Hydrotherapy
Hydrotherapy, formerly called hydropathy and also called water cure, is a branch of alternative medicine, occupational therapy, and physiotherapy, that involves the use of water for pain relief and treatment. The term encompasses a broad range of approaches and therapeutic methods that take advantage of the physical properties of water, such as temperature and pressure, to stimulate blood circulation and treat the symptoms of certain diseases.
Various therapies used in the present-day hydrotherapy employ water jets, underwater massage and mineral baths or whirlpool bath, hot Roman bath, hot tub, Jacuzzi, and cold plunge.
Hydrotherapy lacks robust evidence supporting its efficacy beyond placebo effects. Systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials have consistently found no clear evidence of curative effects, citing methodological flaws and insufficient data. Overall, the scientific consensus indicates that hydrotherapy's benefits are not conclusively greater than those of placebo treatments.
Uses
Water therapy may be restricted to use as aquatic therapy, a form of physical therapy, and a cleansing agent. However, it is also used as a medium for delivering heat and cold to the body, which has long been the basis for its application. Hydrotherapy involves a range of methods and techniques, many of which use water as a medium to facilitate thermoregulatory reactions for therapeutic benefit.Shower-based hydrotherapy techniques have been increasingly used in preference to full-immersion methods, partly for the ease of cleaning the equipment and reducing infections due to contamination. When removal of tissue is necessary for the treatment of wounds, hydrotherapy, which performs selective mechanical debridement can be used. Examples of this include directed wound irrigation and therapeutic irrigation with suction.
Technique
The following methods are used for their hydrotherapeutic effects:- Packings, general and local;
- Hot air and steam baths;
- General baths;
- Treadmills;
- Colon Hydrotherapy ;
- Sitz, spinal, head, and foot baths;
- Bandages or compresses, wet and dry; also;
- Fomentations and poultices, sinapisms, stupes, rubbings, and water potations.
- Full body immersion tanks
- Arm, hip, and leg whirlpool
In some cases, baths with whirlpool water flow are not used to manage wounds, as a whirlpool will not selectively target the tissue to be removed, and can damage all tissue. Whirlpools also create an unwanted risk of bacterial infection, can damage fragile body tissue, and in the case of treating arms and legs, bring risk of complications from edema.
History
The therapeutic use of water has been recorded in ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman civilizations. Egyptian royalty bathed with essential oils and flowers. Romans had communal public baths for their citizens. Hippocrates prescribed bathing in spring water for sickness. Other cultures noted for a long history of hydrotherapy include China and Japan, the latter being centred primarily around Japanese hot springs. Many such histories predate the Roman thermae.Modern revival
Hydrotherapy became more prominent following the growth and development of modern medical practices in the 18th and 19th centuries. As traditional medical practice became increasingly professional, it was felt that medical treatment became increasingly less personalized. The development of hydrotherapy was believed to be a more personal form of medical treatment that did not necessarily present to patients the alienating scientific language that modern developments of medical treatment entailed.1700–1810
Two English works on the medical uses of water were published in the 18th century that inaugurated the new fashion for hydrotherapy. One of these was by Sir John Floyer, a physician of Lichfield, who, struck by the remedial use of certain springs by the neighbouring peasantry, investigated the history of cold bathing and published a book on the subject in 1702. The book ran through six editions within a few years, and the translation of this book into German was largely drawn upon by J. S. Hahn of Silesia as the basis for his book called On the Healing Virtues of Cold Water, Inwardly and Outwardly Applied, as Proved by Experience, published in 1738.The other work was a 1797 publication by James Currie of Liverpool on the use of hot and cold water in the treatment of fever and other illnesses, with a fourth edition published in 1805, not long before his death. It was also translated into German by Michaelis and Hegewisch. It was highly popular and first placed the subject on a scientific basis. Hahn's writings had meanwhile created much enthusiasm among his countrymen, societies having been formed everywhere to promote the medicinal and dietetic use of water; and in 1804 Professor E.F.C. Oertel of Anspach republished them and quickened the popular movement by unqualified commendation of water drinking as a remedy for all diseases.
The general idea behind hydropathy during the 1800s was to be able to induce something called a crisis. The thinking was that water invaded any cracks, wounds, or imperfections in the skin, which were filled with impure fluids. Health was considered to be the body's natural state, and filling these spaces with pure water would flush the impurities out, which would rise to the skin's surface, producing pus. The event of this pus emerging was called a crisis, and was achieved through a multitude of methods. These methods included techniques such as sweating, the plunging bath, the half bath, the head bath, the sitting bath, and the douche bath. All of these were ways to gently expose the patient to cold water in different ways.
Vincenz Priessnitz (1799–1851)
Vincenz Priessnitz was the son of a peasant farmer who, as a young child, observed a wounded deer bathing a wound in a pond near his home. Over several days, he would see this deer return, and eventually the wound was healed. Later, as a teenager, Priessnitz was attending to a horse cart, when the cart ran him over, breaking three of his ribs. A physician told him that they would never heal. Priessnitz decided to try his hand at healing himself and wrapped his wounds with damp bandages. By daily changing his bandages and drinking large quantities of water, after about a year, his broken ribs had healed. Priessnitz quickly gained fame in his hometown and became the consulting physician.Later in life, Priessnitz became the head of a hydropathy clinic in Gräfenberg in 1826. He was extremely successful and by 1840, he had 1600 patients in his clinic, including many fellow physicians, and important political figures such as nobles and prominent military officials. Treatment length at Priessnitz's clinic varied. Much of his theory was about inducing the aforementioned crisis, which could happen quickly or could occur after three to four years. Under the simplistic nature of hydropathy, a large part of the treatment was based on living a simple lifestyle. These lifestyle adjustments included dietary changes such as eating only very coarse food, such as jerky and bread, and of course, drinking large quantities of water. Priessnitz's treatments also included a great deal of less strenuous exercise, mostly including walking. Ultimately, Priessnitz's clinic was extremely successful, and he gained fame across the western world. His practice even influenced the hydropathy that took root overseas in America.
Sebastian Kneipp (1821–1897)
Sebastian Kneipp was born in Germany, and he considered his role in hydropathy to be that of continuing Priessnitz's work. Kneipp's practice of hydropathy was even gentler than the norm. He believed that typical hydropathic practices deployed were "too violent or too frequent," and he expressed concern that such techniques would cause emotional or physical trauma to the patient. Kneipp's practice was more all-encompassing than Priessnitz's, and his practice involved not only curing the patients' physical woes, but also emotional and mental as well.Kneipp introduced four additional principles to the therapy: medicinal herbs, massages, balanced nutrition, and "regulative therapy to seek inner balance". Kneipp had a very simple view of an already simple practice. For him, hydropathy's primary goals were strengthening the constitution and removing poisons and toxins in the body. These basic interpretations of how hydropathy worked hinted at his complete lack of medical training. Kneipp did have, however, a very successful medical practice despite, perhaps even because of, his lack of medical training. As mentioned above, some patients were beginning to feel uncomfortable with traditional doctors because of the elitism of the medical profession. The new terms and techniques that doctors were using were difficult for the average person to understand. Having no formal training, all of his instructions and published works are described in easy-to-understand language and would have seemed very appealing to a patient who was displeased with the direction traditional medicine was taking.
A significant factor in the popular revival of hydrotherapy was that it could be practised relatively cheaply at home. The growth of hydrotherapy was thus partly derived from two interacting spheres: "the hydro and the home".
Hydrotherapy as a formal medical tool dates from about 1829 when Vincenz Priessnitz, a farmer of Gräfenberg in Silesia, then part of the Austrian Empire, began his public career in the paternal homestead, extended so as to accommodate the increasing numbers attracted by the fame of his cures.
At Gräfenberg, to which the fame of Priessnitz drew people of every rank and many countries, medical men were conspicuous by their numbers, some being attracted by curiosity, others by the desire of knowledge, but the majority by the hope of cure for ailments which had as yet proved incurable. Many records of experiences at Gräfenberg were published, all more or less favorable to the claims of Priessnitz, and some enthusiastic in their estimate of his genius and penetration.