Sep 22 2008
Cleansing Toxic Feet
There have been ads running for quite some time now for an all-natural way to cleanse your body and energize you while you sleep. If it sounds to good to be true, it generally is. The Kinoki Detox Foot Pads claim to detoxify your system while you sleep. They claim to remove toxic chemicals from the body, boost the immune system, extract heavy metals, improve quality of sleep and promote health. The pad is placed on the foot at night. In the morning, it turns a dark, brown color which is suppose to represent all the toxins it has pulled from the body during sleep. Unfortunately, your feet are not the main detoxifiers of your body, your liver and kidney are. Heavy metals and other “toxins” cannot be pulled out through the skin in any significant quantities.
In a report by 20/20 investigating the claims of Kinoki, NMS Labs, a national laboratory that performs toxicology testing, tested the pads after a group of users tried them for a number of nights. They looked for heavy metals and solvents and found nothing.
The pads are soaked in pyroligneous acid, which is better known as wood vinegar. Wood vinegar is a dark liquid produced by the distillation of wood. The main components of wood vinegar are acetic acid and methanol. Although pyroligenous acid has become known as a “natural” aid for detoxification, the claims are not supported. As far as the Kinoki pads, when distilled water was placed on the pad, the pad still turned a dark brown color. There is no research to support the use of Kinoki Detox Foot Pads to detoxify the body of harmful chemicals. This is also true for other “detoxifying” foot pads and foot soaks. Don’t spend your time or money on these products.