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From: " merrywbee " <merrywbee@...>

Date: Mon Jan 19, 2004 4:28 pm

Subject: Epsom Salt Baths-- moderator approve? merrywbee

Epsom Salt Baths

Information compiled by Wetherby, with editing and research

information provided courtesy of Owens. This information may

be shared with families and professionals, but please do not use it

in a part of a larger document/paper without obtaining written

permission.

What are Epsom Salts?

Epsom Salts are the same thing as Magnesium Sulfate, which is a salt

made of only magnesium and sulphate (and maybe a little bit of

water). Magnesium is a positively charged ion, and it binds to

sulfate, which is a negatively charged ion. Sulfate is a sulphur

atom surrounded by four oxygen atoms.

You can buy them at your local drugstore or pharmacy or even in the

grocery store. They are usually located in larger bags near the

bandages or the foot care section (in a pinch, smaller containers can

be found in the laxative aisle, but it is cheaper to buy them in the

larger bags/cartons).

What is the anticipated effect from an Epsom Salt bath?

Epsom Salts have long been used to stimulate detoxification, reduce

inflammation to sore muscles, promote healthy circulation, and help

with relaxation and normalizing sleep patterns.

Most children respond to an ES bath by appearing happier, more

relaxed. Some parents report that their children are more

responsive, more " with it " . Some parents who give the bath in the

evenings report that their children are able to get to sleep easier,

and have a more normal sleep pattern.

Given over time, the ES baths may help reduce sensory integration

symptoms. Some of this effect may occur due to benefits of

detoxification, but it is much more likely to come from direct

effects on the nervous system.

Why do they work? And Why is sulfation important?

One benefit of the ES baths is linked to an enzyme system known as

phenolsulfotransferase or PST. Dr. Rosemary Waring researched this

and found that in 92% of the autistic children tested, PST was

functioning at below optimal levels. This enzyme, like all other

sulfotransferases, has to use a modified form of sulfate: not the

form it takes in the bathtub. This change occurs inside your cells

by adding the molecules adenosine and phosphate to sulfate before any

sulfotransferase enzyme can use it. The molecular additions are said

to turn sulfate into its " activated form " . If you think about it,

none of this can be happening in the bathtub: it is happening in

your body after sulfate is absorbed through the skin and after a

complicated interplay of enzymes. It is not going to happen

spontaneously, no matter how much sulfate you have around.

When PST has enough activated sulfate to use, it will then attach the

sulfate part of that molecule to molecules called phenols. In most

cases, adding sulfate sets up those molecules for excretion in the

urine, but it can actually activate other molecules.

When there is a deficiency of sulfate inside your cells, phenols may

build up. In the brain and nervous system this may interfere with

neurotransmitter function since many neurotransmitters are phenolic,

too. For instance, there is actually a form of PST called

catecholamine sulfotransferase or M-PST which acts on

neurotransmitters. Other sulfotransferases act on hormones and

proteins and carbohydrates of certain sorts.

Again, epsom salts are believed to help PST by providing the much-

needed

sulfate to the child's body, by being absorbed transdermally (through

the skin) during the bath. The body is full of other

sulfotransferases that need sulfate to be much more concentrated than

what PST likes. These other sulfotransferases, among other jobs,

help form the extracellular nets around certain neurons, and regulate

things like axon guidance and neurons sending out processes to make

connections.

The gastrointestinal system especially needs a lot of sulfate. A

diferrent sulfotransferase enzyme called TPST uses sulfate to

activate two major gut enzymes. In animal studies the GI system

takes as much sulfate out of the blood as the liver puts into the

blood, so epsom salts are likely to mostly nourish the gut and spare

the liver the job of making sulfate from scratch from the amino acid

cysteine.

But how does this produce neurological improvements?

Detoxification is only a little part of sulfate's job. Most of the

body's sulfate is used to form huge molecules that govern chemical

traffic at the cell surface. Many of these sulfated molecules find

their more enduring home in the area immediately around the cell

called the extracellular matrix. [Extracellular = outside the cell]

These sulfated molecules function in all cell types. However, in the

brain, this type of molecule has a very special role, providing

modulation, or something like a volume control. It does this by

forming a geometric net outside particular types of neurons.

The sulfate in these molecules is no longer in an ionic form, like

you see in epsom salts in the bathtub, but is part of highly

organized structures that will attract, bind and regulate many of the

ions that are involved in cell signalling before those ions even get

to the surface of neurons or to ion channels.

You haven't heard about this from your neurologist because research

on the

function of this type of molecule has been done mainly in the last

decade, and in the last year or two, especially. Even so, there are

pictures of these nets around neurons that were drawn by scientists

more than a hundred years ago before they knew what they were made

of. Nobody thought they did anything!

What seems particularly relevant is that the nets are abundant and

function in the auditory system, the somatosensory system, the

vestibular system, the cerebellum, and in almost half of the cranial

nerves. They even seem important for developing trunk strength.

You may recognize these systems as the parts of the nervous system

that are targeted by sensory integration therapy. Interestingly, the

nets won't form properly in the brain without two things happening at

the same time: adequate biochemical resources, and continued rapid

firing of the relevant nerves. This argues favorably for coupling

biochemical therapies that support this chemistry with the physical

and educational approaches that are also known to offer benefits to

these systems.

If you want to know more about the biochemical side of this, you can

read a

paper written by Owens who has studied the sulfated molecules

(called

GAGs) for seven years. Her paper reviewing this area is part of a

book that is sold by the Autism Research Unit in Sunderland: The

Proceedings of their 2001 conference in Durham, England. See

http://osiris.sunderland.ac.uk/autism/.

What are the potential long-term benefits of continued use?

After using epsom salts on a regular basis, children may have

improvements with language, behavior, mood, and physical skills.

What if my child gets agitated?

Very few children may seem more agitated after the initial bath, or

several baths later. It is not known why this happens, but it is easy

to deal with. Just cut back on the baths for a few days and then

begin again, but with a much smaller amount of ES-perhaps a teaspoon,

and work up the amount very slowly. Also, you may see if the child

reacts to magnesium by trying it in a different form orally.

Kirkman Laboratories " Guide To Intestinal Health " booklet discusses

how impaired sulfation process can lead to a decreased production of

peptides, and bile acids, which are important to digestive function,

and lead to problems with maldigestion and malabsorption. Sulfation

is also important to the intestinal lining. Over time, decreased

sulfation can allow small portions of the gut wall to be exposed,

creating the " Leaky Gut " which is suspect in allergies, asthma, and

other neurobehavioral disorders. Sulfate's relative absense from the

esophagus may be what makes reflux hurt so much.

Okay, I think we'll try the baths—what do I need and how much Epsom

Salt, and for how long?

The amount and frequency can vary from child to child. Some parents

prefer to use as much as 2 cups of ES in a bathtub of water, allowing

the child to be in the tub for around 20 minutes, on a daily basis.

Some parents prefer to do the baths every few days, some prefer every

week. As mentioned before, if your child is one of the rare few who

seem to get agitated by the bath, then simply cut back on the amount

of salt used (my son was one of these kids and we dropped back to a

teaspoon and worked up gradually to about ¼ to ½ a cup).

What are other ways to employ Epsom Salts for sulfation benefits?

Some parents prefer to mix the ES with water and keep it in a spray

bottle and spray their kids during the day. As it dries, it leaves a

white residue that you can leave on for more of a " timed-release "

effect if it is tolerated. Others have found ways to make ES oil or

lotion. Please join the Enzymes and Autism Group for recipes

on how to make it into an oil or lotion. Instead of a bath, some

parents give their child a foot soak while they are eating or doing

something else. Kirkman Laboratories at www.kirkmanlabs.com sells

an Epsom Salt cream that can be applied 1 to 3 times a day. It does

not leave a residue. I have been told that there are other ES

creams out there, but I haven't seen them in any stores yet. If

someone knows of another source, please add it to this file.

Q: I gave my child an epsom salt bath, and s/he seemed more hyper

and/or emotional afterwards. Is this related to the bath? Why would

my child react this way instead of having the " expected " results?

I think the trick here, which is important to know about, is that you

need to start slowly when introducing a supplement of something for

which you have been deficient a long time, and then slowly work up to

more. This is because, unlike drugs, where the quantity of a dose is

set by the doctor trying to obtain a blood level of something FOREIGN

to the body, introducing a supplement of something the body uses

every day works in a whole different way, and this can be generalized

to lots of things. I'll explain why.

Most chemical reactions happen inside cells after substances have

crossed over the cell's outer membrane. For things cells use

everyday, they have specific transporters and receptors that are

expressed on the cell surface in the quantity that is appropriate to

assure an appropriate supply to that cell type. Not all cells like

the same quantity. When everything works right, the inside of the

cell gets the appropriate quantity of what it needs of that

substance. The cell wants not too much and not too little and it

knows how to adjust the availability of that substance to the inside

of the cell when the supply outside the cell changes.

If the supply of something the body uses up every day has been low

for

awhile, the cell will upregulate the transporter or receptor that is

specific for that substance. Upregulation means it will put more of

these working molecules on the cell surface in order to increase the

odds that the substance will find its receptor or transporter.

When the supply has been high for a long time, the cell will also cut

back the quantity of the receptor or transporter on the cell surface.

Cells are very fluid like that: changing and adjusting constantly:

not like a machine at all! Your car doesn't increase the gas caps

when its fuel supply is low, but it doesn't have to gets its gas from

the passing parade by chance and kinetics...

So, if you have been deficient in sulfate for a long time, your cells

would have upregulated the transporters to make much of little. All

over the body, receptors that need sulfated ligands might have been

upregulated as well, trying to increase their signal or supply.

If you suddenly increase the quantity of sulfate that approaches the

cell by several fold, you can get too intense a signal, and that can

be overwhelming. That is why you should start slowly. This gives your

body's cells a chance to readjust to the new level they will be

seeing. We're not trying to overdo that level, but just to return it

to something normal.

Remember that cells are accustomed to biological rhythms that change

the

quantities of nutrients that cells see. This includes feeding

schedules and sleep. Cells don't make these adjustments on whim or

very quickly, for they know there will be long periods of time when

the supply gets lower just because it has been a long time since you

ate something. I would guess, for that reason, that cells tend to

adjust to conditions that may continue for at least a day or two.

The way this biology works gives me the suspicion that the children

who get

the most hyper after their first epsom salts bath or baths may be the

children who have been the most deficient of this substance, and have

receptors and transporters dialed WAY up.

If you are deficient in supply, even when you have receptors or

transporters expressed at extremely high quantity, you still might be

low in quantity for the function you need. The increase of receptors

or transporters will help, but it isn't much of a solution long term.

If you get exposed to something that requires a lot of sulfate for

your body to detoxify (like phenols in fumes or foods or drugs), the

level of sulfate available for NORMAL functions will be hurting

temporarily as your body tries to recover from this demand. The loss

of the function of other molecules that use sulfate for normal

function is likely what is producing symptoms: not your body feeling

toxic as if it had just been " burned " by the substance your body was

trying to detoxify. That sort of injury might take longer and it

would probably be more subtle, anyway. If you are having neurological

reactions, you are probably seeing an adjustment in the neurological

chemistry which is feeling shorted and may be overwhelmed with sudden

change.

Of course, you really need an appropriate supply of sulfate, but the

story of HOW the supply got low in the first place can be very

different from child to child, and involve organs like the kidneys,

the liver and the GI tract and systems like the immune system.

Anyway, as an example of this sort of mechanism with an entirely

different substance, I'll tell you a little about the secretin story.

This sort of receptor-quantity issue was suspected to be happening in

the children with autism who were given IV secretin. In response to

the same dose that had a predictable response in normal people, those

with autism instead put out huge quantities of pancreatic fluid.

Their response was intense on the very same dose that other patients

were getting without experiencing this overexuberant response.

Why? The sudden increase in secretin was more of a surprise for the

bodies

of autistic children than it was for the other children with GI

problems being tested. The pancreas was OVER responsive to secretin

probably because this was the first good supply of secretin that it

had gotten in a long time. Scientists suspected that the amount of

secretin these children had been producing on their own had been low

for a long time. I hope all this makes sense. Your body makes

secretin, but it also makes sulfate from the amino acids cysteine and

methionine. There may be a reason this isn't happening appropriately.

I've heard of parents starting with as little as a teaspoon in the

bathwater and working up. You can also apply the solution topically,

and can control the quantity by how much surface of the skin you

cover. The half-life of sulfate in the blood is 4-9 hours.

At any rate, please do not interpret this [emotional/hyper reaction]

to mean the epsom salts were the wrong thing...it may mean exactly

the opposite! Normal people do not have any response to epsom salts

baths except maybe to feel relaxed later! They don't get hyper or

emotional…

If you have already tried reducing the quantity of epsom salts

drastically and slowly increasing the quantity, and it doesn't work

to reduce this hyper or emotional response, I'd be glad to talk to

you offlist about what else it might mean.

Anyway, I hope this helps. You've just got to think like a cell

thinks!

Owens

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