FIRST, I would like to thank Beeyoutifulgirl for encouraging me to post this information. I had read a lot of her posts about the Water Cure and wrote asking if she knew anything about salt baths. My training by the public school system is to ask a question and have the answer given to you, and as a result research is not my favorite thing to do. I mean, it's work! Anyway, Rebekah had no info to give me but encouraged me to post the info I would find. So, here goes!
Earlier I started a thread about my 3 1/2 daughter who has year round exzema and nothing with diet or creams/lotions/ balms, you name it, has helped relieve her discomfort. I got some good information in that post which we will try with her (possible LGS or other ideas) but I was looking for some relief NOW for her.
In June we spent a few days on Cape Cod with friends who are now living in Florida. She has always had skin problems, not exzema, and had tried many diets, drs., creams, remedies, supplements, again, you name its, and nothing helped. She had several severe outbreaks each year that would last for days to months. While together I asked what her newest "finds" were in the continual attempt for relief. She said, "well, haven't had any problems in a year!" She had many people in Florida tell her to swim in the ocean, and not rinse off afterwards. And that was all it took!
We were on the Cape for just over 2 days and so we decided to experiment with Hazel. She was in the water 3 times and by the end of the second day, her exzema was almost gone! It was like watching the Biblical account of dipping in the Jordan! At home I decided to experiment with her while doing some research online. I found a lot of information on salt baths from companies selling sea salts, but very little other info. However, the little bit of plain info I found pretty much said the same thing the salt companies claimed, so for now that is what I have to go with. Even more so, the results on my daughter have me believing!
What we have found is that the typical sea salt you buy in the grocery store is not helpful. Reading information on the Curezone makes sense of this. Epsom salts, though very useful in other situations (I love a epsom salt bath when I am sick) also were not helpful. However, unrefined sea salt (I am currently using one from Masada) do the trick. I have ordered some Dead Sea salts (I ordered from the San Fransisco Bath Salt Co.) which are raved about for bathing purposes, and look forward to trying those. About the only explanation I can find about how the salts help is that they draw impurities out of you skin. Your skin is a major organ and when you are flushing out toxins through your skin the salt aids in that process. I could find no information about not washing off the salt water.
The following are some links that have salt information. The curezone link has all the others listed in it, and has the most information about sea salt in general. I could not find any info in that link specifically about baths. For now, we put about 1/2 cup of salt in an old enamel baby bath tub and have Hazel sit in it for about 15 minutes. Then we let the water sit and have her dip in a few other times during the day. It seems that doing this at least every 3 days keeps her skin happy. And that makes her happy. And that makes me happy!
If anyone has any other infor I would love to hear from you!
http://www.curezone.com/foods/saltpage.htmlhttp://www.celtic-seasalt.com/http://www.realsalt.com/http://eco-natural.com/greysalt/products.html
