I have SLE with Sjogren's secondary. Last night I tried a 50/50 bath of Epsom Salt and Baking Soda to help relieve my joint pain due to inflammation. I didn't feel much difference after my 15 minute warm soak in the mixture. I did go to sleep easily (which is rare) but when I woke it seemed like the inflammation pain was 3x worse than I'm used to dealing with. Is this a normal reaction? Is it that the bath actually worked at relieving the inflammatory pain, and has worn off and it just feels worse because the normal pain I deal with came back all at once?

All I know is right now there will be no more baths in my future...

Maybe rebound. What is the baking soda for? You only need about 6-8 oz in a bath tub of water...if you put too much salt in the water, it might sting the skin if you have very dry skin.

I'd try it again without the baking soda. It is possible that they
compete with each other for absorption, since absorption thru the skin in water in a bath is limited to begin with.

There is a lotion form now of magnesium, called Morton Epsom Lotion. This you can just rub in where you want it...and it seems to be much more absorbed this way in the lotion base too.

Walmart and Walgreen's have and also Amazon online. But it is really new and not in all stores yet. WalMart's is 5.98.
Because of its high absorption rate, you only use a little bit at a time.

http://www.amazon.com/Morton-Epsom-L...s+epsom+lotion

I added the baking soda brcause when I was looking up info on soaking it was recommended to use the two together plus add essential oils for various reasons. I got the epsom salt that already had lavendar in it so I used that plus the baking soda. As an example this site even says the baking soda will help absorb the magnesium in the epsom salt... http://www.branchbasics.com/learn/espom-salt-bath/

I didn't have any skin sensitivity, just joint pain a bit worse than I'm used to waking up with, when I sort of expected it to be better. Thank you for your help Mrs.D