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Balneotherapy (from Latin: balneum, “bath”) the treatment of disease by bathing. It may involve hot or cold water, massage via moving water, relaxation or stimulation. Many mineral waters at spas are rich in particular minerals (silica, sulfur, selenium, radium) which can be absorbed via the skin.
The term “balneotherapy” has gradually come to be applied to everything relating to spa treatment, including the drinking of waters and the use of hot baths and natural vapor baths, as well as of the various kinds of mud and sand used for hot applications. The principal constituents found in mineral waters are sodium, magnesium, calcium and iron, in combination with the acids to form chlorides, sulfates, sulfides and carbonates. Other substances occasionally present in sufficient quantity to exert a therapeutic influence are arsenic, lithium, potassium, manganese, bromine, iodine, &c. The chief gases in solution are oxygen, nitrogen, carbonic acid and hydrogen sulfide.
Argon and helium occur in some of the “simple thermal” and “thermal sulfur waters.” There are few doctors who would deny the great value of special bathing and drinking cures in certain morbid conditions. In the employment of the various mineral waters, many of the spas adopt special means by which they increase or modify their influence, e.g. the so-called “aromatic” or “medicated” baths, in which substances are mixed to exert a special influence on the skin and peripheral nerves. Of these the “pine needle” bath has the greatest repute; it is made by adding a decoction of the needles or young shoots of firs and pines. Fir wood oil (a mixture of ethereal oils) or the tincture of an alcoholic extract acts equally well. The volatile ethereal constituents are sup-posed to penetrate the skin and to stimulate the cutaneous circulation and peripheral nerves, being eliminated later by the ordinary channels.
Similar effects follow the addition to the bath of aromatic herbs, such as chamomile, thyme, &c. For a full-sized bath 1.5 to 2 lb of herbs are tied in a muslin bag and infused in a gallon of boiling water; the juices are then expressed and the infusion added to the bath. Astringent baths are prepared in a similar way from decoctions of oak bark, walnut leaves, &c. In many spas on the European continent baths are prepared from peat or mud mixed with hot mineral water. Mineral peat consists of decomposing vegetable soil that has been so long in the neighborhood of the medicinal spring that it has undergone peculiar and variable chemical changes. This is mixed with the hot mineral water until the bath has the desired consistency, the effect on the patient being in almost direct proportion to the density.
These baths vary greatly in composition. Mud baths are chiefly prepared from muddy deposits found in the neighborhood of the springs, as at St Amand. Practitioners of mud baths also visit popular places for therapeutic baths, like the Dead Sea.[1] They act like a large poultice applied to the surface of the body, and in addition to the influence of the temperature, they exert a considerable mechanical effect. The pulse is accelerated some 6 to 12 beats a minute, the respiration number rises, and the patient is thrown into a profuse perspiration. They have very great value in gouty and rheumatic conditions and in some of the special troubles of women. There are certain conditions in which mineral water treatment is distinctly contra-indicated.
Editor’s Note: Copy from Wikipedia.org
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