The Science of Using Water in Common Ailments—Simple Applications Will Give Marked Results
By Daniel H. Kress, M. D.
WATER is one of the most important elements found in nature, since it enters so largely into the composition of every structure of the body. A sufficient quantity should be taken daily to maintain the fluidity of the blood and cleanse the tissues of the body. During warm weather, the skin is more active in the elimination of poisons. Sensible and insensible perspiration takes place more freely, the amount of liquid thrown off from the skin averaging from one to three quarts daily. This moisture has to be supplied to the body in order that digestion, circulation, assimilation, and elimination may be carried forward. Normal thirst is simply nature’s call for the needed liquid. Nothing but water can satisfy this need; and the purer the water, the better.
Water is also capable of holding in solution dissolved food elements, thus making it possible for them to be conveyed to the tissues of the body, where they are utilized in the production of energy and for the repair of tissue. Water also makes possible the elimination of the organic impurities that are constantly formed in the body.
WATER IN CONTROLLING TEMPERATURE
Externally, water may be employed for the purpose of communicating heat to or abstracting heat from the body. No other agency of nature can be more effectively employed in controlling the temperature of the body. By its wise application externally and internally, the temperature of the body may be reduced when too high, as in fevers, or increased when too low, as in collapse or fatigue.
To relieve pain, it has no equal if intelligently applied. Most of our common diseases or painful symptoms are due to congestion. No other agency can be so effectively employed in equalizing the circulation. Pain in the muscles or joints is usually due to pressure or tension upon the nerves from an excess of blood in the parts. Heat applied to the skin over the painful area draws the blood to the periphery, and often instantly relieves the internal congestion, and causes a disappearance of the unpleasant symptoms.
RELIEVING CRAMPS AND CONVULSIONS
Cramps, convulsions in children, extreme pain during menstruation in women, or pain in the abdomen associated with indigestion, are nearly always due to internal congestion, and may readily be relieved by drawing the blood from the congested organs to the surface. A hot full bath answers admirably.
A very large proportion of the applications of water made locally to the surface of the body in the form of douches, fomentations, etc., are for the purpose of equalizing the circulation and relieving congestion. The skin is reflexly connected with the interior of the body, each portion of the skin being connected through nerves and nerve centers with some special organ. The vessels of these organs may be caused to dilate or contract by applications to the skin areas with which they are associated.
WATER APPLICATIONS
Fortunately, this treatment is not complicated. Any one with ordinary intelligence may in a short time become sufficiently wise in the use of this agency to get results. The liver is associated with the skin area of the lower right chest; the stomach, with the area overlying it; the bowels, with the skin area of the abdomen; the bladder, with the skin area immediately over it. The lungs are associated with the skin area of the chest. It will be seen from this that to influence any organ, it is merely necessary to make the application to the skin immediately overlying the organ.
We secure the same results in the organ internally that we do in the skin overlying it. For instance, the application of heat to the skin areas dilates the blood vessels of the skin, and also the organ internally; while the application of cold contracts the blood vessels of the skin, and likewise the internal vessels. When there exists internal congestion of the liver, the stomach, the bladder, or the kidneys, the function of the organ is in a measure destroyed. Sluggish circulation of the blood through the viscera is probably the principal cause of biliousness, indigestion, kidney diseases, etc. Naturally, the improved circulation of life-imparting arterial blood through these organs, and the removal of wastes, will improve the function of the organs.
TO AID DIGESTION
The intelligent use of water readily aids in improving the digestion, and marvelously revives the sluggish liver, and it exerts a toning influence upon the constipated bowels. Water cures by establishing natural conditions.
The wonderful influence of water upon the internal organs can be better understood by noting the reviving influence of a dash of cold water to the face of a fainting man, or a dash of cold water to the face in the morning in getting rid of drowsiness. This is brought about by the improved circulation of blood through the brain. The brain is reflexly connected with the skin area of face, head, and neck. Cold applications to the face or the neck quicken the circulation of blood through the brain. The beneficial and reviving influence of a short cold application of water to the entire body in the early morning sends the blood bounding on its mission through every organ, carrying new life and courage to each.
The use of alternating hot and cold local douches is of special value in chronic visceral diseases, the application of heat causing dilatation of the blood vessels of the viscera, and the application of cold, contraction. The influence of the repetition of the hot and cold applications upon the liver may be compared to dipping a sponge laden with impurities into water, and then squeezing it, then dipping it again, and again squeezing it. By continuing this for a time, the sponge may be cleansed. In a similar manner, internal organs, when sluggish and laden with organic impurities, may be cleansed, and repair and restoration may be hastened.
Many a chronic dyspeptic who has regarded his condition as hopeless, has had the satisfaction of seeing himself respond to the intelligent application of water, when combined with the correction of dietetic errors, which were responsible for the condition.
Hydrotherapy, regulated exercises and diet, are usually successful in chronic diseases after all other measures have failed.
A FEW THINGS THAT WATER WILL DO
A very cold compress, as a thick folded towel or a mass of cheesecloth, applied to the head and the face, will relieve headache when the head is hot. The hair should be wet, and if the case is obstinate, apply an ice collar round the neck.
A cold compress applied to the abdomen in typhoid fever during the entire course of the disease will prevent ulceration and hemorrhage in nearly every case. The compress should cover the whole abdomen, should be wet in water at 60° F., and must be changed every twenty or forty minutes, according to the degree of fever, or as often as it becomes well warmed.
For weak or failing heart, apply a cold compress over the heart (60° F.) for fifteen or twenty minutes, and repeat every hour.
For inflammation of the lung, apply a cold compress (60° F.) over the whole part of the chest and the affected side, and change every fifteen to twenty minutes, or when well warmed. Apply a fomentation for ten minutes once in two or three hours, or oftener if pleurisy pain is present.
For cold in the head, with sneezing, and running at the nose, wet the hair, and put on an oil muslin or mackintosh bathing cap to be worn overnight.
For a severe pain due to inflammation in the hand or the finger, immerse the elbow in cold water.
For a sleepless man who has too much blood in his head, there is nothing better than a bath at 92° F. for thirty minutes, and a wet girdle to be worn during the night. The girdle is a towel long enough to reach once and a half around the body, wrung158dry out of cold water, and covered so that it will warm up quickly, with a thick woolen bandage.
For a “crick in the back,” a large fomentation applied at bedtime and followed by a towel wrung out of cold water and covered warm with flannel to remain overnight, affords relief.
For pain in the eyeball, apply a light fomentation over the eye and the forehead just above the eye, not the cheek.
For colic pain, give a hot enema, apply a fomentation, and afterward a wet girdle for an hour. Repeat this procedure if necessary.
Pain in the pelvis is almost always relieved by a very hot foot bath, which relieves the congestion by diverting the blood into the legs.
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