City Styles: Boston D-Tox
Our intrepid writer takes a detoxifying plunge.
>> The Idea: A noninvasive purge of body toxins.
>> The Method: Your feet rest in a footbath full of warm water, next to which sits a humming soccer ball–sized machine right out of ER. What looks like a copper soup can is placed in the water. Gurgling bubbles ensue, emitting what we’re told are positively and negatively charged ions. Using the water as a conductor, the ions “jump-start” the natural energy of your cells, causing them to discharge toxins through the pores of your feet.
>> The Result: By the end of the 23-minute treatment, our water is a soup of frothy yellow bilge—visual evidence, if any is needed, that guys’ bodies are full of cooties. Subsequent treatments are purported to fully scour all the impurities from your cells. The more often you do it, the less rancid the water appears.
>> Our Ruling: Multiple sessions are said to increase energy and offer health benefits such as relieving insomnia and clearing up problem skin. But while a single dose was as relaxing as any good footbath, we found that within 20 minutes we still needed a jolt of (toxic) caffeine to get over our morning torpor.
>> $55 per session. $500 for 10. 83 Newbury St., Boston, 617-867-0007, bostondtox.com.