I was reading a Good Housekeeping Magazine from 1926, and there was ad for mustard baths. The ad said that mustard baths have been used since at least 400 B.C. when Hippocrates recorded using them.
[memory.loc.gov]

WARNINGS
I tried it, and you do have to be careful to wash it all off when you are done by taking a shower afterwards. The oils in the mustard make the mustard float on the water surface and they collect on your body where the waterline is. I got out of the bath and later I was wondering what was wrong with my back because it felt sensitive where the waterline was. Ooops. I bet it would really sting the eyes too, so I only use a little. And I did try drinking mustard powder disolved in water, and for a few minutes I thought I was dying, so internal mustard powder consuption is nothing I'd recommend.

MUSTARD POISONING INFO
[www.drugs.com]
"Skin: When mustard gets on your skin, it does not hurt, burn, or itch right away. It will feel oily and it will smell like mustard, garlic, or onions. In about four to eight hours your skin will first begin to get red, and may burn and itch. Very small, medium, or large blisters will form. The length of time it takes for signs and symptoms to appear depends on how much mustard got on you, and how long it was there. The blisters will fill with fluid. The fluid from the blisters does not have any mustard in it, and cannot harm anyone else.

Eyes. When mustard gets in your eyes, it does not hurt or burn right away. Pain begins in four to eight hours and may increase over time. If you get a small amount of mustard in your eyes, you may develop conjunctivitis (kun-junk-tiv-I-tis) (pink eye). Moderate or large amounts of mustard may cause serious eye damage. Eye damage from mustard may be permanent. It may even cause blindness."


Now that I've got past the warnings, why use it? It is widely used to help fight colds. I was looking for a way to help me fight colds without taking something internally.
[www.google.com]
"Should you start to feel a cold coming on, take a teaspoon of mustard powder and add it to a hot bath. You just might fight off the cold"

I know that the skin is a major pathway to get rid of toxins, but does it really get rid of one third of toxins?
[www.wizardofbodz.com]
"Mustard Seeds have been used as a folk medicine treatment since ancient times in Egypt, Greece, and Asia. . . . The more quickly the blood circulates through the organs of the body, the more quickly are the cells cleared of metabolic wastes (deep cells, toxins, pathogenic bacteria) and replenished with vital fresh substances. In this way the function of all the organs of the body, especially the skin, is raised to maximum efficiency. Physiologists say that up to ONE THIRD of toxic body wastes can be cleared away through the skin."

[bathinginfo.com]
"An interesting fact about the mustard bath is that when you get yourself in the tub for a bath you are not the same as you were earlier. The dead skin cells, toxins and whatever other bodily wastes existed underneath your epidermis is no more there. This may be the reason for not recommending the mustard bath for sensitive skins."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/06/2008 04:39AM by Lillianswan.

I like to add abut a teaspoon of dry mustard powder to salad dressings, for flavor.
Never thought of adding it to the tub.

Ok, so I got some in my eyes after I posted last night, I washed it off in the shower and it's a little iritating, it makes you blink a lot, but it was bearable. What happened was I rubbed my eyes with my hands without rinsing my hands off first and they were covered in the mustard oil that floats on the surface of the bath water.

Did anyone grow up taking mustard baths? I was considering giving these baths to my kids to help them fight off the colds that they pick up at school. I've seen any amount recomended for a bath, from 1 tsp to fractions of a pound. I seem to like about 1/2 cup, I bought a big bag of ground mustard in the bulk section, so I bet fresh ground mustard would be more powerful and you would need less. I should give my kids foot baths first to see if their skin is too sensitive for mustard before I try the whole body bath. I wonder what happens if you take a mustard bath and you have sunburn?

You take the bath and then wash it off in the shower, then in about 30 minutes or so your skin starts getting warm and your muscles relax, so it's definitely a night time bath!

ooooh-

i think i found an excuse to lock myself up in the bathroom for an hour.

when it gets cooler outside.