Bad Science/Detox/Public

Scientific Claims in Advertising: Let's Get Detoxed!

Aqua Detox Meets The Public

GQ

December 2002

"Foot Therapy"

In only 30 minutes, your booze-battered liver could be back in fighting condition. All that’s required is a bowl of water, special salts and an electromagnet. Oh, and your feet. In the bowl. What happens next is pretty revolting - the electric dialysis draws out toxins (including fat) through 2,000 sweat glands on the sole of each foot, leaving the water black but your liver laughing.

The clincher

Just one treatment can give a general sense of well being.

The Mirror Magazine

January 2004

"A Fresh Start - How Detoxing Changed My Life"

Feelgood Factor, why detoxing is the secret of happiness

We sent Alex for a new treatment called Aqua Detox which releases toxins before your eyes. Alex says: ‘I place my feet in a bowl of water, while therapist Mirka pours salt drops in an ionising unit, which will adjust the bio-energetic field of the water and encourage my body to discharge toxins. The water changes colour as the toxins are released. After half an hour, the water’s turned red, … she gets our photographer Karen to give it a go. She gets a bowl of brown bubbles. Mirka diagnoses an overloaded liver and lymph – Karen needs to drink less alcohol and more water.

Wow, I feel virtuous!’

The Sunday Times Style Magazine

September 2002

"Treatment on Trial - No Mean Feet"

Aqua Detox is an unusual therapy, based on the research of the medical scientist Dr Royal Rife. It aims to improve, among other things, liver and kidney function through an electromagnetic detoxification process carried out on the feet.

Aqua Detox is not a hands-on therapy. Our detoxee was simply asked to place her feet in a bowl of water, to which some salts were added. A small machine with an electromagnet was then placed in the bowl.

The timer was set to 30 minutes and she was asked to drink a glass of water and relax – not easy when she observed the bubbling water changing from clear, to yellow, to brown, to black, with small particles floating on top. This apparently, was the electric dialysis taking place, drawing out toxins (including fat) through the 2,000 sweat glands on the sole of each foot. Alarmingly, the colour continued to darken, but when the therapist returned she declared it quite normal.

One treatment can give a general sense of wellbeing, five are recommended to address specific health problems. Aqua Detox, £30 (5 sessions £125).

The Sunday Post

October 2002

"Put Your Foot In It And Stay Healthy"

Soul diva Whitney Houston reckons it saved her life, pop queen Cerys Matthews swears by it, while TV’s Carol Vorderman liked the results so much she wrote a book about it.

Body detoxification – or detox – is the latest health fad to take the UK by storm. Converts claim that cleansing the body of toxins and substituting “vice” foods and drinks with healthy alternatives for a week or two can increase energy levels, help lose weight and even enhance mental clarity.

However, in the never-ending quest for new ways to improve our well-being the health gurus have come up with a spin off – aqua detoxing.

Having previously bought a detox diet book and embarked on the strict regime, I was keen to try this new concept.

That’s because I had quickly encountered a significant stumbling block with the original method – it depends on giving up everything nice!

The people behind Aqua Detox claim it’s just as effective, but without the hassle. All that’s needed is a basin of hot water and the all-important piece of equipment, known as the “array”. Stick your feet in for half an hour and Bob’s your uncle!

Toxins

Neil Bevan, chairman of Aqua Detox UK, explains, “Doctors have long since known that every organ in the body has a specific frequency and when there is disease there is an organ dysfunction.

“Our researchers found that certain frequencies can prevent disease while others destroy it. When submerged in water the Aqua Detox array generates electromagnetic frequencies or fields.

“When these fields come into contact with the feet’s 4000-odd pores they produce a dialysis effect which expels toxins from the body’s organs through the feet, helping it to rebalance.

“Since the unit was launched in the UK earlier this year we’ve had a terrific response. And because it discharges harmful toxins from the likes of the liver, a half-hour treatment can act as a hangover cure!”

Dr Mary Staggs, based in Spain, has specialised in electro-magnetics since 1968. She came across Aqua Detox two years ago while lecturing in Australia. Intrigued, she and a Spanish colleague carried out two years of research and investigation, which included a spell in St Petersburg in Russia. She says, “In St Petersburg we did ‘before and after’ blood tests on a host of patients and found that the Aqua Detox machine was having an effect on the bioenergetic field of the body.

“In simple terms, the frequencies generated by the machine retune the body’s frequencies. My hope is that this technology will enable the body to renew itself without the need for vitamins and pill.”

Gunge

I made my way to Clydebank where Betty’s Dream beauty studio features Scotland’s only Aqua Detox unit. Salon owner Betty Crossland explained she’d decided to invest in the system after a friend raved about it following a visit to a London beauty salon. “The process begins almost instantaneously,” she said after carefully placing the Aqua Detox array – it looks like a kettle element – in the basin. “Soon you will see all sorts of gunge appearing on the top of the water.”

She was right – and if you’re reading this over breakfast look away now! First, floating bubbles surfaced before, finally the colour of the water changed to an unsightly shade of brown. After the half-hour session (it costs £30) the once-clear water was so polluted I could no longer see my feet.

As she thoroughly disinfected the basin, Betty told me, “You will only be cleansed properly once you’ve had four or five sessions, but even with this one treatment you should feel better than usual tomorrow morning.”

Other Honourable Mentions...

• GI
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