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Hydrotherapy is an important, time-tested adjunct to hands-on modalities. This use of water to heat, stimulate, relax, and detoxify the human body has been used for thousands of years and by many cultures throughout the world. Native-American sweat lodges, Indian ayurvedic steam treatments, Greek and Roman hot and cold baths, Finnish saunas, and Japanese hot springs are just a few examples.
If you aren't using hydrotherapy before you next massage or acupuncture session you could be missing out on a wide range of benefits that will enhance your experience. In fact, hydrotherapy treatments can make your therapist life much easier. For example, heating treatments enhance the flexibility of scar tissue and can increase localized blood flow, reduce muscle tension, relieve stress and warm the entire body before a session.
Additional Benefits of Hydrotherapy before a session include:
hydrotherapy can relieve discomfort and pain
stimulate the flow of blood and lymph
make connective tissue easier to stretch
client’s tissues may be prepared for deeper work
prolong the relaxing effects of massage
Hydrotherapy treatments can also stimulate the skin in different ways—from the body-hugging sensation of being surrounded by water, the thermal sensations of warm or cool, or the scratchy feeling of friction treatment.
And finally, hydrotherapy is an excellent adjunct to rehabilitative bodywork. Here's a few examples of types of issues or reasons you might try Hydrotherapy.
A developmentally disabled teenager who loves different sensations on their skin.
A person with scalp pain after a traumatic head injury.
A client whose emotional stress is so extreme they're unable to remain still for a massage session.
A person who is unable to lie prone due to severe sinus congestion from allergies.
A client with scar tissue from an old injury that's so tight it can barely be massaged.
To reduce the pounding in your head from a migraine
A young person who's receiving their first massage as a birthday present.
Hydro can even be used as purely a fun experience. Couples can book a session followed by massages and spend some quality time together or a soak all by yourself to get away from the kids or the weight of the world can do wonders for your stress.
As with anything there are a few reasons you wouldn't want to use a heated tub for a whole-body treatment.
High temperature can create extra demands on the circulatory system, including significant changes in how fast the heart beats, how much blood the heart pumps with each beat, blood pressure, the size of different blood vessels, and where the blood is being shifted to in the body.
In general, much more of the person’s blood supply than usual will be shifted to the vessels of the skin. Therefore, unless approved by the client’s doctor, whole-body heat treatments, such as saunas or hot tubs, are contraindicated for patients with high or low blood pressure, lymphedema, heart disease (such as coronary artery disease or congestive heart failure), and during pregnancy. Diabetes can lead to cardiovascular disease, so hot baths are contraindicated. Clients with multiple sclerosis or who are prone to seizures should only have heat treatments with their doctor’s permission.
All in all, the benefits of adding hydrotherapy before you next massage or healing treatment can greatly enhance your experience and will leave you feeling relaxed and calm. Who doesn't want that?
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You can book your Hydrotherapy session from our website or call our office!
As Always,
Here's to your health!
