Hydrotherapy simply means that you are using water of varying temperatures to effect a therapeutic response within the body. Using it on different body parts can cure everything from the common cold to varicose veins and hemorrhoids. I have even seen it heal a broken leg in less than four weeks--half the usual healing time.

 

The premise is simple: vary the water temperature to a body part (hands, feet, chest, pelvis, etc)  from hot to cold, alternating quickly. Let's say you have varicose veins. You can place two pans in the bathtub that both your feet fit comfortably in. Place hot water (make water as hot as is comfortable but be careful not to burn yourself) in one tub and cold water in the other. (If you feel gutsy, throw in a few ice cubes.) Place both feet into the hot water for 30 seconds, then quickly pick them up and place them in the cold water for 15 seconds. Go back in the hot water for 30 seconds, then in the cold water for 15seconds. Alternate them back and forth about 10-15 times, and finish with cold.

 

What this does physiologically is profound! The hot water causes the blood vessels to dilate, bringing fresh oxygenated blood into the area. Then the cold water constricts the blood vessels, pushing out old stagnant fluid and cells and causing the blood vessels to constrict. Everything that heals the body is carried in the blood; if you increase the flow of blood, you speed up the healing process. If the muscles of your blood vessels have atrophied over time, dilation and constriction works the muscle, eliminating varicose veins.

 

This may take some time, but it is a permanent healing. I have witnessed this with hundreds of patients, and it works! If you have small spider veins, it takes three to six months if you can do the therapy once a day, and works more quickly if you can do it more often. If your veins are more expanded it will take longer, and you can repeat two to three times a day to speed up the process.

 

You can do this in the shower if you have a pull-down nozzle on a shower hose. (If you don't, Home Depot has them for around $25.) Using a spray of water is good for lung congestion and pelvis stagnation, the latter of which can cause many issues like swollen prostate, hemorrhoids, fibroids/cysts, endometriosis, etc.

 

Since the vascular system works equally on both sides, if you have a broken bone you can treat the opposite side with the same effect. A few years ago, I was hit by a car while riding my bicycle. I broke my wrist and dislocated my shoulder and jaw. My fingers looked like black olives! Sitting at the sink, I put the opposite hand in hot and cold water alternately for 15 minutes every hour for the first four or five days after the injury. The wrist was completely healed and functional in less than two weeks; under normal circumstances, that break would have taken six to eight weeks to heal. The therapy was cheap, easy and very effective--my favorite kind!

 

Blessings,