Weight bath

Weight bath

Weight bath is an underwater treatment, which aims to lenghten the vertebrae from one another, thus stretching the spinal column. The stretching process renders the restoration of the original and healthy condition of the discs possible. Weight bath is a painless treatment as the elevating power of water brings the body in a relaxed state, and the weights stretch the spinal column in a most indulgent way. During the treatment, the guests are anchored on the neck and/or under the arms, practically hanging in the water while different weights of 2, 3 or 5 kilograms – depending on the state of the disease – are fixed on the back and/or the ankles.

 

Weights applied in the weight bath may be attached to the body in 3 different ways:

  • one point (neck only)
  • 2-points (under the arms)
  • 3-points (neck and under the arms)

The weight must be fixed to the patient’s body as instructed by the medical doctor, with a maximum of 20 kilograms at a time.
Duration of treatment
: 20 minutes
Water temperature: indifferent (34-35°C)

Indications:

  • relieving spinal discs and nerve roots under pressure
  • decreasing muscle cramps
  • reducing taenia and muscle atrophy

Contraindications:

  • Cardiovascular diseases
  • high temperature, infectious diseases
  • acute musculoskeletal diseases
  • vertebral slippage
  • malignancy
  • after disc surgery for 6 weeks

Where did the weight-bath start from?

It is likely that the diseases of the spine had been attempted to cure by pulling even before the times of Hippocrates. It was dr. Moll Károly who pioneered the use of the underwater pulling weight-bath. He published his essay on it in 1953. The head physician’s idea to use pulling during bathing in the lake came from the various ‘reconditioning’ methods.
The weight-bath does not only mean the stretching of the spine, but it is a hydrotherapy as well. In the hot medicinal water the efficiency of the treatment is significantly increased. This treatment is one of the Hungarian rheumatology’s greatest discoveries of practical importance.

Are you interested in the work of the weight-bath in practice?

The parameters of a weight-bath treatment, the time, the applied weight, are always determined by the physician. The weight-bath can only be available on medical advice. The treatments are carried out by gradual loading according to the parameters. The patients hang on a neck or armpit support.
In case of a cervical treatment the patient hangs on cervical stocks, the tension is given by the weight of the body reduced by the buoyancy of the water. If the lower spinal segments are treated, weights from 3 even to 10 kilos are used. The treatments of the knee and hip are carried out with an armpit support by putting weight on the ankles. The duration of the treatments is from 10 to 20 minutes on the average.