A nurse-therapist offer back-to- basics, natural healing methods known as hydrotherapy.  According to researchers the healing water have long been recognized in many countries.  Water therapy can be said to be one, if not the oldest, among the natural types of healing techniques.  Jesus himself uses water to heal the sick.

What is hydrotherapy

There are only a few families and individuals who are well-informed and knowledgeable about water therapy as a convenient health practice in the home.  According to a nurse-therapist many are skeptical of the efficacy of water therapy; healing water only came into the news when we talk about in connection with spas and Jacuzzi center.  She cited that if only such kinds of therapies could be localized in our own homes, then water could be put to a maximum use.

Benefits of hydrotherapy

"Healing water is used in any of its forms- cold water, hot water, ice, steam, or freshwater.  As the name implies, hydrotherapy or water therapy is the use of water in the treatment of disease.  But contrary to the common notion, the concept of water therapy is "not as an internal treatment, but as an external applications says a retired nurse- therapist.  Furthermore she revealed that hydrotherapy does not mean that water is to be ingested or taken internally in order to heal an illness.  Water in itself has no therapeutic value.  Water has no elements or substances whatsoever that makes it therapeutic.  But if water is to be applied in the body as hot or cold, then it becomes a valuable medical tool.  It is heat in water that cures and not water itself.  Water is used only as a medium of heat transfer.  Heat brings physiological effect on the body when applied one or two degrees higher than the person's body temperature she explained.  She added that when heat is applied to the body, through hot compresses, for instance, the blood vessels dilate so there is an increase  in blood circulation.  In this sense, heat helps to cure an individual with infection by mobilizing his white blood cells and speeding up its travel in the body.  Studies conducted in the United States also suggest that heat can even delay the growth of cancel cells in the body.

Hydrotherapy has a number of uses.  It is effective in combating symptomatic illnesses like head congestion, cough and colds, fever, pneumonia, sinusitis and bronchitis.  According to a nurse-therapist when you have a watery eyes and a slight fever, she recommends a hot foot bath.  A hot foot bath is done by soaking the feet in a small tub of warm water, soak the foot in hot, not scalding, water for about twenty or thirty minutes, making sure that the heat is maintained all throughout.  Add hot water every two minutes, while removing equal amount of lukewarm water.  It is important that the upper body is wrapped in a blanket to prevent chills and to induce sweating.

Cold and hot compress

Cold compress.  A good technique for the relief of a headache is the application of a cold compress on one's head.  Immersing the hand in a cold water is helpful for stopping nosebleeds and treating sunstroke.  Cloth soaked in ice water helps reduce swelling, pain or congestion or inflammation.  Thus, it is useful for sprains, crash injuries and injuries due to blows,  Cold compresses provide the benefits of forcing blood away from an area.  A cold compress on the back of the neck can relieve nosebleeds.  Cold baths and showers on the other hand, can be energizing and stimulating and can combat fatigue.

Hot compress.  Applying a hot compress to the body can relieve pain in the hip and leg, painful menstrual periods and muscle spasms.  Sitting in hot water is effective in the treatment of painful swollen hemorrhoids.  A hot bath or shower can encourage relaxation and invigorates the immune system.

Hydrotherapy, aside from being the cheapest medical treatment, it has several other advantage.  Hydrotherapy has no side effects, no allergies unlike drugs." (Source: THe Healing Power of Water, 2000)

Source: 

Diomampo, Rhia, "The Healing Power of Water." Family Today Magazine 16 July 2000