Feeling Better Through The Practice Of Hydrotherapy

Water has been a part of medical practice from the beginning of civilization. The Romans built bathhouses across the extent of their empire. Scandinavian countries are famous for their saunas. Today, water-based therapies are used throughout conventional, complementary, and alternative medicine to treat wounds, injuries and burns, to facilitate physical rehabilitation, and to promote relaxation.

Hydrotherapy is the use of water as a medical treatment. One of the largest and most widespread uses of hydrotherapy comes in the form of spas and bathhouses. In many countries, resorts are built around natural springs. These resorts typically were created in the belief that minerals in the spring water could aid the healing of disease. Spas sometimes offer other forms of hydrotherapy, such as mud or seaweed baths.

Hydrotherapy treatments also include ice packs to reduce the swelling of sprained ankles, warm water to irrigate and cleanse wounds, and whirlpool baths for physical rehabilitation. Internal hydrotherapies include administering fluids to dehydrated patients. Water temperature in a hydrotherapy treatment could be solid (ice), cold or hot liquid (water), or gas (steam).

Another form of hydrotherapy is the sitz bath, where the pelvis is immersed in a tub of warm water. The sitz bath is said to offer relief from pelvic-area soreness and abdominal and other ailments.

Hydrotherapy has several major functions in conventional medicine. The first is hygienic, involving the cleaning and irrigation of wounds or burns to enable additional treatment or prevent infection. Pain relief is another important role, as in the case of cold compresses for headaches or hot water packs for muscle pain.

Hydrotherapy, including the use of ice packs, is applied to ease the effects of minor injuries, such as ankle sprains. Internal body temperature can be regulated with water, both to reduce fevered body temperature or raise abnormally low temperatures caused by excessive exposure to cold. Hydrotherapy is used also for physical rehabilitation and exercise. Conducting therapy or exercising in water is proven effective and causes less strain and trauma to the skeleton and joints.

Hydrotherapy provides relaxation and symptom relief from many ailments. In alternative medicine, hydrotherapy is cited as a potentially curative therapy. Colonic irrigation is an example. Such unproven methods may involve exposing the body to extremes of temperature through water or through cleaning it internally with water, procedures claimed to increase health by detoxifying the body and restoring it to health.

Many hydrotherapies are based on well-known, documented physiological effects either of water itself or of heat or cold delivered through water. Heat-based hydrotherapies rest on the fact that heat dilates (expands) blood vessels, which increases circulation in the area being heated. Increasing the blood supply to muscles with the application of heat, for example, can relieve pain.

Cold-based hydrotherapies work according to an opposite mechanism. Cold constricts blood vessels, reducing circulation to that area of the body. Application of ice or cold packs is useful to reduce swelling. Physical rehabilitation activities in swimming pools are based on the fact that water is more protective of the skeletal system and offers more resistance than air, which enables muscles to work harder while protecting bones and joints.

Ice packs, hot compresses, and sinking into a warm tub are good examples of tried-and-true, self-help, water-based techniques that work on a host of common problems. Water immersion removes weight from joints and facilitates motion and exercise. In addition, hydrotherapy is a major component of therapy for hospitalized patients with severe burn injuries, and heat therapy is a proven method for skin diseases.