Public bathing facilities was an option in Rome

Why not return to the days of public bath houses without the lead lined aqueducts of Roman times?

While traveling in warmer states I noticed that there does seem to be a larger percentage of homeless people than in colder areas and it would add to the need for housing and restrooms. Colder climates have warming rooms for the small numbers of homeless located in their areas – just spending one night at a rest stop in a warm urban area showed me that the transient sleep in the car population would overwhelm the warming room located in the rural location. Locating a camp ground style public bathing and rest room facility near areas where homeless people congregate/are allowed to congregate might support public health and the homeless person’s ability to find a job while trying to survive on limited income. It is hard to find a job when just trying to find a restroom is difficult.

Incorporating health research into the benefits of magnesium sulfate salt baths or foot-soaks for substance abuse and chronic illness or mental illness populations could be a coordinated goal that might help fund the facilities. Magnesium deficiency is associated with anxiety, paranoia and anger that can progress to rage and violence. Magnesium deficiency is also associated with many types of chronic illness conditions and is more of risk with a variety of commonly abused substances including alcohol. The advantage of providing it in a bath or foot-soak is that the intestines can become less adept at absorbing magnesium and the kidneys more prone to excreting it in favor of calcium being better absorbed by the intestines and retained by the kidneys.

Headaches and other types of chronic pain and muscle cramp conditions can also be relieved by a magnesium sulfate (Epsom salt) or magnesium chloride topical soak or hand-cream type mixture. Working with a healthcare or insurance provider to test the efficacy of simply providing easier access to topical magnesium sulfate or magnesium chloride could help subsidize a homeless bathing facility or making the facility simply a pay to use community park addition could help subsidize it. charge a small fee for use of the shower or bath stalls. Truck stops charge around $12-14 dollars for use of nice quality shower area – that would likely be too costly for a homeless/low income person to be able to use very often. It is likely that a more campground style bathing facility could be provided for a lower cost to the individual purchaser of time in the facility while supporting the goal of improved public health. Making it a fee for use facility could help support cleaning staff for maintenance of the facility.

If research goals were incorporated then more support staff would be required to educate and obtain permission from participants in the project. Ethical medical research requires full disclosure of any potential risks of a research project as well as obtaining consent from the participants. The topical use of magnesium in the form of a bath or foot-soak can become too much of a good thing if used excessively or someone fell asleep in the bath. Twenty to forty minutes every few days is a beneficial amount when about a cup of Epsom salt is used in a bath or foot-soak.

Disclaimer: Opinions are my own and the information is provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of fair use. While I am a Registered Dietitian this information is not intended to provide individual health guidance. Please see a health professional for individual health care purposes.

Magnesium deficiency can cause irritability, anxiety, and chronic degeneration

Inspirational quote: “Whenever I have a problem I sing, then I realize that my voice is a lot worse than my problem.” (and I feel better about my problem).

And then I take an Epsom salt bath to help treat irritability and the muscle cramps that can result from a magnesium deficiency. Some people may be more at risk for chronic magnesium deficiency due to intestinal malabsorption of the nutrient. Calcium may be preferentially absorbed within the intestines instead of magnesium.

Magnesium deficiency may affect levels of the brain neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, which may cause mood changes if it is not in balance with other more calming neurotransmitters. [Neurotransmitters and mood] The supplement choline is a precursor for acetylcholine and some users have noticed depressive affects with use of a high dose. [Acetylcholine and mood]

Taking the calcium supplements seemed to help reduce the elevated parathyroid hormone level but more recently they have seemed to cause a very rapid increase in muscle cramps and severe irritability. A magnesium bath every morning helped my mood change from rage to feeling like singing. It was kind of incredible to have my mood change so rapidly for reasons that were actually physical events — first I felt extremely angry shortly after swallowing a 100 mg calcium supplement and then I felt joyful after soaking in a bathtub for twenty minutes (soaking forty minutes or more can actually be dangerous because too elevated magnesium blood levels can cause an extreme slowing of the heart rate — don’t try that at home).

I haven’t had a psychiatrist tell me about the risks of magnesium deficiency to the mood or the benefits of an Epsom salt bath for the mood but I can hope, I can share information, and I can enjoy the benefits of Epsom salt baths while I wait. Eventually maybe psychiatry will recognize that the brain is connected to the body and that it is built out of nutrients, not out of pharmaceuticals.

Not surprising: People Reward Angry Men But Punish Angry Women, Study Suggests. Magnesium is effective and inexpensive and proton pump inhibitors are dangerous but patent protected. Get angry because the advice being sold as healthcare at an expensive profit may be causing harm over time. [PPIs and fracture risk, C difficile risk, FDA warning]

There may also be a gender bias regarding creativity, and provision of pain medication. There is also gender inequality in autoimmune disease — the majority of sufferers are female and the length of time between first onset of symptoms and diagnosis can be many years or even decades. Fifty million Americans are estimated to be suffering from some type of autoimmune disease (AD) and 75% of them are estimated to be female for reasons that are not clear at this time. [AARDA, Autoimmune disease in women]

“AARDA-conducted studies reveal a lack of trust in prescribing physicians, very likely fostered by the fact that the average AD patient may see more than four doctors in as many years before receiving a correct diagnosis. Also, more than 40 percent of AD patient report they have been told they were “too concerned about their health” or that they were hypochondriacs.”   –AARDA Launches “3-Second Adherence” Public Service Campaign.

I have been told that my physical symptoms are all psychosomatic so often that I really have no desire to go back  to anyone claiming to provide evidence based medicine. The evidence suggests to me that fifty million people are at risk from a system that doesn’t know what causes their condition or how to help them but who at the same time are willing to make random expensive guesses because after all they are just gambling with the patient’s time, money and long term health not their own.

Maybe eventually more health professionals will succumb to autoimmune illness themselves and then they will be more motivated to find more effective treatments that actually work on the underlying problems of nutrient deficiencies and metabolic imbalances. The body needs to be well nourished in order to make sialic acid for white blood cells to be able to properly identify damaged or improperly labeled cells such as the improperly labeled autoimmune antibodies and then to destroy the defective cells with a magnesium fueled enzymatic death (apoptosis).

I can hope, and I can share, and I can continue to try to take care of my own health.

/Disclosure: This information is provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of fair use. While I am a Registered Dietitian this information is not intended to provide individual health guidance. Please see a health professional for individual health care purposes./