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Epsom Salt Foot Soak- Benefits, Process, And Precautions!
Magnesium sulfate or Epsom salt foot soak helps relieve pain and has healing properties. For hundreds of years, it has been used as a great healing agent. Today, oftentimes Epsom salt is added to foot soaks and hot baths for reducing stress.
People can use Epsom salt foot soak for a varied range of foot-related benefits.
Magnesium salt present inside Epsom salt is absorbed minimally through your skin, but there is no research or scientific evidence that suggests the usage of Epsom salt can increase the concentration of magnesium ions inside the body. But, when it comes to inflammation, Epsom salt does help to relieve pain, which makes Epsom salt foot soak quite beneficial.
Practitioners claim that Epsom salt can also be dissolved within the water to ease pain from diseases like gout, help treat infections, and eliminate odor along with its healing and pain-reducing properties. However, more research is needed to confirm these claims listed by the supporters.
Also, Epsom salt has a crystallized structure. This article looks at different benefits, risks, and procedures for Epsom salt foot soak. There are some alternative foot soaks that you can consider using.
How To Use Epsom Salt Foot Soak
Taking some extra time to relax and soak your sore and tired feet in warm Epsom salt water provides you physical relief and helps to restore a healthy mental state by bringing a peaceful state of mind.
To prepare Epsom salt foot soak, just follow the steps and do it right!
- Fill the bathtub or your basin using warm water until it is broad and deep enough for covering your feet.
- Now, add 1/2 a cup of the main ingredient- Epsom salt to this warm water.
- Immerse your feet and soak them for as long as 30-60 minutes two times a week.
- For having an aromatherapy addition, you may also consider combining a few drops of any diluted oil such as lavender, eucalyptus, peppermint, essential oil to the Epsom salt foot soak.
- Moisturize the feet completely after soaking them. Read any book, hear your favorite music, or meditate, that helps soothing or claiming your mind even more.
You can consider adding some extra oils in Epsom salt foot soak to add some more benefits as stated above. Here are few oils with their benefits to consider:
- Lavender oil- It helps to add enhanced relaxation effects, promoting better sleep, and improves concentration. This is highly effective when you use it just before your sleep.
- Peppermint essential oil- You may add this to increase alertness, relieve headaches, and improve your digestion.
- Eucalyptus essential oil- Try adding this oil to enhance anti-microbial effects through Epsom salt foot soak. It helps soothe symptoms of cold and boosts your mental ability.
- Citrus essential oil- You can add this to boost your mood and helps promote germ elimination.
- Lemongrass essential oils- Combine to increase antifungal, antibacterial, along anti-inflammatory capabilities.
- Tea tree essential oils- Add to soothe redness and assist with overcoming inflammation.
Once you are done immersing your feet, use a handful of Epsom salts and rub them gently over the heels and the other hard parts of the feet for additional exfoliation.
Wash feet using cool water and drain them completely, later put on any lotion and stockings or socks to improve moisturization on your feet. Replicate this process two times in one week to observe results. Try to evade using daily as it may really produce unfavorable effects by drying out the feet and promoting cracking.
Benefits Of Epsom Salt Foot Soak
Here are few amazing benefits of using Epsom salt foot soak for your feet.
1. It eases splinter removal
Unreasonable splinters start to cause high pain and puffing around the injured area. Immersing your feet in warm water with Epsom salts mixed in it can help soften your skin and aids in pulling out pus, relaxing the splinter, and preparing for more effortless removal. This procedure can also be advantageous for splinters in your hands or the middle of your fingers.
2. It helps to eliminate odorous feet
Foot soaks of different kinds help to cleanse and deodorize the feet. Decent hygiene helps a long way in eliminating the stench from your sweaty feet.
Make sure to keep the footwear clean and dry. Also, try to obtain footwear that helps your foot to breathe to support moisture buildup and escape when you walk.
3. Helps reducing pain
If your work requires that you have to spend maximum time on the feet, particularly in shoes like high heels, it is doubtful that your feet will remain happy with it and behave well without causing problems.
Immersing the sore feet in this salt or performing Epsom salt foot soak may reduce inflammation, eliminate the buildup of toxins, and reduce muscle cramping.
4. Helps Promote good sleep
The anecdotal data claims that Epsom salts increase magnesium levels in your body. But it has not been supported by strong research. Though, it is has been found that magnesium salts may assist to boost deep sleep by creating melatonin.
Notwithstanding, immersing the feet in a slightly warm water bath provides you a lot of time to unravel, clear your memory, and relax your body from a restless day. Making it extra convincing that you will sleep faster and sleep deeper.
5. Helps exfoliate dry and cracked hills
Numerous people fail to provide their feet the concern and care they deserve. If you reside in a dry climate or undergo unpleasant cracked heels during the wintertime, as a result of overdrying, you must try the exfoliating potential of Epsom salt foot soak.
Match an Epsom salt foot soak with any foot scraping method and additional moisturization for the complete benefits. If you regularly wear sandals, you might have to change the footwear to closed-toed footwear and socks for a few days to deliver your feet extra time to rebuild cracks and heal fully.
6. Helps relieve stress
Epsom salt removes stress by loosening tight muscles and reducing inflammation. This pressure relaxation then diffuses across the body and leads you to a more suitable state of mind, supporting more obvious cognitive understanding and abilities.
7. Acts as a remedy for ingrown toenails and fungal infections
Instead of immediately and directly treating the disease or infection spread, Epsom salt foot soak is known to attract out the infection and assist in making the skin less sensitive to coming issues at the same time softening skin to create the medicines more efficient.
Please record that it is still significant to take any medicines directed by the doctor, and if you doubt some kind of fungal infection, you must make an instant appointment as soon as you could.
Precautions to take with Epsom salt foot soak
Make sure to buy Epsom salt foot soak meant for human use. All Epsom salt comprises magnesium sulfate, but companies deliver a variety of salts for distinctive purposes. Chemically, the Epsom salt is quite the same, but it is prepared in several grades for several purposes.
Search for Epsom salt having a USP indicated on its label. USP symbolizes that scientists have examined the product for use of humans safety and that it has reached the protection regulations authorized by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Epsom salt proper for foot soaks is readily available to buy at drugstores, health food stores, and online websites.
For a large number of people, an Epsom salt foot soak is completely safe. But there have been a few situations when it is most helpful to talk to a doctor or healthcare provider ere practicing Epsom salt foot soak. For instance, people that hold very dry skin must avoid exceedingly performing foot soaks as the salt may dry out their skin leaving their feet highly prone to cracks.
Foot soak of any type is NOT considered safe and fit for somebody who has diabetes as there is a heightened risk of infection. Daily immersing the feet might aggravate dryness, which may lead to damage to the heels and raise the chances of infection. People that have exposed wounds or sores must also speak with their healthcare providers before practicing an Epsom salt foot soak.
There are certain foot problems, in which even Epsom salt foot soak cannot be beneficial enough to give you the relief needed. You must consider talking to a doctor if you face any of the symptoms currently:
- Inflammation or redness of the foot
- Open sores
- Prolonged tenderness following a foot injury.
- Pain in the foot that might stay for a week or more.
Additional Foot Soaks To Consider
Along with Epsom salt foot soak, different varieties of foot soak that include distinctive ingredients may improve in easing pain and increase foot health. There is insufficient research into the effectiveness, though a few people find them beneficial and most people may use them safely. Some alternative foot soaks are:
Essential oils
A few people might find that different essential oils have been helpful when combined with foot soaks, this includes peppermint, wintergreen, and rosemary. Essential oils may help degrade dryness, pain, and give a cooling feeling to relieve achiness. A small amount or few drops works a long way when it comes to using essential oils. Only add some drops of these oils to the warm container of water.
Baking soda
Combing baking soda to the foot soak may help peel or exfoliate the skin, reduce itching, and clean the feet. Try to add 3–4 tablespoons of your baking soda to a basin filled with warm water.
Vinegar
The vinegar also helps kill bacteria and helps reducing foot odor. It might also decrease the growing rate of fungus.
The Bottom Line
Although studies and researches are highly limited on the benefits of Epsom salt foot soak, it does show that our skin may absorb magnesium. Probable benefits of an Epsom salt foot soak incorporate decreased itching, lowered inflammation, and decreased soreness.
The dangers of side effects of using this Epsom salt foot soak are insignificant. For many people, it might prove to be worth giving a try. But there are some rare instances when it is most useful to avoid practicing a foot soak, including when the person is having diseases like diabetes or open sores on the feet.
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