Go to the water

It's March and we're back in the bathroom. We are now in Kapha season in Ayurveda and this where skin issues tend to flare up so I wanted to share a personal healing story about my eczema.

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A few years ago I was at the end of my tether because my chronic eczema was flaring up again, and on it's way to covering both my arms. People thought I'd been burnt. The doctors and their steroid creams were doing more harm than good. Fortunately auntie google came to my rescue and suggested transdermal magnesium (i.e. when active ingredients are delivered through the skin). As a last resort I bought a couple of bags of magnesium flakes from the chemist, threw some into a hot bath and almost cried with relief.

One (yes, one!) bath and my skin had calmed down and softened. Two weeks and my life long eczema was pretty much gone. Better still, problems I didn't even know know were linked to a magnesium deficiency were disappearing. Magnesium is responsible for carrying other nutrients around the body so it's no wonder. Magnesium increases the bio availability of Vitamin D which in turn stops Vitamin D supplementation from having a potentially unhelpful affect on your calcium levels.

Medical doctors aren't trained in nutrition so they can't prescribe what they don't know about but the few that are aware are shouting loudly about how a lot of conditions they prescribe medication for could simply be treated with magnesium.

Apparently a conservative estimate is that at least half of us are deficient. Unless you eat a Japanese diet high in seaweed and dark leafy greens you are probably one of them. Conversely, a magnesium deficiency won't show up in a blood test because the vast majority of it is stored in our bones and tissues.

In fact if you are low in magnesium you may be more likely to have a normal blood test because your body will take what it does have from your bones and tissues and transfer it to your blood circulation so that it can get to where it's most needed.

Transdermal magnesium is very well absorbed and doesn't have a taxing effect on your kidneys like oral magnesiums (which are usually only up to 40% absorbable) do. So, why not just try a magnesium bath a few times a week and see how you feel?