The Truth About Foot Baths: Separating Fact from Fiction".

They excitedly asked me, “Guess what the signature service of ME Zone is?” I did not bother to guess because I have very vague ideas about what services spas offer. “What?” They had big, excited grins on their faces “Lublubsaka!” I thought, it sounds Japanese. “What exactly is lublubsaka?” Ela repeated, “Lublob…” then intelligence hit me. “Aaaah …” and I started giggling at my stupidity “…foot soaking.”

Foot soaking or foot baths existed in most ancient civilizations like Greece, China, and Japan. In China, the earliest mention of it was in Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon. It was thought that if humans were trees, their feet would be the roots. According to traditional Chinese Medicine, the feet must be hydrated because a quarter of the body’s bones are in the feet, along with 72 000 nerve endings and six “meridians” or “pathways” in which Qi(life energy) flows.

A foot bath is said to have many benefits such as increased circulation, and depending on the substances that you put in the warm water it can also alleviate constipation, relieve pain, flu, stress, headaches, and menstrual cramps, reduce fatigue and improve sleep. It is anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial. It can supposedly even relieve sadness and anger.

It is also believed to cure insomnia, bunions, athlete’s foot, colds, eczema and other skin allergies, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, gastrointestinal disease, and kidney disease, and to increase sexual appetite. Long-term benefits include such as reducing fatigue, calming the mind, lowering blood pressure, improving skin condition and beauty, and strengthening muscle and bones.

And like all medications, it comes with warnings such as Do not do foot baths if you are pregnant, have metastatic cancer, have an active infection, have a disease that can be made worse with increased circulation, or have had recent surgery or have an open wound.

So I went to Google and did a search in scientific journals on foot baths. I found an article on Wikipedia criticizing detoxification foot baths based on research and calling it a marketing scam. I also found a study entitled Objective Assessment of an Ionic Footbath (IonCleanse): Testing Its Ability to Remove Potentially Toxic Elements from the Body, published in the US National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health. It was all about how well the machine stimulated the elimination of potentially toxic elements (PTEs). They concluded that the increase in PTEs was from the corrosion of the machine rather than from the participants. Urine analysis showed no substantive evidence that footbaths helped the body eliminate PTEs. All hair samples, except one, showed differences in levels of toxins, but they could not identify the reason for the difference.

In other words, the evidence was not strong enough to prove that the machine was effective.

I opened medical sites that talk about foot detoxification and found the same conclusion, that ionic foot bath detoxification is not scientifically proven to be effective in the elimination of toxins and therefore it is not considered a remedy for treating or preventing health ailments. However, they do say that regular foot baths have been shown to improve the quality of sleep, boost body temperature, and calm and relax a person. Adding substances like magnesium salts and Epsom salts increases the benefits.

Finally, I opened Back to Eden by Jethro Kloss. At the back of the book is a chapter called “History of Water Cure”. As I browse through it, I am reminded of how powerful water can be. As a therapy, it can be used to make one sleep, prevent or reduce fever, reduce pain, prevent or treat seizures or convulsions, tighten skin and other body tissues, eliminate toxins, and restore general well-being.

As I go through the water treatments in the book, I come to Hot Footbath and Contrast Footbath (alternating hot and cold foot baths). It says it is a simple old-fashioned treatment that has many benefits. Research studies are limited when it comes to alternative medicine. Most of what we can find on simple traditional treatments is anecdotal. This does not mean that it does not work. It just means that case studies and research are limited for various reasons such as ethical concerns, costs, and the difficulty of following up and designing experiments.

God gave us water and heat.

As a child, when I got sick, my mom, who is a firm believer in everything natural, gave me contrast footbaths to treat colds and flu. It worked. I was comforted. What do you know? I have come full circle.

It is true that footbaths make you feel warm all over. It’s like coming home.

About the author:

Karla P. Mitchell

Karla Mitchell is a vibrant woman from South Africa who embraces life with her husband and children. A God-fearing woman who builds her life and family with the foundation of faith and love. Her energy and bubbly personality light up the room, and her intelligence and analytical mind make her an interesting person to talk to. Her love for books fuels her passion for writing, and she is always observing people and making her own analysis. Karla is a firm believer in staying true to her convictions and is a skilled conversationalist. Her strong-willed nature is balanced by her kind heart, and she genuinely cares for all that God has created. With her faith, love for family, and passion for writing, Karla continues to make a positive impact in her community and beyond.