Heavy Metal Urine Excretion After Ionic Foot Bath Series: a Case Study

When I first got the idea to create the Healing Room at Upstream Functional Medicine, I knew that I wanted Ionic Foot Baths to be among the modalities offered. But the ONE thing that gave me pause is the info that comes up in any Google search of “ionic foot bath.”  The top website hits are either full of misinformation, or dismiss the validity of ionic foot baths altogether.

I needed to do better for my patients by helping to fill in the gaps in the scientific data. So, I diligently tracked my own heavy metal urine excretion data over a 2 year period – before, during, and after completing a total of 42 ionic foot baths. The main findings are below. My takeaway is that ionic foot baths are a very safe and effective way to remove heavy metals from the body!

The graph pictured shows my heavy metal urine excretion data from Baseline through 3 series of 14 ionic foot baths. I chose to use this schedule based on the manufacturer recommendations of our professional ionic foot bath machine: for best results, one should perform 14 (30-minute) foot baths at a rate of 1-2 foot baths per week – then take a 3 week break for the body to rest. Additional series of 14 foot baths can be continued until one feels well, or until urine testing indicates that heavy metals have been sufficiently removed from the body.

1. My baseline urine collection was done in Jan 2022, before starting the ionic foot baths
2. Foot Bath Series 1 (14 baths) was completed Jan-Apr 2022; urine collected Apr 2022
(then I took a break for 10 months without regular foot baths! Busy mom/doctor life!)
3. Foot Bath Series 2 (14 baths) was completed Feb-Apr 2023; urine collected Apr 2023
(then a 3-week break)
4. Foot Bath Series 3 (14 baths) was completed May-Sep 2023; urine collected Sep 2023

Before each urine collection, I took a weight-based dose of a chelating medication called DMSA, which helps to safely assess the current heavy metal burden in the body’s tissues. At baseline, I was surprised to see I had a fairly high heavy metal burden! I do not consider myself to be at high-risk for heavy metal exposure. I don’t have any metal dental fillings, and have not had any major occupational exposures to metals. I assume that my entire heavy metal tissue burden is due to typical modern living in the Midwestern United States (food, water, inhaled ambient air).

KEY TAKEAWAY 1: Two series of 14 ionic foot baths (28 baths total – the RED and YELLOW bars in the graph) may de-bulk a significant portion of the heavy metal burden in the tissues in people who have not had any known heavy metal exposures. People with a significant history of heavy metal exposure will likely require more than 28 baths for de-bulking.

Notice how many of the metals increased significantly with the 1st series of foot baths. This is the chelating effect of the baths pulling out metals from deep within my tissues! This is why the bars create a bell-shaped curve over time for each metal. First the metals go UP, and then eventually go DOWN as the total body burden of each metal is reduced by the foot baths. The majority of my metals started going down again by the end of the 2nd series of foot baths. There were a few exceptions to this: you can see that my aluminum excretion was still rising after the 1st series and did not peak until after the 2nd series of foot baths.

I was really surprised by the amount of arsenic that I had in my tissues!  And I’m relieved to have reduced my burden significantly after just 28 foot baths. Thinking back over my first 30 years of life, I ate a lot of chicken and rice – these are the richest food sources of arsenic. In the last 10 years since adopting a paleo template, my rice consumption has decreased dramatically, and I have diversified my protein consumption – although I still enjoy chicken a couple times per week.

KEY TAKEAWAY 2: The faster each series of foot baths is completed, the faster total body burden of heavy metals is reduced – but completing multiple series of foot baths in quick succession is NOT REQUIRED.

Even though I took almost a 1 year break between series 1 and series 2, there was a lasting de-bulking effect for all heavy metals except aluminum and lead (these metals did not peak until after my 2nd series of foot baths).

KEY TAKEAWAY 3: Ongoing ionic foot baths are likely important for maintenance as we are exposed to more heavy metals in our environment over time. Scheduling 2 foot baths per month once de-bulking is complete is reasonable – but more research is needed on this.

My mercury went up again between the 2nd and 3rd series – which I realized retrospectively correlates with the timing of my new subscription to a monthly wild-caught fish box in the summer of 2023. Yikes! Since I getting my most recent metal results, I cancelled the seafood subscription and am back to eating only low-mercury fish. And I started Series 4 of ionic foot baths for maintenance. Like everyone else, I have ongoing heavy metal exposure from everyday living. Even organic vegetables have been found to be a source of lead, cadmium, mercury, and arsenic due to widespread soil contamination. We cannot completely avoid heavy metals even with a healthy whole foods diet. The best strategy is to support your liver and kidneys and GI tract with the right nutrients for detox (protein, B vitamins, and sulfur), and use resources like regular sauna exposure and ionic foot baths to decrease – and maintain – a low body burden of heavy metals.

If you are already doing regular ionic foot baths with us and want to track your own heavy metal excretion in this way, please let us know during your next visit. Most of our patients have opted to do ionic foot baths without this testing, so the best data we have so far is my personal data. The cost for a DMSA 6-hr urine heavy metal collection is ~$160, including the prescription for the compounded dose of DMSA that must be taken prior to the test (a prior version of this article errantly listed the cost as $80 – the urine heavy metal test costs $80, and the prescription for DMSA, which must be prescribed by a physician and made at a compounding pharmacy, costs an additional $80).

Julia Buchkina, MD, MPH
Upstream Functional Medicine
Iowa City, Iowa
ph/text: 319-471-4727
email: upstreamfm.com