You were bit by a spider? Stung by a wasp? Have an open skin infection? Get a scrape on an animal? Try this and skip the doc!

It all started for me one day at a hunt test. If you haven’t seen one of these before, it’s a test to title the hunt dogs, but they’re all day and they’re in the middle of nowhere. As you can image, tons of bugs that bite are crawling around. These usually take place in the summer when it’s blazing hot. On this particular day, I was wearing sandals due to the heat. I had my shoes sitting outside the truck, and when I jumped out of the truck onto my shoes, guess who was there to greet me? That’s right. A bee. That sucker hurt ALL night, and I was trying to not look like a wimp by limping around the rest of the trial. By the time I got home it was swollen and I couldn’t even let a sock touch it.

This is where the good part comes in. I was sore and exhausted, so I wanted nothing more than to soak in the bath. I love putting epsom salt in my water, so I dumped about 2 cups in and relaxed. About 15 minutes in, my foot started getting really tingly. When I say tingly, I mean it felt almost like worms were crawling on the inside of me and racing toward the injection point of the bee. I wasn’t sure if it was helping or making it worse, but I decided to take the chance. I soaked in the bath for about 30 minutes total, and when I got out my foot almost didn’t hurt at all. I swear I could actually feel the salt pulling the venom out through the hole it came in. I soaked it again for about 10 minutes in a small bucket the next night and my pain was gone for good. For those of you who love the science, it’s actually magnesium that you’re absorbing.

Now along the same lines as the hunt test, you can imagine that the dogs can get some bumps and bruises from running and swimming through a variety of obstacles in nature. During duck hunting our dog got a nice gash on his leg from someone that had left barbed wire strung across an open field but not tied to anything. Poor guy had a hard time walking and wanted to lick it all the time. Guess what I did? You know it! I stuck his leg in a bucket of epsom salt water. After two days of soaking (about 15 minutes each time) he wasn’t messing with it at all. After around four days he was all healed up.

Next came the spider bite! I have no idea how I received it, but one day the skin on my ankle region was terribly painful. After a few more days, my shin had swollen up to almost double the size of my other leg. After trying a few other things, I went back to my trusty epsom salt. For this I also put an extra strength drawing salve – this one to be exact – Puremedy Extra Drawing Black Salve http://bit.ly/2IHbcQ2 – twice a day and wrapped it with an Ace bandage. That was more for the pain though so my pants wouldn’t rub it.

Clearing up infections is only one way that epsom salt is out right amazing. You can take an entire bath to reap the benefits or simply soak the area in a smaller bucket to conserve the amount of salt you are using. I like the bath option because it is so relaxing. My favorite epsom salts are from Dr. Teal’s. The exact one I order can be found at https://amzn.to/2ZdinFr I love these because you get the benefits of the salt, but you also get added essential oils. These make your bathroom smell AMAZING and put you into a totally different state of relaxation.

For those that aren’t bath lovers, try the magnesium spray to put on directly where you have pain. It absorbs best through the feet if you’re using it for general use. Putting it directly over the heart is also a great place to spray it because it soaks into the skin above where everything is being pumped through your body. I love the one I use! I spray it at night before bed and it knocks me out in about 5 minutes. My favorite is Asutra Magnesium Oil found at https://amzn.to/2IHUtfl

Other benefits of epsom salt:

1. It’s awesome for detoxifying your entire body. The sulfate in the salt is known to strengthen your digestive tract, which in turn releases toxins in your body. Within the detox, it also helps with inflammation and has been proven to reduce swelling, stiffness, and pain in muscles.
2. It has been studied that eczema and psoriasis are made more manageable with the use of epsom salt. The salt softens the skin and is known to soften areas that are typically itchy.
3. Epsom salt helps when joint stiffness and muscle pain. This is a game changer if you are really sore from the gym or are getting back into working out. It’s also helped my husband out with lower back pain. Any time I know I’m going to be sore the next day, I soak in the epsom bath and it drastically reduces the amount of soreness.
4. Research is now showing that people with high anxiety or have high mental and physical stress benefit from raised magnesium levels. How do you get this? Epsom salt, of course! Magnesium can’t currently be tested by a blood panel, so it’s just something you’ll have to experiment with. This is where the spray comes in very handy since it’s more realistic to spray every day than take a bath every day.
5. It helps your feet! It can relieve athlete’s foot, ingrown toenails, and foot odor.
6. Magnesium helps kickstart your body to produce melatonin, the much needed hormone for a good night’s sleep.

Whether you’re an epsom salt specialist or just getting started, epsom salt baths and soaks couldn’t be easier to do! Pick up a bag at https://amzn.to/2ZdinFr, drop a few cups into the bath water (I just throw in about 2 handfuls), kick back, and relax. It really is that easy to cure all that itchy, swollen, bitten, irritated, skin!