The Herbal Medicine-Maker's Handbook_ A Home Manual - James Green [140]
The hot immersion bath is probably most useful for producing powerful eliminative effects primarily through increased sweating. This bath is taken at 104° F. and above for 10 minutes. When followed by a dry pack, this bath is very efficient for promoting intense sweating. A dry pack consists of completely enveloping a person after a hot bath in a cotton sheet and warm dry blankets; the head only is excluded. A cool damp cloth should be placed on the person’s forehead.
The hot bath is also a powerful derivative in that it can draw blood and other fluids from one part of the body to relieve congestion in another. I’ve read a number of reports where this has been used successfully in treating bronchitis and bronchial pneumonia in children; it relieves the overfilled vessels of the lungs by congesting the vessels of the skin and muscles. This effect is manifested very quickly as the child’s coughing stops and the breathing becomes easier. The child is placed in a bath of 104° to 106° F. and removed as soon as there is a strong reddening of the skin. This can be done 2 to 4 times within a 24-hour span as necessary. The child may be placed in the bath up to the pit of the stomach while cool water is gently poured over the upper part of the body.
The hot immersion bath has proved itself valuable in relieving suppressed menstruation and amenorrhea (the absence of the menses). This bath is administered at the time menstruation is due at 101° to 105° F. for a half hour or more. This may be repeated twice a day for two or three days in succession. A hot bath taken at 102° to 112° F. for 15 minutes is also an effective measure for dysmenorrhea (difficult and painful menstruation) with scanty flow. And the hot bath may also be administered in painful menstruation when the flow is profuse, but when using it for this purpose it should be of a short duration of only 3 or 4 minutes at a temperature of 105° to 110° F.
The hot immersion bath is probably most useful for producing powerful eliminative effects primarily through increased sweating.
Heat is primarily an excitant. The secondary effect of heat is depressant, manifested by the body’s atonic reaction to it. This is the reverse of the tonic reaction of cold water.
The very hot bath above 104° F. for 5 to 7 minutes followed by rubbing the chest and body with a coarse towel or some other type of friction device relieves congestion of the mucous membrane when dealing with chronic bronchitis. If this condition is complicated with asthma, this technique generally affords prompt relief. Following this, the individual should be gently cooled and oil rubbed on the skin.
For relieving the discomforts of chronic rheumatism, the hot bath at 102 to 106° F. can be quite helpful. Rubbing the joints with a coarse cloth or with the hands and massaging the joints during the bath aids the circulatory reaction and increases the bath’s beneficial effect. A prolonged tepid shower is recommended following this hot bath.
In muscular rheumatism, the hot bath relieves the pain by encouraging the elimination of the toxins that are the source of the condition and by relieving congestion with its derivative effects.
In gastric and intestinal colic, stomach and intestinal pain are quickly relieved by the very hot bath up to 110° F. for 10 to 15 minutes.
The hot bath is also valuable as a palliative measure in cases of gallstones and kidney stones.
The pain of cystitis or inflammation of the bladder is diminished by taking a very hot bath of 104° F. and above, but this condition is aggravated by cold, so the gradual cooling to a neutral temperature is imperative. Other measures (herbal nutrition and emotional upliftment) are well used concurrently to remove the causes of the inflammation.
Heat prepares the skin for cold applications, rendering them