Takara Foot Patch - Medical Breakthrough?

[koopkoop2]

Has anyone tried these Takara Feet Patches? They are supposed to detoxify the body, by drawing the toxins from the blood vessels that run through the feet. You simply apply them at night and in the morning you wake up and remove the patches which will contain a significant amount of body toxins.

My friend at work is trying to get me to use them. He claims that his parents who had very high blood pressure began using them and now their blood pressure has dropped to an acceptable figure.

I've spent some time searching through Google, but I can't find any real scientific study behind how these patches work. They look absolutely gross after they've been used, so they may actually work and something is actually being drawn out. On the other hand, they might be bogus and contain a chemical which reacts with the mositure from your feet to produce the nasty colour and effectively tricking you into believing they work.

Can someone who has used these verify any of this? Any doctors on here who can shed some light on this? I'm tempted to buy some and have the chemical contents analyzed before and after they've been used.

Here's a detailed description of their usage and a simpletons explanation of the science behind them (Before and After pictures are half way down):

http://www.discoverhealthandwealth.com/takara-patch-rapid-detoxification-product.html



Here are the ingredients in the patch:

http://www.thelifetree.com/takarapatchingredients.htm

[davidI]

sounds like a stretch to me but it's your money...

[koopkoop2]

Originally posted by davidI
sounds like a stretch to me but it's your money...

Oh, I don't really plan on using them. I'm more intersted in if they're a scam or not and how it is they accomplish their task. I went through some forums and there's some people claiming it's reduced the heavy metal content of their blood (mercury, lead, nickel, etc.). Are they real people or undercover PR staff?

[^SkylinE^]

If you want to reduce the content of metal in your system ( mercury, lead, nickel) then just drink tea. I saw a show on a study they did with ppl that eat alot of fish ( high levels of mercury). Half of them drank tea and the other half didn't and the ones that drank tea had barly trace amounts! :thumbsup:

[1badPT]

Sounds no different from Q'Ray - whatever your opinion is on that, treat this the same way.

[gggunit]

A guy from work gave me one.. alot of japanese people use them.. I used it overnight and the white pad was full of this sappy nasty stuff..

[GTS Jeff]

Originally posted by koopkoop2


Oh, I don't really plan on using them. I'm more intersted in if they're a scam or not and how it is they accomplish their task. I went through some forums and there's some people claiming it's reduced the heavy metal content of their blood (mercury, lead, nickel, etc.). Are they real people or undercover PR staff?

Obviously a scam. While I could spent hours pouring over that bogus article picking it apart, I won't, because I'm lazy. The simple fact that it's extremely vague about what it actually does is discouraging enough. The most descriptive sentence, "It is a plant textile that absorbs carcinogenic substances," doesn't even specify what it acts on at all. If you read the article critically, you'll see that the whole thing is pure hype and that there is nothing concrete being said at all.

At least you have the sense to question something that sounds too good to be true.

Originally posted by ^SkylinE^
If you want to reduce the content of metal in your system ( mercury, lead, nickel) then just drink tea. I saw a show on a study they did with ppl that eat alot of fish ( high levels of mercury). Half of them drank tea and the other half didn't and the ones that drank tea had barly trace amounts! :thumbsup:

That also sounds bogus. Do you know how mercury works? I'll try to explain it in layman's terms for the non-scientific people. There are many different chemical species of mercury (Hg), basically different kinds of mercury. Each species has varying levels of toxicity to humans. The worst kind is methylmercury (MeHg) and the other major species, Hg(II) and elemental mercury (Hg(0)) aren't too bad for you. The predominant Hg species found in the environment, and therefore the food you eat, is Hg(0) and Hg(II). These species are not organic (they don't have a methyl group bonded to them,) which means they aren't likely to stay in your body (the scientific term is bioavailability.) What is more likely to happen is that they're pissed out in urine. For the study to be valid, they have to measure only MeHg concentrations and also consider that when you drink more of any fluid, you piss more, meaning you're expelling more stuff.

I question this "show" you watched simply because TV is primarily a source of entertainment, with truth, knowledge, or education being a low priority. University is the real source of education.

[koopkoop2]

There's also the fact that the longer you use them, the less amount of substance shows up on the pad. If it was bogus, there would be the same amount of substance on the pads day after day. Obviously, the substance is coming from somewhere and is slowly tapering off as the levels in your body decrease. Either that or it is reacting with something on the feet to create the illusion of "drawing" toxic substances, but what could it possibly be reacting with that would cause subsequent pads to become lighter in colour?

I also can't explain the experience of my co worker's parents. If you read my original post, he stated that his parents who had dangerously high blood pressure started taking these patches. After consistently using these for a few weeks, both of his parents have had their blood pressure drop back to an acceptable level.

This person is one of my closest co workers, whom I have worked with for a year and a half, and he would have no reason to lie to me about this.

These two facts are the only thing that is keeping me from believing it's a scam, unless someone can prove otherwise.

[Lanks]

where can you buy these?

[GTS Jeff]

Originally posted by koopkoop2
There's also the fact that the longer you use them, the less amount of substance shows up on the pad. If it was bogus, there would be the same amount of substance on the pads day after day. Obviously, the substance is coming from somewhere and is slowly tapering off as the levels in your body decrease. Either that or it is reacting with something on the feet to create the illusion of "drawing" toxic substances, but what could it possibly be reacting with that would cause subsequent pads to become lighter in colour?

I also can't explain the experience of my co worker's parents. If you read my original post, he stated that his parents who had dangerously high blood pressure started taking these patches. After consistently using these for a few weeks, both of his parents have had their blood pressure drop back to an acceptable level.

This person is one of my closest co workers, whom I have worked with for a year and a half, and he would have no reason to lie to me about this.

These two facts are the only thing that is keeping me from believing it's a scam, unless someone can prove otherwise. I won't pretend to have the answers but I can make a guess pertaining to your first question. The most likely is the second scenario you suggested, with something like water or sweat catalyzing the reaction.

Your coworkers parents personal experiences don't mean much. Anecdotal evidence is useless and meaningless, so don't worry about that. I'm sure he isn't lying, but still, anecdotal evidence is crap.

[koopkoop2]

Originally posted by GTS Jeff
I won't pretend to have the answers but I can make a guess pertaining to your first question. The most likely is the second scenario you suggested, with something like water or sweat catalyzing the reaction.


This still doesn't answer why prolonged use causes the amount of substance on the pads becomes lighter.



Originally posted by GTS Jeff
Your coworkers parents personal experiences don't mean much. Anecdotal evidence is useless and meaningless, so don't worry about that. I'm sure he isn't lying, but still, anecdotal evidence is crap. [/B]

His parents were dogged with high blood pressure for years. It can't simply be dismissed as coincidental that their blood pressure dropped when they started using these pads. You also can't overlook the fact that two seperate individuals experienced the same result.

[1badPT]

Do you know that the placebo effect can account for up to about 50% of positive results during drug testing? In other words, if people believe a product will work, often times it will whether the actual product itself is effective or not. Furthermore, companies selling food supplements, remedies and therapies do not have to prove that their product is effective (or even SAFE) before marketing them.

That means your friend's parents may have been helped by this product by the product's effectiveness (maybe it actually works?), or by the placebo effect (maybe its a cleverly designed sticker that makes itself dirty). In any case, just because it worked for your friend's parents doesn't mean it will work for anyone else.

It sounds like you believe in the product, so go ahead and give it a try - they've created this much curiosity in you, its worth your money to give it a shot don't you think?

[GTS Jeff]

Originally posted by koopkoop2
This still doesn't answer why prolonged use causes the amount of substance on the pads becomes lighter.
I've re-read your post and see a mistake I made. I have no idea how the pads become lighter.


Originally posted by koopkoop2
His parents were dogged with high blood pressure for years. It can't simply be dismissed as coincidental that their blood pressure dropped when they started using these pads. You also can't overlook the fact that two seperate individuals experienced the same result. Ok here is another scenario. If I told you that I had a cold and that the cold went away in a few days because for those few days I ate nothing but beans, would you attribute beans to having a cold curing effect? NO! Correlation is not necessarily causal. This is one thing that academics of any field must understand clearly. If you need me to clarify on that statement, let me know.

[brew252]

My friend got some of these patches and gave some to me so thought I would add my 2c.

To see if they're absorbing anything, I did the following:

1) Weighed the patch before it was applied to the feet.

2) Removed used patch and dried it out completely (using a dessecant).

3) Weighed patch again.

The used patch was 214mg heavier suggesting that it does indeed absorb stuff from the body.

I also noticed that depending on the location of the foot, the patch would turn a different color. The heel of the foot regularly produced a gray path while the arch of the foot consistently produced a brown patch.

[msommers]

Quite frankly, I'm sure it's more psychological than it is anything physical.

You know the old remedy that involves chicken soup to make you feel better. Studies actually showed it was pretty much all in your head.

[msommers]

Originally posted by brew252
My friend got some of these patches and gave some to me so thought I would add my 2c.

To see if they're absorbing anything, I did the following:

1) Weighed the patch before it was applied to the feet.

2) Removed used patch and dried it out completely (using a dessecant).

3) Weighed patch again.

The used patch was 214mg heavier suggesting that it does indeed absorb stuff from the body.

I also noticed that depending on the location of the foot, the patch would turn a different color. The heel of the foot regularly produced a gray path while the arch of the foot consistently produced a brown patch.

Most likely was sweat from your foot containing chemicals. I'm sure the exact same thing happens without the patch, and in the morning when you shower, it rinses it away. So my theory, instead of washing your feet, you could use these patches.

[QuasarCav]

Originally posted by msommers
Quite frankly, I'm sure it's more psychological than it is anything physical.

You know the old remedy that involves chicken soup to make you feel better. Studies actually showed it was pretty much all in your head.


:werd:

There are two things that this patch will remove from your body, money and moisture.

[HHURICANE1]

The highest percentage of sweat glands are in your feet. If you put a patch on your feet they will sweat thus the weight increase. Doesn't mean anything more than feet sweat and scam artists know this and can show their "results" this way.

[TrevorK]

This probably plays off the belief that some people have that sweating removes toxins from the body.

[googe]

"Medical breakthroughs" happen through research, by scientists. Even then, the "breakthrough" is tested and re-tested, and peer-reviewed. There are some fairly strict basic guidelines that have to be in place before the academic population will accept a new discovery as fact. They arent discovered by fluke in the jungle after seeing some ancient symbols carved into a stone showing egyptians wearing leaves on their feet.

You can immediately tell after reading a product description if it is bullshit. Part of it is due to the vagueness like Jeff mentioned. Mostly though, its because it just smells like it. This is right up there with magents, astrology, and most other "natural herbal remedies".

Why bogus therapies appear to work (http://www.csicop.org/si/9709/beyer.html)

[footballer]

You can get a free sample from www.wardwellness.ca, I got mine a few days after I e-mailed a guy for a free sample.

Mine didn't look dark, look more like mucus, really thick mucus.

Not sure if I'll get more, but it sure was cool...my feet and knees are a little tingly.