Epsom salt patch

So … now is the case closed? Wet magnesium gets too fat for absorption? Still no! It turns out this rabbit hole goes way deeper than any rabbit would ever care to burrow. The conventional wisdom about Mg ion swelling has been challenged by some recent research. Biology and chemistry is mind-bogglingly complex and the details are truly, madly, deeply non-guessable.

This section is all about one odd experiment 32 that involves a number of strange rituals performed on skin samples, like gluing hair follicles shut with super glue. It almost answers the tricky scientific question of whether magnesium ions can be absorbed through the skin, but it still falls short.

It does convincingly show that magnesium ions can diffuse through the stratum corneum, and that hair follicles probably facilitate that movement, but it does not establish that they do so in clinically meaningful numbers, especially in the conditions of a typical Epsom salts bath.

These chemists had complicated chemistry reasons to believe that damp magnesium ions actually do not swell up too much to fit through the atomic-scale cracks in the stratum corneum, 33 so they set out to test it. They tested absorption on patches of skin harvested from patients who got tummy tucks. Donate it to science! The main features of their experiment:. They tested 5, 15, and minute exposures of two concentrations of magnesium solution, medium and strong, corresponding to ocean water and the Dead Sea respectively.

Note that these concentrations are much greater than the concentration of salt in a typical Epsom salt bath. Which matters. Their key findings:.

Magnesium ions diffusing through the stratum corneum. The brighter the warm-toned pixels here, the more magnesium. Not even an extremely educated guess. There are just too many ways the messy details of biology might surprise us. This quote from a book by Dr. Kenneth B. Regularly bathing in hot water to which Epsom salts have been added can help draw out toxins from the skin. That anyone would mistake it for authoritative is rather depressing.

Fortunately, not all my mail is so depressingly gullible. Hat tip to reader Bryan B. I love it when readers do that. This lotion had rather a lot of magnesium in it. And soldiers were not poisoned by the magnesium. But it is pretty noteworthy evidence that absorption is minimal or nil when putting high concentrations of Mg on the skin.

That information is not necessarily correct, but it is certainly more authoritative and worth bearing in mind, than the opinion of Dr. In , Rosemary Waring, a British biochemist at the University of Birmingham, did a nice science experiment with Epsom salts. She found them to be higher after the baths!

No therapeutic effects of Epsom salt were studied or claimed — she just studied absorption, and did not try to make any more of it, showing the restraint of a pro. What could be simpler? I was so interested in these results although still a bit skeptical that I contacted Dr. Waring by email. Every member of this widely distributed angry mob read this article only just far enough to get angry enough about my skepticism to send an email.

Many of them claimed to have read the whole thing, but apparently they missed Dr. And, shocker, none of them seemed to be aware of the potential problems with Dr. That pun was simply unavoidable. Also, Dr. She assumed, like most people, that the heat of a bath probably increases the permeability of the skin.

Enough of it sure does. But probably not bath heat. Speaking of studies that get thrown in my face, someone haughtily hurled this one at me as if it was the last word, absolute proof that a hot bath boosts magnesium absorption. A experiment showed that brief, intense heating of the skin can dramatically increase its permeability.

With more heat, dramatically more molecules could cross the duration of exposure had less effect. Skin permeability was increased by a few multiples in the low end of the range, all the way up to three orders of magnitude at the most extreme temperatures. The mechanism is fascinating: enough heat can basically burn microscopic holes in the surface of the skin, creating artificial pores. At lower temperatures, the increased permeability is due to messing with the stratum corneum lipid and keratin structures, making them a less effective barrier.

The effect studied mostly depends on actually damaging the skin. It is conceivable that permeability starts increasing at lower temperatures with longer exposures … but sixty degrees lower? For the duration of a bath? Probably not for most substances. Also, not all substances will respond the same way to heat. How else could magnesium sulfate possibly get into the bloodstream?

If it does, as Dr. Reader Adrian J. Is it possible that the salt diffuses across the epithelium in the anus if the rectum relaxes to some degree in the warm water?

Live a little: click that footnote! But I find myself uncomfortably wondering … just how much do I relax in a hot bath?

That much? And how much salt could diffuse across that more permeable but much smaller membrane? A fair question, but this has the same problem as anal absorption: too small and too tight.

And you thought an article about salt baths would be boring! No wonder this is the most popular Epsom salts analysis on the internet! And that plausibility is super low. Maybe salt can be inhaled with steam. Human olfaction, despite being shabby by animal kingdom standards, can still get a nice rich scent from a mind-bogglingly small number of molecules. Water from a soup is still remarkably pure despite the odour, and definitely has no salt in it.

Another related possibility is that we might inhale tiny droplets of water aerosols of salt water that float over the surface of a bath. Such droplets would contain dissolved salts at the same concentration as the bath, but these are nearly microscopic tiny water droplets. Again, not really a plausible source of medicinal absorption. Christine Northrup to support the point, without so much as a link to substantiate that this is in fact her opinion.

But it probably is: Dr. Northrup is not stingy with her beliefs. And so on. We will have to live with the mystery. Meanwhile, it is obviously reasonable to be skeptical, as many experts are. There are many reasons to suspect that absorption is trivial. A thorough scientific review of both the evidence and rationale for transdermal absorption of magnesium makes a critical point: although there may now be adequate evidence to suggest that some transdermal absorption is possible in the right conditions, that evidence is not nearly strong enough to support claims that it is superior to oral supplementation.

And that finally brings us to the second major part of the article …. If Epsom salts do get across the skin, so what? Is it any good to have some extra ions of magnesium and sulfate kicking around your bloodstream?

Why did the ions cross the skin anyway? Magnesium deficiency hypomagnaesemia may be a real problem, and it may also be related to pain, and so supplementation might make sense, and soaking in the stuff could be a way of getting some magnesium…. Sulphate deficiency could also be thing, but to a much lesser degree, and much less clearly. There is little doubt that extra magnesium sulfate has some effects on physiology in some contexts.

Some of those effects are well known, including some common medical applications mentioned earlier. These include unpleasant effects , like diarrhea. It was a study of the acute effects of injected magnesium sulfate, which is presumably very similar to absorbing it, just faster.

Not exactly encouraging! We can really only speculate. And speculating about basic biology is really difficult. See also Examine. Examine has a great team of experts and published terrific independent reviews of the science. Magnesium is a mainstream electrolyte, a famous molecule, and many people are supplementing magnesium, for better or worse.

But sulfate is obscure, and sulfate supplementation is quite rare. The magnesium information below is resting on fairly firm foundations, plenty of science; sulfate is an information desert by comparison. You can find a few popular articles about sulfate deficiency… most of which actually have very little to say about sulfate and quickly veer off into magnesium.

I asked Dr. But … do we hurt? Not obviously, actually. More on this below. So deficiency is in roughly the same category as vitamin D deficiency and pain : it might matter to a lot of people, especially pain patients, and supplementing is quite safe. Another extremely popular idea about magnesium is that it prevents cramps. This idea is mostly driven by the myth that cramps are caused by dehydration and a shortage of electrolytes, chiefly magnesium.

Infamously for those who have followed performance science in the 21 st Century, exertional cramps are almost certainly not caused by electrolyte loss or dehydration, acute or chronic. We don't actually have any direct evidence one way or the other, however. What little we do know about using magnesium to treat cramping with no obvious cause doesn't seem to work, 51 but it remains plausible that some specific types of cramping can be treated with magnesium. They are extremely widely used, but the prevalence of the side effect is unknown.

And from a crappy diet with no salads! Despite this, deficiency occurs even in wealthy places because grains and meat are poor sources, and the good sources are not nearly as popular: salad, primarily.

And potatoes are also a decent source, which is hardly a hardship. But anyone with a magnesium deficiency can suck it up and eat a nutty salad a couple times a week — or potato salad!

So just eat it. So eat it, just eat it. Christopher Labos. In peripheral nerves, low magnesium causes spasms in the muscles, but when it happens in the central nervous system, it can cause seizures. Of course, deficiency has been widely anecdotally reported as a cause of miscellaneous body pain, and that increased magnesium intake is helpful. Pain is not a standard symptom of acute magnesium deficiency. And fixing a deficiency tends to be sedating! It literally calms your nerves, and that seems like it certainly could be relevant to chronic pain.

But the link between hypomagnesaemia appears to be almost entirely based on biological plausibility. Interesting as all this may be, the only thing that matters is the clinical question: does supplementation truly help?

If it doesn't, all the speculation about how magnesium might be a pain driver is a bit of a moot point.

I devote a section below to this question. There are issues with both intravenous and oral supplementation. Despite this, Mg deficiency is common even in wealthy places because grains and meat are poor sources, and the good sources are not nearly as popular salad, basically — leafy greens and nuts are especially good. Bathing in the stuff is like going a half hour out of your way to buy stale bread from a corner store when you live next to a good bakery. To embrace Epsom salts baths as a helpful method of supplementing magnesium, at least three things need to be established:.

None of these things has actually been established, and the absence of any one of them is a deal-breaker for bathing in magnesium.

And likely more effective ones. Dietary and oral supplementation is likely to be much more effective. Or consider that one positive study I just mentioned: intravenous supplementation! The increased levels of magnesium ions shown by Dr. And potatoes. The conditions that cause blossom-end rot are closely linked to inconsistent soil moisture throughout the growing season. Since calcium is only moved into the plant with an ample moisture supply when drought occurs the fruit continues to develop but will be affected by a calcium deficiency.

Rapid early growth of the plants can cause rot because the calcium is needed by the tomatoes when they are actively growing and the plants may not be able to take up sufficient calcium quickly enough through the roots.

Adding Epsom salt to the soil may create more rot since magnesium and calcium ions compete for uptake into the plant. The more magnesium in the soil, the less chance that calcium will be absorbed.

Again, calcium and magnesium compete and if one is out of balance then it affects the plant and fruit. Mulch and regular irrigation. Adding mulch and having a regular source of watering like a drip or soaker-type hose set for deep watering on a regular basis keeps the soil from the extreme cycles of dry and moist. Overfertilization can also cause BER, especially with ammoniacal nitrogen fertilizers ammonium nitrate and most complete fertilizers such as 10—10— Ammonium competes with calcium for uptake.

Tomato vines should be green but not lush. Lush tomato plants are more likely to suffer rot since actively growing leaves take calcium from the vine before the fruits get it. I can attest to this being true. This year one of my tomato beds was partially filled with chicken litter notoriously high nitrogen then topped with a compost soil mix.

The tomatoes growing in this bed were so lush, they were like jungle plants. Judicious pruning helped but these were the only tomatoes in my garden that suffered from blossom end rot despite even watering.

Note to self, avoid high nitrogen amendments in future tomato beds. On another note, sometimes, soils that are too acid prevent plants from using magnesium efficiently.

The easiest and long-term remedy for that is to add organic matter. Say you have a health problem and you go to the Doctor. Do you want him to just prescribe you something to treat your symptoms or would you prefer for him to find the cause of the problem and help you to fix it? If you really want to find out what is wrong with your soil then get your soil tested. Adding organic matter to the soil helps it to build a healthy eco-system itself which in turn helps it to feed your plants properly.

Read this excellent article written for kids to understand the complex world of plant and soil communication and how they help each other. Garden limestone is another.

Soil PH is essential to plants being able to benefit from nutrients in the soil. It is true that magnesium is a physical part of the chlorophyll molecule. But since most soils are not deficient in magnesium then treating chlorosis with additional magnesium Epsom salts is useless. Most of the time chlorosis is an iron deficiency in the soil and not magnesium. Using an Iron supplement in your garden is best. If you go the route of adding magnesium instead of iron you only increase the problem.

Seeds need no extra nutrition and contain enough essential minerals to begin root growth and shoots on a mere paper towel. Related : How to Start Seeds. If you feed your houseplants a balanced fertilizer with all the necessary macro and micro nutrients then adding more magnesium and sulfur will only result in a build-up. One reader complained that I was contradicting myself here. I have stated that Epsom Salts is highly soluble and leaches out of the soil into the environment and here I am stating it builds up.

The fact that it leaches out of garden soil is what makes it toxic to the environment but in the ratios presented online by folks it will build up in container plants causing issues because they are contained.

Flower production is more dependent on optimal temperatures and consistent watering. Well, amended soil is key to good soil health and is the best thing for getting great flowering. More flowers, more fruit. If you must use a fertilizer then I have found this one does an excellent job: Agrothrive Organic Liquid Fertilizer.

Related : Get more blooms on your Flowers. Not even close. Sorry, this does not work in the least. Tried it, big fat fail! Again, EP did not do the job. Some claim that slugs and snails provide a benefit in the garden so better yet try to keep slugs and snails in check with some of the methods over at AllAboutSlugs. So we have learned that magnesium is not usually deficient in soil but what harm can it do in using it? So many gardeners swear by it! The immediate danger is the imbalance of nutrients in the soil.

Which in itself is contrary to what we as gardeners all want. Well-balanced soil is your best garden recipe for success. Excessive levels of magnesium sulfate can cause salt injury to plants. Unnecessary use of Epsom salt will not result in better plant growth but can actually make growth worse. I received one comment about Epsom Salt not being sodium. The term salt is used in chemistry and does not always pertain to sodium being involved.

In science, a salt injury is equated to a negative effect of chemicals. As stated before, Epsom Salt is a chemical compound.

Overuse of magnesium sulfate has been linked to reduced root colonization of beneficial microbes such as nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Also, excessive amounts of soil magnesium can release aluminum from the soil, making this toxic metal available to plants and aquatic systems. Did you know that to avoid magnesium toxicity, the calcium content of the soil needs to be at least 10 times higher than the magnesium. So adding Epsom salt alone can cause that imbalance and create a toxic environment for the plants trying to grow.

What many seem to ignore or not think about is that the excess ends up somewhere , most often as a pollutant or contaminant in the environment especially waterways. Since additional magnesium is rarely needed get a soil test done why potentially bring more harm to our already struggling environment? Getting your soil tested will tell you what it actually needs instead of guessing based on misinformation.

The urge to use common household products as garden fertilizers and pesticides is compelling for many gardeners who want simple, cheap, and what may seem to be harmless. For some reason, we feel if we can use it and or consume it then it must be safe to put in the garden.

The science behind any use of Epsom salts in gardening is only applicable in intensive crop production where it is known to be deficient in the soil. Therefore it is highly irresponsible to advise anyone to use Epsom salts for plants in the garden, on houseplants, or in the landscape without regard of what it can harm in the environment.

If your garden does not need the addition of magnesium sulfate then using Epsom salts will only create problems not enhance your gardening efforts. Final thoughts.. Take a lesson from forests and wildlands, growing lush and beautiful without the addition of anything bagged, mixed or human misunderstandings of what the soil needs.

Your garden can be just as lush and gorgeous without a lot of expense. Work the mixture through your hair and leave for 20 minutes, then rinse. These uses are entirely anecdotal and unsupported by any studies.

Remember that it works differently for everyone and that you may not experience the reported benefits. Most brands recommend taking 2—6 teaspoons 10—30 grams per day, dissolved in water, as a maximum for adults.

Consult with your doctor if you need a more individualized dosage or if you want to increase the dose to more than what is listed on the package. Unless you have the consent of a doctor, never ingest more than the upper limit of intake stated on the package. Taking more than you need could lead to magnesium sulfate poisoning. If you want to begin taking Epsom salt by mouth, start slowly. Try consuming 1—2 teaspoons 5—10 grams at a time and gradually increase the dose as needed.

You may need more or less than the recommended dose, depending on how your body reacts and what exactly you are using it for. Additionally, when consuming Epsom salt, make sure to use pure, supplement-grade Epsom salt that does not have any added scents or coloring. Epsom salt can be dissolved in baths and used as a beauty product. It can also be consumed with water as a magnesium supplement or laxative. Epsom salt may be helpful in treating magnesium deficiency or constipation when taken as a supplement.

It can also be used as a beauty product or bath salt. Its positive effects are mostly anecdotal at this point, and more research is needed on its functions.

This article is based on scientific evidence, written by experts and fact checked by experts. Our team of licensed nutritionists and dietitians strive to be objective, unbiased, honest and to present both sides of the argument.

This article contains scientific references. The numbers in the parentheses 1, 2, 3 are clickable links to peer-reviewed scientific papers. Epsom salt, aka magnesium sulfate, is easy to get, inexpensive, and dissolves readily in water. All of that makes it great for baths. People have been taking Epsom salt baths for centuries.

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