Contents
balneotherapy
What is balneotherapy?
Balneotherapy is the set of cares, treatments and cures where baths are used: they can be seawater (thalassotherapy) or freshwater (balneotherapy). This therapy can be used for therapeutic purposes, but also for relaxation (mud bath in a wellness spa for example).
The main principles
The patient immerses himself in a 34-degree basin and performs sets of exercise, stretching, core training and can receive jets of water.
The intensity, length and positioning of the exercises vary according to the patient, his age, his pathology, the intensity of his pain as well as the desired effect (weight training, pain relief, mobilization, etc.
Sea water baths or fresh water baths?
Baths with sea water (or thalassotherapy) are defined as the use of the marine environment for curative or preventive purposes. Marine resources are therefore used to fight against various disorders: fatigue, back pain, heavy legs, osteoarthritis, etc. The difference lies mainly in the framework of the treatment.
The benefits of balneotherapy
Increase ease of movement and fluidity
In a swimming pool, the patient may have no support because the water is carrying him. This data allows fluidity and ease in the movement.
Weightlessness
Water represents a practical and effective means of reducing the stress exerted on the joints or on the fractured bones because the body weighs less. It allows to start to make the muscles work without the action of the earth’s gravity and allows a work more progressive joints and / or muscles in pain. Being in the water facilitates movement, works the joints and prevents ankylosis. For example, reducing the weight of the body allows a person with a broken leg to resume support and walking more quickly. When you injure your leg or foot, you momentarily lose the ability to walk. Very quickly, your body forgets how to do this. The earlier you engage in the walking pattern, the faster you will recover.
Hot water and muscle relaxation
Gentle joint and muscle work
The physiotherapist controls the patient’s movements and adapts the difficulty with suitable equipment and positioning. The exercises evolve at the same time as the state of form and the pains of the patient. The exercises target all muscle groups as needed, using accessories such as “chips”, fins, racket, floats, dumbbells, bicycle, trampoline.
Suitable for all
In the swimming pool, rehabilitation can be done for everyone: children, adults, athletes, seniors and for many pathologies (pre and post surgery, rheumatism, muscle tears, capsulitis, neuro algodystrophy, following cancer, osteoarthritis, etc.)
Balneotherapy in practice
To have access to balneotherapy sessions and be reimbursed by social security, the patient must be in possession of a prescription stipulating coverage in balneotherapy or in the swimming pool.
The patient must bring a swimsuit, swimming cap, non-slip sandals, towel and water bottle
He performs his session under the supervision of the physiotherapist always present on the beaches of the swimming pool or in the water. The number of patients depends on the size of the pelvis and the number of physiotherapists to take care of the patients.
Course of a session
After an individual assessment with the physiotherapist masseur, the patient can access the swimming pool.
Balneotherapy sessions last on average between 30 and 60 minutes.
The session begins with a gradual warm-up followed by a series of exercises intended to rehabilitate the painful parts, followed by stretching for pain relief. If necessary, the physiotherapist may have to perform gentle movements in the water.
Become a balneotherapy practitioner
The practitioners in balneotherapy are physiotherapist masseurs trained in 3 years. They generally carry out their training in rehabilitation centers with swimming pools.
Contraindications of balneotherapy
Open wound, skin pathology (eczema), pulmonary pathology (bronchitis), ENT (angina, pharyngitis, sinusitis, otitis), cardiovascular pathology (high blood pressure, history of phlebitis), contagious disease, urinary and / or anal incontinence. The list of contraindications is not exhaustive and some of the pathologies cited are relative contraindications.It is necessary to seek the advice of the doctor prescribing balneotherapy sessions
History of balneotherapy
The Greek physician Hippocrates (460-377 BC) was already writing about the healing power of water. He recommended seawater baths to his patients to cure muscle pain and arthritis.
Subsequently, the Romans created the public baths. At first small in size, the craze was immediate and required the construction of larger baths, some of which could accommodate up to 1600 people on 27 hectares. The Roman baths were abandoned around the year 537.
As the Black Death swept across Europe in the 1340s, public baths were banned for fear of transmission of the disease through water.
It was not until the 19th century that the term balneotherapy appeared thanks to Vincent Priessnitz, an Austrian peasant, who used cold water therapy to heal wounds, a practice he tested on himself when a heavy cart rolled over him. The spread of information brought him thousands of supporters. He treated 1600 patients in 1840, and three years later published “The Cold Water Cure,” a book which explained these methods of treatment.
Sebastian Kneipp, a German priest, took over and continued to advance balneotherapy. He improved on some of Priessnitz’s techniques and began adding herbs and essential oils to the water.
Hot springs were discovered and developed especially in the mountains. Doctors created spas and dispensed water-based treatments. Several Americans treated in European spas returned to the United States with stories of healing and surprising effects. Soon, similar spas were created in the United States.
In France, there are now 105 active thermal establishments.
No less than 9 million days of treatment are provided each year by thermal establishments.
Each of these establishments have their specificity. For example, care in the town of Vittel (Vosges) has been treating rheumatological, urinary and digestive ailments and overweight since 1854.
Specialist’s opinion
In our center, the patient is taken care of as a whole.
The balneotherapy sessions are often coupled with dry physiotherapy sessions on the table and sometimes osteopathy sessions.
Rehabilitation, whether in a swimming pool or in the dry, is a job which can be long and which requires great motivation on the part of the patient who is active in his rehabilitation. The number of balneotherapy was quite low, you sometimes have to make arrangements well in advance to find a place.