Did you know Epsom salt is a tool for integrative medication? Integrative medicines have mental and physical benefits, and doctors recommend Epsom salt foot baths to treat anxiety.
The History Of Epsom Salt
People discovered Epsom Salt in the bitter saline spring in Epsom, Surrey, England. Its chemical composition includes magnesium, sulfur, and oxygen. So what can it do for anxiety?
How Epsom Salt Foot Soaks Help With Anxiety
1. Epsom salt foot soaks stabilize your mood, relieve stress, and calm your nerves during anxiety attacks. Some research even shows that magnesium increases serotonin – the happy hormone – production in your brain.
2. Epsom Salt foot soaks help you relax your muscles to relieve pain in your neck, shoulders, lower back, and skull. For this reason, it’s also used to treat certain physical symptoms arising from anxiety like headaches, migraines, tremors, vibrations, soreness, and more.
3. Alternative health practitioners believe the magnesium from Epsom salt foot soaks can reduce inflammation in internal organs, reduce the risk of heart disease, and improve digestion/bowel movement.
4. A study found a magnesium deficiency can aggravate anxiety symptoms. The reason is interesting because magnesium is said to affect the hypothalamus. It helps regulate the pituitary and adrenal gland responsible for your stress reaction. For this reason, studies from Nutrients found one reason why magnesium deficiency is connected to anxiety is that the mineral improves brain function. The study also found that magnesium plays a crucial role in regulating neurotransmitters or chemicals that send messages from the brain to the body.
5. A separate study in France on patients with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) reported improved symptoms after taking magnesium combined with two plant extracts.
6. Did you know that people with a magnesium deficiency are adversely affected by stress? It can increase the risk of health conditions like heart disease. Epsom Salt foot soaks, on the other hand, can help balance your magnesium deficiency.
How to Take Epsom Salt Foot Baths To Treat Anxiety
1. Purchase magnesium chloride flakes from a verified seller. Check to make sure the ingredients are pure. Magnesium Chloride is more easily absorbed by your bloodstream, and your body absorbs what it needs.
2. Next, add the flakes to warm water in a dish tub or bucket and soak your feet for 20 minutes each night. You can add essential oils like lavender, peppermint, or olive oil to improve your experience.
3. You can read, listen to ambient music, meditate while you soak your feet. You will start to feel relaxed and relieved from stress.
You Can Also Take An Epsom Salt Soak –
1. Making Bath crystals – Mix 2 cups of Epsom salt with some drops of your favorite fragrance. You can also add a few drops of food coloring or half a teaspoon of glycerin. Mix it thoroughly and store it in an air-tight container.
2. Or Soaking Solution – You can add two cups of Epsom salt to the water in your bathtub and soak for 12 minutes. Repeat the process 3 times a week for best results.
Note: Remember to add the Epsom salt to running water to help it dissolve faster and to use warm, not hot water.
Benefits of Epsom Salt Foot Baths –
Epsom Salt foot baths include other health benefits –
1. Pain relief – since Epsom salt dissolves into magnesium and sulfur when used for foot baths, the minerals are absorbed into your skin, helping to relieve pain and reducing inflammation.
2. Exfoliation – the Epsom salt crystals act as exfoliants for your skin, removing dead skin and decreasing roughness, making your skin soft.
3. Treatment for fungal infections – This is an interesting benefit because the Epsom salt doesn’t cure the wound, but it helps to remove the moisture that causes fungal infections.
4. It also helps remove splinters – which are usually painful when pulled without any preparation. You can soak your feet in an Epsom salt bath, and when your skin swells up enough, the splinter is easier to remove.
An Epsom salt foot soak is a safe home treatment for anxiety and an alternative to medication. However, you should consult your doctor before using it as a treatment for any other conditions. That said, many people have felt a positive difference since using Epsom salt foot baths for anxiety and also to treat other foot ailments.