Experts debate detox process

The ankle-deep water in a portable tub bubbles up around bare feet. A slight tingling sensation runs along soles. Gradually the water begins to darken. From clear to cloudy. Cloudy to tan. Tan to amber.

The small electrical charge running through the water accounts for some of the color change as hydrogen and oxygen separate and the charge interacts with minerals in the water.

The interaction accounts for some of the color change - but not all of it, at least according to disputed claims DTOX International makes.

According to the company, the water darkens as chemicals and metals drain out of the body via the DETOX process.

At least that's what the company founder says.

Medical doctors use words like "nonsense" and "unethical" when discussing DETOX.

Douglas A. Wine, a chiropractor, with certification in more than a half-dozen health fields from nutrition to homeopathy and psychology, says these chemicals and metals pour out of the body via the lymph system through the sweat glands in the feet. Wine says these are toxins stored in the body's cells - toxins his system helps the body cleanse.

The process, says Wine, changes the body's ionization, reversing the electrical charges inside and outside the cells, so they open and push out their waste into the blood stream and then the wastes are partially expelled through the lymph system.

Wine has founded a new company, DTOX International, with a site just opened at 495 Cabot St., that offers the DETOX service - $50 for a single, 24-minute session, $395 for 10 sessions.

Wine also has locations on Boston's Newbury Street, North Andover, Wellesley and Sudbury and plans to open 25 locations in New York City.

The company markets a disputed process that is supposed to help the body rid itself of toxins it absorbs through diet and merely living modern life.

"We're just facilitating what the body does on its own," Wine says. "We don't do anything to the body it doesn't do naturally."

Because no drugs are involved, the Food and Drug Administration has no control over the system, but at least two medical doctors who have researched similar processes say they don't work.

Jennifer Sutherland, M.D., of Beverly Hospital, disagrees.

Sutherland says medical research shows the process does nothing and also criticizes the DETOX marketing strategy on the company's Web site.

The site says: