Hydrotherapy Effective for Well-Being

With the many advances in modern medicine in the last several decades, the simple but proven remedies of the past that permit the body’s own natural healing ability to turn on and overcome illness or make repairs have been discarded. They have been replaced by prescription medications with their wagonload of undesirable side-effects; expensive diagnostic tests; and even more expensive surgery. Shunned and often forgotten, many of the simple but proven remedies of the past are still very effective and considerably less expensive than the newer, fancier high tech treatments and medications.

 

Hydrotherapy is defined as the use of water, in any of its forms, solid (ice), liquid (water) or vapor (steam), applied externally or internally, for the maintenance of health and the treatment of disease. Hydrotherapy is one of the oldest known health treatments. Safe, inexpensive, easy to learn and to do, it remains an incredibly effective means of supporting and assisting the body’s natural healing capacity. Hydrotherapy, also known as water treatments, works because of the ability of water to transfer heat either to the body or away from the body. It is the use of this heat transference principle applied to a closed, finite system (the body, its blood supply and nervous system) that permits the versatility of application for a wide variety of health problems.

 

Of all the home remedies, hydrotherapy is the most useful and the most versatile. For many years, in both the United States and Europe, it has been highly respected. In the late 1800s to early 1900s, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, medical director of the Battle Creek Sanitarium, a 1200 bed hospital, became famous for his use of hydrotherapy treatments to treat an incredibly wide range of illnesses. He researched and documented his findings, establishing both the science as well as the art of using hydrotherapy as we know it today. Likewise, a few other pioneering physicians also used hydrotherapy extensively; often writing textbooks for students, nurses and medical practitioners. Dr. George Abbott, who became the first medical director of the Loma Linda Medical Center in California, was one of these prolific researchers and writers.

 

Water treatments can be used to boost the activity of the immune system for fighting both local and systemic infections, to reduce inflammation, to balance circulation, to relieve congestion, to reduce or relieve pain, to calm the nervous system or to stimulate the nervous system, and to aid respiration, to name some of its many uses.

 

One of the most common hydrotherapy treatments and probably the simplest to use, is the hot foot bath, which can be very effective for relieving headaches. A deep dishpan or a 5-gallon bucket is typically used. Fill a 5-gallon bucket two-thirds full with hot water, about 105-110 degrees. You can test the temperature with an indoor-outdoor spa thermometer. Diabetics, especially, are advised to test the water and to keep the water about 102 degrees. Place your feet in the bucket of hot water for approximately 20 minutes. This treatment is very effective for relieving headaches that are caused by congestion in the brain. When using for headache relief, place a cold (dipped in ice water), wet but wrung-out hand-towel on top of the head and at the back of the neck, while your feet are in the hot water. The treatment works to relieve congestion because the hot water dilates the blood vessels in the lower legs and in so doing it shifts more of the person’s blood to the legs and feet. This draws the excess blood in the brain, which is causing the headache, away from the brain. This headache treatment is even effective for some migraine headaches.

 

Hydrotherapy offers an effective, extremely inexpensive, able-to-do at home method of treating a wide variety of common health problems without the negative side-effects and expense so commonly associated with modern medical care. It is still used extensively in Europe in medical wellness spas and in the United States at lifestyle and/or wellness/natural healing centers such as the Black Hills Health and Education Center, where clients are effectively treated using natural healing techniques.