 Many conditions are treated with the help of hydrotherapy treatment
Added: 10/30/2005 |
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Hydrotherapy treatment is the application of liquid to take care of illness or infirmity. Water is used to take care of infection from the antique times. Hydrotherapy treatment consists of whirlpools, special baths, sauna and vapor baths, douches, and additional treatments. There are several benefits of hydrotherapy comparing to other treatments, which will be viewed further below.
Hydrotherapy, in medicine, use of water in the treatment of disease. Hydrotherapy treatment was used by the ancient Greek doctors. A German, Vincenz Priessnitz, popularized the use of spas in Germany and elsewhere in Europe, where they are still popular. Little evidence exists that mineral waters supply anything specific that ordinary warm water or physiotherapy cannot. Hydrotherapy has a number of uses. Warm water will relax spasm; thus, benefits of
hydrotherapy is in treating such conditions as muscular strains and sprains, muscular fatigue, and backache. Heat is often used in conjunction with massage or other manipulative or stimulative treatments, such as the whirlpool bath. Sitz baths (sitting in hot water) are effective in the treatment of swollen, painful haemorrhoids. Water is also useful in physiotherapy because patients who exercise in a buoyant medium can move weak parts of their bodies without having to contend with the strong force of gravity.
Several kinds of therapeutic bath produce results through the selected temperature of the water, aided in some instances by the stimulation produced by a jet such as a needle shower or a whirlpool. Hydrotherapy
treatment at skin temperature (about 37° C/98.6° F) is relaxing and sedative; the hotter or colder is stimulating. Baths may be given by submersion in water or, in the form of wet packs, by wrapping the body in wet sheets or towels. All of the body may be submerged, or only a particular part may be bathed, as, for example, in the arm bath or foot bath, or the sitz bath for the pelvic region. Benefits of hydrotherapy are in stimulating, relieving pain (particularly of cramps and sometimes of arthritis), controlling convulsions, and inducing sleep. Quickening the pulse and respiration, it also increases perspiration, thereby relieving the kidneys of part of their work and temporarily decreasing weight. Hot packs good for muscular disorders. The cold bath is helpful in reducing high fever and limiting inflammation.
Stimulating hydrotherapy treatment
is generally of short duration to avoid the patient's becoming exhausted; sedative warm baths may be continued for hours or, in the treatment of certain nervous diseases, for days. Kinotherapeutic baths, in which a routine of exercise is carried on while the individual is submerged, were successful in restoring the use of muscles damaged by poliomyelitis when that disease was still widespread. They are used today in the treatment of some bone diseases and fractures. When any substance intended to effect, or assist in, the cure of disease is added to the bath medium, the bath is said to be medicated. Soap, bath salts, bath oil, and similar detergents are so common that they are not usually considered medicines. Alcohol sponge baths are cooling and are useful in the prevention of bedsores.
A hydrotherapy treatment with mustard added was a traditional remedy for infant convulsions, and alkaline baths have been used extensively in the treatment of rheumatic conditions. Medicated vapours, both natural and artificial, are used in steam baths; the vapours are often allowed to fill a closed room in which the patient can walk about, exposing both skin and lungs to their effects. Steam cabinets, which enclose the body from the neck down, are also used to give vapour baths. Carbonated waters are sometimes used, as are brines, although their value is uncertain. Among the most popular medicated baths are those in which the waters of natural warm mineral springs are used. Thousands of people suffering from a wide variety of ailments felt benefits of
hydrotherapy and frequented mineral baths in search of the cures attributed to local waters and muds, although their medical value is generally doubted by doctors. Resorts, sometimes called spas, with
hydrotherapy treatment have grown up near such springs.
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