Traditional Hydrotherapy

from Hydrothermic Remedies...

Full Fever Therapy

Procedure:

• Raise body temperature to 38.5-39.5, oral
• Duration: 30min to 4hours daily, depends on temperature...
• The hotter the temperature the shorter the treatment.

Before Treatments:-

• Therapeutic Diet high in salt
• Cleansing Enema the night before treatment
• Fast before treatment but push fluids

Treatment:-

• ½ - 2 hours, longer is better if tolerated, but in practice, 30min, when high body temperature is reached is sufficient.
• Rectal temperature to 41°C
• Pulse should not go above 130
• Drink 500cc (2 glasses) of saline water per hour (2 level teaspoons of salt per litre of water)
• Resume regular activities 24 hours after finished

Practical Home Fever Therapy:

Equipment:

• Two sheets
• Two Towels
• large Cold Compress or 3 smaller ones
• Oral Thermometer
• At least 4 litres of ice water and a dipper

Procedure:

• Follow the basics listed above
• Take pulse and oral temperature frequently
• Proceed slowly for the first few treatments so that the patient becomes used to it.
• full Hot Tub Bath 38°C quickly as possible raise to 44°C (this may not be until a later treatment)
• Have patient visit the toilet before entering the bath
• Apply large Cold Compress to head on entering
• Keep water temperature at 44°C until oral temperature is at 39.5°C or required. This may take 10-15 min.
• Apply cloths to knees, if exposed wet with bath water.

When 39.5°C oral is reached:

• do not add any more hot water
• Instead of changing Cold Compress, continuously dribble ice water over it with a dipper. This will make the patient feel much more comfortable.
• Continue for 20-30min. 20 minutes is usually enough.

To finish:

• Pull the plug
• Dribble water on head and body until patient can stand and get out of the tub.
• If they are very weak make the time less and lift out of tub.
• Dry quickly and have patient lie down with body covered and Cold Compress on head for 30 min.
• 5 times a week for 3 weeks.

EFFECTS:-

• Kills microbes for:-Infections
• Enhance Immune response for infections

from Dr GK Abbott's Prescriptions...

see Physical Therapy in Nursing Care pp 182-189

Sweating and Revulsive Treatments are "mild" therapeutic fever

"Therapeutic fever is severe and unpleasant treatment."

Indications

Where therapeutic fever has been shown to be of definite value:

• Gonorrhoea and its complication
• Syphilis of the central nervous system
• Sydenham's Chorea in children
• Asthma - about 50% of cases are helped
• Rheumatoid Arthritis - in younger cases and use milder heat
• Brucellosis - in individuals with higher BMAT titers

Diseases that give some promise of benefit:

• Acute or chronic Neuritis
• Herpes Zoster
• Meningococcal Meningitis
• Chronic Ulcerative Colitis
• Parkinson's Disease
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Tularemia
• Some skin diseases