Jai Ho: THERMAL BATH/HYDROTHERAPHY

Posted by Elizebath Bijoy Sunday, May 29, 2011

There are hot springs from all over the world. These hot springs are of great importance to human beings not

only economically but also medically. This hot springs have been converted into spas for health purposes. A spa

town, or simply spa, is a town frequented mainly for health reasons, to “take the waters”. The word comes from

the Belgian town Spa. In continental Europe a spa was known as a ville d’eau (town of water). The term spa is

used for towns or resorts offering hydrotherapy which can include cold water or mineral water treatments and hot

thermal baths.

Health Benefits from Spa

It is good for paraplegic for its therapeutic effects (US President FD Roosevelt built the Little White House in Warm Springs, Georgia for his treatment)

It treats illnesses, such as arthralgia, chronic skin diseases, diabetes, constipation, menstrual disorders and so on.

Hot springs therapy maintains health, normalize dysfunctions and prevent illness.

Balneotherapy (treatment of illness by bath) is good for circulatory, nervous, musculo-skeletal, gynecological and skin diseases

Speleotherapy is good because the cool dust-free environment of local caves is said to benefit pulmonary diseases.

Hydrotherapic baths are known for their healing powers for rheumatic, gynecologic and circulatory problems.

Few noticeable side effects of spa;

The Naegleria fowleri amoeba which lives in warm waters and soils worldwide and can cause meningitis. Several deaths have been attributed to this amoeba, which enters the brain through the nasal passages.

Acanthamoeba, which can also spread through hot springs, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

There is some suggestion that a bather’s toe was infected with herpes simplex virus from a hot spring in Japan.

To ensure a healthy bath the ff; are not allowed to bathe in a spa;

Alternative medicine or therapy is good as long as we are aware of its side-effects.

Jai Ho