Safe Usage of WarmBath and Thermal Therapy for Good Health Based on Physiological Changes

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  • 安全な温熱の利用と健康の喜び
  • アンゼン ナ オンネツ ノ リヨウ ト ケンコウ ノ ヨロコビ

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Abstract

In Japan, we have been using hot-bathing or hyperthermia for keeping our good health. Warm bathing-related unexpected deaths, however, are high among older people in winter. We review the safe bathing for older people and safe thermal therapies for patients with heart failure as well as those with end-stage cancers. In hot-bathing experiments, we assessed the different changes of skin and rectal temperatures, blood pressures, pulse rates, body fluid loss (sweat and urine), and subjective thermal sensation between older and young volunteers, imitating the hot-bathing in winter. In this experiment, the rectal temperature were significantly lower in the elderly than in the young, and skin temperature during the post-bathing period decreased gradually only in the elderly. Pulse rates increased just after entering 42℃-water and decreased during bathing in the elderly but not in the young. Systolic blood pressure also immediately increased just after entering 42℃-water and decreased during bathing in the both but its changes were larger in the elderly. Thus, the cardiac load (pulse rate ×systolic blood pressure) increased in the elderly. The young kept increasing heart rate during bathing but did not show significant increase of blood pressure. The elderly also reported feeling less warm after 42℃ bathing, and less cold during the post-bathing period after 39℃ bathing. These results suggest that hot water-bathing during cold seasons might induce more serious physiological changes in older people. Compared with the young, the elderly are more likely to drop blood pressure in response to thermal stress and subjective responses of the elderly were unclear. Thermal therapy has been used as adjuvant therapy in heart failure patients as well as cancer patients. We introduced the results of our leg thermal therapy (LTT) as a convenient, safe, and effective thermal therapy for heart failure patients. After this introduction, we also present the safe way for performing hyperthermia for cancer patients.

Journal

  • 福岡醫學雜誌

    福岡醫學雜誌 111 (2), 61-68, 2020-06-25

    Fukuoka Medical Association

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