Balneotherapy is the traditional practice of treating disease and promoting health through bathing, most often at spas built around hot springs whose mineral-rich waters, containing minerals such as silica, sulfur, selenium and radium, were believed to carry therapeutic effects. Practiced since ancient times, it uses hot or cold water, moving-water massage, relaxation and other applications, and it is considered distinct from hydrotherapy though the two overlap in practice and underlying principle. Contemporary medicine classifies balneotherapy as pseudoscientific, without reliable evidence that mineral bathing itself treats disease.
Facts
Origin YearMarks the Homeric-era practice (ninth century BC) of warm bathing for cleanliness and pain relief, the earliest therapeutic bathing the cited source documents; it predates Hippocrates own systematic classification of therapeutic waters in the fifth century BC, recorded separately as a later milestone. Classification
StatusDiscontinued or Obsolete 1 Connections
Sources
1. Wikipedia
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia Foundationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balneotherapy, lead sectionQuote, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balneotherapy, lead section
Balneotherapy is a pseudoscientific method of treating diseases by bathing, a traditional medicine technique usually practiced at spas. Since ancient times, humans have used hot springs, public baths and thermal medicine for therapeutic effects. While it is considered distinct fr
2. Historical Issues of Hydrotherapy in Thermal-Mineral Springs of the Hellenic World
K. Voudouris, C. Yapijakis, M-N. Georgaki, A.N. Angelakis, Sustainable Water Resources Management, 2022History of hydrotherapy by hydrothermal water and therapeutic effects sectionQuote, History of hydrotherapy by hydrothermal water and therapeutic effects section
During the Homeric era (ninth century BC), warm baths used for body cleanliness and the alleviation of pain.
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