Hydrotherapy

Hydrotherapy is the use of water to treat disease, alleviate pain, induce relaxation, and maintain general good health. For therapeutic purposes, the water may be hot or cold, or in the form of ice or steam. Treatments include immersion baths (usually in cool water), hot tub soaks, sitz baths (a shortened hip bath), mud baths, steam baths, saunas, needle showers, salt rubs, pressure hosing, hot or cold packs, douches, and colonic irrigation (washing of the inner wall of the large intestine). Hydrotherapy may also take the form of drinking water that has special qualities, such as the mineral waters offered by European spas as an aid to digestion.

Origins

Because of the almost universal availability of water, it has been used to promote health and to cure illness by all cultures. The elaborate and efficient public baths built by the ancient Romans are a typical example; they were usually combined with gymnasiums to foster socializing and physical and mental well-being by alternating exercise with relaxation. In Finland, saunas have been a ritual for 2,000 years. Russian and Turkish steam baths, introduced years ago to Americans by immigrant populations, remain popular to this day. In recent years, hydrotherapy has gained an important place in physical therapy and rehabilitation medicine.

Practitioners

In hospitals, hydrotherapy is performed by doctors, nurses, nurses' aides, and physical therapists. At a spa or health club, it may be supervised by a physical therapist, a massage specialist, or an ayurvedic practitioner. However, the most common site for hydrotherapy is the home, where the techniques are used as forms of self-treatment.

When Is Hydrotherapy Used

In rehabilitation facilities and mental hospitals, hydrotherapy is used to relax muscles and joints, soothe anxiety, relieve stress, and enhance mobility. This last may be achieved through swimming and underwater exercise, which can help maintain and extend range of motion for patients who have arthritis and other joint and muscle disorders.

As part of a pain management program, hydrotherapy in the form of warm baths in a darkened room can help patients focus on breathing exercises and other pain-control methods.

Hydrotherapy is also promoted by health clubs and spas as a natural way of treating aching muscles and painful joints, with a combination of showers and steam or whirlpools, after participation in athletic activities.

At home, it is employed as an aid to relaxation, to alleviate minor aches and pains, and to induce sleep.

How it Works

The way in which hydrotherapy works depends on its form:

• Sitz baths soothe many conditions, including hemorrhoids, anal fissures, and vaginal infections.
• Floating in a pool or special tub permits a person who has arthritis or has suffered a stroke to exercise joints in a way that might otherwise be too difficult or painful.
• Medicinal baths in warm to hot water affect metabolism of the body tissues lying just under the skin, or improve circulation by increasing the flow of blood to surface areas.
• A steam bath clears nasal congestion and soothes sore muscles and stiff joints.
• An ice pack reduces swelling and inflammation following a bruise, sports injury, or tooth extraction.
• Medicated vapor relieves chest congestion.
• A warm, wet dressing helps to bring a boil to a head so that it can break on its own or be drained.
• Cold, wet towels wrapped around an individual suffering from heat exhaustion quickly bring down the persons temperature, and therefore are an effective emergency treatment.

What to Expect

In rehabilitation centers, hydrotherapy may include immersion baths, needle showers, underwater muscle massage with powerful water jets, douches, and cold or hot wet wrappings of a body part or of the entire body.

In the past, some forms of hydrotherapy were widely used to calm agitated or aggressive patients with mental illnesses. Today, medications have made this use of hydrotherapy largely obsolete. However, some mental institutions may employ a flotation tank to calm severely agitated patients. Use of such a tank induces deep relaxation by allowing the body to float in warm water, often in a darkened room from which all environmental stimuli have been removed.