Epsom salt

One thing I did quite a lot when staying with my friend with a broken foot was the Epsom salt bath.

Interesting enough, I have never heard of Epsom salt in Taiwan and even my doctors had no idea what I was talking about when I mentioned Epsom salt. Of course, it might have something to do with the fact that I didn't quite know how to translate the term "Epsom salt" then.  


After some googling around, I found that, in Chinese, Epsom salt is called 瀉鹽 or 硫酸鎂 (Magnesium sulfate or MgSO₄·7H₂O).  Must have learned it in school though gave it all back to my chemistry teacher... oops... please don't take my high school diploma back... 8-O lol

Why is it called Epsom salt rather than Poems salt?  Apparently, one of its first discoveries was in Epsom, Surrey, England back in the Shakespearean time.  That's where the Epsom part came from.

Accordingly, you are supposed to add a whole cup or two of Epsom Salt into your bath.  Yet, usually, I don't use so much and it seems to be pretty effective for me as well.

Personally, I love hot bath and I just read it somewhere that... it is the wrong way to do it.  So they say... use warm water instead because, I guess, if it is too hot, it might strip off too much of the protective oil from our skin.

What does it do for me?

Two thing I am pretty sure about.  First, it relaxes the body and alleviates the pain all over my body (Fibromyalgia).  Second, it somehow sedates me and put me into a jolly good sleep.

When bathing is not an option, I would do foot soaking with Epsom salt instead and it also seems to have similar impacts on me.

Not quite sure about other places, in the US, you can get Epsom salt from pharmacies and grocery stores or other fancy places.

Yet, for me, all that I needed is Magnesium sulfate and I often go with the most economic kind you can find such as the store brand.

I had tried out the Epsom salt with Lavender fragrance before but have now decided to get back to the simplest form of it.  The reason... seems to be a bit backwards to introduce unnecessary chemical components to a process which might help our body to do this thing called... detoxing.

For more uses of Epsom salt, you can check out the info provided by the Epsom Salt Council.