FEET DETOX

Feet detox has become an increasingly popular method of improving overall body health. Detoxifying through the feet has proven benefits, and although many of them are inflated in today's usual hype, many of the benefits have been well proven, and feet detox is - unlike many procedures - safe and pleasant.

Feet detox covers a variety of methods, but the most common involve hand manipulation such as massage and reflexology, and what most people think of now when they hear the words feet detox: foot baths, warm baths for the feet. Usually there are additives like herbs or chemicals, and now very popular is an ionic foot bath where a small machine is submerged in the water, but we'll talk about that on another page.

What is the whole idea behind feet detox? First, a note about toxins: our bodies collect substances called toxins that are unhealthy while travelling around in our systems. Toxins are any substances that interfere with or attack any healthy part of our body. Toxins are always present, but due to breathing dirty city air and eating poor quality foods with many additives, toxins often build to higher levels than are safe. Eventually they can interrupt our systems' normal flows and functions and even lead to illness.

Our bodies naturally fight off and drain out toxins, but with an unhealthy lifestyle or environment we need to give our body a little help in excising these toxins. Detoxifying might seem like a 'concept' to some people, but once you have tried a good detox method you can feel quite a substantial positive difference in clarity, health, energy and happiness afterwards. Toxins slow the body and systems down, make you feel 'murky', and once toxins are effectively cleansed you can feel quite a noticeable difference in yourself.

People over thousands of years have used a variety of methods to detoxify, make themselves feel better and become more healthy; almost any activity that forces your body to excrete or exude things will help you detoxify. Detoxification is simply your body using its natural systems to expel unwanted substances, and both ancient and modern detox methods alike revolve around kick-starting your body into getting rid of those toxins even more forcefully.

Since ancient times, sweating has perhaps been the most effective detox method. People would soak in hot springs and man-made hot tubs; they would sit in sweat lodges and saunas; they would drink excess water to help the flushing, they would exercise or work hard to make the body move, sweat, and force out toxins, and they would use things internally (such as colon cleansing) to flush out toxins and waste matter. The feet have many sweat glands and are a prime area for toxins to be flushed from the body, and this, along with having a healthy helping of nerve endings to feel very good when immersed in warm water, make feet a prime zone for toxins to escape through.

Feet detox is perhaps the safest of all detox methods. It doesn't involve hard exercise, doesn't involve ingesting anything, doesn't involve any activity other than applying harmless water, herbs, and now ions, to the feet. It's gentle, pleasant, and has immediate benefits.