If you live in regions like mine, when you wake up in the morning, the first thing you want to do is take a bath. You then take your bath again at night or in the evening before going to bed. But what if you have been doing it wrong and needed to bathe less, or what if you were even supposed to bathe more? Well, what does science say? While there are no definite rules, scientists have made recommendations on how many times we should wash our bodies.
The skin is the largest organ in the body and it is made up of several layers responsible for preventing harmful stuff from getting into the body but then our skin is occupied by microorganisms that live rent-free which we know as the microbiome but then when these microbes get into your body or other microbes get into your body, then they can make you sick. These microbes can get into our body from eating with our hands and this is why we use soaps to wash them away from our skin.
Soaps are surfactants that bind to water, oil, and microbes helping to get them off the skin and allowing it to have fewer bacteria. But then if you decide not to wash your skin, glands that produce oil and sweat for cooling down and moisture can get clogged leading to skin issues like acne so it is good to wash your skin.
It's all true that it is good to wash your skin, but showering too often can be bad for you as well. The skin can get too dry leading to irritation and cracking making it easier for disease and microbes to enter the skin. Also, research shows that bathing too much isn't good for the skin microbiome unless you sweat a lot. Bathing every couple of days is good for our skin microbiome, but I think I'll continue as I used to before.
While some of us bathe with soap, some other people bathe with Epsom salt, and there have been so many claims about it that are not just right like it raising mineral levels, and drawing toxins out of the body but it is commonly used for softening the skin and especially after a long exercise. Well, for those of you who use it and do not know what it is about, Epsom salt is magnesium sulfate.
A lot of the claims about Epsom salt are a result of the magnesium in it and we all want the great things associated with the possibilities of magnesium but then no study shows that the magnesium from the salt gets into the body. If you decide to take it orally, then you should be ready to visit the toilet more frequently because magnesium is a very good laxative but when injected into the body, it helps prevent high blood pressure in pregnant women.
As for the relief with sore muscles, it might be the salt in play or just a placebo effect where you feel it should help so it gives you the answer you expect but then the result might be from the warm water, or something else. If you are still using it, then good for you but it might just be a placebo effect.
Reference
http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/01/12/375663920
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3535073
http://time.com/4259559/shower-soap-hygiene/?xid=tcoshare
https://microbiomejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40168-017-0294-2
http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/03/31/396573607
http://annals.org/aim/article/717252/effect-antibacterial-home-cleaning-handwashing-products-infectious-disease-symptoms-randomized
http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/epsom-salt-bath#1
http://www.epsomsaltcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/report_on_absorption_of_magnesium_sulfate.pdf
https://www.painscience.com/articles/epsom-salts.php
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/truth-epsom-salt/story?id=29675918
https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/002423.htm
http://www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk/themes/places/surrey/epsom_and_ewell/epsom