Hydrotherapy – A Versatile Treatment

Have you ever heard about a hot foot bath, a steam inhalation, or a hot compress? Yes, we are talking about a number of different hydrotherapy treatments. But how can the simple application of hot and cold water cure pneumonia, relieve the swelling of arthritis, alleviate menstrual cramps, speed up recovery from a sprained ankle, decrease dangerously high blood pressure, and give relief from a headache? Read on to find out!

What is hydrotherapy? It is the application of hot and cold water in liquid form, steam or ice, in order to increase circulation, alleviate pain, strengthen the immune system and cure diseases.

But how is that all working? The body has incredible mechanisms to regulate temperature within our organism, and we can make use of that for therapeutic purposes.

Just before we go into details about that, let’s speak a bit about the amazing properties of water. It is the most abundant liquid on planet earth, and for good reasons, about 70% of our body is made up of water. It has a quite impressive quantity of latent heat, being able to transmit heat to your body without cooling down rapidly. Water has at the same time impressive heat transmission properties. That is why on a humid day the heat feels more intense than in dry climate.

Next, we need to explore a bit the caloric properties of steam and ice. You probably remember from physics that temperature is nothing more than a vibration on a molecular level. The higher the temperature, the more vibration is happening.

Now inside an ice cube, water is organized in a crystal-like structure, thus being solid. With movement increasing, the crystal structure is broken and water liquifies. Just to break down the crystal structure, the energy of 80 calories is needed, the same energy that will heat up a liter of water from 32 °F to 176 °F (0 °C to 80 °C). For this reason, an ice cube can keep our water cold for a long time, being a great ally in the application of cold treatments.

At the temperature of 212 °F (100 °C) water vaporizes, expanding greatly in volume. At this moment, the latent heat¹⁾https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latent_heathttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latent_heat of about 530 calories is needed to make the transition. Conversely, steam that is condensing will release this enormous amount of energy. That´s why a steam fomentation will stay hot for so much longer, and a steam sauna is so efficient in making us sweat.

Effects of Hot and Cold

Let’s get back to the temperature regulation mechanism of the body. Maintaining the right body temperature is essential for survival and the body has specialized mechanisms to control that. If the weather is hot, the body breaks out in a sweat. The water droplets at the skin need 530 calories to vaporize and are cooling down the body in the process. Some toxins are eliminated together with the sweat, and sweating a little is actually pretty healthy.

Now with the skin being cooled down, the body opens up the arteries of the skin, so that the blood can circulate and cool down the rest of the body. For this reason, the application of heat leads to vasodilation and increased blood flow.

This increased blood flow is beneficial in many ways. There comes in the famous phrase: “Perfect health depends upon perfect circulation”²⁾E. G. White. Healthful Living. p. 31 Everything in our body is transported via the blood. The oxygen we breathe, the nutrients we eat, the soldiers of the immune system, all of them are depending on proper blood flow.

When we bruise or cut ourselves, the damaged cells need to be repaired. Injured cells need to be removed, and nutrients for new cell formation needs to be transported to the site. The immune system will be on alert to control any infectious agent that may be entering through the wound. All of those processes are happening via the circulatory system, and by increasing circulation, we can speed up the healing process. Hot water can be a powerful therapeutic agent in these cases. And the application of heat can be very relaxing to tense muscles as well as reduce the stiffness and swelling of arthritic joints.

Nevertheless, we need to be cautious with heat and bleeding. When increasing circulation, bleeding will intensify, as well as internal hemorrhagic processes. Inflammation and swelling of edemas will increase as well, that is the reason we apply ice for the first 24 hours of any bruise and sprain.

The reaction of the body to cold is heat conservation. The arteries are constricted to reduce blood flow and conserve the heat inside the body. So by the application of heat or cold, we can easily control the circulation of the entire body.

So we may conclude that hot treatments are the most effective way to increase circulation, but it is actually not quite this way for prolonged heat. After a while, the nerve endings sensing heat will get used to the temperature, and the circulation boost will be moderate. To resolve this problem, we will utilize alternating hot and cold treatments.

Most alternating treatments will use a cycle of 3 minutes of hot and 30 seconds to 1 minute of cold. The brief cold application will reset the response of the nerve endings, and the achieved contrast will boost circulation even more than just a prolonged application of heat.

Fever – Good or Bad?

Most people are used to fight off a fever with Tylenol, ibuprofen or another antipyretic drug. They treat fever like an enemy, but they do not realize that fever can be the best ally in our disease recuperation process.³⁾Juliet J. Ray and Carl I. Schulman. Fever: suppress or let it ride? J Thorac Dis. 2015 Dec; 7(12): E633–E636.

Fever is actually nothing more than the reaction of the body to an infectious process that is getting out of control. By increasing body temperature, the immune system is put into an alert state,⁴⁾Silke Schmidt. Fevers can have some cool benefits. ScienceNews for Students, March 20,2019⁵⁾Elevated body temperature helps certain types of immune cells to work better, evidence suggests.ScienceDaily, December 13, 2011 while it may reduce the activity of some microbes.⁶⁾Fever. MedlinePlus So the best treatment of a fever is to go to bed and let it run its course.

If the fever goes very high, it may need some intervention in order to prevent seizures. The first approach would be a cold cloth or an ice pack to the forehead. If needed, you can take a cold shower. An otherwise healthy person normally should tolerate fever well unto a temperature of 105 °F (41 °C).

There are treatments that can create an artificial fever and give an enormous boost to the immune system. One of them is a hot full body bath. Several studies showed its efficiency in significantly boosting the immune system.⁷⁾Conti C, et al. Antiviral effect of hyperthermic treatment in rhinovirus infection. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 1999 Apr;43(4):822-9.
Santoro G, Amici C, Rossi A. Role of Heat Shock Proteins in Viral Infection. In Pockley AG, et al. Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic Heat Shock Proteins in Infectious Disease. (51-84). Springer Science+Business Media(2010) The immune system boost can even help in cancer treatment.⁸⁾Burd R, et.al. Tumor cell apoptosis, lymphocyte recruitment and tumor vascular changes ar induced by low temperature, long duration whole body hyperthermia. J Cell Physiol. 1998 Oct; 177(1):137-47.
Sakaguchi Y, et al. Apoptosis in tumors and normal tissues induced by whole body hyperthermia in rats. Cancer res. 1995 Nov 15;55(22):5455-64.
Robins Hl, et. al. Cytokine induction by 41.8 degrees C whole body hyperthermia. Cancer Lett. 1995 Nove 6;97(2):195-201
Pettigrew, RT, et.al. Clinical Effects of Whole Body Hyperthermia in Advanced Malignancy. BJ, 1974 Dec; 679-682.
Atanachovic, D, et. al. 41.8C Whole Body Hyperthermia as an Adjunct to Chemotherapy induces Prolonged T Cell Activation in Patients with Various Malignant Diseases. Cancer Immunol Immunother. 2002 Oct 18;51:603-613 A more rigorous treatment should be done under the supervision of an experienced therapist, checking pulse and body temperature on a regular basis, and maintaining a cold cloth on the forehead. Doing it right, you can maintain body temperature elevated around 103 °F (39,5 °C) for 20 minutes.

A steam bath is another treatment that is able to raise the body temperature, and even a hot foot bath or a contrast shower can give a significant boost to the immune system. Even ending a shower with cold has been shown to be beneficial.⁹⁾Buijze GA, et. al. The Efect of Cold Showering on Health and Work: A Randomized Controlled Trial. PLoS One. 2016 Sep 15;11(9):e0161749 Getting 20 to 30 minutes of rest after those treatments will multiply the immune system boost of these therapies.

Precautions

There are a few precautions to consider with all hydrotherapy treatments. Diabetics have a decreased sensibility and reduced circulation, both are factors that will reduce their capacity to react to heat and increase their likelihood to get burned. Be very cautious to adapt the water temperature accordingly for diabetics or any other person with impairments of circulation or sensory nerves. For vigorous treatment like a sauna or steam bath you need to consider the constitution of the heart. And for cancer patients alternating treatments and most hot treatments are discouraged, since they increase circulation and increase the likelihood for cancer cells to spread. An exception is a hot bath which is strengthening the immune system.

The therapist should have some understanding of the proper procedure and their right application, since doing it wrong can possibly annulate the efficiency of the therapy or cause some other unforeseen problems. For example, doing a treatment in a room with drafts can have detrimental effects on the treatment.

Considering these precautions, the application of hydrotherapy is very safe and will cause no negative side effects for the patient. Unless many other conventional treatments, it is working together with the innate healing mechanism of the body, just strengthening the immune system, circulation and other mechanisms to give the body a helping hand to heal itself. Now let us look at some specific treatments and their benefits.

Hot Foot Bath

This is one of the most versatile hydrotherapy treatments. It consists in immersing the feet of the patient in hot water while wrapping the entire body inside a blanket. This will raise body temperature and induce sweating. An interesting fact is that circulation in the feet is larger than in any other part of the body (that’s why it is essential to keep your feet warm), and applying hot water to the feet will influence circulation of the entire body.

The hot foot bath is an excellent treatment to apply at the first sign of a cold or flu. Since it is inducing sweating, it can help to clean impurities and bring great benefits in smoking and caffeine cessation for example. Since it facilitates circulation in the entire body, it can be very helpful in treating headaches, menstrual cramps and other forms of congestions in the body. It relieves fatigue and relaxes, being very efficient in anxiety and other nervous conditions. It even helps to alleviate pain in the body.

Steam Bath

A steam bath is kind of an intensified version of the hot foot bath. Sweating is intensified as well as the immune system boost. This makes it an ideal treatment for colds and flues. The detoxifying effect of sweating is another interesting application. It is very relaxing and therefore helpful to combat stress and anxiety. Since it increases metabolism, it can complement a diet and exercise program for weight control. It can control pain and swelling in case of gout and arthritis. The sweating opens up the pores and cleans the skin. The heat helps to relax tight muscles and speeds up a workout recovery.

A Russian Steam Bath can be improvised with an electric heating plate and a pot of water that is brought to a boil and creates steam. Everything is covered by a blanket, creating a steam tent that warms up the body. There are nowadays affordable portable steam saunas available. We have some options for you to acquire your own unit.

You should avoid applying a steam bath in persons with heart problems like angina, pacemaker and others. Be cautious on very high or low blood pressure, diabetes and during pregnancy. Apply a cold cloth with ice water to the forehead throughout the entire bath.

Contrast Shower

An alternating hot and cold shower can give an incredible boost to the circulation of your entire body, helping in the recovery of various conditions. It boosts our immunity, being again helpful in colds, flues and various other infections. It helps also to prevent muscle soreness after vigorous exercise.

The treatment is simple, you start with 3 minutes of hot water, as hot as you can comfortably tolerate. Afterwards you switch to 30 seconds to 1 minute of cold. Switch back to hot, just increasing temperature for a little bit more. You will see that your tolerance increases with every change. Go for up to 3 cycles and end with cold.

Contrast Baths

This treatment consists of a localized bath of either hands, feet or the face alternatingly in hot and cold water. You ever had a sprained ankle? It happened to me already several times. The first time I had no clue of any kind of treatment and stayed at home for 2 weeks, and afterwards continuing to walk with crutches for another month. The second time it happened, I had just finished my natural remedies course and was preparing to travel home. For the first day, I applied plenty of ice, and I even asked for a bag of ice cubes during the overnight flight on the airplane. Coming home, I started a daily contrast bath to the feet, and after a week I was back to walking normally again.

Besides a sprained ankle, a contrast bath can speed up the healing process of any lesion, infection or edema. I have seen the healing of a diabetic foot, that did not heal for years (applied with caution about proper temperatures of course). If you have a fractured leg, you can do a contrast bath at the opposite leg and have a beneficial effect on circulation on both legs, speeding up the healing process. A contrast bath to the face is an excellent treatment for sinusitis, showing rapid results like nothing else. A contrast bath to the pelvic area can be used for urinary infections.

Hot and Cold Compresses

For areas that cannot be treated with contrast baths, a compress can be applied. You would use hot compresses for muscle relaxation. A hot compress over the spine is an excellent preparation for massage and can be doing wonders for backaches.

Alternating hot and cold compresses can be applied to increase circulation, and the same way like a contrast bath it can speed up wound healing, as well as help with infections and edemas. It can help sometimes with neuralgic pain. Furthermore can you apply alternating compresses to certain organs to improve their function. Pancreas and liver are good examples. Compresses in the middle of the back, at the upper side of the kidneys can help to lower blood pressure in an acute situation. The adrenal glands are responsible to produce the hormones regulating blood pressure, and applying compresses will show immediate results.

In case of respiratory problems like a cough, bronchitis, pneumonia or asthma, hot and cold compresses to the chest can be speeding up the healing process. There is a modality called revulsive treatment, where you apply a hot compress to the back, an alternating hot and cold compress to the chest and a hot foot bath, all at the same time. This treatment needs though a bit of practice in order to be done right.

A Variety of Treatment Options

We have covered here just a few of the most important treatment modalities. We would still need to cover about a heating compress, a wet sheet pack, a steam inhalation, a cold mitten friction, an ice massage and a few other options. I think it was though sufficient to exemplify the variety of applications that hydrotherapy can have to cure diseases and recuperate our health. Proper knowledge and practice can multiply the efficiency of those simple water treatments. Everybody should know about the right application of those treatments that can turn out to be essential for yourself or one of your loved ones.

My friends at the LIGHT training institute have assembled an excellent hydrotherapy training course. It will train you in the proper application of 12 different hydrotherapy procedures, together with its indications and contraindications. You will see in 11 videos step by step how the treatments are properly applied. They have packed into the course over 75 years of practical experience, gained at Wildwood Lifestyle Center, in the application of hydrotherapy treatment for various health concerns. Start today to learn these essential and versatile treatment modalities for yourself.

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