Principles of Biology I_Class Assignment 1_Topic 1

Due Lecture 7

FEELING DETOXIFIED
Expectations, Effects, and Explanations
Giselle A. McCallum and Annie Prud’homme-Généreux

The Case Study

Part I: The Detoxifying Ionic Foot Bath Experience

Stressed and tired, you look forward to your monthly visit at the A New You! spa. Upon
arrival, you are given an information booklet about a new treatment that is being offered. It
is
an ionic foot bath. You are seduced by the assurances that it will leave you feeling refreshed
and opt for this treatment. The spa’s technician tends to you, ensures that you are
comfortable, and directs you to sit and place your feet in a bath of salt water. She then
switches on the electrical box connected to two metal rods that rest in the foot bath.
“This machine’s iron electrodes ionize the water in the bath. This creates a negative bio-
charge in your body and draws unwanted toxins out of special pores on the soles of your feet.
You’ll actually see it working,” the attendant explains enthusiastically.
“Oh, right,” you reply. A few minutes later, reddish-brown streaks appear in the bath water.
By the time your half-hour treatment nears its end, the whole bath has a dark brown- reddish
tinge, and bubbles cover the surface of the water, which smells faintly of chlorine. You ask the
spa’s attendant about the smell.
“It’s from all the chlorine that we consume in our tap water. It can also be left over in your
body from swimming pools. The foot bath pulls it out of your feet. It detoxifies your body.”
You leave the spa feeling refreshed. When you return home, you are intrigued. You read with
interest the pamphlet that the spa provided you:
Electricity is used in this treatment to create positive and negative ions from the water molecules in the
foot bath. These ions can penetrate your body. Their positive and negative charge allows them to act as a
molecular sponge to soak up and sequester particles of opposite charge. These neutralized toxins then
leave the body through the surface of the feet that are in contact with water in the foot bath, leaving you
cleansed and refreshed.

Questions
1. Why might you be tempted to believe what the pamphlet and spa attendant say?
What aspects are convincing?
2. Why might you be skeptical? What are some of the problems with the
explanation provided?
 Principles of Biology I_Class Assignment 1_Topic 1
Due Lecture 7

Part II: A Proposed Chemistry of Foot Baths

After your spa foot bath, you feel refreshed. You are mentally alert, and that persistent pain in
your right knee has faded considerably. Despite your skepticism about the scientific explana-
tion behind it, you feel so fantastic that you sign up for another foot bath the following week.
Over lunch one day, you tell your friends about this experience. Your friends question your
foot bath experience.
“But how does it actually work? How do you know that it is working? Have you tried taking
your feet out and seeing what happens?” Those questions nag at you when you visit the spa
the next time. You resolve to do the experiment that your friends suggest. You are
comfortably seated with your feet in the ionic foot bath. The attendant turns the machine on.
However, this time, when she leaves the room, you look around cautiously and then slowly
slide your feet out.
As time passes, the water slowly turns brown, the faint chlorine smell becomes detectable,
and bubbles appear in the water. Your feet are not in the water, so obviously the bath is not
drawing unwanted toxins out of your feet. Where do the chlorine smell, the reddish-brown
color, and the bubbles come from?
Determined to solve the mystery, you call on your friends for their help. Michael starts things
off by drawing on Figure 7.1 as he says: “Let’s start with the salty water. The most common
salt is table salt, sodium chloride (NaCl), so let’s assume that’s the salt used in the foot baths.
When it is dissolved in water, the two atoms in salt dissociate into their constitu- ent ions:
Na+ and Cl-. There always exist a small number of water molecules (H 2O) that are dissociated
into H+ and OH- ions. In other words, you have the following ions in the foot bath: H +, OH-,
Na+, and Cl-.”

Allison, a chemistry major, thinks she holds another piece of the puzzle.
“What you have here is a simple electrochemical cell where oxidation and reduction reac-
tions take place. Don’t panic about the jargon: Let me explain. There were two rods made of
metal that were plunged into the water and through which an electrical current was running.
An electrical current means that electrons (e-) were flowing in one direction through the wires.
In solution, the current is carried by migrating ions. The electrons are induced to move by a
force that is provided by the power supply that the foot bath is connected to.”
“Metals conduct electricity because they have electrons that can be freed from their atoms to
move to other atoms. If we follow the path of an electron through the system, it might look
like this: An electron starts in the metal of one of the rods; we’ll call this rod the anode. As the
anode loses electrons, the metal acquires a positive charge (because it lost some negatively-
charged electrons). The electrons flow through the wire and end up in the other
 Principles of Biology I_Class Assignment 1_Topic 1
Due Lecture 7

metal rod (the cathode), which has a negative charge (because it accepted negatively charged
electrons).”

You and Michael nod in agreement. Allison continues as she draws on Figure 7.1.
“The spa attendant told you the metal rods are made of iron. When an electrical charge is run
through the cell, the anode loses electrons in the following reaction:
Fe(s) Fe+2 + 2e-
In other words, the electrode dissolves over time. While the Fe found in the electrodes cannot
dissolve in water, the Fe+2 ions that are being created by the current are able to interact with
other ions in the water.”
“In the foot bath, some of the positively charged Fe +2 ions react with negatively charged OH-
ions to form Fe(OH)2(s), which is reddish-brown in color (see Figure 7.2). You may also have
seen flecks of rusty metal floating in the water.”
Fe+2 + 2OH- Fe(OH)2(s)
You and Michael nod in agreement. Allison continues as she draws on Figure 7.1.
“The spa attendant told you the metal rods are made of iron. When an electrical charge is run
through the cell, the anode loses electrons in the following reaction:
Fe(s) Fe+2 + 2e-
In other words, the electrode dissolves over time. While the Fe found in the electrodes cannot
dissolve in water, the Fe+2 ions that are being created by the current are able to interact with
other ions in the water.”
“In the foot bath, some of the positively charged Fe +2 ions react with negatively charged OH-
ions to form Fe(OH)2(s), which is reddish-brown in color (see Figure 7.2). You may also have
seen flecks of rusty metal floating in the water.”
Fe+2 + 2OH- Fe(OH)2(s)

Allison continues this idea, as she adds to Figure 7.1.

“The negatively charged cathode attracts the positive H+ and Na+ ions in the water. Because
H+ accepts electrons more easily than Na+, the Na+ ions do not react at the cath- ode. They
stay in the solution. The H+ ions, however, do react. They gain electrons to become hydrogen
gas: 2H+ + 2e- H2(g)
Following the same line of thought, you tentatively propose the following explanation.
“Another reaction occurs at the anode. Its positive charge attracts negatively charged ions.
Thus, Cl- ions are drawn to this electrode. Once they reach the anode, they donate their extra
electron, and combine to form chlorine gas:

2Cl- Cl2(g) + 2e-

“Wow!” interjects Allison. “Did you know that chlorine gas is poisonous and was used during
World War I as a chemical weapon?”

Questions
1. What causes the red-brown color that you saw in the foot bath? The chlorine smell? The
bubbles?
2. Should you be concerned about your foot bath’s production of a chemical used in warfare?
3. If simple chemistry in the foot bath (that does not involve changes to your body) can
explain what you observed, then why do you feel so much better after the treatment?
Think of as many possibilities as you can to explain this phenomenon.
 Principles of Biology I_Class Assignment 1_Topic 1
Due Lecture 7

Part III: Feeling Better After Treatment

A few weeks go by. Despite being able to explain everything that you observed in the foot
bath as a phenomenon that did not involve your body, you definitely felt better after the
treatment. You wonder why.
One day over lunch, you share these concerns with Michael. He immediately becomes
excited.
“We just read a landmark paper in my psychology class on a phenomenon that may shed
some light on your question. In this experiment, two hundred patients with symptoms
that could not be diagnosed because they had no obvious physical signs were selected for
the study. They were divided into four groups:
• One group received a positive consultation with an empathetic doctor, but received
no treatment.
• One group received a positive consultation with an empathetic doctor and
received treatment.
• One group received a negative consultation with an unfriendly doctor and received
no treatment.
• One group received a negative consultation with an unfriendly doctor and
received treatment.

When a treatment was provided, it was in the form of a pill containing no medicinal
ingredient (a sugar pill). All patients were surveyed two weeks later to determine the
outcome on their symptoms. I happen to have a copy of this article right here. Take a look at
the results table” (see Table 7.1).
Principles of Biology I_Class Assignment 1_Topic 1
Due Lecture 7

Questions
1. What do the two columns of numbers for each experimental group represent (the
numbers and the numbers in parentheses)?
2. Based on this table, what do you suspect that the researchers were investigating?
What was their hypothesis?
3. Which of the two variables tested in this study appears to have the largest effect
on improved health?

Part IV: The Effect of Expectations

After you have absorbed the data in the table, Michael looks at you expectantly. To recap,
he adds: “Empathy is a big part of receiving an effective treatment. Feeling catered to and
pampered can go a long way towards making you feel refreshed and de-stressed,
independently of any form of treatment.”
Pondering these thoughts, you ask: “OK, I buy that, but is there anything else that might
be at work here?”
“Well, there is the placebo effect, as it is classically defined.”
“I’ve heard about this. Isn’t it when patients are given a sugar pill and it cures them?”
“That’s one form of it. Placebos are sham treatments that mirror the experience of under-
going a treatment but do not provide the active ingredient or therapy. In other words, it’s
the part of the treatment that causes an effect based on human expectations.”
“So, if I believe I am receiving a treatment that can make me feel refreshed, that’s enough
to make me feel refreshed?” you ask, a bit incredulously.
“Yes! The placebo effect does not work for all conditions, but anxiety, depression, pain,
swelling, and stomach ulcers all seem to respond to a placebo.”
“I guess in my situation I was feeling stressed, which is a form of anxiety, right?” “Sure.
The placebo effect is bizarre. We studied it in class. Did you know that the color of the pill,
the presence of a brand name on it, the number of doses to take each day, the route of
administration (e.g., orally or intravenously) all affect the size of the placebo effect? Even
more striking, the effectiveness of a treatment seems to decrease as new (and, people
believe, more effective) treatments become available. There is even evidence that the
placebo effect shows differences in strength within different geographical regions, and
that in recent years the strength of the placebo effect is increasing.”

Question
Describe a situation where the placebo effect may have played a part in your response to a
treatment (other than your experience at the “A New You!” spa).