Hydrotherapy or Kneipp cure: what it is, benefits and what it is used for

Sebastian Kneipp revolutionized naturopathic medicine in the 19th century by developing a healing method based on the properties of water. as a conductor of heat and cold. She did so after being cured of severe tuberculosis by squirting, washing and bathing in cold water.

He was a pioneer in the curative use of water and was ahead of his time with a vision that proposes cultivating health rather than attacking disease.

The name of Kneipp is inextricably linked to that of Wórishofen, the Bavarian town where he lived as confessor and parish priest, and who became a very popular hydrotherapy center. Today’s Bad Wórishofen receives more than 70,000 visitors a year.

Who is Sebastian Kneipp?

Sebastian Kneipp, born in 1821 into a humble family of weavers from Bavaria (Germany), managed to study Theology after years of great deprivation, in which he had to work very hard.

At the age of 28, after suffering a relapse of his tuberculosis and being already evicted by the doctors, he discovered the book of the Dr J S Hahn in which he described healing techniques with cold water that allowed to treat this disease.

Kneipp applied those frictions, partial washings and complete baths with tenacious disciplinecombining them with baths in the Danube followed by vigorous exercise and abundant intakes of water.

With it I know strengthened his health, improved his performance and obtained a scholarship to study at the Munich seminary. As there he could not continue taking his baths he had to perform his practices in an almost furtive way, using watering cans.

in 1850 a medical examination showed that he was cured and so he began to teach his method to fellow students afflicted with his former malady.

In 1854 it was declared a cholera epidemic in Munich. Kneipp, parish priest in the small community of Boos, applied hydrotherapy techniques of Vincenz Priessnitz and with them he managed to cure, without using a single medicine!, the 42 sick people in his parish.

to hide the medical scandal The authorities they sent him to a convent of Dominicans in Wórishofen. But his fame had already spread. The laundry became a hydrotherapy dispensary and in 1889 a spa was founded that had to be expanded.

At the age of 71 he gave a cycle of conferences for more than a hundred cities and came to treat the Pope Leo XIII.

In their books my water cure and My testament refers to meticulously designed techniques for using cold water therapeutically, apart from other advice on some medicinal plants whose use contributed to disseminate and which are still used throughout the world.

He died at the age of 76, highly respected, not only for the benefits of his cures, but also for the moral influence and the deep sense of charity that he put in them.

Kneipp hydrotherapy: what it is and what it is used for

Kneipp therapy is based on five fields of application, which synergistically complement each other each other:

hydrotherapy, movement therapy (kinesiotherapy), phytotherapy, dietetics and “regulating therapy” or order.

Kneipp hydrotherapy is essentially a thermotherapy: either subtracts or provides heat to the body in order to stimulate its reaction capacity, through a transcutaneous stimulus that activates the vegetative nervous system.

As a general rule, it is more important to apply small repeated stimuli what great isolated stimuli.

It usually starts with a morning treatment in bed at sunrise based on washes or cold wraps to activate the metabolism. It is important that before carrying out a wrap or a wash of this type, the body is warm.

The temperature difference between the water and the skin must be at least 10ºC. If it is less, the body loses some temperature, but does not react later by generating heat.

The application temperature must always be less than 18 ºC since the body extremities are only at 30 ºC.

What is the hydrotherapy of the Kneipp cure based on?

When alternating temperature baths are carried out, the hot water must be at 36-38° C. A higher temperature can cause vascular spasms.

It is considered very important to individualized treatments, depending on the reaction capacity and condition of each person, but it can be said, however, that the hot baths last about ten minutes, while the cold ones are much shorter. The essential thing is to be able to provoke a reaction.

In case of applications with hot water, hyperemia, that is, abundant blood flow to a certain area of ​​the body, is achieved passively, while in cold conditions hyperemia is active and generates a slight tickling sensation.

Within the Kneipp cure, more than 120 different hydrotherapy techniques that allow an adequate adjustment to all types of patientseven those with very low reactivity.

In the patients with acute myocardial infarction a Kneipp cure can be started two days after the acute episode, with arm baths that are being progressively expanded and that in principle are carried out With warm water; then, little by little, lower water temperatures are tolerated.

In children, the elderly or people with low reactivity, soft stimuli are usedboth in temperature and in application surface.

How is the treatment of the Kneipp cure

You have to start the treatment in an area of ​​the body that is far from the one affected by the diseasesince the organism also reacts in parts more or less distant from those in which the stimuli take place.

Thus, for the hepatic applications are often used to the sack of warm, wet hay on the back between the 6th and 12th dorsal vertebrae, since there is a reflex zone in the shoulder.

Direct applications on the liver can have a positive influence in case of colic liver, because they cause a decrease in pain. However, applications on the back area can increase the blood supply to the liver.

In colic, the suprahepatic application would have to be very hot, even almost burning the skin; while on the back the applications can be less hot since the reactivity is greater.

According to the clinical experiences observed in the Kneipp School and in the centers where this type of therapy is carried out, it can be affirmed that there is a close relationship between the vasomotor activity of the skin, the minor pelvis and the throat, and between the feet and the rest of the organs of the body.

Types of water treatments

There are more than a hundred applications of water possible, from gentle washes to massages with pressure jets.

washes

They are done in bed, with a coarse linen or cotton cloth, soaked in cold water, wrung out and folded..

Vinegar can be added so that the contact is not so abrupt. This improves the reactive capacity of the patient.

Is usually start with partial arm and leg washes, then move on to half and full body washes.

after frictionthe patient has to get in bed with a wet body, cover yourself well and rest.

Jets

Treatment based on water jets -except in those of great intensity and short duration- applies with a 15mm hose in diameter or with a shower, pouring the water on the skin without pressure until it reddens slightly (about 30 or 40 seconds).

It is necessary that the patient is not cold before (You can first apply hot water, friction, exercises…).

The alternating temperature jets cause vascular gymnastics.

The cold water jet on the thighs promotes circulation

Bathrooms

The partial baths (of arms or feet), those sitting in the bathtub and those of half body are often applied with cold water, or alternately hot and cold.

He warm arm bath lasts between 10 and 20 minutes and ends with a jet of cold water. It is indicated for joint pain.

After the baths it is usually applied briefly a stream of cold water or a cold water wash. Then it rests for an hour.

Stepping on dew or snow

It has been one of the therapies that has defined the cure. At first you walk on the spray for one or two minuteswhich can increase as training progresses up to five minutes.

The time you walk on snow it is much shorter, for example 20 or 25 seconds.

when you walk for cold water (bath or river) half a minute or a minute is enough.

wrappers

A wet linen coarse cloth in the part chosen for treatment. On it, another wider linen or cotton cloth so that moisture does not penetrate. And finally, a wool or flannel overcoat. they must stay very tight to the body to avoid the formation of air pockets that alter the desired therapeutic effect.

The wraps are made almost always with cold water, in order to subtract or accumulate heat depending on the duration of the application. The hot are usually applied after eatingto promote abdominal circulation, and during menstruation.

bag of hay

It consists of putting in contact with the skin a sack half filled with hay and moistened in a steam chamber. Above is placed an airtight package with peat mudwhich retains heat, and is covered with a Kneipp wrap. Alleviate the pain.

When is the Kneipp cure indicated?

Despite the importance of hydrotherapy in the Kneipp cure, It is also essential to combine it with kinesiotherapy or movement therapy (exercises that involve a rhythmic activity), the use of medicinal plantsa diet as varied as possible (Kneipp was not a vegetarian in the sense that is understood today, but the introduction of therapy in Spain was done mainly by the vegetarian movement) and a regulating therapy that establishes a natural rhythm of life both in the physical and mental realm.

The Kneipp cure is indicated in case of:

physical or mental exhaustion, psychosomatic or neurovegetative disorders, nervous hypersensitivity, metabolic disorders, rheumatic disorders, osteoporosis, myocardial rehabilitation (two days after the infarction, with a warm arm bath), dyspeptic disorders, disorders of the genital system, disorders of the respiratory system and allergies, vascular disorders, malignant tumors and psychotic patients.

should only have Be careful with people with severe heart or kidney failure.

In summary, the therapy is favorable in the therapeutic prevention of many diseases. It tends to improve health, does not cause alterations in the organism, it is almost always well tolerated and does not preclude or detract from other forms of therapy.

To know more

Kneipp hydrotherapy; RM Bachmann and GM Schleinkofer. Ed. RBA-Integral