Any bath salts or oils that are good for you?

[johntrevy]

Im not looking for specific products. I just want to know what to look out for.
But if you know of any specific products then all the better.

Im looking for somthing to go in the bath to help me relax and unwind after work. I find the hot water relaxes me to a degree, but there is somthing missing. Like a nice scent, and a smooth feeling in the water.

Edit: Taking showers is out of the question, i feel no relaxation in a shower whatsoever. The only time i take a shower is if im away at camp, or im really in a rush (Which is rare).

So any help would be great:)

Thanks.

[i_am]

I would suggest trying to obtain a book called The Fragrant Pharmacy by Valerie Worwood.

I have had this book for many years and it is the aromatherapists bible.

Simple and easy recipes that are easy to follow.

I will take a look later and see what I can find for you.

[kernelpower]

may be breaking the rules here but search a company called neemgenie on the net , they sell neem skincare stuff ( awesome ) and neem toothpaste ( also awesome ) , steer clear of anything with sls in it ( apologies if you know this already )

Peace

Gav

[jamesk]

Yes, Fragrant Pharmacy by Valerie Worwood is excellent. I'm a qualified aromatherapist, I love oils, been using them for over 20 years, i use them for massage, in air ionizers (these are bowls of water that have a rod in them that spins, and spreads the fragrance to the room, along with negative ions), perfume, to moisturize after shaving/baths, etc.

Probably your best bet is to pop into a shop that has a good range of essential oils, and select the ones you like based on smell (oils are very personal, what I like you might not) - they'll also have a sheet with properties.

I don't use any bath salts, but for table/cooking salt I'd recommend Celtic Sea Salt. This is salt made naturally by the evaporation of sea water, and is collected by hand using pans. It's a magical substance, gives you many of the minerals and trace elements that your body needs. The sodium in celtic sea salt is unlike the sodium in normal processed salt (whether sea or rock), which is heavy, does not flow across membranes as it should.

You can get it in health shops - it looks grey rather then white, seems a little wet, as if not dried properly.

You can use it in baths too - but it might be a bit costly.

Also, you should get a hold of a KDF filter (these can operate at high temperatures) to remove the chlorine - otherwise you'll absorb it from the water and from the fumes, and chlorine isn't all that good for you!

[astral_girl]

epsom salts are good for relaxing the body in the bath-available at chemists.

i found about them -through another forum related to autism.....:)




What are Epsom salts?
Epsom salts are magnesium sulphate. Salts are just molecules that come together based on having a positive and negative charge. Magnesium has a positive charge. Sulphate has a negative charge, and they dissociate (or go their separate ways) in solution. Sulphate is a sulphur atom surrounded by four oxygen atoms and it has a negative charge. It has all sorts of unique biological functions. Epsom salts can be very beneficial for individuals with neurological conditions including autism spectrum, sensory integration disorder, and ADD/ADHD.

How do they work? Why do they work?
Dr. Rosemary Waring has found that most autistic spectrum kids, and lots of others with neurological conditions, are very low in sulphate. They may be as low as 15% of neurologically typical people. Sulphate is needed for a pathway in the body that processes salicylates, phenols, chemicals of all kinds (including food colours, artificial flavouring, and preservatives), and other things the body sees as toxins. This can include heavy metals. The body may have more toxins to process than it can because of a lack of sulphur. To alleviate the unpleasant reactions such as hyperness, aggression, tantrums, sleep problems, night sweats, irritability, eczema, other skin conditions, etc. you can unclog this "bottleneck" by 1) getting rid of the amount of toxins that enter the body, or 2) supplying more sulphur to increase the amount of toxins that can be processed from the body. Epsom salts (magnesium sulphate) supplies the needed sulphur. The body takes in more sulphur, more toxins are processed and you don't see the nasty behaviours and effects.

Many people on a typical American diet are very deficient in magnesium as well. Epsom salts also supplies magnesium. A main effect of insufficient magnesium is hyperness, irritability, anxiety and muscle twitching or spasms. So the salts provide two-way assistance. Sulphur can also be added to the body by supplementing with MSM.

Some people may think Epsom salts work by pulling the toxins out of the body and into the water. Certainly you can sweat out certain toxins like you would in a sauna, but the role of sulphate in the water for that process is questionable. The way sulphate in the water is most likely to be working is by being absorbed into the body through the skin where it can become part of the biological process of detoxification.

Once in the blood, sulphate does not stay there for long. In fact, some studies have suggested that it does what it does and then ends up in the urine four to nine hours later. The Epsom salts left on the skin may continue to be absorbed as long as it is still on the skin, offering something sort of like "timed release" into the blood stream. For that reason, leaving the Epsom salts on the skin to dry may be beneficial for stretching out the effectiveness of this intervention, like medications that are administered through skin patches. None of this process of skin absorption has ever been quantified (as far as I know).

How to Give Epsom Salts
There are several methods parents have used.

1. Epsom salt baths. Most people use about 1-2 cups per tub. Dissolve the salts in hot water first and then fill the tub to about waist deep, as warm as possible. The amount of salts that you may find works best will depend on the individual tolerance, the temperature of the water, and the size of the tub. The warmer the water and larger the tub, the more salts will dissolve. You may need to start slowly using as little as one tablespoon of salts and working up gradually. Some people have been deficient for so long that the full quantity is too much a shock, and you will see negative reactions. In the beginning, a person may react with hyperactivity, irritability or moodiness. However, at the right amount, most people find the salts very calming and relaxing. This works well before bedtime. Soak in the bath a good 20 minutes. It is okay to let the salts dry on the skin. They may leave a dry clear-white powder. If it is too itchy or irritating, just rinse them off. If the skin feels too dry, use lotion or oils to moisturize. Don't drink the bath water because it could cause diarrhoea.

2. Epsom salt oil. I have been experimenting a bit with the Epsom salts. It would leave a salty film on the skin, which my two boys and I didn't like (itchy). Lately, I have been mixing some coconut oil in with the salts and water. Actually it is more oil than water. 3 tablespoons water + 4 tablespoons salts + 12 tablespoon coconut oil. The coconut oil is good for the skin anyway and it seems to counter the drying effect of the salts. I found that just mixing the salts and oil did not dissolve the salts, so I needed to add just some water. I apply this liberally on the skin and it soaks in plus leaves the skin smooth and soft.

3. Mix 1 part salts to 2 parts water (or more so the salts dissolve) and let the person soak their feet in it. My boys would soak their feet about 30 minutes while they did reading or homework.

4. Mix 1 part salts and 1 part water (add more water if the salts are not dissolved) and put in a spray-squirt bottle. Mist the child's chest and/or back and let it dry on. Works well in the summer.

5. Use one of those plastic squeeze bottles with a sponge on top that are used for dampening postal stamps, and fill it with the Epsom salts and water. A solution of 1 part salts to 4 parts water works well. This can be applied to the arms or leg or tummy or whatever is easily accessible.

6. There are some new Epsom salt creams available.

7. You can mix a salt and some kind of acceptable lotion into a paste. Put this paste on a large band-aid and apply to the skin. The salts will soak in.

As you can see, there is no exact ratio…just what seems to get the salts dissolved and on the skin. MSM powder or creams (many of these on the market) can help with the sulphur. However, some recent research shows that oral sulphur is not as well absorbed. Also, this won't supply magnesium.

Sulphate has an influence over almost every cellular function. Sulphate attaches to phenols and makes them less harmful, and sets them up for being excreted from your kidneys. A lot of these potentially toxic molecules are in foods, and since this is a capacity-limited system, those who are low in sulphate do well to eliminate exposures to foods and environmental things, which might put extra stress on this chemistry. That strategy is the focus of the Feingold diet, which restricts phenols from the diet. Your body also makes many different chemicals of this type, and they need to be cleared from the system before they get harmful.

If growth factors were bankers, sulphate would be their money. Growth factors use sulphate to do their business. That is why it is known that if you become VERY deficient in sulphate you will stop growing if you are a child, or you will start to break down (catabolize) your own muscle to make up for this deficiency. That means if your child has not been growing, and has very flimsy muscles, you should be concerned that his sulphate chemistry may be hurting. When this happens in very sick adults, it puts them into a state called cachexia, a wasting process that happens in Alzheimer's disease, AIDS, cancer, and an autism spectrum disorder called Rett Syndrome.

Sulphate is used to regulate the performance of many other molecules. Many systems in the body will not function well in a low-sulphate environment. One of the things is influences is the hormone that helps humans recognize faces and "socialize". Increasing sulphur in the body can improve socialization and related issues. Sulphur is so critical to life that the body will apparently borrow protein from the muscles to keep from running too low.

The autism community is learning that activating the immune system can put significant demands on this chemistry, and if that happens during infancy often enough and at critical stages, it may change or slow development. The body can start to waste sulphate into the urine: sulphate that it needs critically. If this happens, it could lead to the situation where the dietary sources of sulphur cannot be adequate to keep up with this drain. Dr. Rosemary Waring has found that autistic children tend to be dumping needed sulphate and related sulphur compounds into the urine. She has also found that the enzymes that make sulphate out of protein appear to be inhibited by one of the chemicals that is turned on by an activated immune system.

Blood tests are not really adequate for measuring this, because the blood is a delivery system, and can be a compensatory system. Blood levels of sulphur-related compounds will actually go UP in the blood when the cells are starving, because the liver is trying to help out the rest of the body by exporting these materials.

[jamesk]

Thanks for that info on epsom salts. You can also use magnesium chloride salts - epsom salts contain magnesium sulphate, which the body rapidly excretes through the kidneys, so the effects of don't last.

Magnesium chloride salts are considered the ideal form of magnesium for our bodies, which is better assimilated and utilized by the body.

Magnesium chloride salts are obtained from salty seas, like the dead sea - cost around £5 for a kilo, so a bit more expensive then epsom salts, but better for you. You can also buy oils.

Celtic sea salt is also rich in magnesium chloride, another reason why you should use it instead of table salt.

Daniel Reid has been talking about magnesium chloride for years, and someone followed up with an interesting book about Transdermal Magnesium Therapy:
http://www.healthleadsuk.com/articles/transdermal-magnesium-therapy-mark-sircus.html


Transdermal Magnesium Therapy

Mark Sircus Ac., O.M.D.

Preface

The book that you hold in your hands contains information that could quite literally save your life.

It certainly will extend your existence and save you and your loved ones from a considerable amount of pain. It will help you get to sleep if you are an insomniac, increase your energy levels and performance in sports if you are an athlete and help you avoid the major plagues of our time, i.e., diabetes, cancer, heart disease, neurological disorders and strokes. If you do not fall to one of these diseases your life will be extended.

For this book to achieve these goals you will have to consider an explanation for many diseases that is very different from one promulgated by governmental and private health officials. You have to be able to entertain the idea that health authorities have gotten it seriously wrong. In reality you must be prepared to know more about health and disease that your doctor, for in their myopic obsessions with allopathic protocols and principles they have gone blind, deaf and dumb to certain medical basics.

What you are about to learn represents a great medical discovery and it all started for me in July of 2005 when I made a momentous phone call to Daniel Reid in Australia. I called to ask him, the author of The Tao of Detox, to tell me about a magnesium chloride product I had heard of that was applied directly to the skin or put in one's bath. His reply was simple, "t's the best detoxification agent I know of." Researching the problems of children with autism and other neurological disorders, who are suffering from mercury poisoning and other chemical toxicities, I got excited. Very excited! My research assistant, Claudia French, RN started looking around the web and found David Dartez who was selling natural form of magnesium chloride harvested from sea water. It is referred to as "magnesium oil" and he sent me a liter to try it out. It had not yet dawned on me that my life was about to change dramatically.

At the same time I stumbled on a few other professionals in this area, especially Dr. Norman Shealy who had already been using another less natural form of magnesium chloride. I found out that Dr. Shealy had already applied for a patent to use transdermally applied magnesium chloride to raise DHEA levels and thus extend people's life spans. His research was clear: only when magnesium is applied topically onto the skin, where it passes through that fatty tissue, are DHEA levels raised. Neither oral nor intravenous magnesium administration would do this.

As director of the International Medical Veritas Association I had direct access to many doctors and scientists around the globe and I began questioning and researching. Several doctors including Dr. Garry Gordon state that it is very difficult to bring up the body's levels of magnesium through oral supplementation, and research confirms this. I began to realize that I found something potentially very important and useful since magnesium has been reported by many reputable organizations to be deficient in over 68 percent of the population.

The year past I had been writing a book called The Rising Tide of Mercury with Dr. Rashid Buttar. Just recently he was quoted as saying, "I can now comfortably and definitively state to you that, in my opinion, based on the evidence, every single chronic insidious disease process is related to one word: toxicity. You cannot address the issues of aging unless you address detoxification." Dr. Buttar, board certified and a diplomate in preventive medicine and clinical metal toxicology, and Vice-Chairman and of the American Board of Clinical Metal Toxicology, contends that he only recently arrived at this conclusion.
"Five years ago I wouldn't have said this, even a year ago I wouldn't have said it. But the more success we've had, the clearer it has become: All chronic disease is toxicity. You get rid of the toxicity and you put it on fire. You may need to rebuild afterward, but you must put the fire out. Conventional medicine is just covering your eyes so that you don't see the fire."
Dr. Buttar, in my eyes, is a great clinician and I learned a lot about his approach to treating autistic children with chelation drug called TD-DMPS. "TD" stands for transdermal so I was already familiar with this growing approach to applying medicines through the skin. It was most exciting to hear about the success he was having, bringing a good percentage of his young patients back from the shadows of autism, which most of them disappeared into after suffering damages from receiving their mercury containing vaccines. The only problem was that all of my professional life I had been naturopath trained in Chinese medicine and acupuncture. It just went against my instincts to administer more toxic drugs to already toxic patients.

I am presently writing Survival Medicine for the 20th Century and in reality, Transdermal Magnesium Therapy is its main or most important chapter. If one does a search in Google for either "medical insanity" or "pharmaceutical terrorism", one will find my name. Though I am a director of an organization dedicated to medical truth, and though I have associated myself with many fine and unusually brave doctors, in general I spend most of my time writing about issues that cast a long shadow of shame on the entire medical industrial complex.

Personally I have never trusted doctors and only recently have I lost all medical respect for dentists for their blind use and support of fluoride (which can cause cancer of force you to fly to the hospital if your young child eats his or her toothpaste) and mercury bearing dental amalgam, which leaks mercury vapours in the mouth 24 hours a day. While most of today's doctors may genuinely wish to help their patients they have basically been educated and courted by pharmaceutical companies whose only interest is in lining their pockets with your money. Corporate interests are they rule of the day in the world of medicine an almost everyday more news and research comes to the forefront sustaining the fact that most pharmaceuticals do us more harm than good.

So bad is the story that we cannot even trust doctors to get their diagnoses right. Most often they are not even close. For example, some years ago much was made of two deaths from measles in Dublin. I tracked down the cases and found both children were already seriously ill before they contracted measles. When a doctor and health official says this person died of hepatitis B, measles or AIDS for that matter, the last thing we should do is believe them. Doctors easily say things that are not proven. The above is a good example. When someone dies what are they dying of? A virus, bacteria or from a severe nutritional deficiency that destroys the immune system's ability to resist? You will never hear a doctor diagnose a nutritional deficiency and yet the majority of the world if officially suffering from such deficiencies.

What you are about to read represents a monumental medical and dental discovery. We find out after all that the most basic nutritional substance from the sea is the most powerful and safe medical healing substance. Magnesium chloride as you will see, the same product when injected during a heart attack or stroke to save your life, can be used in a wide variety of disorders. I even use it as the best mouthwash you can imagine and it has saved my gums and thus my teeth from deterioration.

I am not going to tell you that it is the only nutritional/medicinal agent that you will need to take but I will tell you that it is the first one you need to take and that it will enhance any other medical and dental treatment you will undergo. Personally I will not treat a patient who is not replenishing their magnesium levels for I do not enjoy failing my patients.

In this book you will see me quoting quite frequently Dr. Carolyn Dean who wrote The Miracle of Magnesium. Her title was well chosen. Magnesium, especially in the chloride form when applied transdermally, is the medical miracle we have been waiting for. It is the first medicine that you should stock in your medicinal cabinet.

Magnesium is useful for so many things that you will need to read both this book and Dr. Dean's book to explore all its possibilities. With it you can alleviate a score of common problems like muscle pain, insomnia, migraines, menstrual pain, and depression. You can activate your vital enzyme processes and ATP production to increase your energy levels for magnesium is as much food to the body as wheat, rice, or any meat.

For all the billions and billions of dollars the pharmaceutical companies will spend on research they will never ever come up with a healing agent like magnesium chloride that comes naturally from the sea. They can huff and puff, and try to poison humanity with their toxic drugs, but they just cannot compete with the Master of Nature, with God who has created us and maintains us with the natural substances.

Just don't expect most of your doctors or dentists to either know or admit that a naturally occurring nutritional mineral can save your life in an emergency situation: at least, not yet. Magnesium chloride is one of the most potent minerals that exists and is incredibly fast acting and safe. This book calls on all doctors, dentists, naturopaths, chiropractors, nurses, acupuncturists and other health care practitioners to open their eyes to a great discovery, one that will greatly help their patients. For many though, and perhaps for the vast majority, to open to the message in this book requires humility before God and Nature that they simply do not have. Certainly the pharmaceutical companies and all their drug salesmen and women will not embrace an inexpensive safe medicine that they have to do nothing to create.

It is very sad to have to report that there is a form of terrorism afoot that is worse than anything you will read about in the daily papers. There are people around the world acting through CODEX, and organization working under the auspices of The United Nations and the World Health Organization, that want to deny you the use of vitamins and minerals.

More accurately said they want to severely limit your access to vitamin supplements, limit the quantities you can take, force you to get a medical prescription to take them, and thus drive the price for them through the roof. In the age of toxicity, where we are all being poisoned by the chemicals in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the foods we eat, and the medicines we take, we need more, not fewer, critical nutritional agents to help us detoxify our bodies and maintain our health. Magnesium chloride is one such essential nutrient, not only as a medicine but also as necessary as the air we breathe in an easily assimilated form.

I am an American living down in Brazil and every time a gallon of this magnesium oil arrives I am very happy. It is not widely available around the world and the obstacles for its importation are increasing because of the medical establishment's jealous husbandry over everything we take. I pay through the nose to have it shipped here and wish I had many gallons on hand to ensure my supply over the years that are coming when we all have to face hostile governments dominated by super-rich and powerful pharmaceutical companies that treat us and our children with much less respect than a farmer would treat a pig.

We are all caught between an anvil and a hammer, between increasing toxicities and worsening nutritional deficiencies due to soil depletion caused by modern farming practices and the heavy processing that our daily foods are put through.

Americans especially, and the rest of the world, take notice. If you think the $3 trillion American medical system is going to survive what is coming in economic terms you should have your head examined.

Modern medicine is going to take a great fall like Humpty Dumpty on the great wall. Not only does the system not work, killing and poisoning more people than it helps (iatrogenic death and disease), we are just not going to be able to afford medical treatments in the near future. Medical economics is another serious subject that many are already facing. More and more people just cannot afford medical treatments. Millions upon millions of citizens are losing their medical plans and or being driven into bankruptcy because of un-payable medical bills. What I am going to introduce you to in this book is the most affordable and effective medical/nutritional treatment there is and the first item on my list as a "Survival Medicine for the 21st Century."

Let us draw the line in the sand and take a position the world?s medical authorities will not enjoy. In the nightmarish ago of toxicity we have entered, it is the Waters of Life and magnesium chloride found in them that will help us avoid the great plagues afflicting humanity: heart disease, cancer, strokes and diabetes. It will even help children survive their vaccines as will vitamin C. in the 21st century the medical industrial complex will meet its match in a simple abundant magnesium salt from the sea.


I decided to edit, and include the book preface here as I feel it is very important.

[i_am]

Use a carrier oil, ie avocado, apricot or almond. A good bath blend is 10ml avocado, 10ml, aqpricot and 30ml almond but any one would be ok.

to 50ml of carrier oil add 50 drops of essential oil. Try to get relaxing ones and you only need a teaspoon of the mix in your bath.

Ask for a recommendation when buying the oils as it is a personal thing and you need to get something that also suits your sense of smell. It is after all, aroma-therapy :)

[alrick888]

What can you about Himalaya salt as a bath salt?

And how about taking Magnesium-oxide supplementation? Is it a good way to get your Mg, or do you recommend other forms?

[jamesk]

Himalayan crystal salt is a bit expensive, seems a bit of a waste to pour it in the bath - you need a fair amount of salt crystals for baths. It has minerals the same as celtic sea salt, so could be used for magnesium supplementation. I've used it for food/cooking, but prefer celtic sea salt - its 'softer', seems to me to be healthier. It would be my second choice salt.

I've not used magnesium oxide, so can't comment - as I said, I'd recommend celtic sea salt for cooking, and dead sea salt crystals for bathing/soaking. Both are natural and inexpensive.

You can also get magnesium chloride oil. You might also be able to get something from the chemists.

Remember though that magnesium is only one of the minerals we need - others like calcium, good sodium, potassium, trace elements, etc are also needed. The beauty of taking natural, God made things is that you get lots of things, in the right proportions.



What can you about Himalaya salt as a bath salt?

And how about taking Magnesium-oxide supplementation? Is it a good way to get your Mg, or do you recommend other forms?

[johntrevy]

Thanks for all of this, i have learnt quite alot already in just a few posts :)