Immerse Yourself in Healing
A long bath is often regarded as a solution for a stressful day. This has been true for the thousands of years where cultures around the world have found relaxation and rejuvenated mind, body, and spirit in water.
A Proven Natural Remedy
There are several factors at work with hot water therapy but the two that effect the body most are heat and buoyancy. Together, they create an experience that is both relaxing and healing.
Immersion in hot water raises your body temperature and causes the blood vessels closest to the skin to dilate, which improves circulation through ease of blood flow. Because much of your body is made of water, when submerged, your body weight is reduced by approximately 90%! Imagine it as gravity relaxing with you while you float. Because of this change in hydrostatic pressure, the workload for your muscles and heart is greatly reduced. This also relieves much of the natural pressure in joints and muscles and leads to the release of tension from muscles and joints and the sensation of weightlessness.
Did you know - Increasing endorphin production can strengthen the immune system and naturally energize the body.
Numerous studies have proven that soaking in warm water stimulates the release of endogenous opioid peptides, particularly endorphins, which are the body's natural "feel good" chemical. An increase in endorphins can strengthen the immune system, improve sleep, prevent headaches and energize the body. It’s no wonder that in North America, hot water therapy comes so well recommended for self-care by naturopathic doctors. In addition to all the physical benefits, you may find hot water naturally enhances your sense of well being, lifts your spirits and leaves you feeling fresh.
Lower Blood Pressure
The body's first reaction to being immersed in hot water is to try and stabilize the body’s temperature by pumping the heart faster to bring additional blood to the surface where it would normally disperse heat into the surroundings. This increased blood flow means an increased supply of oxygen, antibodies and white blood cells; all important to promoting revitalization of the cells. This initial reaction causes an increase in blood pressure, but because the warmth quickly causes the blood vessels to dilate or expand, and the resistance on the heart is lessened. This means a soak in hot water will actually lower blood pressure!
The blood warmed in the vessels at the skin's surface is pumped from there back into the body where it begins to heat the deeper parts of the body including the body’s organs and deep muscle tissue where the same healthy vessel dilation occurs leaving the muscles more relaxed. The more time spent immersed in hot water, the more times the warm, healing blood can cycle through the body. Studies have shown that in a spa maintained at 104 degrees the core body temperature can rise to 102 degrees Fahrenheit in less than 20 minutes. This means a healthy increase of heart rate with a decrease in blood pressure that reduces strain on other vital organs. It’s no wonder at the reputable Mayo Clinic, hydrotherapy is used to improve cardio-health. Be sure to include your doctor in the decision to undergo any hot water treatments.
Just as it always feels good to hold a steaming cup of tea up to your nose and breathe deeply, the evaporating steam from the surface of hot water gives a similar effect. In patients with upper respiratory infections, asthma, colds, influenza, bronchitis, and pneumonia, breathing warm steam can help to open airways. This helps oxygen and white blood cells circulate to the affected areas, promoting healing and increased respiration.
Detoxification
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Extended immersion in hot water encourages the body’s natural process of detoxification through sweating. Exposure at length to warm temperatures, whether it be a steam bath, sauna, bikram yoga room, or the hot water in a tub or spa, will increase circulation, promote cell renewal, and eliminate toxins through perspiration and lymphatic drainage. All that while you just sit back and relax.
Even after years of study, doctors and physical therapists are only beginning to understand all the positive ways a hot water hydrotherapy can influence the body and the mind. Though not largely researched by modern science, the ‘father of hydrotherapy’, Father Sebastian Kneipp, believed after a variety of studies with patients with many different diseases, that water has the power to ‘dissolve, remove and strengthen’. He claimed hydrotherapy would dissolve diseased matter, remove this diseased matter from the body, and then strengthen the body by restoring cleansed blood to the tissues and maximizing circulation. Movement of water through strategically placed jets of whirlpools and hot tubs can promote healing by providing even more oxygen to trouble areas than with warm water alone. 
Be sure to include your doctor in the decision to undergo any hot water treatments. Learn more
Hydromassage
Whirlpools and portable spa’s bring this natural healing a step further by introducing water movement to help massage your muscles and encourage tension release, muscle recovery, and relaxation. This makes more efficient the ability of the body to cleanse the muscles of lactic acid and other metabolic wastes that often lead to soreness and cramping. It also increases the muscles range of movement and limbers you up. This merging of great forces (water, heat, and movement) is called hydromassage.