If you’ve seen your doctor about joint pain or muscle pain, you might havey been told to take an Epsom salt bath.
“Epsom salt baths certainly aren’t the cure-all they are sometimes advertised to be,” says Dr. Jesse Bracamonte, a family medicine physician in the Mayo Clinic Health System in Phoenix, Arizona. “But I recommend them to some of my patients because they can be helpful in promoting relaxation and relief from muscle tension.”
Beyond its relief and relaxation properties, Epsom salt likely has other health benefits — though the Epsom salt you put in the bathtub shouldn’t be ingested, though it’s considered safe when taken as directed in supplement form. Also, Epsom salt baths should be avoided altogether under some circumstances, so check with your doctor.
What is Epsom salt?
Epsom salt is a naturally occurring mineral salt. It’s a chemical compound made up of magnesium, sulfur and oxygen.
It’s very different from table salt, though both share a similar chemical structure.
Named after the English town where it was discovered in an underground spring in the early 1600s, Epsom salt has long been used to treat ailments ranging from constipation to eclampsia, “though most evidence backing up those early claims was only anecdotal,” Bracamonte says.
What does Epsom salt do?
The chemical compound is still a popular remedy for a different variety of ailments. Research from the U.S. National Research Council Committee on Diet and Health has found that “mineral salts are responsible for structural functions involving the skeleton and soft tissues and for regulatory functions including neuromuscular transmission, blood clotting, oxygen transport and enzymatic activity.”
Epsom salt is often taken as a supplement or used in beauty products such as body scrubs, body wash and nerve lotion. It’s also sometimes dissolved in water to drink because doing so has been thought to aid digestion, though Bracamonte doesn’t recommend ingesting the raw mineral that way.
“There are safer and proven laxative products on the market,” he says. Besides, “when ingested like that, Epsom salt can cause dehydration and other medical issues,” he adds.
Beyond its more limited use as a supplement and beauty product, Epsom salt is most frequently marketed and recommended as a soaking agent for bath water.
What are benefits of an Epsom salt bath?
Different than a sitz bath, which usually consists of warm water only and is often taken in a very small amount of water targeting a specific area of the body, Epsom salt baths are intended to be “full-body experiences where Epsom salt is added to warm water,” says Dr. Solomon David, a colorectal surgeon at NYU Langone Health.
Such baths often are used “to relieve muscle aches, tension, stress and promote overall well-being,” he says. “They are not typically targeted for specific conditions but are more generally used as a form of self-care and relaxation.”
Do Epsom salt baths work?
Dr. Adam Tenforde, director of running medicine for Mass General Brigham in Boston, explains that when Epson salt is placed in water, it breaks down, dissolving into magnesium and sulfate, “and this can be absorbed through the skin,” he says.
“While not well studied,” he says that such absorption can be beneficial and that Epsom salt baths also can help treat migraines and other headaches.
Additional research suggests that Epsom salt baths might also help reduce swelling and pain related to arthritis and fibromyalgia. Bracamonte says the mineral also might be useful as a sleep aid, though more research is needed.
Whether some such benefits have been proven or not, “there are no serious side effects of taking an Epsom salt bath,” Tenforde says, “although it’s not advised post-surgery or for those with skin conditions that have active inflammation, infection or burn injuries.”
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