Porto Santo in a medicinal sand soap

João – “of the stones”, or the “rocks”, “of the sand”, “of Madeira” (if in Aveiro) – is the way people usually treat this Madeiran who studies and promoted a tourism based on health and well-being.

And the story could very well finish here, were it not for the fact that João Batista – for those who know him before his degree – recently got hold of organic São Vicente laurisilva honey and transformed it to be sold as sun screens, body lotions and the like. This is one of the facets of the man who has already patented soap with passion fruits pips, sugar cane residue and the seeds and rachis of various Madeira wine castes. I confess that I tried the Terramiga body lotion – and I surrendered both to its scent and its texture. I wasn’t therefore surprised by its connection to geomedicine, or medical geology. But this is sand for another story. Today we are talking of the world’s first exfoliating soaps made with biogenic carbonated sand.

Born in Santo Antonio 47 years ago, João “of the rocks” has been developing, with a team of some 14 researchers he is part of since 2006 in the Faculty of Pharmacy of Universidade do Porto and the Universidade de Aveiro, his links to geopharmacy, developing applied scientific research projects. The name is grand, but the results are simple.

Today, to speak of proof when speaking of talassotherapy is to speakof the therapeutical and medicinal sands of Porto Santo. Of the chronicles of doctor Nuno Silvestre Teixeira who, already in 1924, pointed to its potential, of the northerners who for decades have sought refuge in the island to cure their muscular of bones complaints.

Treatments with sand, sea water or clays gradually became known, and have made the island better known. Fame has already spread through Portugal and northern Europe, and in the last winters the island has been increasingly sought by tourists.

João knows the potential of Porto Santo natural resources for health and well being tourism well. He studies it, and dug deeply into what could be done, and took the best out of the turquoise blue waters.

The line of soaps from Terramiga, on sale in various outlets, is the cherry on the top of the cake of a research project offered to us in a white box, with three replicas of the round pebble, and three tones of blue that quickly transport us to the different hues of the sea in the big bay of Porto Santo.

The recent debut of the Porto Santo brand confirmed that the sea waters, in those conditions, are superb and, more than that, incomparable. The scientific reasons explain that the chocolate-colour tan acquired on the beach and the water are due to iodine that in no other place is found in these conditions. And this is no publicity stunt. There is practical proof of these characteristics spread in ever more skins throughout Europe. And this, explains the geological engineer, allied to the potential of the sand, offers holidays difficult to match in any other beach. But researchers didn’t stop at this point. They went on to detail all the strong points of the clay, the one that was dissolved in glasses of Porto Santo water and drunk to improve digestive system diseases.

At this point I dare to speak of a Porto Santo detox. Because apart from all this, there is the unique taste of fruit and vegetables that grow on the sandy soil and that are eaten raw or transformed into juices or soups incomparably more tasty than any others (due to the increased content of calcium, magnesium and strontium).

There are technical, scientific and clinical evidence of the offerings found on those 42 square kilometers of unique health care station. And these can be explained in this manner: sea temperature, 24 degrees centigrade, relative humidity, 70 to 80 percent, temperature, 28 to 30 degrees, and sand temperature that can reach 65 degrees.

Have you packed already? Don’t forget the sun screens, and the body lotions of the brand born from the island’s sands. Dare discover what you still don’t know in Porto Santo, and burry yourself into the sands of this jewel… because secrets are to enjoy and to reveal.

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