Page 6 - Healthy Living and Hot Water

Warm Water Immersion

For thousands of years, civilizations have been born, developed, and

prospered beside water. Throughout history, people have used water to

maintain their health and to recover from injuries. We need only watch

children play in puddles after a summer shower to confirm our

instinctive attraction to water. Today, water activities remain very

popular. The United States has over 400million annual visits to aquatic

venues such as pools, hot tubs, freshwater outlets, and beaches. In fact,

there are over 5million hot tubs in the United States. Many books,

magazines, news stories, and government reports alarm us that Social

Security, Medicare, secure retirement, pensions, insurance, and our

average life span are all in jeopardy due to our poor health. We hear

media stories every day about problems like obesity, heart disease,

diabetes, cancer, and an aging population. Yet, the general public and

health-care providers are often unaware of the science that

demonstrates how hot-water immersion can ease these problems. The

question many of us have is, “How can immersion in hot water benefit

my health? “Our bodies make adjustments when we are immersed in

water. These changes are similar to those that occur when we exercise.
The changes include increased circulation, more efficient breathing, and

improvements in mood. It is well known that when a person’s body is

immersed in water, the water’s pressure affects almost every part of the

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