The Benefits of Scrubbing With Dead Sea Salt

Video Transcript

"Hello, my name is Dr. Stephen Mandy, and I am a Dermatologist, associated with South Beach Dermatology, in Miami Beach, Florida. Let's talk a little about the benefits of scrubbing with Dead Sea salt. The Dead Sea, as you all may know, is located in the Middle East, between Jordan and Israel. It's a highly, highly, high salinity body of water that, when it's evaporated, gives you a very high mineral content. Dead Sea minerals have been used for a long time in treatment of illnesses, such as psoriasis and other skin diseases. But basically, when you're using them as a scrub, it's the abrasive nature, which we sometimes used to call salabrasion, which stands for saline or salt water. And it can be used for a variety of dermatoses. Most familiar would be, of course, acne, as an acne scrub. Because of the high mineral content it tends to have a drawing effect on the skin, so people tend to feel that they're getting a tightening of the skin; that they're getting a deep cleansing of the skin, and a smoothing of the skin. I think most of these effects are, in fact, temporary, and a long-term benefit from the application or scrubbing with Dead Sea salt is probably not particularly great. Similar, in fact, to what one would get with microdermabrasion. A temporary smoothing and deep cleansing of the skin. It does seem to have, as I said, beneficial effects in illnesses such as psoriasis. There is some probable anti-inflammatory effect from the use of the Dead Sea salts for that purpose. Other people use it as a youthening or a facial rejuvenation product, because there is a sort of reddish glow and a little mild swelling in the skin which tends to make wrinkles better. But again, these are temporary physical effects that don't have a long last."