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Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat! If you haven't seen the ads then you probably have a friend who's tried the ever-popular Detox Foot Patches.
Hundreds of people claim they have experienced health benefits. Are they to be believed?
Introduced in the eighties, there are several formulations out there claiming to detoxify your body by removing metabolic waste and heavy metals. I've read literally thousands of comments posted online with two extreme points of view.
Half claim remarkable beneficial results for their medical conditions and the rest claim it's one of the biggest scams ever. There are wonderful reports of great success using the patches. There are cries of fraud. How can you evaluate what is true?
Are you a fan of customer testimonials? Are you a skeptic? My approach to reviewing a product or service is to present each of its components and its history or purpose. How does it claim to work? I look at the method of intended action, plus evidence and other relevant facts to help you develop a comprehensive understanding.
INGREDIENTS
Let's start with the common ingredients that go into most brands of detox foot patches:
Agaricus: a mushroom that comes in at least three varieties. The agaricus blazei variety is believed to enhance NK (natural killer) cells in your immune system when eaten. It is toxic when consumed frequently or in large amounts.
Bamboo sap: used to clear phlegm when taken internally.
Bamboo vinegar: acts as an anti-inflammatory and anti-fungal and used for eczema and dermatitis as a bath additive.
Chitosan: a drying agent, commonly used to absorb water in dry packaged nutritionals. It has some properties related to stopping bleeding, and also enhances the transport of polar drugs (like morphine) through skin.
Houttuynia Cordata: an herb better known as Dokudami, prevents mold and acts as a disinfectant and antimicrobial. It smells like a fishy mint and as a tea is consumed for helping with skin conditions and as a blood detoxifier.
Loquat: a fruit, when made into syrup, used as an expectorant.
Mugwort: an herb burned on the skin in some acupuncture treatments. It contains the toxic chemical thujone, the psychedelic ingredient in Absinthe. It has a very strong, unpleasant smell and is sometimes taken internally with caution to combat parasites, as it is also somewhat toxic to humans, not just the parasites.
Tourmaline: a mineral that generates a small electric current when heated. It heats when introduced to an electric current.
Wood vinegar: is the raw version of industrial acetic acid. Unrefined it is brown and contains as many as 200 other chemicals including formaldehyde, methanol, and tar. It is often used for pest control in agriculture.
Most of these ingredients are intended to be taken internally, by mouth, with a few that have a reputation for treating skin conditions like eczema. Several have a strong and unpleasant smell. Others are toxic in and of themselves. Only one has any documented detoxification properties.
REFLEXOLOGY
The proponents of reflexology as the method of action for the foot patches point out specific areas on the soles of the feet that correspond to various areas of the body. This would be the reason the patches are applied to the feet, to detoxify other parts of the body, not only the feet. Yes, acupressure demonstrates an energetic connection between foot reflexology and corresponding organ energetics. However, this is a sympathetic, not a physical connection. Hand or ear reflexology, acupuncture, and other meridian therapies also use these energetic connections by applying pressure or needling. The detox foot patches clearly aren't intended to work this way—they are small and soft and do not press on the feet. The difficulty justifying this assertion is that physical organs do not have tiny pipelines to the feet where they would deposit toxins. If there's no physical connection or energetic connection between the patches and the rest of the body, the reflexology argument is without merit.
THEN WHY FOOT PATCHES?
Why instruct users to apply the patches to their feet? The feet may have been chosen for several reasons. First, elsewhere else on the body, the adhesive bandage might pull out hair when removed, discouraging use. Second, most people already associate feet as being "dirty." Third, if there is anywhere on our bodies that we most often neglect, it is our feet. Foot pampering is an established technique for increasing the perceived value and pleasure of spa treatments, as feet are mostly neglected by everyone else.
Basic biology reveals your feet have fat pads in the soles to cushion them while walking. Fat is a common storage location for body toxins. But stubborn biological fact says it's not possible for the patches to detoxify anything other than your feet. Your feet are not a filter for your body or blood. Your liver is.
MY PATCH TURNED BROWN
Just a few drops of clean water will change the appearance of the foot patch to be brown and slimy. Many users claim their feet do not sweat, so no water came from their feet to moisten the patch. The amount of water required doesn't need noticeably sweaty feet. All humans perspire in tiny amounts all day. Except when exercising or when you are overheating this perspiration is usually at such a slow rate that it evaporates before any wetness can be detected by touch or sight. The covering adhesive bandage, aluminum backing on the patch, and mineral that heats up all cause enough sweating while wearing the patch to dampen the material inside.
Just a few drops of clean water will change the appearance of the foot patch to be brown and slimy. If the patch works, turning brown isn't the proof.
The cellophane packaging is a moisture and smell barrier. Once unwrapped, the ability to absorb moisture and emit smell is greatly increased. Some people report producing brown gunk in their socks after removing the patch and washing their feet. The assumption is that the brown gunk is a continuation of toxins being released from the feet.
A much more physically likely explanation is the release of the absorbed wood vinegar trapped in their pores or dead skin layer, squeezed out by walking. Vinegar is a solvent and can soak into your skin, especially when in contact with it for eight hours of sleep. If the patch works, turning brown isn't the proof.
LAB TESTS
That brings the focus around to lab tests of used and unused foot patches. Assume you test an unused patch and find no toxins. Use an identical patch on your foot, then test the used patch and find toxins. Sounds like solid proof. But the presence of toxins in the used patch tells only tells you your body is (or is not) excreting toxins, not that the patch pulled them out. A relatively cheap and easy proof would be a controlled test applying a patch with no herbs, the same foil backing and adhesive strip, and determine whether any toxins are in the non-herbal gauze. No one has done this comparison, so no actual conclusions can be drawn about the effectiveness of the patch, only confirmation that the user's body is excreting toxins.
Studies that look at testing subjects (usually hair analysis) whose toxicity decreases over time are also inconclusive, as the body is designed to rid itself of toxins over time regardless. An ideal study would compare identical subjects with the same toxicity that follow the same diet and lifestyle regimen, one who additionally used foot patches, and showing a difference in the rate of toxin removal is what is needed to draw accurate conclusions. This type of study with controls has also not been done. There certainly is a lot of anecdotal evidence, but no controlled studies capable of making the necessary distinctions.
HEAVY METALS
Heavy metals are strange things. Generally they do not get into your body through your skin, because your skin isn't permeable unless you have a cut or scrape. In the same way, they don't get out of your body through your skin. To come out in sweat, they would need to be in your blood in such high concentrations that they form salts that get excreted. Concentrations high enough to form salts in your blood would cause obvious heavy metal poisoning.
It is possible that neglected feet are collecting lead or other heavy metals if you have a contaminated environment in the layers of dead skin as those particles just get wedged in. Feet are exposed to many things most people would never consider analyzing (dirt, dust, asphalt, beach silt, etc.) where tiny amounts could get embedded in calloused feet. They would tend to wash out as dead skin sloughed from your feet. Insufficient analysis has been done to identify the source of the heavy metal toxins reported to have been found in used detox foot patches.
Recent laboratory testing at Berkeley reported three samples of new pads and used pads were essentially the same (with arsenic contamination on both!). Users have offered contradictory lab results. Tests from Kenrico (one of the manufacturers) showing decrease in heavy metal toxicity tested hair samples. Hair products contain several heavy metals. Testing hair for heavy metals will show their presence. Your body continuously removes heavy metals through your kidneys and intestinal tract, so it's almost impossible to prove (or disprove) these sweeping claims.
HOW DO YOU DEFINE SUCCESS?
Hundreds of people using detox foot patches claim they have experienced health benefits. Are they to be believed? It is believable that they feel better, and that they used the patches, certainly. The direct connection remains somewhat indistinct however because controlled study as described above has yet to be done.
What does this all mean? Do the patches work or not?
Like many new therapies, the 15 year history of detox foot patch has not included an absolute answer. Several logical arguments support the belief that claims about detox foot patches are anywhere from simply misleading to complete fiction. Observational reports record repeated improvements in health after using the patches. There are certainly several specific opportunities to explore further to document an unquestionable direct connection between the patches and the claims.
The philosophy of why the patches might work sounds believable. Hard science generally favors the skeptics. Neither side has completed the work to definitively prove the truth. If a friend asked me for a detoxification regimen, I would suggest they investigate tea made from Dokudami. Used for hundreds of years in Asian medicine, it is one of the ingredients used in the foot patches, and offers more: a long, reliable history of detoxification health benefits.