kena quaked! and why you should remember your secondary school chemistry

yesterday, i had an afternoon off from work..so being boliao and bored of shopping, i brought a friend along to try out a treatment i read about recently in one of those supplements that comes with the daily read.

it was a detox program that claims to draw toxins out from the user's body through his feet with the help of an ionizing charge created by electrodes submerged in the footbath. at the end of the session, the bath water is compared against a colour chart to determine the distribution of toxin accumulation in the user's body.

so why did i want to try it? out of curiosity? becoz like some people, i was just interested in the next new alternative treatment. the price comes with a back massage so it seemed reasonable.

anyway, i tried the footdetox while my friend sat back and watched. the whole setup was actually quite simple electolysis setup consisting of water in a tub with electodes connected to a small device, (they called it the ion generator) but its most probably a pulse generator. the water i dipped my feet into was lukewarm and i learnt had a bit of salt added into it. the generator/device was let to run for about 40 min and in the meantime i was given a back rub (which i have to say was so wonderful i nearly felt asleep) during that entire session, i was supposed to be akin to a human electrode with charged ions carrying toxins coming out slowly from the feet. (to think back now it sounds ridiculous huh)

after the whole session...what i saw was ......scary.

it had turned to this (warning: very scummy ugly pic)





no, i didnt shit while i was being masaged. tho it does look like shit huh..


as it turned out the outcome of the my foortbath was similar to that of the writer of the article, and i was told it was because of the precense of heavy metals in my system. particulary my liver.

perhaps it was the ultra-repulsive scum i had supposedly gathered and expelled, or perhaps it was the idea of the possibility of accumulating them heavy metals..

seeing actually turned to disbelieving...

could i have been that toxic?

so i researched on heavy metals toxicity last night and learnt that nope, it couldnt have possibly be the canned drinks as aluminum (Al) dont even fall under heavy metals. and i am not a fan of canned food. heavy metals are metals like antimony, arsenic, bismuth, cadmium, cerium, chromium, cobalt, copper, gallium, gold, iron, lead, manganese, mercury, nickel, platinum, silver, tellurium, thallium, tin, uranium, vanadium, and zinc.

i was fine to leave it at that. but my friend did her own extensive research, admitting of coz that she is very free..and decided to write a mail to the someone ..its almost like a consumer report. and she has done all the science explaining stuffs here as well.

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"
...am writing in with great concern about an article recently published
in the weekly "xxxxxxx" section. The article relates the
experience of the writer who underwent the foot bath detox session.
This detox program claims to draw toxins out from the user's body
through his feet with the help of an ionizing charge created by
electrodes submerged in the footbath. At the end of the session, the
bath water is compared against a colour chart to determine the
distribution of toxin accumulation in the user's body.

I had chance to witness the entire process myself recently and must
admit the result was very dramatic. There was brown sludge and dark
flakes suspended in the bath water when the session ended. The helpful
staff also explained that with their other customers, the colour of
the water will frequently turn orange too.

Logically speaking, if this machine is doing what it claims, (i.e.
drawing out toxins from your feet) the result should be very
frightful. Wastes and toxins are leaving your body through the skin of
your feet and appearing as sludge, flakes and discolouration of the
water in the footbath. How does this machine ensure that it remove
only toxins and not other essential components in your body?

So how did the brown sludge and flakes come about? After some research
on the web, it seems that the foot bath detox machine, complete with
timer, voltage indicator and neon backlight is in fact an elaborate
rust forming device. The machine sets up a current and causes the
submerged electrodes to rust rapidly, hence the final appearance of
the water in the footbath. It seems like many customers are paying
good money to have their feet submerged in electrified rust water.

I chose to believe most of these alternative / holistic
establishments, are well meaning and not out to defraud others. But I
think many share an unrealistic and overly simplistic view of the way
the world works. They easily use terms like "toxins," "chemicals," and
"poison" to describe the processes in a person's body and liberally
litter their reports with chemical, physical and biological terms
(very often in the same paragraph!).

From the manuals of a foot bath detox machine,

"Ion-Cleanse Toxin Draining Device works on the theory of electrolysis
by conducting a process called "ionization", the process breaks the
water molecules into thousand of ions. With these ions, the chemical
reaction between Anion and Cation react vigorously with each other.
Through the osmosis, the Anion move in to the body in large quantity,
which strengthen the cells activation in the body. Besides, it
facilitates the rate of metabolism and activates various kinds of
enzymes, therefore, making the excretory organs speeding the function
of waste removal, particularly in the liver. Toxins that are stored in
the body will soon be extracted in the water through the process
called osmosis"

This entire paragraph crammed in most of the chemistry, physic and
biologic terms I'd learnt in secondary school! I hope consumers would
now be more discerning with regards to similar pseudo scientific detox
programs.
............. "


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made sense. should have recalled my chemistry hor..brown/orange is the colour of iron oxide i.e. rust..

which meant i could have actually been soaking my feet in a tub of rust.

i had left my common sense or rather the scientific knowledge at the door of that very nice reputable dayspa..so moral of story is, boys and girls..always remember what your teachers teach you eh. can save u some $