Detox foot bath
You sit with your feet in warm water while a low-level current passes through it. It takes about thirty minutes, and it is one of the more relaxing half hours available in this building.
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What the session involves
You sit down, put your feet in a basin of warm salted water, and an array in the water carries a low-level direct current for around thirty minutes. There is nothing to do and nothing you have to hold still for. Most people read, or sit and do nothing, which is increasingly a specialist activity.
Afterwards your feet are warm and most people’s stay warm for a while.
Being straight about the claims
Ionic foot baths are widely marketed on the basis that they pull toxins and heavy metals out of the body through the soles of the feet, and that the water turning brown is the proof.
That explanation does not hold up. Put the array in the same water with no feet in it and the water still discolors — the current drives electrolysis, the metal electrode corrodes, and the salts and minerals already in the water react. The color is a chemical reaction in the basin, not a readout of you. The studies that have gone looking for elevated toxin levels in the water after a session have not found them.
We are telling you this on our own service page because the alternative is taking your money on a premise we do not think is true. Plenty of clinics sell it the other way.
What we do offer it for
Warmth and circulation. Sitting with your feet in warm water while gentle current passes through it is pleasant, it warms your extremities, and people who run cold — which in this part of Minnesota is most people for five months of the year — often notice the difference for hours afterwards.
Relaxation. Thirty seated minutes with your feet in warm water is genuinely restorative, and a number of our patients book it for exactly that.
And some of our patients use it around allergy and asthma symptoms and tell us it helps them. We are reporting that as what patients say, not as a claim we can stand behind mechanistically, and we would rather draw the line clearly than blur it.
Practicalities
Sessions are thirty minutes and cost $30. You do not need to be a chiropractic patient to book one. Come with clean feet, wear something you can roll up past the ankle, and allow a few minutes at the end to dry off properly.
If you want it purely because it is thirty warm, quiet minutes in the middle of a Minnesota winter, that is a perfectly good reason and the one we would give ourselves.
Come and find out what is actually going on
Consultation, full examination, any x-rays you need and your first adjustment — $45, one appointment.
Questions people ask
What do patients here use it for?
Most commonly for circulation — people who run cold — and a number of our patients use it around allergy and asthma symptoms. Almost everybody reports that the session itself is deeply relaxing, which is the one thing nobody disputes.
Does the water changing color mean toxins are coming out?
No, and we would rather you heard that from us than found it out afterwards. The water changes color because of electrolysis acting on the metal array and the salts in the water — it does that whether or not a foot is in it. Any device or clinic presenting the color as evidence of what left your body is not being straight with you.
So does it actually do anything?
Here is the honest position. The claim that ionic foot baths remove heavy metals or toxins through the feet is not supported by good evidence, and the studies that have looked directly for it have not found it. What patients consistently report is warmth, better circulation in the feet and hands afterwards, and a strong sense of relaxation. That is what we offer it for. If you want it because someone told you it detoxifies you, we would rather you spent your $30 on something else.
What does it feel like?
Warm water and, for most people, a faint tingle or nothing at all. It should not be uncomfortable. You sit in a comfortable area for the half hour — bring a book if you like.
Is there anyone who should not do it?
Do not use it if you have a pacemaker or any other implanted electrical device, if you are pregnant, or if you have open wounds or ulcers on your feet. If you are diabetic or have reduced sensation in your feet, speak to your physician first.
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