in the UK and confirmed with them that indeed it was made of SS.

Different grades of Stainless Steel are available and their composition changes slightly from grade to grade. All grades of SS contain iron and an average of 17% chromium. Other grades contain additionally nickel, niobium, molybdenum, and titanium. When we send a current through two pieces of  metal immersed in conductive water, the metals will ‘oxidise’ (rust) and slowly dissolve into the water. When that happens, the ‘rusting’ metals will discolour the water. There is nothing mysterious about that.

The one thing I am very unhappy with is the fact that this discolouration is NOT caused by any toxins coming out of the body, but simply because of the mechanisms of electrolysis. To tell people that the discolouration is caused by toxins which the ionic foot bath ‘draws out of your body’ is plainly a fraudulent claim.

Furthermore, we all know that the skin is a ‘semi permeable membrane’. That means, if we place our feet into a water bath, whatever is in that water will enter our body. That is the reason why people all over the world know about the benefits of ‘herbal foot bath’, mud baths and packs which  have a ‘therapeutic’ effect on the entire body.

One medical speciality is ionophoresis http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elektrotherapie . A small current is used to ‘transport’ a remedy into tissues which remedy then is distributed throughout the body by the blood in our blood vessels.

In a similar manner ionic metals from the SS coil can be transported into the blood of our body…and that cannot be very beneficial.

When I made some of the distributors of ionic foot baths aware of the fact, they became very agitated and aggressive. Some changed their claim and agreed that there may be truth in what I was saying, but that nevertheless ‘small changes in colour’ could be observed and that these changes were individually different from one person to another.

My explanation for small differences in the discolouration of the water is that it may be caused by changing levels of acidity. From the Ionic Heavy Metal Test (IHMT) we know that one drop of lemon juice will change the red colour of lead back to green. Rather than toxins as claimed, I attribute the small difference in colour between one person and the other to small variations in pH.

A potential danger in my opinion is, that if there are ‘toxic’ metals in the water, such as nickel, chromium, titanium etc., (due to the SS ‘array’ or plate) and the electrolytic process, then these metals will end up in our body.

That cannot be a very desirable outcome for a presumably beneficial foot bath.

I hope I made that very clear. Electrolysis or the ionic foot baths can be beneficial if it is done properly, but can be unbeneficial if used in the way they are often being used right now.

A greater awareness of the mechanisms involved allowed us to change the entire process somewhat. We believe that our new approach is giving us the benefits of micro current therapy and electrolysis without the obvious risks involved.

We have changed the coil to a more beneficial material, brass, which consists mainly of copper and zinc. Copper and zinc are two elements which the body needs to function properly. Furthermore we have made sure that these metals are in a form which the body can either use (if needed) or eliminate (if not needed), i.e.in a chelated form.

In order for that to happen we developed a new ‘electrolyte’. It is an electrolyte which can also render the ‘bad metals’ of old ‘arrays’ or coils harmless. If you have an ionic foot bath, don’t throw it away as yet, just change over to our electrolyte.

With that electrolyte you will not get the black discolouration of the water. Psychologically that may be a draw back since gullible people ‘believe’ that the discolouration is caused by the toxins being drawn out of their body. But we have a different advantage. Firstly we have science on our side and secondly we can show people by means of our IHMT that ‘something’ is happening.

Two years ago, and on the invitation of our European distributor, I went on a seminar tour through Germany. In Karlsruhe we visited a huge health exhibition. Of course, there were people offering ionic foot baths.

We challenged one of the ladies offering these baths to the public to conduct a test for us and  with us.

First we tested her for ionic heavy metals levels with our IHMT. Then she placed her feet in the foot bath for 20 minutes as recommended. Thereafter we tested her urine sample again. It showed no difference, no improvement of the ionic metal status at all.

Now we put some of our special electrolyte in the water and asked her to sit there again for 20 minutes. The urine test we conducted thereafter showed a clear improvement in her ionic heavy metal load.

We may not get the immediate, impressive but fraudulent colour change, but we can show in a more scientifically acceptable way that our approach really works.

The IHMT shows that we do not burden the body with further ‘bad’ metals, but that it is possible to control ionic metals through our special electrolytic process.

Furthermore, our electrolyte contains all 84 minerals the body needs in a balanced form. This will further enhance the overall beneficial effect.

I hope that this article may encourage you to do some of your own investigation.

As always…if you have any questions, please write to me. Since I am in Australia at the moment I hope that the email will work better. Before I go back to China we will endeavour to improve on our web site and the email delivery of these articles.

 Hope you are all happy and well.

 LOL Hans                               Newcastle, Australia     11.4.2008