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Page 38
| bath. For a luxurious spa treatment, look for bath salts from the Dead Sea or add a little seaweed to your salt bath. Try combining any quantity of table or sea salt, epsom salts (magnesium sulfate) from the drugstore or supermarket, baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and/or borax, the laundry product. Dissolve at least four cups of this blend in hot water as you fill the tub. Adjust the temperature so it's comfortably warm; then, just before you climb in, add your quart of herbal tea. |
| Salt stimulates the skin, increases circulation, removes dead cells and increases nerve activity. For a salt scrub, add just enough water to sponge, scoop up a handful and rub as briskly as you can without irritating the skin, massaging feet, ankles, knees, hands, arms, back, chest and abdomen. Fill the tub with warm water and relax, rinsing the salt off. For an invigorating skin softening treatment, mix salt with massage oil instead of water and proceed as above. The oil will be slippery, so place a towel under your feet before standing. |
| Footbaths, sitz baths and even hand baths continue the hydrotherapy theme. All circulatory conditions respond well to alternating immersions in hot and cold water, and this is true for fomentations and compresses as well as baths. As Humbart Santillo wrote in Natural Healing with Herbs, a traditional therapy for angina pectoris is to take warm arm baths, immersing only the arms in warm or hot water for several minutes, or soak towels in hot apple cider vinegar and wrap the arms. "This is an old folk remedy that has been successful in Europe," he wrote. It relaxes the nervous system and relieves pain. |
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