Vinegar perks up the flavor of your salads, preserves vegetables and helps tenderize meats. It's a primary ingredient in mayonnaise and mustard, and combines well with fruit flavors to create tasty, fresh recipes. It also may offer unexpected benefits for your skin when you add it to a warm bath.
Relieves Itching
A cup or two of vinegar in bathwater is a traditional home remedy for itchy skin, according to "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Household Solutions." Author Melodie Moore suggests 2 to 3 cups of vinegar in a full bath to relieve itching, as well as recommending apple cider vinegar applied full strength to stings, bites and other itchy areas. The National Psoriasis Foundation lists apple cider vinegar baths among the alternative treatments that may help relieve psoriasis symptoms.
Soothes Sunburn
A vinegar bath is also a traditional home remedy to take the sting and pain out of sunburn. In an article at Botanical.com, master herbalist Andrea Candee recommends 2 cups of apple cider vinegar in a bathtub full of water to help restore your skin's pH balance after a sunburn.
Antioxidants
A bath with vinegar may have some antioxidant effects on your skin, thanks to some of the organic compounds it contains. Those compounds include vitamins, mineral salts, amino acids, polyphenols and a variety of non-volatile organic acids, according to "The Healing Powers of Vinegar: A Complete Guide to Nature's Most Remarkable Remedy." Author Cal Orey notes that many of these ingredients have antioxidant properties, including quercetin, catechin, resveratol and flavonoids. The specific acids and antioxidants depend on the origin of the vinegar, of course. Apple cider vinegar contains some malic acid, and vinegar made from grapes some gallic acid, for example. Apple cider vinegar also contains calcium, magnesium, iron and potassium.
Mild Antimicrobial
Hippocrates recommended vinegar dressings for wounds because vinegar appeared to prevent infections. Science suggests that vinegar may be overrated as a disinfectant, according to Johnston and Gaas, but they note that weak vinegar solutions are slightly effective at killing Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, two bacteria that cause skin infections. Vinegar baths may help kill bacteria that cause acne, among other skin problems.
References
- "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Household Solutions"; Melodie Moore; 1998
- Botanical.com: Healing Solutions for Burns and Sunburns
- "The Healing Powers of Vinegar: A Complete Guide to Nature's Most Remarkable Remedy"; Cal Orey; 2009
- National Psoriasis Foundation: Alternative Approaches
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