Properties and benefits of thermal baths.
Bormio Terme has an agreement (level 1 super) with the NHS for the mud and bath therapy.
Balneotherapy is one of the most common thermal therapies because of the formula of the thermal water that has a healing impact on the body. Specifically, balneotherapy involves the use of special tubs and pools with a water temperature of around 35-37°C; the treatment inside this hot water lasts more or less 10/15 minutes. At the end of the treatment, it's necessary to stay at rest for at least 30 minutes, the time needed because the benefits can perform their action. Anyway, balneotherapy isn't standardized but, according to the pathology to be treated, times and water temperature are different.
Balneotherapy can be of great help for the treatment of different diseases. Among these, we can include locomotor system pathologies in the case of lymphatic deficiency, post-trauma or surgical treatments or venous insufficiency symptoms. The methods that balneotherapy uses are different:
This kind of mass therapy technique, use the pressure of thermal water jets. The tubs have multiple nozzles from which the water and air jets come out. The jets are directed in a specific way, from the sole of the foot to the chest, in order to favour the returning blood circulation. The therapeutic actions of the hot tub come from the union of the physical action of the massage exerted by the water jet, the temperature and the active principles of thermal waters. The beneficial effect of the whirlpool can be observed in the case of rheumatic pain, surgery, rehabilitation, varicose syndromes, arterial diseases, Raynaud phenomena, skin's issues.
A great substitute for the whirlpool is the vascular exercise in the water. It consists in the immersion of one or more limbs in hot and cold water, in a quick and alternate way. To carry out this kind of balneotherapy, we use specific tubs that start from a temperature of 40-42 °C to then descend to 20 °C in a few minutes; this process is repeated for at least 30 minutes, resulting in the activation of the peripheral circulation through alternate dilation and contraction of small arteries and capillaries. Cold and hot alternation in a loop helps to reduce muscle spasms. Also, arteriosclerotic illnesses such as Buerger disease, lymphatic stasis, post-trauma oedemas and obviously venous pathologies take advantage of the vascular exercise.