Magnesium ions can soak through skin (but not easily)
One article on PainSci cites Chandrasekaran 2016: Does Epsom Salt Work?
PainSci commentary on Chandrasekaran 2016: ?This page is one of thousands in the PainScience.com bibliography. It is not a general article: it is focused on a single scientific paper, and it may provide only just enough context for the summary to make sense. Links to other papers and more general information are provided wherever possible.
This paper is discussed thoroughly in Does Epsom Salt Work? The science and mythology of Epsom salt bathing for recovery from muscle pain, soreness, or injury.
original abstract †Abstracts here may not perfectly match originals, for a variety of technical and practical reasons. Some abstacts are truncated for my purposes here, if they are particularly long-winded and unhelpful. I occasionally add clarifying notes. And I make some minor corrections.
Magnesium is an important micronutrient essential for various biological processes and its deficiency has been linked to several inflammatory disorders in humans. Topical magnesium delivery is one of the oldest forms of therapy for skin diseases, for example Dead Sea therapy and Epsom salt baths. Some anecdotal evidence and a few published reports have attributed amelioration of inflammatory skin conditions to the topical application of magnesium. On the other hand, transport of magnesium ions across the protective barrier of skin, the stratum corneum, is contentious. Our primary aim in this study was to estimate the extent of magnesium ion permeation through human skin and the role of hair follicles in facilitating the permeation. Upon topical application of magnesium solution, we found that magnesium penetrates through human stratum corneum and it depends on concentration and time of exposure. We also found that hair follicles make a significant contribution to magnesium penetration.
related content
- “Transdermal delivery of molecules is limited by full epidermis, not just stratum corneum,” Samantha N Andrews, Eunhye Jeong, and Mark R Prausnitz, Pharm Res, 2013.
This page is part of the PainScience BIBLIOGRAPHY, which contains plain language summaries of thousands of scientific papers & others sources. It’s like a highly specialized blog. A few highlights:
- Photobiomodulation therapy is not better than placebo in patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain: a randomised placebo-controlled trial. Guimarães 2021 Pain.
- No effect of creatine monohydrate supplementation on inflammatory and cartilage degradation biomarkers in individuals with knee osteoarthritis. Cornish 2018 Nutr Res.
- The CANBACK trial: a randomised, controlled clinical trial of oral cannabidiol for people presenting to the emergency department with acute low back pain. Bebee 2021 Med J Aust.
- Relationships Between Sleep Quality and Pain-Related Factors for People with Chronic Low Back Pain: Tests of Reciprocal and Time of Day Effects. Gerhart 2017 Ann Behav Med.
- Modulation in the elastic properties of gastrocnemius muscle heads in individuals with plantar fasciitis and its relationship with pain. Zhou 2020 Sci Rep.