I bought 50 lbs of solar salt for $3.49 from my local hardware store. I'm going to try soaking in it every evening.
Solar salt is natural salt dried by the sun and is used in water softeners. I figure it will be like soaking in the sea. Can't hurt, right?
I tried the baking soda and oil bath. It didn't help, but baking soda and mineral oil on my scalp has reduced flaking and itching. Apple cider vinegar helped, too, but is VERY drying on my hair.


Hey Marcel,
Don't know if the solar salts will help or not but be careful that corrosive nature of the salts don't damage you pipes. It should be ok for PVC pipes but beware if your pipes are old.
Mitch


Probably won't hurt, may not help much. Sodium chloride (ordinary salt) has been tested and doesn't really do much. Magnesium salts, on the other hand, may actually reduce skin inflammation in psoriatics.
Epsom salts are probably the most cost effective salt for psoriasis - a pound of Epsom in the average tub with warm or hot water may reduce inflammation.
Pharmacology. 1996 May;52(5):321-8.
Inhibition of proliferation of psoriatic and healthy fibroblasts in cell culture by selected Dead-sea salts.
Levi-Schaffer F, Shani J, Politi Y, Rubinchik E, Brenner S. Department of Pharmacology, Hebrew University School of Pharmacy, Jerusalem, Israel.
The effect of five selected minerals abundant in the Dead-sea brine was studied on proliferation of fibroblasts grown from psoriatic and healthy skin biopsy specimens in cell culture. The reason for carrying out this study was looking for the mechanism of the antiproliferative effect of selective Dead-sea minerals in improving the psoriatic condition. Psoriatic skin shave biopsy specimens (both from involved and uninvolved areas of the body) as well as healthy skin (obtained from amputated limbs) were incubated in tissue culture, and their outgrowing fibroblasts were used for this study. The number of cells and their cyclic AMP content were used as parameters for cell division and for proving the selective involvement of magnesium salts in the antiproliferative effect. It is shown that the inhibitory effects of magnesium bromide and magnesium chloride on cell growth were significantly stronger than those of their corresponding potassium salts or of sodium chloride. These results were obtained with both psoriatic and healthy skin fibroblasts, indicating that the inhibitory effect of the selected Dead-sea minerals is present in healthy and psoriatic skin cells.
J Invest Dermatol. 2000 Oct;115(4):680-6.
Magnesium ions inhibit the antigen-presenting function of human epidermal Langerhans cells in vivo and in vitro. Involvement of ATPase, HLA-DR, B7 molecules, and cytokines.
Schempp CM, Dittmar HC, Hummler D, Simon-Haarhaus B, Schulte-Monting J, Schopf E, Simon JC. Department of Dermatology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany. schempp@haut.ukl.uni-freiburg.de
The combination of seawater baths and solar radiation at the Dead Sea is known as an effective treatment for patients with psoriasis and atopic dermatitis. Dead Sea water is particularly rich in magnesium ions. In this study we wished to determine the effects of magnesium ions on the capacity of human epidermal Langerhans cells to stimulate the proliferation of alloreactive T cells. Twelve subjects were exposed on four subsequent days on the volar aspects of their forearms to 5% MgCl2, 5% NaCl, ultraviolet B (1 minimal erythemal dose), MgCl2 + ultraviolet B, and NaCl + ultraviolet B. Epidermal sheets were prepared from punch biopsies and were stained for ATPase and HLA-DR. Compared with untreated skin, the number of ATPase+/HLA-DR+ Langerhans cells was significantly reduced after treatment with MgCl2 (p = 0.0063) or ultraviolet B (p = 0.0005), but not after NaCl (p = 0.7744). We next questioned whether this reduced expression of ATPase and HLA-DR on Langerhans cells bears a functional relevance. Six subjects were treated on four subsequent days with 5% MgCl2, ultraviolet B (1 minimal erythemal dose), and MgCl2 + ultraviolet B. Epidermal cell suspensions from treated and untreated skin were assessed for their antigen-presenting capacity in a mixed epidermal lymphocyte reaction with allogeneic naive resting T cells as responder cells. Treatment with MgCl2, similarly to ultraviolet B, significantly reduced the capacity of epidermal cells to activate allogeneic T cells (p = 0.0356). Magnesium ions also suppressed Langerhans cells function when added to epidermal cell suspensions in vitro. The reduced antigen-presenting capacity of Langerhans cells after treatment with MgCl2 was associated with a reduced expression by Langerhans cells of HLA-DR and costimulatory B7 molecules, and with a suppression of the constitutive tumor necrosis factor-alpha production by epidermal cells in vitro. These findings demonstrate that magnesium ions specifically inhibit the antigen-presenting capacity of Langerhans cells and may thus contribute to the efficacy of Dead Sea water in the treatment of inflammatory skin diseases.


hi Marcel,
like rosy3939 said. i think you have to watch for damage to the syetem that you have. like city stuff or mine is in the back yard. for waste. hope you can under stand what i mean. i don't want to offend any one.
have a good night all
richard


I hadn't thought about the effect on the pipes. Since this is used for water softeners I figure it's ok for the pipes. I've tried Epsom salts and there's some slight benefit - my skin is slightly calmer, but not much.