Water cure - Different forms of hydrotherapy

Why Water cure?

1. Abundance
2. Economy
3. Availability
4. Ease of Application
5. Non-irritating (even internally)
6. Physiological Solvent
7. Proper Density for Buoyancy
8. Water gives up heat rapidly, yet it doesn't cool too rapidly.
9. High Heat Capacity
10. High Latent Heat
11. Proper Viscosity (fluidity)
12. Exists in three states at useful temperatures

Hydrotherapy Combats Infections

- Improves the destruction of germs
- Improves mobility of white blood cells
- Increases micro circulation
- Increases cilia action

Body systems affected by hydrotherapy:
– Immune
– Muscular
– Nervous
– Digestive
– Circulatory
– Respiratory
– Urinary
– Metabolic
– Lymphatic
– Skin

Effects of hydrotherapy on muscles

The Effects of Heat
1. Decreases tone
2. Decreases Ability to work
3. Decreases spasm and pain
4. Increases circulation in muscles

The Effects of Cold on the Muscles
1. Increases tone
2. Greater Endurance (less fatigue)
3. Sometimes cold will aggravate a muscle spasm. However, an ice massage will many times help muscle strain and myositis.

Different Effects:
– Hot - increases temperature, dilates blood vessels
– Cold - contracts blood vessels, slows metabolism– stimulates the nerves, numb pain receptors
– Neutral - calms the nerves, relaxes the body
– Steam - opens air passages, increase temperature
– All - stimulate the immune system

Effects of Cold. The effects of cold are:
1. reduces bleeding (if not below freezing)
2. constricts blood vessels and slows circulation
3. lowers temperature
4. reduces spasticity of muscles
5. relaxes muscles
6. relieves pain
7. produces numbness
8. surface cooling effective in pain relief of burns
9. reduces edema, blistering and scarring in burns cold shower lowers heart rate after moderate exercise

Effects of Heat
Local application effects are:

1. Dilation of the blood vessels
2. Increased heat in the area
3. Local persperation
4. Relieves pain
5. Relaxes muscles

Systemic effects of using water cure are:

1. Rise in pulse rate
2. Drop in blood pressure
3. Increased water vapor loss through air breathed out of lungs
4. In profuse persperation, salt may be lost
5. Metabolism increased
6. Carbon dioxide formed in larger amounts
7. Oxygen consumption increased
8. Fluid transfer across the capillary wall accelerated
9. Sedative effect on peripheral and central nervous systemPrecautions. Do not use with diabetics or those with impaired circulation due to some other disease.[Hollander and McCarty, 542, 543]

Basic Principles

– Patient must be warm before the treatment
– A cold compress should be applied to the head or neck when given a heating treatment
– The patient should be protected from burns and chilling
– After the treatment the patient should stay in the bed for 30-60 minutes

- Forms of Hydrotherapy -

1. Combined Treatments

• Hot foot bath
• Hot fomentation
• Cold mitten friction
• Cold compress
• Russian steam bath

2. Not Combined Treatments

• Hot tub bath
• Neutral tub bath
• General cold
• Wet sheet pack
• Salt glow

3. Local Treatments

• Contrast baths
• Paraffin bath
• Ice massage
• Ice pack
• Heating compress
• Steam inhalation

Water cure can bring surprisingly good results about your condition! Get acquaintance with the different forms of hydrotherapy, and about the reason of their effect!

Book:

If you like this article 'water cure', consider buying this excellent book about the Hydrotherapy: Home Remedies: Hydrotherapy, Massage, Charcoal, and Other Simple Treatments

Review from customer: Hydrotherapy, Massage, Charcoal, and Other Simple Treatments gives a brief history of hydrotherapy, the immune system, anatomy and physiology to explain how and why hydrotherapy works.
It then explains step-by-step how to use hot and cold water to treat illnesses. There are a number of hydrotherapy treatments, message techniques, and charcoal therapies listed with illustrations to help the reader visualize how the treatment is done.
There is also a section on various diseases with the natural remedies to use to treat the illnesses. I have personally have used hydrotherapy to treat a bad chest cold and know first hand the effectiveness of hydrotherapy. I was surprised to observe that hydrotherapy was better and quicker than taking medicine!

---

Experiences with hydrotherapy:

---

Internal links in "natural-remedies-healthy-lifestyle.com":

Water drinking as a reason for severe constipation

Enema constipation reliever

Return to: "natural-remedies-healthy-lifestyle.com" –Home Page,From Current: "Water Cure - Forms of Hydrotherapy"

---

---