Medical Hydrotherapy
What is Medical Hydrotherapy?
Hydrotherapy has been around for thousands of years. In its simplest form, hydrotherapy can be described as any treatment of illness and injury through the use of water. This includes the use of cleanses, hot and cold-soaking, water massage and various other methods, including swimming. Medical Hydrotherapy is a specific therapeutic concept, referring to the use of sanitary, temperature appropriate, non-aggressive water message. Gentle massage, in personally adjustable water temperature, permits you to stay in the treatments for extended periods of time without risk. This treatment allows your body to get rid of toxins that may be causing joint pain and inflammation, relaxes muscles, and helps resolve pressure on joints and bones. It also relaxes you, both mentally and physically and can provide a safe and age-appropriate substitution for vigorous exercise. Used to treat common ailments like muscle cramps, muscle weakness, diabetes, connective tissue injuries, balance disorders, and stress-related disorders, hydrotherapy is fast becoming a popular and beneficial home health treatment, especially among seniors.
Hydrotherapy makes you healthier in two ways:
Thermal Effects: Used appropriately, both warm and cold baths can help lessen pain and discomfort and improve the healing process. Warm baths open up the small blood vessels that are closest to tissues. This leads to increased blood flow and circulation, which helps your tissues heal, oxygenate and purge toxins. Warm water also slows down your internal organs and is good at lessening aches and pains. Heat increases the production of beneficial body hormones and stimulates the immune system. Warm, moist air from a hot bath can help open up congested or constricted airways in your lungs, throat, and sinuses. On the other hand, cold water therapy has been found to be effective for numerous conditions, such as sprains, where the constriction of vessels reduces swelling and other issues.
Mechanical Effects:
The massaging effect of air bubbles and the massage-like motion of water jets create beneficial chemical reactions in your skin and tissues. This leads to increased circulation, which helps oxygenate tissues and expel toxins. Also, as we age, gravity and impact injure joints and connective tissues. In water, your body weight is decreased by 90%. This buoyancy relieves physical stress from your joints and bones, helping to relieve pain and discomfort. This floating effect helps relax the body because muscles don’t have to work as hard to keep the body in position, and are given a chance to relax.
Treating Common Ailments with Hydrotherapy:
The four most popular types of ailments people use hydrotherapy to treat are arthritis, pain, insomnia, and diabetes.
Benefits of Hydrotherapy for Arthritis:
One in six Americans has some type of arthritis. Doctors recommend warm hydrotherapy for treating arthritis. It has been shown that warm water treatment is far more effective than dry heat treatments, like heating pads. In some instances, doctors will recommend alternating hot and cold treatments, especially for treating the hands and feet. The repeated dilation of the arteries generally has a more profound effect on the reduction of pain in these areas.
Benefits of Hydrotherapy for Lower Back Pain:
Back pain is the #2 reason in the United States for doctor visits. Back pain can be caused by a number of things, including stiff or sore muscles, diseases, disorders or injuries of the vertebrae and connective tissue, and pinched nerves. Studies conducted over the last ten years have shown that back pain sufferers using hydrotherapy as a treatment-experienced marked reduction in pain, versus those people who do not use hydrotherapy. In addition, people who treat their back pain with hydrotherapy use fewer drugs to control their pain, so they don’t experience any of the negative side effects associated with some of these drugs.
Benefits of Hydrotherapy for Insomnia:
Almost all people suffer from insomnia – or the inability to fall asleep – at some point in their lives. Warm baths have been shown to improve both your ability to fall asleep and the quality of your sleep, and as such, hydrotherapy is one of the most popular home remedies for insomnia and sleeplessness. Insomnia is generally caused by having too much blood in the brain. Hot baths dilate capillaries.
Benefits of Hydrotherapy for Diabetes:
In a study published in 1999 by the New England Journal of Medicine, people with Type 2 diabetes soaked in hot tubs for 30 minutes a day, 6 days a week. Doctors noticed that these patients had an easier time controlling their weight and plasma glucose levels. Some patients even required smaller doses of insulin as a result. Patients who were unable to exercise reported even more benefits as hydrotherapy helped increase blood flow to their skeletal muscles.
Benefits of Hydrotherapy on the Body:
Hydrotherapy is helpful for relieving the symptoms of common ailments found in the torso like chest congestion, bronchitis, and asthma. It can also relieve the symptoms of other chest disorders like angina. Soaking the trunk of the body in warm water helps increase blood flow to the heart and lungs and other internal organs, and will help tone muscles, decrease the size of varicose veins, ease nervousness and headaches, and help sooth irritated vocal cords. In addition, it will help lessen the pain associated with ailments affecting the abdominal and pelvic areas like cramps, hemorrhoids, kidney disorders, intestinal disorders, gall bladder disorders, liver disorders and other systemic problems that cause internal pain.
A Full Soak (up to the chest):
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Sitting Bath (up to your hips):
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Hot Footbath (up to your calves):
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Cold Footbath:
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Hot and Cold Footbath:
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A cool bath can also relieve itchy skin, mild depression, and asthma.
Sites relating to Hydrotherapy, TBI, Arthritis
http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/tbi/TBI.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/adultfalls.htm
http://www.holistic-online.com/hydrotherapy.htm
http://www.holistic-online.com/hydrotherapy_for_healing.htm
http://psychologytoday.com/articles/PTO-20010301-000042.html
http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSIHW000/8513/34968/362192.html?d=dmtContent
http://www.arthritis.org/warming-techniques-to-relieve-ra-pain.php
Water treatment is one of the oldest, most cost-effective and safest methods of healing ailments related to aging. Water is not just for cleansing but also improving our health. Here are some of the health benefits our products bring you -Calms the Mind-Reduces Inflammations -Soothes Cramps -Eases Muscle Strain -Reduces Hemorrhoids -Reduces Arthritis Pain -Increases Circulation -Helps Bladder Problems -Lowers Fevers -Maintain Metabolic Function -Promotes Kidney Function