Profiles Magazine
Party Plan
Profiles Magazine, November 2003
Preparations are well underway for a very merry Christmas, but health experts suggest leaving the tinsel and trimmings aside this month, and prepare yourself instead. Lucy Harvey reports.
WITH the season of goodwill almost upon us, social calendars are already filling up with office parties and family gatherings. Tradition dictates that each of these occasions will centre around over-indulgence, with wine and spirits flowing freely, in between courses upon courses of rich food.
Then, during the month after the year before, our thoughts will turn to how we can undo all of our Christmas sins; and diets, exercise videos and gym memberships will form the staple of most New Years resolutions... once again.
But experts now suggest that we can use the weeks leading up to the customary Christmas binge to prepare our bodies for what lies ahead, limiting the damage we might do and making resolving our sins in January a lot easier...
Heather Hull applies the Aqua Detox treatment
...For those requiring more immediate results, holistic health care practitioner Heather Hull may have the answer.
Heather, of Holmesfield, Dronfield, runs Aqua-Detox sessions, using a machine similar to a foot spa to literally drain the toxins from your body before your very eyes.
Dubbed 'detox without discomfort', Aqua Detox is pain free but the results can be as staggering as much harsher techniques, including colonic irrigation.
At the start of the process the machine's water, which contains a mild saline solution, is clear.
Feet are dipped in for half and hour and a flow of electrons gets to work, drawing out toxins, correcting imbalance and dysfunction, and regulating oxygen and nutrients.
By the end of the session the water is transformed to a thick sludge - which can be black, yellow or green in colour.
Heather said: "There are very few procedures you can do which have such immediate results and when people see what was inside them they realise why they felt sluggish or tired.
"People are incredibly curious and some come along not expecting it to work, but the same people have been embarrassed by what has come out of their feet!
"It really gets people thinking about what they put into their bodies in the first place. Toxins come from food, drink, what we breathe, stress and illness, and it makes sense to alter the aspects you can control to put less pressure on the body."
Since investing in the £1,300 machine in July, Heather has been inundated with appointments and now works five days a week and three evenings just to cope with demand of Aqua Detox alongside a range of other treatments and healing methods she administers. Her clients range in age from 10 to 74 and include men and women.
Heather explained: "Aqua Detox was developed by doctors to give real health benefits so it has kudos, and it is not just a beauty treatment.
"Some people notice a difference after one session, but for me it was not until my third go when it really had an effect. Then my energy levels went through the roof.
"Regular clients have found their energy levels and sleeping have improved, headaches and joint pains have gone and in some cases their blood pressure has normalised."
As for the festive binge culture, Heather said:
"What does worry me is that Christmas and New Year is about drinking and eating to excess which it shouldn't be.
"I encourage my clients to take a more moderate view throughout the year. The detox is great but the more the person does to assist the process means a reduction in the number of sessions they need."
Reassuringly, Heather does not advocate teetotalism. She said; "I drink alcohol and I enjoy it but I don't drink every night and I know when I have had enough. It has not stopped me drinking but it definitely makes you think about what you are consuming.
"I don't expect people to live on water over Christmas. The main point is that it encourages people to cut back on the excess. Once you have done this detox five or six times and you have seen what can come out of your feet, which can be truly disgusting, it can be used in a preventative light.
"And if you shed the toxins that have built up over months and years now, there will obviously be less to come out after Christmas, which can only be a good thing."
AQUA DETOX FACTFILE
• For more information about Aqua Detox visit www.houseofhull.demon.co.uk, email heather@houseofhull.demon.co.uk or call Heather on 0114 289 1342.
• An initial consultation and Aqua Detox treatment, lasting between 45 minutes and an hour, costs £30.
• Subsequent treatments are £25
• A recommended course of five treatments, it booked together, is priced £115.
• The treatment is not suitable for pregnant women, epileptics, people with a pacemaker or those who have had psychotic experiences.