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113 Comments
- realmofreals, on 11/12/2008, -3/+91Foot "Detoxifying" pads are bull. Take those pads, find a friend with distilled water and watch them turn the same nasty color. All those pads do are absorb sweat from your feet and turn brown from their ingredients. The placebo effect might make you feel better but other than that...nothing. Science, it works bitches.
- Bukowsky, on 11/12/2008, -3/+76I personally think detox foot pads are a big scam.... but I've never actually tried them. I'm just naturally a skeptic.
- naturalpapa, on 11/12/2008, -2/+44Placebo effect, just like ear candles...
- trolleyfan, on 11/12/2008, -6/+47No.
Next question. - julielynn1009, on 11/12/2008, -0/+41No, they do not work. Realmofreals got it right. One of the 'detoxifying' ingredients is iodine (or a similar chemical compound) that does exactly what he/she described.
FYI, a great source for debunking these sorts of things is a podcast from The Skeptics Guide To The Universe....although you may already be familiar with this. They covered this particular product on an episode and I checked it out on my own too. ('cause I'm a skeptic!)
Oh! And I don't know about detoxing, but a foot soak in warm water scented with lavender oil (or whatever) feels great after work! It may not suck the bad stuff out of my body but it sure helps my mood. Plus it helps keep me put for a few minutes so I can focus on what my kids are telling me otherwise I have a tendency to keep running 90 miles an hour as soon as I hit the door. - Battlecry, on 11/12/2008, -2/+26When one of these health items say they will 'draw out toxins', just what, exactly, IS a toxin?
- KC9ECI, on 11/12/2008, -1/+23NPR has a story on these things a while back. The report can be found at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story ... and the result was "An analysis at a California laboratory shows no significant difference between used and unused pads" Foot pads=scam
- austang, on 11/12/2008, -1/+22He's definitely not Gellin'
- drunkenoaf, on 11/12/2008, -3/+21In this scenario?
Toxins = a new age term ***** to make yourself feel unhealthy and induce you into buying expensive, worthless placebo. - ffttoteof, on 11/12/2008, -1/+18What is up with all these products to "flush out the toxins" or "draw out the toxins" these days?
Exactly what toxins are they talking about?
I remember Morgan Suprlock's wife in Fast Food Nation talking about the diet she was going to put him on to "flush out the toxins."
What toxins? Huh?
I'm not trying to be argumentative, I'm seriously asking. Anyone have any information on what all these toxins every suddenly has are, and how exactly one "flushes them out"? - mickstephenson, on 11/12/2008, -1/+17That's exactly how the placebo effect works, you saying that adds no weight to the idea of ear candles actually working, just adds weight to the notion that you are gullible.
Try coming up with a scientific explanation for the process which is occuring, which isn't complete and utter bull, if "negative pressure" was really occuring it would be quantifiable and easily proven as is any simple physical process. - ricksite, on 11/12/2008, -1/+16I am going to go ahead and stick with my kidneys for cleansing my body.
- JigoroKano, on 11/12/2008, -2/+17So what if they turned colors. Did they contain heavy metals that weren't there previously? Oh you didn't actually test the claim?
A 12 year old could design an experiment better. - gllopc, on 11/12/2008, -0/+15Per Skeptoid:
http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4083
"Since the Kinoki foot pads are self-adhesive, peeling them away removes the outermost layer of dead skin cells. And since they are moist, they loosen additional dead cells when left on for a while. So it's a given that the pads will look brown when peeled from your foot, exactly like any adhesive tape would; though this effect is much less dramatic than depicted on the TV commercials, depending on how dirty your feet are. And, as they predict, this color will diminish over subsequent applications, as fewer and fewer of your dead, dirty skin cells remain. There is no magic detoxification needed to explain this effect. (Later news: In fact, Kinoki footpads contain powdered wood vinegar, which always turns brownish black when exposed to moisture, such as sweat. - BD)" - MiltyKiss, on 11/12/2008, -0/+14Consumerist did some looking into Kinoki Foot Pads (don't know if they're the same or not) and it turns out that they're BS. The best part is how holding foot pads over a pot of boiling water will cause them to turn brown.
http://consumerist.com/5038757/gee-whiz-it-turns-o ... - bilious, on 11/12/2008, -0/+13Ear candles are a device designed to part you from $10 or more, and occasionally drip hot wax onto your ear drum requiring surgery.
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/iyh-vsv/med/ear-oreil ...
If you want your ears cleaned, go see your General Practitioner. They have crazy machines designed to pump out ears. - blueblazer17, on 11/12/2008, -4/+17Here's the answer: NO.
- gtluke, on 11/12/2008, -1/+14Japanese foot tampons
- Balanced, on 11/12/2008, -0/+12Also, there was a site where someone cut a couple of the ear candles in half before use and they are pre-loaded with 'nasty stuff.'
- JohnDo, on 11/12/2008, -1/+13I've never tried them either.... but the supposed benefits of detox foot pads just seem too good to be true... Therefore, my vote is going for HYPE.
- kswiggs, on 11/12/2008, -1/+13They can make you feel better! but only if you are the one selling the stupid things to morons
- TexasCanuck, on 11/12/2008, -1/+11Worst article ever.
Buried for lame new-agey ***** with no substance.
Needs way more study than observing something turning "poo brown" - ParanoydAndroid, on 11/12/2008, -0/+10I have no idea what "ear candles" are, but I wanted to touch on mickstephenson using the word "gullible" to describe the placebo effect.
It's important to note that the placebo affect is very real, insofar as it can have a beneficial effects for a wide range of diseases. Studies have even been done where participants were explicitly told they were taking a placebo and it still had (milder) beneficial effects.
In other words, it is unfair to characterize someone experiencing the placebo effect as merely "gullible." - Remelox, on 11/12/2008, -0/+10I think it's money. So it should read "draw out toxins" and instead of "your body" it is "your wallet"
- nmezib, on 11/12/2008, -1/+11the thing about the pads is that they have an iodine compound in them (Potassium Iodide? Can't remember) that turns brown/black when they get moist and warm. Hence, holding them over a pot of clean, boiling water will turn them brown, and so will sticking in under your foot in your shoe and wearing them for most of the day. hell, i don't think they even need to be warmed. just moist.
the linked article is absolute rubbish. they barely conducted an "experiment," didn't have controls, and only used a few people over the course of one day. bloody hell. and in the end, they admitted to not having a conclusion. The most important part to take away from this article is the power of placebo, which is much, MUCH stronger than many of us think. For more information, look up the morphine placebo effect studies of J.D. Levine and N.C. Gordon from UCSF.
please digg an article that's actually WELL WRITTEN AND RESEARCHED. if half the people even read it to completion before digging, this wouldn't even have made the front page. - Lealic, on 11/12/2008, -3/+12"According to Dr. Group, if you use them for several days in a row they will begin to look less grody, which he says is proof that they really do pull toxins."
Is he serious? This is supposed to be "proof?" I'll leave that one for now...
But: "In general, Western medicine has long been quite dismissive of the toxins argument in human health, though it has not done a good job at explaining why so many cultures have believed in this line of treatment for millennia"
Arguments from antiquity aside, there is a great reason why many cultures have adhered to this nonsense for centuries: magical thinking does not have to follow any rules of evidence that have made Western medicine so successful. Neither do scam artists. - gllopc, on 11/12/2008, -1/+9Seriously, you need to gain a skeptical attitude if you're going to be hanging out on the internet. And how long have you been selling Amway?
- Midnightbrewer, on 11/12/2008, -0/+8How can a foot pad placed on your foot at night, when you are typically prone, i.e. not standing, actually act on a pressure point? in addition to all the other bunk involved in this snake oil scheme, I would think that that would be the real tip-off.
- peliROJO, on 11/12/2008, -1/+9He sums up the article nicley:
greentween21 wrote:
you lazy *****
it's just like you hippies to write an article with a semi-interesting title and halfway through it, the reader realizes you didn't really put that much effort into the article. Was it a tight deadline? Did the peyote session last longer than you though it would? And you realized you only had 2 days to write it instead of actually using the whole week to conduct your "experiment?" Is that why you gave some of the foot pads to you singer/songwriter treehugging buddies? I mean seriously, i hope you don't get paid to write stupid articles like this one because if you really boil it down, the time it takes to read this article is not worth the knowledge, or the lack thereof, that it imparts upon the reading public. At this point in this rant, you're probably asking yourself "what kind of loser gets worked up over an article about foot pads?!" Well I got curious about what these pads were, *****! And then you go and write an article that doesn't really go anywhere which is a bit disappointing. Disappointing on a much grander scale. Because I then realized that in today's world, any shmuck who thinks he can write can now do so without any sort obstacle to deter him from spewing out nonsense to the rest of the world. Today, anyone with a stupid thought can write it down and publish it and make the whole world that much stupider. I'm not an advocate for censorship or anything like that because I believe people who have something to say should be able to say it. However, you sir, are not one of those people. You are a lazy *****.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008 at 07:03:40 AM - inactive, on 11/12/2008, -0/+8exactly , whenever I see the words "detoxify" , "energize" "purify" or "stimulate" and it isnt followed up the name of a chemical I know is proven to do so I call BS until shown otherwise by a reputable source
- ReyX, on 11/12/2008, -0/+8Onion did it.
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/29554 - CoffeeandTV, on 11/12/2008, -1/+8Wow, please tell me this is a joke.
- itinerantspectr, on 11/12/2008, -1/+8Dugg for the first comment on the article's webpage.
- djkool14, on 11/12/2008, -0/+6Everything is toxic (at excessive doses)... Are we to believe that these footpads know the "safe" amount for any chemical in your body and removes the rests?
- woodrow8292, on 11/12/2008, -1/+7Wow you mean they are a scam? All the infomercials about them are false? shocked........
By the way what a craptacular article. Way to really test these things by wearing them for a night and giving some to your singer/song writer (read: unemployed hippies) friends and reporting they turned poop brown, kind of like your article....poop brown. - UltraDavid, on 11/12/2008, -1/+7Um... ear candles are what now?
- xamox, on 11/12/2008, -0/+6Pfffft.......Yeah foot pads are the easy way, I just fart out the toxins.
- inactive, on 11/12/2008, -0/+6WTF are ear candles? What do you burn a candle in your ear or what?
- drunkenoaf, on 11/12/2008, -2/+7This is modern day snake oil sales-- it's almost amusing people have tried to stick this on digg-- geeks understand science, and know when they're being sold woo instead.
What gets people on digg going at the moment is "eat pomegranates" 'cos of the antioxidants that stop you aging and getting cancer. It builds on common sense-- fruit and veg are good for you, and antioxidants are an easy explanation for their claims. (Even though, imho, eating pomegranates means you're not eating chocolate, meaning you're healthier. Healthier, and less obese = less chance of cancer.)
But the body is a complex system, and kind of likes being in the state that it's in, and tries to keep it that way-- "homeostasis". So sticking Vit C (or whatever)
Actual, properly designed clinical trials say not (although badly designed ones do)
I mean, your immune system needs to make these free radicals to kill the nasties that antioxidants are supposed to mop up. Yet when I drink OJ, I don't come down with sepsis. Hmm...
Man, I'm grumpy about snake oil salesmen separating morons from their money. Mofos ain't getting mine. - darny, on 11/12/2008, -1/+5put your mouth on the exhaust pipe of your car. taste the toxins!
- olasonn, on 11/12/2008, -2/+6Same thing with the detox foot baths, just a scam for making money out of peoples fears.
Why do people fall for this? - Grahamcracker, on 11/12/2008, -0/+4Whatever a toxin is, it clearly can't be drawn out by the foot pads. People should use a Cherokee hair tampon instead.
- Murdats, on 11/12/2008, -1/+5shhh, you aren't meant to ask questions like that.
toxins are bad, they cause badness like feeling ill or your girlfriend dumping you, if you stimulate these certain points that I say are there then everything will become good in your life, but it will cost you $60 a week, don't worry though you will become happy and healthy and successful and full of energy and all these other arbitrary effects.
and whatever you do, don't listen to those evil sceptics, the ones that say things like how toxins used in this way is meaningless, that acupressure points don't actually exist and that alt medicine that works is called medicine. sceptics are full of toxins and will make you all unhappy and realistic instead of self deluded, I mean happy. - Murdats, on 11/12/2008, -0/+4toxins are toxic chemicals of a biological origin, if it is not biological in origin it is simply a poison.
mercury is a poison not a toxin, as are other heavy metals and things you list as toxins. - TheUngod, on 11/12/2008, -0/+4If it actually DID work, you'd probably wind up sicker since it would pull out plenty of good things in the process of pulling out bad things.
- ATLien74, on 11/12/2008, -0/+4Look, I spend a lot of money putting toxins in my body. What makes you think I want to spend more money to remove them?
- grapesofbaath, on 11/12/2008, -2/+6that whole article was quackery
- darkstar949, on 11/12/2008, -0/+4Wikipedia knows all -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ear_candling
Basically, the whole concept behind ear candles is that the hollow candle is able to draw ear wax and what not out of the ear canal. Which is useful if it were able to pull it off constantly, but for the most part, there isn't much evidence going for them from a scientific standpoint. - tkeajax, on 11/12/2008, -1/+4Wow, This article told me absolutely nothing. There was no scientific conclusion. Why write it.
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