History of Bathing
Approximately 2,700 years B.C.there was published in China the PENG-TZAO-KAN-MU, probably the earliest known treatise on pharmacology. A major portion of this writing was devoted to a discussion of more than 40 kinds of salt, including methods of extracting salt and putting it in usable form.
From ancient civilizations to today, salt and the sea has been associated with health and therapy.
Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, was the first one to detail the benefits of using sea water to cure various ailments. He encouraged his fellow healers to immerse patients with aching muscles and arthritis in sea water. The ancient Greeks continued this thinking by soaking in sea water hot tubs and heated seaweed bath's, they drank and inhaled sea water for health, got sea water massages, had sea green facials and body wraps, and used sea water pools for hydrotherapy and elimination of toxins from the body.
Then came the Romans, who raised bathing to a high art. Roman citizens lingered for hours in communal hot baths, where they socialized, conducted courtship, and even sealed business deals. They built lavish baths wherever they found natural hot springs.
In Europe in 1753, The Uses of Sea Water was published by English author and physician Charles Russel, whi discussed the various therapeutic properties of seawater. Once people started hearing about the curative properties of sea water, they began flocking to the coasts, especially to Great Britain and France. Marine hospitals opening up in England and France. The first French marine hospital, Petit Berck, opened in 1861. In 1865 Joseph La Bonardière coined the term thalassotherapy (from the Greek thalassa for "sea" and therapeia for "care"). Then in 1899 Louis Bagot started balneotherapie (bath therapy) treatments at the Institut Marin de Rockroum. This was the first true thalassotherapy clinic in Europe.
During the next several hundred years, doctors and scientists began studying what it was that made sea water beneficial for so many ailments
The Roman reverence for bathing has survived today in modern upscale spas and resorts were various bathing and sea therapies are used to reduce tension and stress, detoxify the skin and improve circulation, speed weight loss and cellulite control, and even ease menopausal discomforts. In Japan a highly ritualized bathing culture has evolved. Whole towns exist as destination resorts around Japanese natural hot springs and visits to the local communal hot tub are an everyday occurance.
Modern Thalassotherapy uses sea water treatments with the goal of improving health, fitness, well being and beauty.
The History of the Dead Sea
The Dead Sea is a land locked lake located in the Middle East, bordering Jordan from the West and Palestine and Israel from the East. Over half the dead sea's shoreline border's Jordan, the remainder borders Palestine and Isreal. The sea is called "dead" because its high salinity means no fish or macroscopic aquatic organisms can live in it. The Dead Sea is the lowest point on the Earth's surface. The surface of the Dead Sea is at an elevation of 417m below sea level. It is the most saline body of water in the world. It has a 33% salinity comared to 3% in sea water. The salt content makes the water so dense that people can float on the surface without any bouyancy aids.
The composition of the Dead Sea salts is also unique. In ordinary sea water sodium chloride (common salt) is the major constituent. The Dead Sea on the other hand contains a considerably smaller proportion of sodium chloride and the balance consists of magnesium, potassium, sulphor, calcium chlorides, bromides and various other minerals.
The Dead Sea is not called "the Dead Sea" in non-European languages. In Hebrew the Dead Sea is called the "Yam ha-Melah" - meaning "Salt Sea." In Arabic the Dead Sea is called "Bahr al-Lut," meaning "the Sea of Lot. The northern part of the Dead Sea receives scarcely four inches of rain a year. The southern section barely two inches. The water temperature goes from 19 degrees Celsius in February to 31 degrees Celsius in August.
What Caused the Dead Sea to Form and why is it so salty?
Approximately two million years ago the land between the Rift Valley and the Mediterranean Sea rose to such an extent that the ocean could no longer flood the area. Thus, the long bay became the lake that is now known as the Dead Sea.
Due to geological phenomina, the mountains surrounding the sea also have a high salt content,and the mineral rich waters that continue to feed the sea from these mountains, and the river Jordan are continually evaporated leaving behind more salt deposits.
Around three million years ago the valley of the Jordan River, Dead Sea and Wadi Arabah was repeatedly inundated by waters from the Mediterranean Sea. The waters flooded through what is now the Jezreel Valley. The floods of the valley came and went depending on long scale climatic change, but each deluge deposited beds of salt, eventually coming to be two miles thick!
Benefits
Minera dead sea salts are harvested from the southern Dead Sea. In this region the mineral content of the waters is at its highest. Our salts are completley unprocessed and come to you in their raw form, ensuring that the product you receive retains all of its theraputic mineral content. Dead Sea Salts contain 21 minerals including magnesium, calcium, sulphur, bromide, iodine, sodium, zinc and potassium. The following table details some of the healing properties of these minerals:
Magnesium: Promotes healing of skin tissue and provides skin surface with anti-allergic element. Essential for cell metabolism.
Bromide: Soothes skin, relaxes body muscles, and tranquilizes nerves.
Iodine: Important for the correct functioning of the thyroid gland and is an important factor in the body's metabolic exchanges.
Sulfur: A natural disinfectant (constituent of certain vitamins).
Potassium: A moisture regulator that helps maintain a neutral environment in the skin.
Calcium: A building block for corrective tissue under the skin surface.
Sodium: Relieves stiffness and muscle cramps and maintains neutral environment in the skin.
Zinc: A key factor in enzymatic regulation of cell proliferation.
So what does this mean to you? In simple terms dead sea salts have been effective in treating the following conditions:
Skin Disorders
Psoriasis, dermatitis, eczema, dandruff, scabies and seborrhea are but a few of the unpleasant skin disorders suffered by Americans today. Psoriasis alone is said to affect 3% of the population to some degree. Treatment of these conditions often involves the use of creams or lotions such as steroids or coal tar derivatives. These treatments are not always effective and can have harmful side effects, therefore they are not ideal for long term continued usage. Research has proven that regular soaking in dead sea salt can provide relief from these unpleasant skin disorders without any side effects (see spa therapy treatments). In fact, Dead sea salt has been recommended by the international psoriasis community and the National psorasis foundation as an effective alternative treatment.
Rheumatological conditions
Arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, osteoarthritis, back pain, bursitis etc. have all been effectively treated with Dead Sea salts and Dead Sea mud. Either as a bath treatment or by applying hot mud in various ways, the Dead Sea minerals absorbed have provided effective relief from joint swelling, soreness and stiffness. This is due to the minerals improving blood circulation necessary to reduce the inflammatory response, together with the detoxifying agent and general muscle relaxant. Also when the mud or salt has been heated, the ability of the elements to penetrate and be absorbed into the system is increased.
Skin Allergies
At some stage in our lives we all have suffered from rashes, sores, hives, itching, contact dermatitis or some form of allergic reaction. The high magnesium and bromide content in Dead Sea Salt is beneficial as an anti allergic due to its cleansing and detoxifying of the skin.
Stress
Stress has become a symptom of modern day life. Most of us can deal with small amounts of stress comfortably, however too much stress can affect physical & mental well-being. Symptoms can include increased heart rate; elevated blood pressure;; tightness of the chest, neck and back muscles; headache; sleep disturbances; fatigue; susceptibility to minor illness, irritability and depression, to name but a few. Dead sea bath salts and mud treatments offer wonderful relief of these symptoms by increasing circulation and detoxification by removing the by products formed during the stress cycle, thereby freeing your cells from these toxins
Insomnia
It is estimated that 25% of Americans suffer from insomnia. Prolonged sleep disturbance can leave you feeling tired and run down, which in turn can lead to greater vulnerability to illness and disease. To assist with relaxing in order to fall asleep and to remove toxins, the Dead Sea bath salts and mud treatments can be very beneficial.
Please note it is always important to consult your doctor before using ANY new treatment.
General Skin Conditioning
The skin is largest organ in the human body and is also the most vunerable. Continued exposure to the elements, chemicals and aging all take there toll on the skin. Therefore it is important to support and nurture the skin in order to restore health and enhance function.
Research into general Dead Sea Benefits and the minerals from the Dead Sea Salt has shown a 40% reduction in the depth of the wrinkling. They also moisturize, detoxify and soften the skin and enhance relaxation of the body.
Approximately 2,700 years B.C.there was published in China the PENG-TZAO-KAN-MU, probably the earliest known treatise on pharmacology. A major portion of this writing was devoted to a discussion of more than 40 kinds of salt, including methods of extracting salt and putting it in usable form.
From ancient civilizations to today, salt and the sea has been associated with health and therapy.
Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, was the first one to detail the benefits of using sea water to cure various ailments. He encouraged his fellow healers to immerse patients with aching muscles and arthritis in sea water. The ancient Greeks continued this thinking by soaking in sea water hot tubs and heated seaweed bath's, they drank and inhaled sea water for health, got sea water massages, had sea green facials and body wraps, and used sea water pools for hydrotherapy and elimination of toxins from the body.
Then came the Romans, who raised bathing to a high art. Roman citizens lingered for hours in communal hot baths, where they socialized, conducted courtship, and even sealed business deals. They built lavish baths wherever they found natural hot springs.
In Europe in 1753, The Uses of Sea Water was published by English author and physician Charles Russel, whi discussed the various therapeutic properties of seawater. Once people started hearing about the curative properties of sea water, they began flocking to the coasts, especially to Great Britain and France. Marine hospitals opening up in England and France. The first French marine hospital, Petit Berck, opened in 1861. In 1865 Joseph La Bonardière coined the term thalassotherapy (from the Greek thalassa for "sea" and therapeia for "care"). Then in 1899 Louis Bagot started balneotherapie (bath therapy) treatments at the Institut Marin de Rockroum. This was the first true thalassotherapy clinic in Europe.
During the next several hundred years, doctors and scientists began studying what it was that made sea water beneficial for so many ailments
The Roman reverence for bathing has survived today in modern upscale spas and resorts were various bathing and sea therapies are used to reduce tension and stress, detoxify the skin and improve circulation, speed weight loss and cellulite control, and even ease menopausal discomforts. In Japan a highly ritualized bathing culture has evolved. Whole towns exist as destination resorts around Japanese natural hot springs and visits to the local communal hot tub are an everyday occurance.
Modern Thalassotherapy uses sea water treatments with the goal of improving health, fitness, well being and beauty.
The History of the Dead Sea
The Dead Sea is a land locked lake located in the Middle East, bordering Jordan from the West and Palestine and Israel from the East. Over half the dead sea's shoreline border's Jordan, the remainder borders Palestine and Isreal. The sea is called "dead" because its high salinity means no fish or macroscopic aquatic organisms can live in it. The Dead Sea is the lowest point on the Earth's surface. The surface of the Dead Sea is at an elevation of 417m below sea level. It is the most saline body of water in the world. It has a 33% salinity comared to 3% in sea water. The salt content makes the water so dense that people can float on the surface without any bouyancy aids.
The composition of the Dead Sea salts is also unique. In ordinary sea water sodium chloride (common salt) is the major constituent. The Dead Sea on the other hand contains a considerably smaller proportion of sodium chloride and the balance consists of magnesium, potassium, sulphor, calcium chlorides, bromides and various other minerals.
The Dead Sea is not called "the Dead Sea" in non-European languages. In Hebrew the Dead Sea is called the "Yam ha-Melah" - meaning "Salt Sea." In Arabic the Dead Sea is called "Bahr al-Lut," meaning "the Sea of Lot. The northern part of the Dead Sea receives scarcely four inches of rain a year. The southern section barely two inches. The water temperature goes from 19 degrees Celsius in February to 31 degrees Celsius in August.
What Caused the Dead Sea to Form and why is it so salty?
Approximately two million years ago the land between the Rift Valley and the Mediterranean Sea rose to such an extent that the ocean could no longer flood the area. Thus, the long bay became the lake that is now known as the Dead Sea.
Due to geological phenomina, the mountains surrounding the sea also have a high salt content,and the mineral rich waters that continue to feed the sea from these mountains, and the river Jordan are continually evaporated leaving behind more salt deposits.
Around three million years ago the valley of the Jordan River, Dead Sea and Wadi Arabah was repeatedly inundated by waters from the Mediterranean Sea. The waters flooded through what is now the Jezreel Valley. The floods of the valley came and went depending on long scale climatic change, but each deluge deposited beds of salt, eventually coming to be two miles thick!
Benefits
Minera dead sea salts are harvested from the southern Dead Sea. In this region the mineral content of the waters is at its highest. Our salts are completley unprocessed and come to you in their raw form, ensuring that the product you receive retains all of its theraputic mineral content. Dead Sea Salts contain 21 minerals including magnesium, calcium, sulphur, bromide, iodine, sodium, zinc and potassium. The following table details some of the healing properties of these minerals:
Magnesium: Promotes healing of skin tissue and provides skin surface with anti-allergic element. Essential for cell metabolism.
Bromide: Soothes skin, relaxes body muscles, and tranquilizes nerves.
Iodine: Important for the correct functioning of the thyroid gland and is an important factor in the body's metabolic exchanges.
Sulfur: A natural disinfectant (constituent of certain vitamins).
Potassium: A moisture regulator that helps maintain a neutral environment in the skin.
Calcium: A building block for corrective tissue under the skin surface.
Sodium: Relieves stiffness and muscle cramps and maintains neutral environment in the skin.
Zinc: A key factor in enzymatic regulation of cell proliferation.
So what does this mean to you? In simple terms dead sea salts have been effective in treating the following conditions:
Skin Disorders
Psoriasis, dermatitis, eczema, dandruff, scabies and seborrhea are but a few of the unpleasant skin disorders suffered by Americans today. Psoriasis alone is said to affect 3% of the population to some degree. Treatment of these conditions often involves the use of creams or lotions such as steroids or coal tar derivatives. These treatments are not always effective and can have harmful side effects, therefore they are not ideal for long term continued usage. Research has proven that regular soaking in dead sea salt can provide relief from these unpleasant skin disorders without any side effects (see spa therapy treatments). In fact, Dead sea salt has been recommended by the international psoriasis community and the National psorasis foundation as an effective alternative treatment.
Rheumatological conditions
Arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, osteoarthritis, back pain, bursitis etc. have all been effectively treated with Dead Sea salts and Dead Sea mud. Either as a bath treatment or by applying hot mud in various ways, the Dead Sea minerals absorbed have provided effective relief from joint swelling, soreness and stiffness. This is due to the minerals improving blood circulation necessary to reduce the inflammatory response, together with the detoxifying agent and general muscle relaxant. Also when the mud or salt has been heated, the ability of the elements to penetrate and be absorbed into the system is increased.
Skin Allergies
At some stage in our lives we all have suffered from rashes, sores, hives, itching, contact dermatitis or some form of allergic reaction. The high magnesium and bromide content in Dead Sea Salt is beneficial as an anti allergic due to its cleansing and detoxifying of the skin.
Stress
Stress has become a symptom of modern day life. Most of us can deal with small amounts of stress comfortably, however too much stress can affect physical & mental well-being. Symptoms can include increased heart rate; elevated blood pressure;; tightness of the chest, neck and back muscles; headache; sleep disturbances; fatigue; susceptibility to minor illness, irritability and depression, to name but a few. Dead sea bath salts and mud treatments offer wonderful relief of these symptoms by increasing circulation and detoxification by removing the by products formed during the stress cycle, thereby freeing your cells from these toxins
Insomnia
It is estimated that 25% of Americans suffer from insomnia. Prolonged sleep disturbance can leave you feeling tired and run down, which in turn can lead to greater vulnerability to illness and disease. To assist with relaxing in order to fall asleep and to remove toxins, the Dead Sea bath salts and mud treatments can be very beneficial.
Please note it is always important to consult your doctor before using ANY new treatment.
General Skin Conditioning
The skin is largest organ in the human body and is also the most vunerable. Continued exposure to the elements, chemicals and aging all take there toll on the skin. Therefore it is important to support and nurture the skin in order to restore health and enhance function.
Research into general Dead Sea Benefits and the minerals from the Dead Sea Salt has shown a 40% reduction in the depth of the wrinkling. They also moisturize, detoxify and soften the skin and enhance relaxation of the body.
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