Hot Tub Benefit of arthritis

While arthritis is typically known to develop with age, the month of July raises awareness for children with the disease. Juvenile arthritis, an autoimmune disease that causes swelling in the joints, affects 300,000 children in the country and is often under-recognized.

Those with the condition typically experience stiffness and soreness, making it painful to get through normal, everyday movements. Yet, one of the best ways to combat the symptoms of arthritis is just that—movement. Because the disease causes tissue inflammation, the wear and tear of typical exercise can create increased swelling and more pain.

However, there is one method of exercise that is proven to lessen those symptoms, aid in rebuilding strength and flexibility, and encourage having fun while doing so. Hydrotherapy utilizes simple exercises and rehabilitation movements that are normally performed on land, but instead the patient performs them in the warm water of a hot tub or pool. While the impact of gripping monkey bars or stomping around the basketball court may increase a child’s pain, exercising in the warm water of a hot tub is an alleviator, as well as a fun way to put the excitement back into physical activity.

The heat capacity of water is large, the heat conductivity is strong, and it is a good solvent, so it can use the temperature, mechanical properties of water and the chemical composition of water solution to stimulate the disease. Water therapy can be used alone, and can also be used as a means of combined treatment of arthritis. It is not so prone to adverse reactions as drug therapy, nor is it limited by environmental conditions like mineral therapy. Therefore, it is a widely used method and should be paid attention to.

There are many methods of hydrotherapy and the mechanisms of action are different, but they are summed up in a combination of temperature, mechanical and chemical factors. Such as the general treatment of fresh water bath is mainly warm stimulation, and syrup bath mainly for chemical stimulation, shower is mainly mechanical stimulation.

(1) water temperature effect: warm stimulation, with antispasmodic, analgesia, sweating, and promote the dissipation of inflammation and so on. Cold stimulation can make the blood vessel contraction and analgesia, and strong cold can numb nerve endings, and is used for bleeding or traumatic pain.

(2) mechanical function: the use of hydrostatic pressure, impact, buoyancy, and can do gymnastics and massage in the water, to promote the recovery of limb function (such as shower, whirlpool bath, jet bath, bubble bath, etc.).

(3) chemical action: add various minerals, drugs and gases in water to make the organism get special reaction to improve the curative effect (such as medicine bath, mineral bath, etc.).

The buoyancy of water creates a safer and lower impact environment for exercising, compared to performing the same activity on land. In fact, when in water, the majority of the body’s weight is supported, enabling land exercises to be performed without the risk of muscle and joint swelling. While pools are an option for hydrotherapy, hot tubs and swim spas provide the additional opportunity to incorporate the benefits of hydro massage, using water from the spa jets as a massaging mechanism to relieve pain and improve flexibility.