Lots of us overlook our feet when it comes to self-care, but they’re actually one of the most important parts of the body when it comes to maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Whether you're exfoliating skin, or killing off athlete's foot with an apple cider treatment, clean feet are a tremendous boost to your health.
Surprisingly, however, good foot hygiene isn’t always enough. Your feet do a lot for your body throughout the day and are carrying your weight from point A to point B.
When you’re standing up, especially over long periods of time, blood will inevitably pool slightly in your feet due to the forces of gravity.
While it hasn’t been researched extensively, some alternative medical practitioners believe that all that buildup of fluid in the feet can lead to toxins accumulating and contribute to feeling stuffy or under the weather.
Fortunately, falling back on an ancient Eastern medical practice, they’ve come up with a strategy that is rumored to draw all the bad stuff out and leave you feeling fresh as a daisy: an all-natural foot detox.
Check out the gallery below to learn more about what a foot detox looks like and how it’s done!
Detox Step #1: Gather Your Ingredients
In order to get started with your foot detox, you'll need a few simple supplies.
You'll need self-sticking gauze pads, one onion, a head of garlic, and water for the DIY detox pads themselves.
You will also want a tea kettle and a pair of nice, secure socks. We picked a woolly pair, perfect for when you're feeling under the weather!
Detox Step #2: Prep Your Vegetables
The two main ingredients in this concoction are garlic and onion, which need to be sliced, minced, and mixed together.
These two vegetables are known for adding plenty of flavor to just about every dish, but they are also known for their potent immune-boosting powers.
When eaten, onions and garlic are both good for kick-starting the lymphatic system, and encouraging your body to process and expel the bad stuff.
When placed against the skin directly, the theory is that they might serve to open pores, and pull toxins and other ickiness out through the feet.
Detox Step #3: Add The Vegetables
Once your onions and garlic are finely chopped, as if prepping for a stir-fry, it's time to add them to the water.
Add chopped vegetables directly to the teapot.
The idea is that the garlic and onions will soak in the water and infuse it with their main detoxifying ingredient, a compound called allicin.
Allicin, found in both onions and garlic, has strong antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties, which may be how these veggies pull toxins and excess fluids out of the body.
Detox Step #4: Add Water And Heat
Pour hot water directly onto the vegetables in the teapot until the pot is about halfway full.
Next, either switch on your kettle or put it on the stovetop.
Heat the water until it reaches a roiling boil, then turn off heat and allow to cool slightly.
Allicin is released when the vegetable is damaged, so this tonic is most effective if the vegetables are chopped and heated.
Detox Step #5: Prepare Your Gauze
Allow the kettle to sit and cool until the water has reached roughly the temperature of hot bathwater.
Now, pour the infused water through the spout and onto the self-sticking gauze pad until it is damp.
To make sure that the sticky adhesive still works, the pad should not be entirely saturated.
This pad will be how the detoxifying properties of the onion and garlic are introduced to the skin.
Detox Step #6: Attach The Gauze
Now, while the pad is still damp, stick it to the bottom of your foot.
The placement of the pad might dependent slightly on your own medical needs — Eastern medicine often views the foot as a microcosm of the whole body, which is one of the reasons it's the area targeted in this treatment.
You can refer to this chart on foot reflexology if you're trying to target a specific body part or organ system.
If you aren't sure, we recommend the ball of the foot because that's where people tend to put the most pressure on their feet.
Detox Step #7: Slip Your Sock Into Place
Once the pad (or onion!) is in place, slip a sock securely over to hold it in place. We recommend using a somewhat tight sock, but not one that will restrict circulation.
Sleep through the night wearing the sock to give the onion and garlic concoction time to work.
In the morning when you wake up, you can go ahead and remove the sock.
Detox Step #8: Remove The Gauze
Slowly peel the pad back from your foot.
The saturated area of the pad should now be a faint brownish color. This color, though a little bit alarming, is actually a good sign.
The allicin has interacted with the natural chemicals in your skin to create the brown color, which lets you know the pad has been on long enough.
Repeat this process as needed when you're feeling sniffly, sickly, or just in need of a bit of an energy boost!
Alternative Detox Method: The Raw Onion
We prefer the tidy method of the water on a gauze pad, but some people also add a slice of onion to the sock or simply use the onion without a pad at all.
This is actually a variation on an old-fashioned remedy you may have heard about from your grandmother or mother.
Placing a raw onion slice in your sock overnight is meant to help cure cold and flu symptoms, but it may work similarly to our gauze method thanks to the high levels of allicin.
Have you ever heard of this old-fashioned remedy?
Let us know, and don't forget to SHARE with friends and family interested in trying out alternative solution!
