During water procedures, our body is exposed to temperature and mechanical irritations, including the action of hydrostatic water pressure, which creates a buoyant force. How does the body react to these factors and how does water actually heal? Having understood this, you can understand when, for example, cold water should be used, and when – hot, and which water procedure to choose, what is the duration of the procedures and what is their effect on the body.
The mechanism of thermal effects on skin temperature receptors can be traced by example. After operations on some abdominal organs, an ice pack is placed on the patient's stomach. Cold locally irritates the cold receptors of the skin. An electrical impulse is generated in the nerve fiber to which this receptor belongs, which is transmitted to the centers of the spinal cord, then to the corresponding centers in the brain stem and cortex. There it excites nerve cells.
Activating the receptors
There are approximately 300,000 cold receptors and approximately 25,000 heat receptors in the surface layer of the skin. Cold or warm water, acting on our skin, irritates the corresponding skin receptors, as a result, reactions occur in the body aimed at producing or dissipating heat. Reflex irritation of the thermoreceptors also affects the internal organs.
As a result of the excitation of the corresponding cells of the cerebral cortex, a feeling of cold arises – you want to remove the cold object, move away from it. And the cells of the center of the spinal cord and the trunk, without our conscious participation, immediately transmit impulses to the vasomotor nerves. The impulse goes through them in the opposite direction to the muscles of the vessel walls. Blood vessels contract, less blood enters the skin, it turns pale, and the body now loses less heat from the surface. But certain areas of the vasomotor centers are connected not only with certain areas of the skin, but also with the vessels of the organs located under them.
Vascular spasm also occurs in them. And that's what we need after the operation. From small vessels that are spasmodically injured during surgery, bleeding stops. Conversely, when the heat receptors are irritated, the blood vessels of the skin and organs beneath them expand, and the blood supply to the corresponding organs improves. But at ambient temperature ranges that are comfortable for the body, there is a constant monotonous background transmission of impulses from thermoreceptors. And this does not change the vascular tone.
To maintain health, it is extremely important that throughout a person's life (especially after the age of 40) thermoreceptors are regularly activated by temperatures beyond the comfortable ranges and trigger responses. Then they will function adequately in case of illness. Therefore, it is necessary to develop the habit of constantly training your body with water treatments.
Temperature regime
The irritations caused by exposure to temperature have different effects on the body:
small – activate vital functions; properly dosed medium – strengthen the immune system; excessive – harm
The degree of irritation depends on which areas of the body are exposed to water and for how long, when and whether procedures are performed regularly, and what is the difference between water and body temperatures. Thus, at a relatively high initial body temperature, cold irritation is not as unpleasant as when cold water gets on cold skin.
They usually affect the body with water according to a certain scheme and precisely dosed. In hydrotherapy, the following characteristics of the temperature of the water used and the degree of irritation caused by it are accepted.
In addition, it is necessary that the body generates enough heat in advance, and the temperature of the internal organs does not have time to drop during cold exposure, which is fraught with inflammatory processes. Therefore, Kneipp's patients, at his insistence, always warmed up their bodies before the cold procedure, for example by chopping firewood or warm water.
