I've found a reasonably priced supplier for all of the above. I've used Epsom Salts before, and I know how I react to them (like a floppy rag doll and no energy, presumably where it's pulled out a load of toxins from my system), but I'd be really interested to find out if anyone here has tried the Dead Sea Salts, which are, I think, in effect the same thing as the Fulvic Acid and Humic Acid minerals from the Great Salt Lake in Utah.
If they are, then presumably it would be beneficial to absorb them through the skin, and they would be a better bet at helping me feel better than the good old Epsom Salts.
Thoughts, anyone?
Angel xXx
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Angel_153
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I'm afraid I don't have much faith in any of the above - they soften the water, but little if any would be absorbed through the skin.
I think it's the hot water that makes you feel better.
I know that when I wake up feeling half-dead, a good hot shower will make me feel much more normal, so I save my cash for lovely perfumed soap or shower gel!
My experience with ES is obv very different from yours! A lot gets absorbed via the skin, and if you tend to overdo the amount of ES you put in the bath, you can end up feeling really really super floppy because magnesium relaxes muscles (it acts in the opposite way to calcium in that respect). I can't stand hot water since chemo, so it's not that that helps me with ES baths (I do use heat pads too, when my back is in spasm, so I know that heat does help and I'm not about to say that it doesn't )
The skin is a massive absorption / excretion organ, the largest we have, in fact. Transdermal hormone creams wouldn't have the documented effects that they do if little was absorbed via the skin. Have you never tried a cupful of cheapo Epsom Salts in the bath? I can recommend it - not that that means it will work for everyone, we're all different, but it does seem to work for me. I feel a lot different after an ES bath than a plain one, or one with essential oils, or an MSM bath, which is also good for pulling toxins out without them having to be processed by the liver.
My neighbours often go to Utah ... For weeks at a time I shall ask them to dry out bowls of the Great Lake and bring me the salt and minerals left over in a bag for me to use in the bath ... Reminds me of separating salt from water in chemistry at school.. Yours waiting to frisk and bound
Hello Angel. Here where I live on The Isle of Wight there is a place where they do Acupuncture amongst other things, they also have a Flotation Tank and they use epsom salts I went there once and it made me feel really good helped my muscles aches and pains but I couldn't afford to keep going and I cannot have a bath at home to try it out, but I'm sure something is better than nothing. I did try Hydrotherapy but it made me feel worse!, I've been to the Dead Sea in Israel and that helped. Good luck with your Quest. Aisha x
Shame u don't have a bath at home, Epsom Salts are really cheap and they do help a lot with sitff muscles. I just found out they help remove toxins too, which us Fibros are especially bad at handling. Is it that you have a bath but it's just too difficult to get in and out of? I'm so huge now because of the steroids that my bf has to help me in and out - a bit humiliating, but I've decided I really have to do something to get these wretched chemo toxins out of me once and for all, so I'm going to have to put up with feeling like a humiliated beached whale!
You could try using a bowl of water and putting your feet in that with Epsom Salts, that would still help as you'd still be absorbing the magnesium from the ES into your system.
How much better did you feel after being in the Dead Sea? How long were you in it for?
What a small world I go to Newport a lot weve probally walked past each other in the street, where do yo work in Newwport? I was working at St Marys hospital but my manager got rid of me used my health problems and other things against me!
Hello Angel. I do have a bath but the last time I had a bath I couldn't get out because I have problems with my knees and elbows plus the fibro and so I cannot push myself up to stand up! I really do miss having a bath, I have a shower fitted to the taps and shower that way but its not the same I was going to get in touch with someone about whether I qualify to have a shower put it but not sure who it would be too phone?!! And where would you buy the Epsom salts from? I went to Israel quite a few years ago now and we spent about an hour in the Dead Sea just floating! It was lovely!! Xx
Have a look on ebay, there's a chap there called something to do with garden centres, and he's selling any amount from 100g to 25KG of Epsom Salts, Dead Sea Salts, and the fantastically pink Himalyan Salts. You can get Epsom Salts at the chemist, and supermarkets here (mainland UK) too, but it's more expensive. ES is a traditional remedy for stiff muscles, so has a well-known effect, which is because of the magnesium content.
I know what you mean about not being able to push yourself up and out of the bath - we keep planning to get handles and stuff fitted to the wall, I can't stand for a shower because I fall over, and I get stuck in the bath!
I've asked this question on a Facebook fibro forum, and so far have been told that Sea Salts won't work, LoL, and Epsom Salts aren't true salts (so what, who cares, they work whatever they're called!) , and that a bath oil is best. If I used a bath oil, I would slip even more than I do now!
Why does everyone have to be so negative and shoot perfectly reasonable questions down in flames??? LoL
Can u tell me how being in the Dead Sea made you feel? It sounds lovely, floating around all day
Oh, that's what else someone said - that Dead Sea and Himalayan salts would make the water more bouyant. No kidding, Sherlock!!! All salt makes water more bouyant ! LoL You gotta laugh, haven't you !
Over here, asking about disability fittings usually involves the council, so you could try ringing them and see what they say. If they can't help, maybe they can point you in the right direction ?
I too am unable to get in the bath, although used to love them but I sadly cannot get in and out.
If you are looking into getting a wet room shower fitted, you need to have an occupational therapy assessment. You can contact them through social services. They will be able to look at other solutions too and complete the paperwork to see if you are eligible for funding to have a shower room fitted.
Jom277. Hi Jo, thanks for your reply and useful information I will get in contact with them on Monday and see what they say, because I'm finding it very hard just lifting my leg over the bath and have nothing to hold onto while getting to shower!! Did you have one put in for you? Thanks again. Aisha x
Hi Angel, you sound really nice where do you live? Yes I agree that some people on here can be negative I don't find buying oils help our sort of pains and the last time I did have a bath and put some in the water I couldn't get out of the bath as it was slippery and I fell and did my back in! lol have to laugh otherwise you will cry and I've done enough of that lately! Yes the dead sea does make you more Bouyant you can't swim in it as there is too much salt in it they also had mud baths there which you could cover yourself in as it had somethong on it to make you feel better! But I didn't try it! I will phone the council next week and see what they say. Thanks for that. A xx
Thanks, that's really sweet of you I'm in UK, in Cambs.
It wasn't so much on here that people were being negative, it was somewhere else.
It's the same with cancer support groups, in my experience - all v competitive, with people insisting they're worse than you, or do more for charity than you can manage to do, etc. I get tired of all of them ! I got taken aside by one group leader in 2010 when I was going thru a truly horrible time, and had cried at two consequetive meetings because I was so depressed. I was told that my behaviour in this regard was unacceptable because it was "[my] job" to cheer people up, not make them feel sorry for me. I was also told off for taking meds in the main room (I have to take steroids every couple of hours, and pankillers, all taken quietly out of a little pill pot in my pocket and swigged back with water from my bottle of mineral water, in the context of an informal group/groupimgs of people dotted around a big room) as this was seen as showing off ! I didn't bother going back. I don't see the support in a support group that demands you are always upbeat, smiley and relentlessly positive. I tried another group who wouldn't allow (as in, "Oh no, we don't have any of that!") anyone to have a moan about anything (and who charged you for attending but didn't forewarn you of that), so you couldn't talk about any difficulties you were having - nor could you share anything that you'd found helpful, which I found really odd. Surely the whole point is to share what you go through and the solutions you've found, so that other people can get comfort and possible solutions? Illness can be so isolating, surely it's helpful to feel more connected to people thru shared experiences and goals? Tis all beyond me, truly !
Yeah, with you on the oil in the bath thing. I know it would make me too slippery to be safe - it's iffy enough as it is, trying to get iin and out, without the added complication of oil!
Hope the council can at least point you in the right direction. I think what the other person said about the assessment is true - I think I've heard of that before, somewhere. And it's worth a go Let me know how you get on with it. It's something I keep meaning to get to for me, because I'm frankly horrified at how little I shower or bath now (because it knackers me out and is so tricky, can't stand for a shower, can't manoevure my bulk in a bath, or get in and out easily, so it's mostly flannel-and-sink washes these days). Some days I feel likea total skank!
Hi Angel.. I tried Dead sea salt for the first time last November, a friend had been on holiday to Jordan and returned with copious amounts of different scented Dead sea salts for me, and OH MY GOODNESS! it was fantastic...............Not only does it make you smell lovely, it makes your skin so soft and smooth, then you have the added bonus of the salts soaking into your skin though to your muscles and it is reliving.
I had run out, and I now use Maldon Sea salt, to me they are not as powerful, however they are cheaper....
Friend on holiday at the moment and had taken extra case to bring back lots of Dead Sea Salt.
I think personally, everyone is different, just like the medication, what works for me may not work for someone else, I do give everything a go though, anything that will help with pain, lack of sleep, IBS and the list goes on, you all know it.
I think you can prob find cheaper suppliers of Dead Sea salts......the chap I saw on ebay was cheap, and I think def cheaper than buying Maldon sea salt from supermarket. I might put a link up here (is that allowed? I'm new and don't know) if it would be helpful to people. The ebay source is selling salts in quantities anywhere from 100g (not much) to 25KG (tons!) so much depends on the quantity you need in the bath as to how much it works out per bath. The Himalayan salts are recommended as 200-400g, Epsom Salts is a lot more (a cupful, haven't weighed it to see actual grams involved), and you can also make a solution out of the Himalayan salts called Sole (pronounced So-lay) which is supposed to hekp loads too.
I totally agree, what works for one person might not work - or make things worse - for another. It's one of the reasons I always ask around before I try something, so I can see if most people are helped or hindered by whatever it is I'm thinking of trying.
Out of interest, how much Maldon sea salt are/were you using, and specifically what benefits did you feel from it?
I use two handfuls, and I find that I feel soothed, helps me relax, my muscles feel, well soothed. It also makes your skin feel so soft. The whole family use it now! XXX
I don't think fibro sites such as Facebook or here are especially negative it's as said above what suits one person may not suit another and many of us , myself included are on limited budgets and over the past 23 years I dread to think of what I have spent on books , private treatments, and supplements , none of which have worked long term or even short term except for the good old hot baths and showers and hot wheat bags... If I listed what I had done or tried you would probably be rolling about laughing , but when times are bad you will try anything.... Now I just ask my GP ... What do you think about this supplement , treatment and he is very blunt he will either say try it it can't do any harm , or laugh and say load of rubbish... And that's what I base spending money on alternative treatment on as money is tight...
I think many of us have done exactly the same, which is why I wanted to find out if anyone had experienced any positive benefits from using sea salts Like you, I've spent a small fortune on alternative health, private doctors and treatments over the years (my fibro wasn't diagnosed until 2011 but I've had it since at least 1963, poss 1962) and I study clinical nutrition extensively and have been stitching myself together with supplements for donkey's years.
I'm glad your experience of FB has been positive - I occasionally get positive things out of it, always seem to get shot down if I ask about anyone's experience of an alternative treatment, though, like with this q about sea salts. Everyone's an expert at what works for them, which is how it should be, (if we can't be our own experts and observers so that we can report back to our healthcare professionals, how can we expect anyone who isn't going through all the horrors that fibros experience every single day to be one? As has been pointed out, all of us are different, and we all react differently to different treatments. I can't take any of the fibro standards (tramadol, pregabalin, gabapentin, amytrtiptaline, SSRIs, etc etc) because I am ridiculously chemically sensitive and always have been (far worse since chemo tho). Other people get on very well with those meds. I would never dream of saying "That doesn't work", just because it hasn't worked for me, and that's where my gripe with some forums lies - there's always this massively negative response if I ask about other people's experiences of a particular treatment, and they always adopt the "It doesn't work" adamant stance, rather than the "Well, it didn't work for me, but other people have said it helped" approach.
Really good that you've got a GP who you can ask questions about alternative treatments / supplements of. So many of them dismiss any nutritional or other alternative treatments out of hand, because they simply are not taught about them in med school. ALL the med schools in UK are funded by pharmaceutical companies, so it isn't in their interests to promote natural health. Big Pharma makes its money from patenting chemical substances; they cannot patent anything that occurs naturally in nature and so have to manufacture a chemically similar product in order to make their money. So, they go to great lengths to discredit "natural" medicine. Every couple of years, there's a big broadsheet report about, eg, Vitamin C, damning it as a health improver (which in my experience and opinion is an utter lie because it has innumerable, well-documented benefits in all sorts of different areas of health), and urging people not to be "taken in" by "false claims", etc. These reports, if you investigate them, are ALWAYS funded by pharmaceutical companies, and the data they produce is biased, the methodology employed is flawed, and it's them that are lying. Which just back up the standard GPs belief, indoctrinated by Big Pharma, that what they were taught is true. I don't believe it is.
Oh dear, I seem to have gone way off topic and have had a right old ramble! Sorry! I'll stop now
Thanks again for your replies, and I hope you find something that helps. Fibro is hideous and has so many aspects.........we really need someone to identify the cause of all these multiple signs and symptoms, if not the cause of the fibro starting in the first place. I was so releived when I finally got a diagnosis after more than 30 years of bashing away at the NHS's door, begging for answers and help, and so dispirited when the specialists all said "And there's no cure, and we don't know what causes it, and the only treatments are ones you can't tolerate." I'm sure there are tons of people like me out there, and it needs to be addressed.
Bugger, I've gone off on one again! LoL. Ok, going now.........!!
Epsom salts (Magnesium Sulphate in garden centres) are great for helping to ease tired aching muscles and for reducing swelling due to arthritis etc.
1 mugful in a bath of warm (NOT HOT) water. please be aware that if you suffer with heart problems then have someone with you if you take a bath with Epsom salts. It lowers blood pressure and can therefore cause dizziness and fainting.
Garden centres sell big bags cheaply. The best place to get it.
Don't use it more than 3/4 times a week it's drying on the skin. Use plenty of moisturisers afterwards.
For hand or foot baths use 1 tablespoon full to a bowl of water.
This information is given to us as part of our Bowen training.......just thought you need to be aware.
Mag lowers blood pressure because it acts as a relaxer or dilator. It's also useful for asthma for this reason. It's the reason why I always feel wiped out after an ES bath, because my adrenals can't manage my BP properly anyway, and I get postural hypotension. I think I should probably use less. It certainly helps my muscles.
I've had responses elsewhere adamantly stating that nothing would be absorbed through the skin, which is clearly not the case, and now I can use your Bowen training citation of ES bath caution as another example to show people that things ARE absorbed into the body through the skin
Garden centres......hadn't thought of that, although the ebay chap is himself a garden centre (hadn't ocurred to me that other garden centres would do it too, d'uh!). What do you pay for what quantity from your garden centre? My local ones are stupidly expensive, charging about 40% than you'd expect to pay for pretty much anything they sell! If you're happy to tell me, i can then tell you if this ebay supplier is more expensive or not, and you may be able to show me that I can get it cheaper than I think!
And I wasn't clear about mag and its dilation/relaxation targets and effects - it acts as a muscle relaxant because it pushes calcium (which acts to make your muscles contract) out of cells, and it acts as a vasodilator (opens up blood vessels, thus lowering blood pressure if your high BP is caused by narrowed blood vessels - not 100% of high BP cases are caused by this) which will also mean increased circulation (hence why Gwen now has a red face after having an ES bath :-)), which means increased oxygen and other nurients to cells, which is a positive thing.
I know where you are coming from VG as we are currently looking into Kiniesiology for my grandson. He has CFS. There is nothing (other than sympathy) gained via 'normal' medicine so we have gone down the complementary therapy route. So far we are very impressed. One of the main areas targeted is the endocrine system (hormonal). The results were fascinating and bang on. He is taking his supplements and for the first time in almost two years he went into town with a friend last Saturday. Yes he was shattered when he got home, but he enjoyed it and didn't feel totally spent!
His diet too is restricted with lots he can't eat (which is hard at 18) but he is being a real trooper. He believes in this because he is feeling marginally better and we have hope.
Infact he has applied to go to college to study his 'A' levels in September and he is having driving lessons!
That's great! I hope his improvements continue. I love hearing stories like this. With all the negativity about alternative / complementary treatments /therapies, it's nice to hear about a successful application of them. Thank God you were all open minded enough to try that route.
A xXx
That's fantastic cat and how wonderful about the driving lessons that will really help him get out ans about and thanks for the extra information about Epsom salts as I like a hot bath ... Now I know better so thank you
VG xx
Hi I get my Epson salts from amazon....I'll have a look in garden centres. Thanks. I find an ES bath really good pain relief, but the exhaustion afterward gets to me, so I don't do it if I have to move the next day.
It is absorbed in the same way as a nicotine patch or HRT patch !
For me it helps stop cramp and muscle cramp.
I also use far infra red thermal therapy to detox. I have my own coccoon now, which looks like a sleeping bad for a space ship.
I take magnesium at night in tablet form but as an IBS sufferer I have to be careful. It can upset the gut.
ES does lower blood pressure so I wonder if that's what makes me exhausted after.... I normally shower. I don't think its heat because the cocoon doesn't have that effect.
By the way I lived on the isle of Wight to up till 2007. I'm now in Southampton. I go back to see friends as often as a I can. That boats expensive ! I lived in Newport and used to work in st Mary's too lol ...small world
Cramp and muscle aches sorry....I'm repeating myself lol.
Plus obviously knowing what your food triggers are helps with detoxing. Its daft to detox and continue with toxin build up x
r quite sometime now and personally it helps short term but always shower off afterwards as it can be very drying so slathering on moisturiser afterwards also helps .
Having not seen this post, I asked the same question yesterday. As you can see by my post getting out of the bath thing was a problem.
I had my first Epsom Salt bath this morning. I don't enjoy baths really so I can't say relaxing. I hope I have absorbed some magnesium. Fell trying to get out of the bath twice, so make sure you have someone to help you get out. I've bruised the underarm of my left arm, not to bad though. I had the bath quiet hot which probably was a mistake. I feel more energised this morning, that might be psychological though. I have a bright red face which made my partner laugh. Yes, he could have helped me get out of the bath but, we have rather a large house and he wouldn't of been able to hear me call.
I will be attempting it again, I did feel a lot better today.
If you don't believe the skin absorbs nutrients etc, here is an experiment to try. Rub a clove of garlic on the bottom of your foot. Ask someone later on to smell your breath. It will smell of garlic and will prove that skin absorbs things.
If you don't believe the skin absorbs nutrients etc, here is an experiment to try. Rub a clove of garlic on the bottom of your foot. Ask someone later on to smell your breath. It will smell of garlic and will prove that skin absorbs things.
I know the skin absorbs things, it's convincing everyone else is the problem! Personally, you can only offer your experiences or what you've learned up for others to see. It's then up to them if they want to try for themselves. I long since stopped wasting my energy on trying to help people who refuse to be helped. I had to for my own sanity, cos it was doing my nut in!
I think that the people who refuse to believe that anything can be absorbed through the skin won't probably want to go to the trouble of rubbing a clove of garlic on the sole of their foot and breathing on someone a few minutes later. Too much like hard work, LoL
I think if they can't see that the skin absorbs substances, even when you point out to them that that is exactly how nicotine patches, hormone patches, hormone creams, etc, get into the system, then they have a closed mind, and it isn't the rest of the world's job to prise it open
Hi Angel.....I haven't actually bought any Epsom salts at all as we don't have a bath in the house.....wish I did, but we had to remove it and have a shower room!
Cat, see one of the previous posts - you can always use a bowl of warm water as a foot bath, with ES, and get it into you that way Yoiu know (because of your garlic example) that things get absorbed through the soles of the feet Actually, the palms of the hand have a high concentration of receptors for different things, too, so I expect the same applies to feet. Makes sense when you think we used to walk round barefoot, and probably benefitted from picking up trace amounts of different nutrients from the soil beneath our feet, and also from the different plants we touched with our hands.
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Hopeful
Does anyone know of any grants or help towards a walk in bath?
Feeling low 
Hi all, I have four small hard lumps which I think is knotted muscle in the top of my legs, Does anyone else have anything
does anyone using this forum have joint pain but none of the other symptoms of fibro (ie the fatigue, muscle pain, headaches etc?)
