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Putting my foot in it
by Conrad Astley30/ 6/2005
SITTING with my feet in a bucket of lukewarm water while a wire
slowly passes electricity through me isn't my idea of fun, but
that's what the latest health craze is all about.
Aqua detox is hailed by its proponents as a new and innovative way
of cleaning the body from the inside out.
The idea is simple enough. You stick your feet in a water bath
containing organic salts for about 45 minutes, while an electrical
current passes through it.
Here's where it gets a bit more esoteric, and the lines between
science and nonsense become blurred.
The electrical current is supposed to resonate with your
bio-energetic field, allowing toxins from your body to be drawn
through the 2,000 pores in your feet, turning the water a funny
colour.
I'm not sure how convinced I am by this explanation, but then I'm
no scientist.
I'm also not sure why the body would need a helping hand getting
rid of the junk it is supposed to shift through more conventional
methods, which normally involve a small body of water but no
electrical current. But then of course, I'm no doctor either.
So I decided to go down to
Ambience Therapy in
Chorlton to see for myself.
The building on Barlow Moor Road provides massage, hypnotherapy,
and will even soon have an isolation tank, and manager Rue Dobson
explained it was a massage parlour of a different kind before he
set up his business there using a grant, so at least there's been
some consistency.
He also told me the centre was one of the few places in Manchester
where aqua detox was available, as he set to work preparing the
equipment - a bowl of water in which is placed a metal coil
attached to a wire.
I was told it would take about half an hour to prepare, so the
water was just the right temperature, and was offered one of the
centre's other therapies while I was waiting.
I was given a taste of tuina Chinese massage - something which is
not as gentle as it sounds, as I discovered when therapist Helen
Walsh pummelled my arms and legs, and poked at spots next to my
knees thought to be of some significance in Chinese medicine.
I'm not too convinced by the philosophy behind it - that there are
invisible energy channels running through the body which need
unblocking - but having sampled the therapy, it's not hard to
understand its benefits.
Nicely limbered up after half an hour, I was ready for the aqua
detox machine, and it was ready for me.
There isn't much you can say about using the machine. The
experience isn't vastly different from what you'd imagine sitting
with your feet in some warm water for 45 minutes would be
like.
There's a slight pulse coming from the coiled wire, which is giving
off 12 volts of electricity. It's not an unpleasant sensation, and
after a while you don't notice it.
Three quarters of an hour later, when I'd flicked through all the
magazines on offer, it was clear something had happened.
The water had indeed gone a dirty green-brown colour, with bits of
scum floating on the surface. All in all, it wasn't a pretty
sight.
Rue explained the colour showed it was probably toxins from my
liver and kidneys - likely the result of the half bottle of wine
I'd drunk the previous night, and perhaps the one I'd drunk the
night before that.
It would be impressive to think a machine could get rid of my
body's waste materials that easily, but I did notice there was a
strange substance bubbling off the wire itself - perhaps rust -
which might also have explained the decolouration.
I left unsure about whether it had done me any good or not. Rue
said I would feel light and unusually clean for the rest of the
evening, and I had to admit there was a nice tingling sensation in
my feet.
However, as the night progressed, this just turned into an annoying
itch, and I also developed a fairly unpleasant headache which
wouldn't go away.
That could have had nothing to do with the treatment, or could even
have been some strange proof that my body had reached a level of
purity that my brain didn't know how to deal with.
Either way, I remained a sceptic.
Ambience Therapy: 0161 282 6221
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