The Wax Bath Myth

So, after watching the movie Wanted, we became intrigued by the wax bath scene's and wondered if we could recreate something like that in our own home. A little research proved fruitful as we discovered the history of wax used for healing. Roman healers used paraffin wax on fresh wounds to mildly anesthetize, reduce blood flow and clean wounds so that when the wax was removed there would be a fresh, clean, slightly painful wound to be stitched up. Medieval healers dipped body parts in wax mixed with oil to help heal bruises, toughen the skin and muscle and increase the white blood cells under the wax. I've seen it asked many times, does the wax have healing properties itself? No, sorry, it doesn't.

What the wax does is heat the skin, increasing the flow of white blood cells and antibodies to the site, soften skin and muscle to reduce future injury and RSI and a handy side effect is that it softens skin whilst firming it. Wax dipping can be used to cleanse hands, feet and most areas of skin of oil based products, greasy substances, as treatment from arthritis, diabetes, many skin related problems and as a beauty treatment for softer, firmer, younger looking skin. The wax bath is tricky, because you have to trust the person watching you that they make sure the wax won't cover your nose and that you don't ingest it.

In a wax bath, the wax keeps the water and body warm, allowing blood to flow freely and the body to work faster, thus cutting the healing time from days or weeks to hours or days. An hour under wax in a bath will heal most surface bruises, muscle damage, ligament damage, scratches, scrapes and mostly heal deep tissue bruises, cartilage tears and speed up the beginning process for bone breaks, internal problems and can even alleviate respiratory and sinus problems like chest colds, coughs, wheezing and flu symptoms. I've been a smoker for an ungodly number of years and two wax baths a week have helped me breathe better for longer periods of time.

HOWEVER, and this is a big one, if you consider using a full body paraffin wax bath to help with any of the problems, symptoms etc that are listed in this entry, please, for the love of god, consult your GP FIRST then find a professional! Allergies to paraffin are not all that common, but are not so rare that they don't test for it. I did it on my own at home, but then again I don't have a lot of sense and tend to do stupid shit a lot. I am not all knowing, and won't take responsibility if you kill yourself because you were an idiot.