Bath Bombs & Balneotherapy

Book Review: Why fish don't get cancer...

The most recent title from Mark Sloan delves into the science of water's healing properties, something I didn't know much about previously.

I'd never even heard of Balneotherapy...

The word bath comes from the Latin word balneum, and using baths therapeutically to treat disease is called Balneotherapy. (p. 8)
Balneotherapy is an ancient and traditional form of therapy in which people bathe in warm, mineral-rich, and sometimes carbonated spring water for the treatment of disease. (p. 11)

Most people will be surprised to hear that prior to the 1940s, when Western medicine was reduced to the use of knives and prescription drugs, carbon dioxide baths (and simulated carbon dioxide baths) were central to the treatment of many conditions. (p. 55)

Author of the world’s leading medical physiology textbook Dr. Arthur C. Guyton once said, “All chronic pain, suffering and disease are caused by a lack of oxygen at the cell level.” (p. 24)

“Water is without doubt the most ancient of all remedial agents for disease.” — John Harvey Kellogg (p. 11)

Balneotherapy is fundamentally a metabolism hack

Immersing the body in cold or hot water can quickly change body temperature, which alters cellular metabolism in important ways. (p. 27)

Carbon dioxide is key!

Without carbon dioxide, your cells can’t use oxygen. (p. 58)

CO2 is so central to a healthy metabolism that – rather than a waste product – scientist Kyle Mamounis has called carbon dioxide The Product of cellular metabolism. (p. 57)

What are the physiological and biochemical differences between a person who is healthy and a person with disease? After collecting data from hundreds of different patients over the course of many years, Buteyko made what was undoubtedly the most revolutionary discovery in the history of medicine: all people suffering from chronic diseases are deficient in carbon dioxide. (p. 59)

By adding baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) powder to your bath, you are essentially adding salt bound to carbon dioxide. By adding some kind of acid along with it, the bicarbonate ions will be converted into carbonic acid which is rapidly absorbed by the body. (pp. 60-61)

The cancer-metabolism connection

In the 1930s, Dr. Otto Warburg showed that cancer cells were simply cells that lost their ability to utilize oxygen. Cancer is a disease of impaired cellular respiration. (p. 76)

You'll want to read my review of the book The Cancer Industry or listen to my interview with the author.

On the healing properties of natural springs...

Some hot springs in the world are naturally carbonated with tiny bubbles of carbon dioxide like a soda pop. The carbon dioxide present in certain springs and baths is most likely the most beneficial ingredient in all of balneotherapy. (p. 24)

...while crude minerals absorbed in baths or hot springs are considered inorganic because they’re from rock and have never participated in life. Some sources have claimed that inorganic minerals “are treated by the body like toxins” and that they “cannot bring life to cells,” but evidence from thousands of years of balneotherapy use as well as modern scientific research both shatter this myth. (p. 38)

Mineral water or mud treatments “had better and longer improvements in pain, function, quality of life, clinical parameters, and others” than non-mineral mud and tap water bath treatments, the study reports. There we have it. Dissolved inorganic minerals in bath water can be absorbed and utilized by the body just like organic minerals can. (p. 38)

“The vital, colorful, and often exotic atmosphere of Bulgarian spas inspires the visitors to understand the folklore and experience the hospitality of the warm-hearted Bulgarian people” - Dr. Snejina Vasseileva (p. 14)

This makes me want to seek out a spring here! I'd urge you to do the same, find a hot spring near you.

Drink Gerolsteiner

One of my absolute favorite types of mineral water that we have on shelves at grocery stores in my home province of Ontario, Canada is called Gerolsteiner. I have no affiliation with them; I just love their water and recommend you try it. If you are living in Germany, it’ll probably seem like I’m preaching to the choir here since, according to their website, this naturally carbonated and mineral-rich beverage, which bubbles up through volcanic rock in Germany’s Volcanic Eifel region, is “one of Germany’s most-drunk mineral waters and No. 1 brand of sparkling mineral water in the world.” A 1-liter bottle of this water is said to contain 1/3 of your daily calcium requirement and ¼ of your daily magnesium requirement. (pp. 67-68)

As science historian Emily Pawley wrote, “In sipping a glass of ginger ale, seltzer water, or Perrier, we are participating in a centuries-old tradition of therapy.” (p. 69)

Thermometers - Indispensable self-quantification tools

The ideal body temperature is around 98.6° F. Having a temperature of 98.6° F, or slightly above throughout the day, is one of the most accurate indicators of a high metabolic rate. (p. 29)
Measuring your temperature just before a meal, and then again 30 minutes after, is a good way to determine if your body is effectively digesting and assimilating those nutrients. If your temperature has increased, it means the nutrients in the food you ate are being absorbed and utilized metabolically. If your temperature has dropped, the meal has had a negative effect on your metabolic rate. (p. 29)
The key point to remember here is that your metabolic rate will drop in direct proportion to a reduction in your core body temperature. (p. 30)

So get a thermometer and take your temperature after meals.

Fish don't get cancer

Murray learned that cancer and cancerous tumors were rarely found in ocean life... 

Murray found no traces of cancer, heart disease or other degenerative diseases in any of the ocean life he dissected. One of the remarkable conclusions of his research was that biological aging does not occur in sea life. (p. 43)

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of his discovery was that all of the minerals and trace elements contained within sea water were in the exact proportions required in the blood of all biological life. (p. 43)

The Psoriasis cure, the Dead Sea

192 patients with psoriasis who had been sent to the Dead Sea, Israel for a four-week treatment of sun exposure and bathing were studied by Danish scientists from Bispebjerg Hospital, Copenhagen in 1996. After four weeks of therapy, 73% of the patients were completely (or almost completely) healed, and 20% of the 163 patients were significantly improved. The benefits lasted one to three months. (p. 47)

Last year I had a little skin issue with a persistent skin rash on my neck and shoulders, I tried a bunch of things to get rid of it; elimination diet, quitting booze, C60 in Coconut oil, etc. - and nothing seemed to help! Do you know what did rid me of that annoying rash? A 10-day vacation spent on the sunny black sea coast and swimming daily in the ocean.

Bath Hacks

CO2 baths can be created at home by adding minerals like sodium bicarbonate and an acid to convert the ions of bicarbonate into carbon dioxide gas – and also by directly adding carbon dioxide from a compressed CO2 cylinder. Water temperature inside a carbon dioxide bath should be around 90° F and should not exceed 95° F. (p. 70)

By hopping into your bath tub and dissolving a bath bomb inside, you will obtain all the performance-enhancing CO2 you need without having to force foul tasting powder down your throat. (p. 74)

Bathe in Methylene blue

Methylene blue is often used in fish tanks to keep fish healthy but it’s healthy for humans too. It works similarly to red light therapy by photodissociating nitric oxide bound to a critical respiratory enzyme within the mitochondria of your cells called cytochrome c oxidase. All that scientific mumbo jumbo is to say methylene blue is a safe yet powerful enhancer of cellular metabolism. (p. 83)

The medicinal yet inexpensive blue dye known as methylene blue is a great addition to the bath tub to color it with a beautiful blue while fortifying your water with another safe and potent metabolic medicine. (p. 89)

And all you bath lovers seeking more beautiful skin will be happy to hear that methylene blue has an anti-aging effect on skin. A 2017 study in the journal Nature called methylene blue “a traditional mitochondrial-targeting antioxidant” which “improved skin viability, promoted wound healing, and increased skin hydration and dermis thickness.” Methylene blue is “safe for long-term use, and did not cause irritation even at high concentrations,” (pp. 83-84)

Funny story: Methylene blue is a Mitochondrial nootropic that made me look like I cannibalized a smurf!

Bathe like a BOSS!

I always thought that bath bombs were a silly girly thing but now I'm very interested in dropping one in the next bath I take...

Make sure your water is 90° F and add the following ingredients: ● 1-2 lbs. Ocean minerals ● 1-2 lbs. Epsom Salts ● 1 or more Bath bombs/Carbon dioxide gas ● 1-10 drops of Essential Oil ● 1-50 drops of Methylene blue (p. 88)

Add 1-2 lbs. of ocean minerals to your bath and 1-2 lbs. of Dead Sea salts (or Epsom salts) to create the ultimate mineral profile in your baths at home. (p. 51)

Epsom salts are available at most pharmacies and yet most people walk by not knowing their body is screaming for the minerals contained in those bags of salt. (p. 89)

Anybody looking for clean bath bombs will be happy to know that many great companies on the market today are producing organic bath bombs. They’re great if you don’t have the time to make your own bath bombs and also great to give to friends and family as gifts. Next birthday or holiday, buy someone you love this book and a bath bomb or two and watch their eyes light up. The bath bombs I recommend can be found on the resources page of my website... (p. 82)

It's a short, fact-filled book that's a little easier to read than the author's previous titles.

About the book

The Surprising Health Benefits of Bath Bombs and Ancient Secrets of Hot Springs, Dead Sea Minerals and CO2 Baths for Beautiful Skin, Increased Energy, and Weight Loss