Aqua Therapy Wellness Benefits
STRESS REDUCTION
Some scientific evidence suggests that much of the sickness we experience comes at least in part from the inability to express anger, guilt, and fear. Researchers have gone so far as to say that our level of stress and how we deal with it is a main contributing factor to our level of health.
It has been determined that negative emotions have a high link to certain types of malignancies.
When people have to many problems they start experiencing stress. To much stress can cause your stomach and digestive tract to virtually shut down because the energy to power them is needed elsewhere, and you will find digestive juices rising and hence ulcers. Chronic unrelieved stress can contribute to high blood pressure, heart attacks, arthritis, and asthma, according to many health and stress experts.
For instance if you get angry and that emotion doesn't get discharged the resulting hormonal products and smaller particles such as neurotransmitters and endorphines don't get used. The residue remains and can become toxic in our bodies. The opposite is also true. When you release those emotions effectively you get real well being and adrenal charging so that the immune system stays strong and the body stays healthy.
Our mind sends messages to our body which translates them into neurotransmitters to get the immune system to work better and the hormone system to calm down a little and stop creating abnormal cells. According to an article in the Health and Science magazine these messages that communicate between the brain and a newly discovered site called a neuro-receptor on the white blood cells are transported instantaneously so when your happy or thinking a happy thought the white blood cells receive that message immediately (the white blood cells are the bodies primary defense-system). Therefore, everything which is registered in our minds is registered in our bodies. Our emotional reaction to a stressful situation is going to impact itself on our body. Our reaction to the stressful situations of life play an integral part of our health and illnesses.
One of the best ways to reduce stress is to soak your body in a hot soothing bubbling spa.
Studies have shown that just being immersed in hot water slows down your pulse because your heart no longer has to fight against gravity. Your heart also enlarges slightly and works with 10 to 20% more efficiency. A hot soak improves blood flow to your entire body.
The complete relaxation of the body, immersed and massaged by Therapy jets is excellent for the nervous system and rapidly restores sleep while suppressing contraction and distress.
REHABILITATION
When you are immersed in hot water to the neck you weigh approximately 90 percent less, so movement is easier and puts less strain on your body.
Hot water heat aids in relaxing the musculature that surrounds the joints and combined with buoyancy, movement becomes easier and less painful.
When a muscle is tense it can pinch on particular nerves and blood vessels that run through it. Not only is pressure exerted on the nerve but blood flow is restricted (which creates an insufficient oxygen supply), and lactic acid and other metabolic wastes back up these results can all contribute to pain.
Hot water produces dilation of the blood vessels which is beneficial to the functioning of weak or spastic muscles and is usually sedative for those with chronic arthritis, muscles pains, and neuralgia. It's easier for your heart to work and muscle pain can be neutralized.
People are more buoyant in water so they can bear more weight in a spa because there is less compression on your weight bearing joints, your spine, yours kness, and ankles. Because of the heat, buoyancy and circulating water, connective tissue such as tendons and ligaments stretch more easily. Injured areas such as ankles, wrists and knees can be put through specialized exercises during and after a soak in hot water with less pressure on the injury with less pain.
The hot water increases the range of motion, relaxes muscle spasms, increases circulation which all helps to stimulate cellular activity and tissue healing. This increased circulation increases the flow of oxygen and nutrients to the injured areas of your body which helps to remove waste products such as carbon dioxide and lactic acid and improve the healing process.
The warm water helps to relax the muscles and gets the joints moving, and the water provides just enough resistance without aggravating arthritic joints and weakened muscles. In addition, as heart rate and respiration are increased, the blood carries more oxygen to the body's tissues allowing them in turn to increase the rate at which they can eliminate metabolic waste products.
Exercise in warm water helps flush muscle tissue that suffers from a permanent state of semi-contraction and decreased blood-circulation. As the muscle contracts fully, the blood is pushed out, flushing out toxic materials. As the muscle relaxes the blood rushes back in, bringing in fresh oxygen and nutrients. It's a bit like cleaning out a dry dirty sponge. You wet it then squeeze again until the dirty water has be replaced with clean water.
Along with the increased oxygen level that the tissue enjoy in a spa the heat and the pressure from the therapy jets can raise the level of antibodies and white blood cells that provide the body's defenses. These natural bodily defenses then destroy the bad cells around an injured area and help stimulate the formation of new tissue.
The spa waters heat causes the central nervous system to become depressed which contributes to muscle relaxation as well as temporary pain relief.
PSYCHOLOGICAL
Psychologically speaking, hot water gives patients a break from a pain that is otherwise constant, thereby helping to break the pain/depression/stress cycle that leaves so many arthritis sufferers feeling helpless and unable to move on with their lives.
The imagery of water and floating has long been used in visualization in yoga instruction. The movement of water and water sounds have long been associated with relaxation. Movement in water is done alomst unconsciously so people tend to work the tension from their muscles without even thinking about it.
Human beings spend the first few months of their lives wrapped in the cocoon of the womb, warm and protected. Because we began as floating beings, this might be why we find soaking or floating in warm or hot water such a relaxing experience. We feel protected and loved. Swirling hot water, some say, makes you feel so relaxed because it allows you to re-experience the protected first nine months of life in the womb. At no other time are you more sheltered, protected, and cushioned from the shocks and of the world then in your mothers womb.
The hot water experience takes the mind to a very special place providing many with a much needed dose of calm. Being in a spa makes you much more aware of your physical and mental self.
Spas have very positive physical and mental aspects. Physical relaxation leads to mental relaxation. You are able to sleep more soundly. You can let down the social barriers and be yourself. You don't have to be in top social form. You don't have to maintain an image or create one. You can just relax and be yourself.
A spa is also a great tool for dealing with the problems of some relationships and marriages because communication is important in a meaningful relationship. Many people these days don't find the time or place to focus on each other and spend some quality time together. Hot water apparently also does much to calm the nerves of feuding adults as evidenced by the great number of clinical psychologists and marriage counselors who recommend spa use for stress related and marriage problems. There is no way you can even try to be tense in a spa. You tend to be more open, less inhibited and more relaxed which leads to more open and better communication. In a spa the soakers physical proximity and lack of distractions allow two people to genuinely communicate with each other thus opening the door to rewarding dialogue. Its almost impossible to be angry with someone in a spa because the warm water makes you feel so good.
In the hot water medium of a spa people have found that they are better able to deal with the physical and emotional aspects of their lives. The spa can be a wonderful place to begin relationships, enhance communications, stimulate thinking, set priorities, or just plain daydream. A spa isolates you and just about forces you to be relaxed. Furthermore time in a spa encourages people to daydream, and psychologists have found that dreaming has a lot to do with the organizing, planning and problem solving that we do.