Jul 23, 2008 11:00 pm US/Eastern
I-Team: Foot Bath Investigation
Reporting
Jim Osman
PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ―
You're undercover in New Jersey, where they're telling us about a new treatment sweeping the U.S.
"Doctors, they use it in England. It was invented in …" the spa owner told our undercover producer.
"Really?" inquired our producer.
"England, yeah. Um hmm," the owner replied.
"And what do they use it for, for what reason?" asked the producer.
"All sorts of, a, after like uh, surgeries, after all sorts of, uh people with metals built up in their bodies, you know, toxins problems, I mean it's big in Europe," the owner told us.
But we're not in a medical facility, we're at a spa. And our producer is about to get that new treatment, called Aqua Detox Footbath, which is marketed as the most effective way to re-balance, re-energize and detoxify the body.
"So will I, do I feel the effects immediately?" she asked.
"You should probably about in half an hour to 40 minutes," said the spa owner.
Our producer is told the footbath is made of salt and water and employs an electrical current passed through the water that will help us feel better.
"So that you start to opening up and you start to release all the toxin," said the owner.
Our producer is told after 30 minutes the toxins will be expelled through the pores in her feet and the water will dramatically become darker as a sign it's working. The first time around the color didn't change much.
"I thought it would be darker," our producer told the spa owner.
We're given a second footbath where our producer notices the spa employee uses a lot more salt water this time. And a few minutes later, the water turned much darker.
"Okay, so what we have?" the owner asked as she entered the room.
"We've got some muddy water, muddy water," replied our producer.
Dr. John Sibert demonstrates what really could be turning that footbath to that dark color. He uses a six volt battery, steel wires and salt water.
"That orange color is iron in its oxidized form," said Sibert.
In laymen's terms, rust. And rust is exactly what a Texas lab found when it analyzed a water sample from an aqua detox footbath.
"We didn't find any evidence of any removal of toxic substances or anything that might be harmful to your body," said Sibert.
But what about our producer, did she feel the footbath did what it promised?
"I didn't feel any better. I didn't feel any different at all," said our producer.
Yet, the spa's owner, as our producer paid 50 dollars for the treatment, guaranteed she would.
"You definitely will feel better, I guarantee you, in a matter of hours," the owner said.
"She didn't feel any better," I-Team reporter Jim Osman told the owner when we revisited the business.
"Oh, she didn't?" said the owner.
"No," replied Jim.
"The company says this work so I just bought their equipment," said the owner.
The spa owner says she believes in the footbaths and says she even uses it herself, but after hearing what we're exposing, maybe not for long.
"If that's what it is, then I'm going to stop using it," the spa owner said.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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