Strange reaction to Epsom salts?

October 25, 2013 4:11 PM

Took 2 Epsom salt baths recently: one made me totally relaxed and the other completely stressed me out bigtime. Is that even possible?

The circumstances were very similar in that both times I took the baths at night, same brand of salts and same amount and length of bath too. I don't think i'd eaten anything unusual either. The first time maybe a month ago I woke up feeling really relaxed and happy the next day which I didn't expect so no placebo effect there. The other day I tried the salts again and was so stressed out the next day it wasn't even funny. Yes I'm under more stress lately but my emotional reaction was outsized for me. Do you think it could have been a reaction to the Epsom salts? I did read on a nutritionist's blog that one person experienced severe anxiety and vivd dreams from it. My dreams were fine. Epsom salts are magnesium sulfate and magnesium is known to relax muscles so it is normal to feel relaxed and sleepy after an e. s. bath.

posted by wildflower to Health & Fitness (7 answers total)

I don't think the effects are nearly that strong either way.
posted by gjc at 4:16 PM on October 25, 2013 [7 favorites]

I was just reading up on epsom salt baths recently. While it's true that you can absorb small amounts of magnesium via bathing, a negative reaction to too much magnesium would be more like a laxative effect and not a stress effect. In fact some people think extra magnesium helps with anxiety. It's more likely that the bath got you dehydrated and/or got your electrolytes out of whack with the sweating. I'd pay more attention to what you ate before and after and the next morning.
posted by jessamyn at 4:27 PM on October 25, 2013 [11 favorites]

Frequent epsom-salt bather with panic disorder here: I have experienced panic attacks induced by the drop in blood pressure that exposure to a hot tub of epsom water induces, otherwise I have only observed short-term muscle relaxation and mood leveling effects from magnesium (and yeah, some whacky dreams after my pre-bed baths, but I get those regardless).

I've also taken a variety of magnesium salts orally -- to varying degrees of relaxation and laxative effects.

AFAIK it's impossible to attain laxative effects from transdermal absorption of MgSO4. To do that, as far as I know, one must take it orally (once in the bowel it draws water from the intestine and increases bowel volume and thereby the likelihood of moving your bowel).

"Stressed out" doesn't sound like a pharmacological reaction to me, it sounds more likely to be a reaction to a situation.

Personally I'd just give it another go, or do it multiple consecutive nights and see if I could replicate one effect or the other more regularly.
posted by Matt Oneiros at 4:38 PM on October 25, 2013 [2 favorites]

FWIW I don't think the placebo effect necessarily has to arrive from a conscious expectation going into the situation, so while it very well may not have anything to do with the bath it is also possible there was such an effect, driven by.. who knows what may be kicking around beneath conscious expectations.

And yeah another vote for likely th second effect having to doing with something else entirely.
posted by edgeways at 4:42 PM on October 25, 2013 [1 favorite]

' "Stressed out" doesn't sound like a pharmacological reaction to me, it sounds more likely to be a reaction to a situation.'

But only if you consider the term "stressed out" merely in its colloquial usage. You can definitely have a stress response and experience being "stressed out" from a pharmaceutical or substance.
posted by Blitz at 4:47 PM on October 25, 2013

I'm not sure if you're a lady, but just throwing this out there, but I had to rule out everything under the sun before it occurred to me that my weird, out-of-nowhere, oversized emotional reactions were cycle-related.
posted by bleep at 6:28 PM on October 25, 2013 [6 favorites]

AFAIK it's impossible to attain laxative effects from transdermal absorption of MgSO4. To do that, as far as I know, one must take it orally (once in the bowel it draws water from the intestine and increases bowel volume and thereby the likelihood of moving your bowel).

This is true. Magnesium salts act as laxatives based almost completely on osmotic pressure, rather than as a drug. (Remembering that the GI system is technically outside of you.) Anything absorbed through the skin goes into the bloodstream where it would act as a drug.
posted by gjc at 5:51 AM on October 26, 2013