hydrotherapy or water cure

7 Brilliant Reasons To Try Hydrotherapy To Restore Your Health Today!

Category: Blog

Why You Should Try Hydrotherapy Today

 

Hydrotherapy or “Water Cure” is an ancient healing medicine that is traditionally used by naturopathic doctors, occupational therapists and physiotherapists. It is treatment based on water, of different temperatures, that cause an effect on the body, inducing its own innate healing ability.

 

Various modern therapies used today are based on the principles of hydrotherapy. For example, underwater massage, mineral baths, salt pools, hot tubs and jacuzzi’s. Icing a muscular injury is also a form of hydrotherapy.

 

Taking a cold shower may not sound like the best way to start your day, but this simple tip is actually incredibly powerful. Cold water immersion (a form of hydrotherapy) supports the body’s innate healing power by activating the immune, lymphatic, circulatory, and digestive systems. It is such a simple yet profound way to boost your health.

 

We can use different temperature’s of water to affect the change we wish to on the body.

        • Hot water will dilate the blood vessels, increasing blood flow
        • Cold water will constrict the blood vessels, decreasing the blood flow

By implementing these simple properties, we can create a pump like action of the blood vessel in the area of injury, increasing healing cells and removing cellular waste. This technique can be applied to common sports injuries, such as, ankle sprains.

 

We can also use hydrotherapy in a more systemic way, rather than locally, to improve the overall body functions. See below for how adding in hydrotherapy to your morning shower can improve your day, and your life.

7 Reasons to Try Hydrotherapy At Home

 

  1. It’s better than caffeine

The temperature shock you feel from the cold water give you a jolt that increases your heart rate, which in turn releases and stimulates the rush of blood throughout your body, oxygenating your cells, which increases your alertness.

 

  1. Reduce stress and feel happier

Studies have shown that participants that did cold exposure daily experienced a boost in their mood. The positive effects are thought to be the cold exposure initiating an endocrine response, increasing levels of endorphins and serotonin (your happy neurotransmitter).

 

  1. Beat your cold with cold

Making cold exposure part of your regular daily routine can boost your immune system’s response to fighting off disease. Cold exposure has been found to activate the white immune cells of your body.

 

  1. Improves lymphatic circulation

It also upregulates your lymphatic system. Your lymphatic system is a system of vessels that pump waste, bacteria, and microbes around the body for removal. Cold water therapy causes these vessels to contract and pump the fluid, reducing waste accumulation.

 

  1. Increases metabolism

Cold therapy increases “brown fat” which is a metabolically active type of fat that uses energy, rather than storing it.

 

  1. Reduces pain and improves recovery

This is one of the more well-known benefits of cold therapy, as it has been made popular by elite athletes around the world. It is believed that cold therapy reduces muscle fatigue and improves recovery.

 

  1. Improves brain power

By boosting endorphins and brain neurotransmitters, you can expect better cognitive functioning when you implement cold therapy into your daily routine.

 

Try ending your shower with cold water for the last 10 seconds. Aim to increase the time you spend in cold every day, getting up to 1 minute of cold water to obtain these benefits.

 

It’s also a great tool to be used in combination with a sauna. Alternate your hot and cold therapies for more added benefits. Sauna for 10 minutes, then have a cold 30 second shower, return to the sauna for another 10 minutes, then the shower. You always want to end your sessions in cold.

 

*Check with your healthcare practitioner before implementing these techniques if you have any heart complications, history of stroke or heart attack. Do not use these techniques if your are pregnant.

 

For more information on physical injury treatments, such as sprains, strains and tears, contact us at Bay Wellness.