After my Nia class this week, my students told me soak my toe in an epsom salt bath. I had actually been told about them before. They have been around forever. Ya know one of those things that used to be used in simpler times when there wasn’t something fancy to take its place. It is a natural mineral, magnesium sulfate.
I had originally been told about them for sore muscles. In fact a lot of bath salt products on the market contain magnesium sulfate. The instructions on the container state to use two cups of the salts in a tub of water and soak. The mineral is absorbed into the skin and it helps reduce inflammation and soreness. This can help with sprains and strains and muscles that have been exercised. A soak in water with epsom salts can also help relive itching of some illnesses or issues.
Epsom salt is thought to help relax the body as well as the mind and draw toxins out of the body. Soaking one’s feet can help both neutralize foot order and make the skin soft. Soaking in water with salts in it can help soften the skin, but the salts themselves can also be used as an exfoliator. Rubbing the skin while wet then rinsing throughly. Also the salts can be used to help with acne and breakouts.
Now that I actually have a container of them I might start using them more often to soak my feet and exfoliate them. How about you? Have you used them before?
Just as a note: Table salt is sodium chloride it is different substance than magnesium sulfate.