Herbs in the bath

There is a tradition in Japan of adding herbs to the bath or hot spring, said to help with skin problems, raynauds, sore and tight muscles, arthritis, headaches, nerve pain, etc.

Mixes for sale usually contain these six herbs:

Angelica acutiloba root
Cnidium Rhizome
Citrus peel
Artemisia Leaf 
Gardenia jasminoides fruit
Sinomenium Stem and Rhizome  

Other popular herb baths, easy to do at home as most of these herbs grow as weeds anywhere in Japan, include:

yuzu or any citrus,
yomogi (Artemisia princeps),
dokudami (Houttuynia cordata),
shoubu (Acorus calamus）


Image from this article about shoubu and yomogi bath history (in Japanese).

Make sure you wrap an Acorus around your head to keep the bad stuff away and make you smarter!

Do you add any herbs to your bath?

An example of shoubu bath: around 4:55



Yomogi and shoubu are stuck in the eaves to keep bad things away. Then you see kids taking a shoubu bath with shoubu tied around their heads to make them grow and be smarter.

I remembered a suggestion from my birthing class, to take Sitz baths for post partum healing. I never tried any, but they sounded nice. They can be good for hemorrhoids also. There many recipes, here are a couple to try:


from amazon

epsom salt
marshmallow root
witch hazel
uva ursi
yarrow
chamomille
lavender
chickweed
calendula


from amazon

epsom salt
geranium
frankincense
niaouli
juniper
lavender
vitamin c
vitamin e

I took a couple of herbal sitz baths after my home birth, and they helped immensely. I should have done more, as I think healing would have happened faster and easier if I had taken more than just a couple. I waited until there was a lot of pain before I tried it.

Another great item to use for a nice soothing bath would be Magnesium Flakes, here are some threads that might be of interest:

https://permies.com/t/60336/kitchen/revolution-starts-kitchen-Magnificent-magnesium

https://permies.com/t/122891/Diet-sleep-aids-insomnia#1118688

I buy it mostly as a pain reliever though I have read that it is good for many things including insomnia.

I mix the magnesium flakes: 1 cup of magnesium flakes and 1 cup of water, mix, then add to a spray bottle then spray and massage painful areas.