Through the ages, water has been identified with magic, miracles, humanity’s loftiest spiritual aspirations, and healing. Humankind, yearning to defeat aging and death, continually searches for a “Fountain of Youth.” The healing miracles of a Lourdes come from a divinely blessed spring of water; the Bible is soaked with miracles associated with water. Babies are welcomed into the world by a baptism of water, and the dead are prepared for their entry into another world by being washed with water. Most religions use water to cleanse, sanctify, and purify. It has become an important symbol and carrier of culture from the Roman baths, the Japanese communal baths, to that American miracle of plumbing—the modern bathroom.
Water and life are synonymous. Life cannot be sustained without water. We can live for five weeks without food, but for only one week without water; hence, we have had to build our homes, farms, cities, and industries near water. The use of water for healing, as well as for drinking, cleansing, and luxury, has existed for thousands of years.
In my own career, hydrotherapy—which is the science of the application of water in all its forms for healing and health—is associated with some of my most memorable experiences.
During the 1940s, my wife and I had a vacation home in Key West, Florida, where we had become close friends of Jessie Porter (Mrs. E.L.) Newton, the grande dame of the Florida resort founded and developed by her ancestors. Mrs. Newton’s home was a center for visiting artists, writers, musicians, and intellectuals from every field—the creative elite of the country.
One day she called me to hurry over to “fix the back” of one of her guests. The man was in his later years with a shock of thick, graying hair. He was very quiet and reserved during the treatment, and I did not know until it was over that I had been treating the famous poet, Robert Frost. I treated him three or four times until his back was well again. He was a very good patient—a shy, modest man. On another occasion, I treated John Dewey at Jessie’s home.
In another instance, Jessie summoned me on a sunny winter’s day shortly after I had arrived from New York. She had taken an interest in a fourteen-year-old boy paralyzed from birth by spina bifida (a birth defect in which there is incomplete fusion of the spinal cord). In addition, this boy had been born with his feet bent backward, and the doctors had had to cut the tendons at birth to bring his legs down. He was doomed never to walk. He lived in virtual isolation, shut away from life in his rooms, cared for by attendants. Jessie, stirred by his plight, determined to do something about the boy’s tragedy. Her first maneuver was to persuade his family to bring the boy to vacation in Key West.
The boy (let’s call him David, though it’s not his real name) was little short of a vegetable; his wasted body belied his age. Worst of all, the lackluster eyes announced that he had long since abandoned the will to live. This was more than a medical case, and I am sure it was only the stubborn spirit of Jessie Porter Newton that kept me from shaking my head hopelessly as other doctors before me had done and leaving the bright, sunny room in her home to which she had had the boy transported from Kentucky.
“Now, Harold, I just know you can do something for this boy.” Jessie’s voice was honey-sweet, but there was iron will in the tone. I don’t know whether it was my desire to please her or guidance from the Greater Intelligence that moves us to the creative inspiration that produces works of art, music, literature, and new discoveries in science. In any case, I had an inspiration right then and there—and I scooped the boy up in my arms, walked down to the beach, and straight into the water with him. The waters of the Gulf and the area surrounding Key West are gentle, warm, and healing. Later, I recalled that Cayce had advised Tom Sugrue to settle in Clearwater and bathe in the Gulf—this, after Tom was paralyzed.
“It was a miracle, a real miracle like out of the Bible,” Jessie told Mrs. Brod when she was interviewed. “Harold picked that boy up in his arms and literally carried him to the ocean and into life.
“What he did was motivate the boy—gave him a reason to want to live,” Mrs. Newton recalled. “He told him, ‘Son, everyone has limitations—sort of handicaps. Now the only thing you can’t be is a professional athlete. But you can be a doctor, a lawyer, judge, senator—anything you want to be. And you’re going to go to college.’
“Well, Doctor Harold taught the boy to swim and to exercise, to develop his upper body first in the ocean and then out of it. He taught David’s male attendant how to massage, manipulate, and exercise him, too.”
The boy began to make splendid progress, but there was still one great handicap to overcome. Like all paraplegics, he could not control his eliminative functions. This is the most demoralizing aspect of most handicapped men and women.
Then another inspiration hit me. I would use ice-water packs on David’s groin and lower abdomen to shock the autonomic nervous system, which controls involuntary muscles, to contract with shock—and perhaps in time, like Pavlov’s dogs, they would react. I told David’s kindly attendant, who had become very interested in all the new therapy techniques, to watch the boy virtually twenty-four hours a day. Whenever any involuntary action of the bladder or bowels took place, he was to slap an ice-cold pack on the boy’s groin and lower abdomen. For that purpose, we kept beside the bed a basin filled with ice water and ice cubes, with a pack cloth soaking in it.
It took months of devotion and training, but the method worked. David was still paralyzed from the waist down, but the muscles receiving signals from the autonomic nervous system contracted as they would in a normal person. Eventually David was able to go on to college. He learned to use braces and canes, drive a car, move about, and lead a near-normal life.
I have since used this system of ice-water packs on a number of paraplegic patients with equal success. All that is required is the devotion of some member of the family who is willing to work with the handicapped person. I used it recently on a Vietnamese veteran whose spine had been severed and on a young man paralyzed by an automobile accident who is now studying law; on Lenny Contino, whose story I related in an earlier chapter; and on others.
When I carried David into the sea, I was unconsciously emulating Hippocrates, the Greek father of modern medicine, who back in the fifth century B.C., it is said, made much use of the salubrious waters of the sea surrounding his island in the treatment of his patients. We do know that he advised boiling water before drinking it, putting him well in advance of the rest of the world by many centuries, and that he wrote extensively on the use of water, internally and externally, in the treatment of disease.
Archimedes, the Greek mathematician who lived around 212 B.C., discovered the important principle now bearing his name—that a body wholly or partly immersed in a fluid is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the fluid displaced.
This principle would one day, centuries later, lead an American president (Franklin D. Roosevelt), crippled with polio, to found a rehabilitation center in Warm Springs, Georgia. The Archimedean principle has had an important bearing on the future development of hydrotherapy treatment for physically handicapped patients.
Galen, a Roman physician of the second century A.D., also advised that water be boiled, then cooled before drinking. He was a firm advocate of the baths so popular in Rome, and used them with friction, or massage, and exercise to effect his famous cures.
Emperor Augustus of Rome is said to have been one of the first and most famous of the patients who recovered through a water cure when all other therapies failed, further popularizing the Roman baths, of which at one time there were 850 in Rome alone.
During the Middle Ages, bathing and water fell into great disrepute, for reasons it would take a historian to chronicle, although the plagues may have been partly responsible. On the other side of the still-uncrossed Atlantic, the American Indians were using baths to cure many diseases and had developed into a high art vapor baths similar to Cayce’s fume baths, usually followed by plunging into a cold stream. In the fifteenth century, the Turks in Constantinople constructed marvelous baths and popularized the hot-air bath, which is still popularly called the “Turkish bath.”
Water Therapy in Ancient History
The use of water as therapy for healing has existed for thousands of years. Baths and remedies are mentioned in Sanskrit as early as 4000 B.C. The White Lama told me that he found a description of water therapy in old Tibetan writings. The Babylonians, Egyptians, Cretans, and the Persians all used baths and water therapy extensively, long before the Romans inscribed their history on the architecture of their luxurious baths, which they left all over Europe and Africa. In Crete, one may see in the restoration of the ancient ruins of Knossos indoor bathrooms and the equivalent of modern plumbing systems with intricate drains for bringing in fresh water and flushing out the used water. The Spartans of Greece immersed newborn babies in ice-cold water to immunize them against disease and to toughen them.—H.J.R.
John Wesley on Good Health
Observe all the time the greatest exactness in your regimen or manner of living. Abstain from all mixed drinks, from all highly seasoned food. Use plain diet, easy of digestion; and this as sparingly as you can consistent with ease and strength. Drink water only if it agrees with your stomach. Sup at six or seven, on the lightest food. Go to bed early and rise betimes [early]. To persevere with steadfastness in this course is often more than half the cure. Above all add to the rest, for it is not labor lost, that old-fashioned medicine, Prayer, and have faith in God.
—John Wesley
In 1776, John Wesley, the famous evangelist and founder of the Methodist Church, published his famous Primitive Physick Easy and Natural Method of Curing Most Diseases. Wesley used cold-water bathing for curing over seventy diseases and used it as part of therapy in 200 diseases. He wrote, “Cold bathing is of great advantage to health. It prevents abundance of diseases. It promotes perspiration, helps the circulation of the blood, and prevents the danger of catching cold.”
Father Sebastian Kneipp cured Archduke Joseph of Austria of Bright’s disease in 1892 with his water cure.—H.J.R.
Father Sebastian Kneipp cured Archduke Joseph of Austria of Bright’s disease in 1892 with his water cure.
At the dawn of the nineteenth century Vincent Priesnitz, an uneducated farmer’s son in Austria, was crippled in a bad accident when he was only seventeen years old. He cured himself with water treatments. His own success, later practiced on neighboring farmers and their animals, led him, at the age of thirty, to establish a “water cure.” His fame spread, and when royalty and government and national leaders came to him for help, the “water cure” became the “in” thing in Europe, and similar cures sprang up wherever there was a “spring” whose magical properties could be used to cure or at least comfort the sick. Priesnitz’s effort won the backing of the Austrian government.
In the United States, hydrotherapy attained great popularity through the efforts of Dr. Simon Baruch, father of the famous financier and presidential adviser, Bernard Baruch. Dr. Baruch wrote and published The Principles and Practice of Hydrotherapy in 1899 and the Epitome of Hydrotherapy in 1920. Equally important was the work of Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, who opened the Battle Creek Sanitarium in 1876 to pioneer in dietetic and hygienic drugless treatment. Dr. Kellogg did a great deal to establish hydrotherapy as a scientific system in this country, along with diet, exercise, and electrotherapy. In 1900 Dr. Kellogg published Rational Hydrotherapy, a comprehensive 1,100-page work. He invented the cabinet heated with electric-light bulbs, and today I am still using one of the first models to give the Cayce fume baths.
Water, in its multitudinous uses, variations, and effects, is unparalleled as a therapeutic agent. It is as fluid in application as its own nature. It can relax, stimulate, relieve pain, heal, and purify the body internally and externally. It functions in a manner that cannot be duplicated by any other modality, with maximum stimulation of the body’s own healing powers and a minimum of aftereffects. Its very naturalness and flexibility make it possible to adapt this therapy to any degree of delicacy or strength of application dictated by the patient’s condition. It is readily available (or was until we polluted it) and it is cheap.
Hydrotherapy is the science of the application of waters to the human body for the cure or prevention of disease, correction of physical and mental disorders, and maintenance and improvement of general health. Water can be used in three different forms: as a liquid; as a solid, or ice; or as a gas, that is, steam or vapor
The application of water may be external or internal. It can be used for simple cleansing; for internal cleansing, orally or rectally; for stimulation of the circulation by alternate hot and cold water; for relaxation in a tepid bath; for massage by pressure or percussion; for healing action by various combinations of the various hydrotherapeutic modalities; and to relieve pain with heat or extreme cold (as ice).
Water can by conduction carry either heat or cold to the body: warm baths for relaxation; hot baths to relieve the pains of arthritis and rheumatism, neuritis, and gout; short cold baths for stimulation and to conquer fatigue; sitz baths to stimulate and prolong sexual activity. The effect of these baths, especially the hot baths, can be increased by adding salts and chemicals such as sulphur, pine, Epsom and other salts, etc. Water for internal cleansing introduced into the body by drinking, colonics, enemas, and douches is one of the most powerful therapeutic tools in nature’s armamentarium. Vapor and steam baths given to stimulate elimination directly through the skin, lungs, and kidneys can be made more effective by the addition of chemicals to the vapor.
While ice is not used as commonly as liquid water and vapor, it has a definite therapeutic place. We apply it in short applications for stimulation, to increase circulation or to increase muscular tone. It is used in fever to cool the head and neck; to relieve headache or head pressure; as first-aid for burns and injuries; to control inflammation; and sometimes, in severe infection, to slow the circulation, thus inhibiting the action of pathogenic bacteria.
While my idea of using ice-water packs as I did on David and other paraplegics may have been original, at least so far as I have been able to discover, the use of cold compresses and packs, hot fomentations, or cloths soaked in herbal, oil, or chemical or mineral substances is as old as drugless therapy and has always had an important place in healing.
In Water f or Health and Healing, Dr. Frederick M. Rossiter states, “The skin on a human being is the largest, heaviest organ of the body. It takes about 17 square feet of skin to cover the average man or woman . . . the entire skin is one great sentient membrane of closely knit nervous and vascular tissues. Thus, water therapy can aid the entire system.
“It has been estimated that in one square inch of true skin there are several millions of cells of various tissues, several feet of minute blood tubes, a dozen feet of nerve fibres, one hundred sweat glands, and a score of oil glands.”1
Thus it is easy to understand why applications to the skin of water at varying temperatures and in its various forms can affect many parts of the body.
Edgar Cayce was a strong believer in the virtues of hydrotherapy and frequently prescribed it in some form or combination, as you have read in previous chapters. In fact, a survey carried out by the Cayce headquarters of 670 persons treated over a two-year period revealed that Cayce had advised one or more forms of hydrotherapy 109 times—the third most frequently prescribed therapy.
This is what he told David Kahn about the need for hydrotherapy:
What Is Hydrotherapy?
Hydrotherapy is the science of the application of waters to the human body for the cure or prevention of disease, correction of physical and mental disorders, and maintenance and improvement of general health. Water can be used in three different forms: as a liquid; as a solid, or ice; or as a gas, that is, steam or vapor.—H.J.R.
(Q) How often should the hydrotherapy be given?
(A) Dependent upon the general conditions. Whenever there is a sluggishness, the feeling of heaviness, oversleepiness, the tendency for an achy, draggy feeling, then have the treatments. This does not mean that merely because there is the daily activity of the alimentary canal there is not need for flushing the system. But whenever there is the feeling of sluggishness, have the treatments. It’ll pick the body up. For there is a need for such treatments when the condition of the body becomes drugged because of absorption of poisons through alimentary canal or colon, sluggishness of liver or kidneys, and there is the lack of coordination with the cerebrospinal and sympathetic blood supply and nerves. For the hydrotherapy and massage are preventive as well as curative measures. For the cleansing of the system allows the body forces themselves to function normally and thus eliminate poisons, congestions and conditions that would become acute through the body. [Italics added.] (257-254)
To another individual he explained it as follows:
As we find for this body, the Hydrotherapy Bath would be well; which would be to lie in great quantity or a tub of water for a long period—this being kept a little above the temperature of the body; then followed by a thorough massage by a masseuse. This would be better than adjustments or deep treatments, though it will be found that with the massage along the spine, with the body prone upon the face, these would—with the knuckle on either side of the spinal column—tend to make many a segment come nearer to normalcy, by being so treated after having been thoroughly relaxed for twenty to thirty minutes in the warm or hot water, see? (635-9)
Some disturbances are indicated in the digestive forces of the body. These are from lack of proper eliminations even though there are regularities . . . the eliminations need to be increased from these angles. This may be done in no better manner than by having colonic irrigations occasionally and by including in the diet such things as figs, rhubarb and the like.
Hydrotherapy and physical exercise, combined with these, should bring the better conditions for the body. These are the manners in which the body, or any individual body may keep better activities. (4003-1)
In reading 2602-2, Cayce explains further:
As indicated—see—there are channels or outlets for the eliminating of poisons; that is, used energies, where there is the effect of the activity of the circulation upon foreign forces . . . These all, by the segregating of same in the system, produce forces which are to be eliminated. We eliminate principally through the activity of the lungs, of course, and the perspiratory system, the alimentary canal and the kidneys . . . The headaches are the signs or warnings that eliminations are not being properly cared for. Most of this, in this body, comes from the alimentary canal, and from those conditions that exist in portions of the colon itself, as to produce a pressure upon [these]. . . Hence the suggestion for the osteopathic corrections, which aid but which do not eliminate all of these conditions which are as accumulations through portions of the colon. Consequently, colonic irrigations are necessary occasionally, as well as general hydrotherapy and massage.
Cayce at various times recommended for the patients he sent to the Reilly Health Service bubble baths; Epsom salt baths; Finnish baths; foot baths; fume baths (given with a variety of aromatic substances such as Atomidine, witch hazel, etc.); hot-mustard (foot) baths; pine-needle-oil baths; salt-water baths; sand baths; sitz baths; bicarbonate-of-soda baths; sponge baths; steam baths; sun baths; Scotch douche; and Turkish and sal-soda baths, among the hundred-odd baths that we featured at the institute.
Fume or vapor baths and colonics were prescribed more frequently than any other modality—often in tandem and combined with castor oil packs and massage to effect thorough cleansing of the system and removal of toxins. Colonics and castor oil packs will be discussed in detail in the next chapter.
Cayce also made liberal use of tub baths, especially those with Epsom salts or aromatic substances added. And during his lifetime, when the Reilly Institute was flourishing, he also frequently recommended our bubble baths (alone or with aromatic oil of pine), needle showers, and Scotch douche. The bubble bath, by the way, had no relationship to the effervescent soap bubbles in which many women like to luxuriate, but was a device for forcing air bubbles into the water, simulating a gentle massage. The whirlpool bath has a similar function and is used chiefly for relaxation and to stimulate circulation.
However, since this book is designed to help you stay healthy and fit at home, we will stick to those beneficial procedures that you can manage comfortably in your own bathroom.
Let us first turn our attention to the most common use of water—for drinking. To a patient suffering from toxemia (and that probably applies to everyone in modern life), Cayce had this to say:
Drink plenty of water at all times—and preferably—no matter where the water may be taken from—boil the water before it is used; then cool and add ice to same, around rather than in it. (515-1)
Drink plenty of water. No stimulants, as tea or coffee . . .
The care of the body in general—keeping plenty of water for the system, internal and external. . . will build the body to its normal resistance. (583-4)
In general I would recommend six to eight glasses of water for the average person each day unless he/she is suffering from a specific illness in which this is contraindicated or where more may be desirable.
Try to use spring water or distilled water for drinking and check to see that the brand you buy is what the label claims—not bottled tap water. Ice should also be made from sterile water. You can also take fluids in the form of herb teas.
In an interesting case that Cayce diagnosed as arising from poor assimilation and elimination, he analyzed the importance of water as an aid to digestion and assimilation:
Edgar Cayce on Water
In the matter of diet for the body—these, we find, are quite varied under circumstances and conditions over which the body often hasn’t the control [due to being a traveling man?]. Most of all, train self never to bolt the food. Take time to assimilate, masticate, so that assimilation is well—and we will find that with these kept, with an even balance between those that produce acid and those that make for the alkaline, if well balanced will digest under most all circumstances. Well to drink always plenty of water, before meals and after meals—for, as has oft been given, when any food value enters the stomach immediately the stomach becomes a storehouse, or a medicine chest, that may create all the elements necessary for proper digestion within the system. If this first is acted upon by aqua pura, the reactions are more near normal. Well, then, each morning upon first arising, to take a half to three-quarters of a glass of warm water; not so hot that it is objectionable, not so tepid that it makes for sickening—but this will clarify the system of poisons. This well especially for this body. Occasionally a pinch of salt should be added to this draught of water. (311-4)
One of the most enthusiastic devotees of the Reilly Health Institute and physical fitness was the previously mentioned David Dubinsky, who headed the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. I had the honor and pleasure of taking care of him personally for over forty-five years. He was deeply interested in health programs for his workers. In fact, when he autographed his book for me, he wrote, “A healthy worker is a good worker.”
One day he asked me to drive with him to Bushkill Falls, Pennsylvania, where Unity Camp, which was to serve as a vacation and health spa for union workers, was adding new buildings. Mr. Dubinsky asked me if I would be willing to work with their architect on the design for the baths, steam rooms, massage rooms, gym, and other physical-fitness facilities. They adopted some of the ideas I gave them.
I suggested they face the steam and treatment rooms with glass blocks on the sunny side of the building so that sunlight could illuminate the rooms during daylight hours. Then we installed fluorescent lighting in such a way that it would illuminate, not reflect. We arranged the layout so that the massage therapists could look through portholes into the steam rooms while they were working, in order to keep an eye on everybody there; therefore, in case someone fainted or was overcome by the heat, he or she could be taken out immediately. This was an important safety precaution.
The highest heat in a Turkish bath or sauna is always at the top of the room. People generally sit or lie on the bottom or middle tiers, and when they stand up, as their head reaches the hottest layer of air, they can faint, especially if there is a tendency to a cardiovascular condition that they are not aware of.
There had been some accidents in New York City Turkish baths, resulting in several fatalities at one of the most famous institutions. A man had fainted and no one had missed him or looked for him. When the attendants returned in the morning, they found him on the floor—dead. A similar fatal accident happened to another man in a steam room at one of the famous hotels in New York City.
It is always most important to take proper precautions and to have someone around when using extreme heat—whether in tub baths, steam, or sauna. This is one of the reasons I prefer the sweat cabinets, where the head is exposed to the air.
A factor of absolute and prime importance in hydrotherapy is the different reaction that can be induced by changing from one temperature to another. We can use water at Fahrenheit temperatures of 40-120 degrees. The extremes are rarely used, but there are unlimited possibilities for the therapeutic effects in this wide range, with the added variant of the bath’s duration. Water pressure is another beneficial therapy: Scotch douche, whirlpool, bubble, oxygen, and Nauheim or carbon dioxide baths. Taking these baths at home is difficult, if not impossible; they require expensive modern apparatus. What can be taken at home most effectively, at no cost, are warm baths for relaxation; very hot baths to relieve aches and pains; and short, cold baths for stimulation. The effectiveness of these baths—especially the hot ones—can be increased by adding Glauber’s or Epsom salts; different combinations of sulphur; or herbs of many descriptions, such as tannin, pine, etc. Hot-air or steam baths are used to stimulate elimination through the skin, for they open the pores and release perspiration. Quite frequently volatile substances such as pine oil, benzoin, eucalyptus, or chlorine are vaporized for inhalation.
For the most effective use of water it is necessary to have a precise knowledge of temperature, both centigrade and Fahrenheit. In the United States we are more familiar with Fahrenheit. The range is 32 degrees, at which water freezes, to 212 degrees, at which it boils. These temperatures apply when you are based at or near sea level.
Temperatures used in tub baths usually run from 55 to 110 degrees. Never neglect using a bath thermometer to determine temperature, for our own judgment of degrees of heat and cold can be very misleading. When taking baths, regulate your room temperature to 68-74 degrees. For active exercise it can be a bit lower, 65 degrees. Tub baths for relaxation are best at 98-100 degrees, taken from ten to thirty minutes, averaging twenty.
Cold High-Energy Bath
The water should be from 40-55 degrees. Cayce recommended some cold baths at 46 degrees; the cool at 65-85 degrees; and tepid 85-95 degrees. The cold bath increases energy and it should be short—about one and a half minutes to begin with, increasing to two or three minutes. It has a tendency to stimulate the heart rate, to increase respiration and metabolism, and is refreshing to the nerves.—H.J.R.
To “soak out” pains and aches, 100-106 degrees are necessary. If you are unaccustomed to very hot baths, I would suggest that you acclimate the body slowly, starting at 101 degrees and carefully graduating up to 104 degrees. Though 108 degrees and higher are very effective, it is best to have someone on call “just in case,” for faintness can overtake the neophyte. Even the Japanese, who “boil out” before they “bail out” at 120 degrees, take these baths in mobs—in public, as it were. These baths have value in raising body temperature, inducing short fever therapy, and cleansing the skin of fungus and vermin. But, to repeat, unless you are thoroughly accustomed through long practice with high bathing temperatures, don’t try for the Lobster Jackpot. The Japanese can take it; they’ve been boiling themselves for centuries. The average hot tub at 102-106 degrees is usually taken from twenty to thirty minutes.
If you are trying to relieve stiffness and soreness, after the bath, don a toweling bathrobe, go to bed, and cover up. If the bath has been very hot, you will continue to perspire. The bed rest can continue from thirty minutes to two hours, depending on your reaction to the bath, how long you continue to perspire, and the degree of your restlessness. If, when you rise, you are still perspiring, dry yourself with a towel and gently rub the entire body with a towel dipped in alcohol or cold water. Then dry again slowly.
Do warm baths before the cold high-energy baths.
Cayce and I both recommended sitz baths extensively and I have found them to be one of the most rewarding uses of water—one that is well worth the trouble. It speeds up circulation and relieves congestion of the glands and the organs of the lower abdomen. It is one of the best methods of invigorating the sex organs and extending their life, especially for men. The cold sitz bath also counteracts fatigue and stimulates elimination. Indirectly, this bath is an aid in relieving headaches and if taken before bedtime has helped many get a good night’s sleep.
In our hydrotherapy department we had two specially built tubs for taking this simple yet wonderfully effective bath. This double-bath intensifies the reaction by quick changes from the hot to the cold tub, sometimes once, twice, or sometimes even three times. But you can also get a very good effect in your own tub at home.
Fill the tub to a depth of six to nine inches of water, up to the navel in sitting position. Have this water at about tap temperature, 60-65 degrees. Cover your shoulders and back with a towel, step into the tub, and (remembering that most accidents happen in bathrooms) sit down! Don’t think it over or rationalize about it, just sit in it. Be sure to brace your feet up out of the water on the inside end of the tub; you can buy or make a metal or plastic foot-rest for this purpose of keeping the feet up and extended above the water. Then count slowly up to sixty, the equivalent of a minute. Carefully rise from the tub and wrap a towel about your middle—the one you had around your shoulders if large enough—or jump into a toweling robe. Then take to bed and freedom from tension for at least thirty minutes, or if it is bedtime, go to sleep. If work or pleasure is calling, take ten or more, then dry off slowly and dress the same way.
When the body is warmed up by exercise, the reaction to the sitz bath is much more effective. In fact, one should never take a cold sitz bath if the body feels cold. You can warm up by exercise or lying in bed under blankets, but if you are not warm enough, in no case take a cold sitz bath. After you have followed this bath program about six times and the reaction is good (that is, the body has a warm, relaxed glow after the bath), you can increase the sitting time to two minutes or a slow count of 120. After the twelfth sitz bath you can increase the count or sit-in time to 180—three minutes. For most people using the home-tub method, this seems to work best for optimum reaction.
Warm Baths
These are used for relaxing (taken at 90-101 degrees for ten to twelve minutes). Quite often Cayce added oil of balsam or pine to these baths for relaxation. Although we do not know what the oils do physiologically, they are pleasant psychologically. Step into a toweling bathrobe and go to bed.
Warm baths lower the blood pressure, dilate the blood vessels, and relax the nerves.—H.J.R.
A substitute for a sitz bath is the alternating, low-back shower bath. Stand with your back to the shower and let the warm water run over the lower back. Bend over a little and “back into” the shower so that the water hits the desired area. Gradually increase the temperature up to the limit of your tolerance, for some three to five minutes. Then turn on the cold, full cold, rather quickly. Let the cold water hit the warm parts for a slow count of forty. When acclimated, you can take it up to twice as long or a count of eighty. After this bath, wrap up in a towel or toweling robe and relax in bed. Any rest from ten minutes up will do a lot of good. If in a hurry to get out, finish up this bath with a cool or cold shower. Then dry slowly, dress slowly, and take off—thoroughly refreshed.
While most of us think of an ordinary shower only as a cleansing procedure, it can and does have a very good circulatory and tonic effect. A long, hot shower followed by a short, cold one is very stimulating to circulation, and it helps relieve fatigue. In changing from hot to cold, avoid having the cold water hit the head or upper part of the body at first; let the cold water first hit the legs or lower abdomen, then work up to the shoulders, neck, and head, and finish off all over the body.
Hot Bitz Bath
The hot sitz bath has many therapeutic uses, butas an exercise equivalent it is chiefly used for relaxing and warming up the body, especially before bedtime. It also can be used to warm up the body before taking a cold sitz bath, and to relieve the discomfort of rectal conditions.—H.J.R.
In a newspaper interview a while back I stated that taking cold showers in the morning during the winter months was a good way to catch cold, especially for the hurry-up, always-tired businessperson. As many of my friends know, I advocate the general use of cold water to toughen and condition the body. But again I say, “Don’t take a short, cold shower—especially after a hot one—and then go out into cold weather.” When you take a short, cold bath your metabolism is speeded up and the body grows warm. If you then dress and romp forth, your pores are open. Outdoors, perspiration continues (though hardly noticeable).
Unless you are well conditioned and acclimated to sudden changes, it is best not to try to be hardy in six lessons. A tepid bath or shower is sufficient for when you are going out into cold weather. Or you might try a cool sitz bath of three minutes. You can also finish up a hot or warm bath with a slow, cooling shower, which conducts the heat away from the body without too much effect on the metabolism. Remember: slow and cool.
For therapeutic purposes, Cayce prescribed Epsom salts baths for many cases of arthritis. He also recommended Epsom salts baths for circulation, glandular disturbances, incoordination, injuries, lesions, impaired locomotion, lumbago, neuritis, paralysis, prolapsus, rheumatism and rheumatic tendencies, scleroderma, toxemia, sciatica, and venereal disease (aftereffects).
His directions to many people for taking an Epsom salts bath could differ quite radically. In Case 349-12 he directed a secretary who had been injured in an accident as follows:
We would have every day at least one bath with a good amount of Epsom Salts in it, following this with a good rubdown along the whole cerebrospinal system . . .
The Epsom Salts bath would be taken during the day. Put a pound of salts to about ten to twenty gallons of water; not too hot but rather a tepid bath, but remain in same so that the absorption and reaction to the whole nerve system is received. Add a little hot water to keep this warm . . . from 20 to 30 minutes.
Another person was told:
Have this [Epsom Salts bath] about once each week . . . Use about 10 lbs. of Epsom Salts in about 40 gallons of water, and this pretty warm . . . [each week] for 3 weeks . . . [omit] for 6 weeks, another, then, would be taken but increase the amount of Epsom Salts to [15 pounds. Massage over spine during the bath. Afterward, massage with peanut oil]. (5169-1)
To another patient with arthritis he gave directions to use three to five pounds of salts to twenty gallons of warm water. The patient was told to remain in the water as long as he could stand it and then to rest for eight to ten hours after such ministration.
Other patients were advised to use varying amounts of five to twenty pounds of salts. I tried the different amounts on myself and when I reached the twenty-pound limit, I swear I could taste the salts in my mouth.
I generally advise five pounds for a modern tub (about twenty gallons) or eight to ten pounds for an old-fashioned tub of water—which generally holds about thirty gallons of water—at a temperature beginning at about 102-104 degrees working up to 106 degrees.
One time a patient came to me and said that he had been taking the Epsom salts baths and they weren’t doing him much good. I asked him how hot he was taking them, and he said about 100-104 degrees. Then I asked him how much Epsom salts he was using and he replied, “A few spoonfuls.”
Start with six to eight inches of water in the tub at about 101-102 degrees. Be sure to use your thermometer. Add five pounds of salts to an average-size bathtub and be sure to stir the salts thoroughly so they do not remain in a lump at the bottom. Gradually add hot water as you immerse yourself so that you keep the temperature even, and progressively raise the temperature to 106 or 108 degrees by adding fresh, hot water until the bath is deep enough to cover your back; then soak. If you are trying to relieve chronic pain, eventually, as you take the baths over a period of time, you may be able to get the water temperature up to 110-112 degrees. As I said before, the Japanese can take their baths at 118-120 degrees and they are particularly free of skin disorders and skin parasites. But if you are trying to compete, go slowly and increase the temperature a few degrees at a time. To relieve pain, you should remain in the tub ten or twelve minutes to start, and gradually increase to twenty minutes. An ice bag or cold washcloth or sponge to the forehead or back of neck will help you bear the heat. DON’T OVERDO-EASY DOES IT. This is a particularly good therapy for stiff joints, muscular pain, arthritis, and rheumatism; for increasing the metabolism and the work of the heart; and for raising body temperature and relieving pain.
Epsom salts baths are contraindicated in cardiovascular or high-blood-pressure conditions. Ask your doctor, in such a case, whether you may take the bath.
CAUTION: When taking hot baths of all kinds, be sure to have someone nearby in case you are overcome by dizziness or faintness. It is also best to set a timer for accuracy, for your sense of time may not be accurate.
I have used fume baths for over sixty years with great effect. Cayce increased their effect with the use of aloe, alum, Atomidine, tincture of benzoin, camphor, balm of Gilead, iodine, oil of lavender, tincture of lobelia, myrrh, oil of pine needle, witch hazel, balsam of tolu, sulphur, and wintergreen.—H.J.R.
Where there is crippling of the joints of the hands, pain of arthritis, or inflammation of the tendons, considerable relief can be gotten from an Epsom salts hand bath and massage. Not long ago a seamstress was sent to me by a doctor from New York. I told her to use the Epsom salts hand bath and massage for two weeks, and after this time she was able to close her hand, something she had not been able to do two weeks before.
Many years ago I used the same treatment with Fannie Hurst’s husband, who was a pianist, and since then on a number of instrumental musicians. Make a hot Epsom salts solution, adding about one pound of salts to a basin or bowl, which should be half full of hot water. Soak the hand for five minutes and then massage the fingers and the hand with the other hand under water and work the fingers and hand, rotating the joints. Then soak again for another five or ten minutes. After about twenty minutes of soaking take the hands out and massage peanut oil into one, continuing up the arm. Then reverse the hands and repeat. This same procedure can be used for the feet.
You will recall, I earlier discussed the important role of the skin in elimination. Since elimination must take place through the skin as well as through the colon, kidneys, and lungs, Cayce made liberal use of fume baths—which at times he referred to as “sweats”—as well as Turkish and Finnish baths (the most common variety in America is the sauna). These “sweats,” or fume baths, are an absolutely essential element when you embark on any of the cleansing routines. (The apple diet, colonics, or other cleansing procedures will be discussed in the next chapter.) The skin and the lungs help to throw off the toxins that otherwise can cause considerable discomfort, such as headaches, dizziness, gas, acidity, and nausea. Fume baths are also very valuable in bringing down cholesterol levels. Recent research has revealed that soaping the body after sweating stops the cholesterol from coming out through the pores, so don’t use soap in hot baths, steam baths, or vapor baths.
I have used fume baths for over sixty years with great effect. Cayce increased their effect with the use of aloe, alum, Atomidine, tincture of benzoin, camphor, balm of Gilead, iodine, oil of lavender, tincture of lobelia, myrrh, oil of pine needle, witch hazel, balsam of tolu, sulphur, and wintergreen. His directions for using these substances were in many instances very precise; and these are usually followed by an oil rub or massage. To a man fifty-four years old with a total lack of the ability to assimilate food and who was suffering from asthenia he gave this advice:
As we find, the greater help would come from the massage following, at least every other day, a hydrotherapy treatment which would be given with Fume Baths or a cabinet or an open container in which there would be a pint of water and in this two teaspoonsful of Witch Hazel. Let this boil. No other heat, but the fumes from this which may settle over the body. Then have a thorough massage and rubdown using equal portions of Olive Oil, Tincture of Myrrh and Compound Tincture of Benzoin. These should be massaged in and along the cerebrospinal system, especially, always away from the head.
(5372-1)
The wife of an English insurance executive, suffering from pains thought to be arthritis, pains in the arms, pelvic disorders, and digestive trouble, was referred to Mr. Cayce. He identified much of the trouble as arising from an old injury to the lower end of the spine in the coccyx area, and recommended a course of treatment that included vapor baths, referred to in one part of a sentence as “sweats” and in another as “fume baths”:
We would find first, then, that there should be the use of the sweat baths; those that carry not a raising of the temperature of the body to a great extent . . . but rather fume baths, where there is used in same an alternation of Oil of Wintergreen and the Tincture of Iodine—or that of Atomidine full strength; one used one day of the treatment, the other at the next treatment. . . with the thorough rubdown after same. (1302-1)
One of the earliest forms of internal cleanliness was the sweat bath. The Turkish bath is actually a dry-heat hot-air bath that runs about 160-180 degrees. In addition we have the Russian-Finnish steam bath, which runs about 150-160 degrees, and the Finnish sauna, which may run as high as 190-200 degrees. In the Finns’ authentic version of the sauna, water is thrown on hot rocks, which creates a vapor that is in some respects similar to the fume bath that Cayce recommends so often. Then we have the typically American sweat bath invented by Dr. Kellogg—the electric cabinet. In the electric cabinet the heat does not go much beyond 110 degrees, but the radiant action of the light on the skin does produce sweat. The Kellogg model that I am still using is particularly useful for giving the Cayce fume baths and for people who cannot tolerate too much heat, since the head is not enclosed and has free access to oxygen or cold compresses, ministered by a member of the family or friend.
It is possible to take a vapor or steam bath at home. There are many home saunas and inexpensive steam devices and cabinets on the market. Some, more elaborate, come in sections to be set up like a box; others are portable and are usually draped from the shoulders and zipped up from the inside, allowing you to put it on while sitting on a stool or chair. Under this chair or stool (preferably of wood) an electric steaming unit is placed; a large towel or small blanket is folded several thicknesses and then placed partly on the seat and hanging down in front and on each side to protect the back of the legs and buttocks from excessive heat. (We are not referring here to the sauna-type garments that are supposed to reduce you overnight, but to an apparatus that encloses the entire body except for the head.)
Some of the portable units are advertised for under fifteen dollars. However, for those who are counting their pennies to cope with inflation and taxes, here are some instructions for a satisfactory homemade device for taking steam and fume baths.
Sew several blankets or shower curtains together, leaving an opening about a foot in diameter. Ready a stool or chair. For a steaming unit, you can use a croup vaporizer, one of the inexpensive jar vaporizers sold to moisturize air or treat colds, or an old electric coffee pot or tea pot. Half-fill the container with water to make the steam. If you are going to use Atomidine, be sure not to place it in a plastic or metal container, which will corrode. Use glass or ceramic. Other substances, such as witch hazel, pine, benzoin, eucalyptus, or other volatile oils, can be placed in a container of any material. Place over the water so that the steam vaporizes the substance. Drape towels or blankets over the stool or chair so that you do not burn the back of the legs or the buttocks. Then climb in, drape the tent around you, and close it. Use a large bath towel around your neck to prevent steam from escaping. If you wish to inhale the vapor or to steam the face, remove the towel and bend the head forward into the opening. Fume baths are an essential accompaniment to colonics, to an apple diet, or if you embark on one of the other cleansing procedures described in the following pages. They help to throw off toxins that otherwise can cause considerable discomfort (such as headaches, dizziness, nausea, etc.) during internal cleansing.
One woman, suffering from arthritic-like pains, reported great success with her homemade vapor unit used in conjunction with massage, osteopathy, and the other therapies Cayce had recommended:
For the witch-hazel vapor baths, which were recommended, I did not find any place where they would give this, or in fact knew what it was. So I found a vaporizer which is used for treating croup, etc., a little electric gadget which will make steam out of water and whatever other liquid is put into it. The tent I made by hanging a sheet up over a line. This made low enough that I could sit on an ordinary kitchen chair, which would not be harmed by the steam bath . . . The opening in the tent allowed me to leave my head outside and read a book, which I managed to rig up à la Rube Goldberg. Of course, I did put the little electric steamer under the tent along with me and the chair. I used a mixture of half and half witch hazel and water.
Altogether the results have been very good . . . (2970-2 Reports)
It is also possible to take a vapor bath in your tub. First, cover the top of the tub with a blanket, rubber, or plastic sheet. Then run water as hot as possible into the tub. When you have it up to maximum heat, fill the tub a quarter full of this very hot water. Let this stand steaming a few minutes and then run some water as cold as possible. When the bath temperature is down to your usual hot-bath temperature (104-106 degrees), try getting into the tub with a minimum opening of the cover to conserve the vapor. Be sure enough of your body is out of the water and exposed to just the steam. If necessary, remove the stopper and run off some of the water.
Another old-time method recommended by Priesnitz is to have a platform of wood set about two inches above the bottom of the tub. It can have a small opening in the platform or narrow spaces left open between the boards. Then, one end of a hose is attached to the hot-water faucet and the other end is run to the bottom of the tub farthest away from the drain. Now let the full hot water run, the steam or vapor coming up through the sides and openings in the platform. It is surprising how little hot water will give you a vapor bath, and if the tub is well covered, you can shut off the hot water in a few minutes and the vapor will continue on the job for quite some time. A fine spray-nozzle on the end of the hose will produce a more rapid vapor.
A hot foot bath is an excellent palliative for sore, aching feet or for a congestive headache at the first sign of feverishness or a cold. When such is used as therapy for a cold or congestion, its effectiveness can be increased by adding one or two tablespoons of mustard to the water. Wrap the patient well in blankets and have him or her sip hot water or lemonade.
For a hot foot bath, use a large basin, pail, or foot tub. The water should be above the ankle and the temperature should be about 110 degrees to start with. As the water cools, keep adding hot water. The bath should be continued from five to twenty minutes.
The hot leg bath needs to be taken in a deeper container—or it can be taken by filling the bathtub with sufficient water to cover the legs up to the knees—with the patient sitting on the side of the tub. This can be used when it is desirable to induce perspiration, to break congestion, or for aching legs, muscle strain, or leg cramps.
As I noted earlier, in arthritic or rheumatic cases, Epsom salts can be added to the water and the feet massaged like the hands, as described on page 210.
Cayce recommended mustard foot baths for aching and burning feet to increase circulation (3776-9):
[It would be] well if the feet and limbs be bathed in very warm water, to increase the circulation in this portion of the system, putting mustard in the water when this is done . . .
And for colds and grippe:
Keep the feet bathed well with mustard water; this extending to the knees, even to the hips—even sitz baths of the mustard water would be well if not made too heavy; but rather sponge off across the small of the back, down the limbs and then bathe the bottoms of the feet with a combination of equal parts of Mutton Suet, Spirits of Turpentine, Spirits of Camphor and Tincture of Benzoin. Heat these each time before the combination is applied, not to boiling but so that they may be stirred thoroughly together. Massage into the bottoms of the feet and under the knees, back of the neck, across the face, especially the upper antrums and just under the eyes or around those portions of the body. We will find these will help materially. Do this two, three times a day. (1005-15)
Baths for Skin Conditions
For general dermatitis, poison ivy, and hives that cover a large area of the body, the following baths bring relief for itching:
1. Dissolve one pound of laundry starch in boiling water and add to the tub (twenty gallons of water) at 104-106 degrees.
2. Place two pounds of bran in a closed muslin bag in a hot tub at 104-106 degrees.
3. Use eight ounces of bicarbonate of soda to a tub of water (twenty to thirty gallons of water). This is particularly good for alkalizing an acid-skin condition.
4. If you’ve been exposed to any poison plant—ivy, oak, sumac, etc.—or already have a rash, lather affected areas with brown borax soap. Let the lather dry and then rinse in a hot tub.—H.J.R.
Cayce recommended this foot bath to a lady of middle years who complained that her feet “bothered her so much”:
As for the limbs—each evening, or at least three to four evenings a week, soak the feet and the limbs to the knees in a fluid made from boiling old coffee grounds. It is the tannic acid in this that is helpful, which can be better obtained from boiling the old grounds (but not soured)... Following such a foot bath, massage Peanut Oil thoroughly into the knee and under the knee, through the area from the knee to the foot, and especially the bursa of the feet. . . This done consistently will relieve these tensions. (243-33)
(Q) What will relieve the pain in the feet?
(A) This, as we see, is produced from poor eliminations through the system, and the impaired circulation . . . [It would be well] if these [feet] were bathed occasionally in saturated solution of Sal-Soda. Not Bicarbonate, Sal-Soda. This . . . will gradually correct this portion and will relieve the strain on the body. Have this as warm as the body can stand when the baths are taken . . . rubbing same along the limbs to the knees. (325-7)
(Q) What will stop the condition that occurs between the toes occasionally?
(A) Use occasionally witch hazel in its full strength to reduce this [itching]. Bathe—when feet are bathed, and bathe them often—in salt water. (903-16)
Hot packs or fomentations have traditionally been used to relieve muscular pains and aches from overexertion or other causes, and cold packs, which constrict the blood vessels, can ease congestion of the head and relieve headaches, fever, insomnia, and indigestion. A large number of naturopaths have reported great success in their use of packs in serious diseases.
Those old enough to remember the success and attention paid to Sister Kenny, in her revolutionary treatment of the aftereffects of polio, may recall that her therapy consisted largely of the application of hot-water vapor packs to relieve the muscle spasms, followed by massage. Back in the days when I served a term of learning and experience in the Benedict Lust Sanitarium, cold- and hot-water packs were part of the standard therapy.
These packs are very effective in relieving insomnia, indigestion, gas, headaches, congestion, sore throat, temperature, sprains, and bruises, and for fast first-aid application in a large variety of injuries. There are three types of cold packs: immediate, relaxing, and derivative. The immediate is left on a short time, from five to fifteen minutes, to produce a fast movement of blood to the surface in cases of temperature, injury, sprain, or bruise. A cold pack for fever will heat up in five to eight minutes and should be changed frequently. The relaxing cold pack is useful in nervous conditions such as nervous indigestion, insomnia, etc., and can be repeated every two hours. The derivative is left on for several hours or overnight and is a most effective treatment for sore throats and bringing down edema, particularly water on the knee.
The first effect is the contraction of the blood vessels from the cold water The second effect is to start normalizing the circulation, and after twenty minutes to a half-hour, the pack becomes heated and increases the metabolism of the patient.
To prepare a cold pack, use four or five thicknesses of linen or toweling; wring it out in very cold water; apply to the throat, ankle, knee, or other area; cover with a piece of plastic and another towel, and wrap it tightly so that the pack is airtight. For edema or sore throat leave it on overnight.
An abdominal cold pack will relieve insomnia when all else fails and is excellent for the stimulation of the liver, kidneys, and other organs.
Cover the bed with a rubber sheet, oilcloth, or plastic or waterproof material about 18-24 inches wide and 48-60 inches long crosswise on it. Prepare a towel or cloth long enough to wrap around your middle. For the average person this should run about 24 by 40 inches. Then thoroughly soak a small cloth or large towel in cold water below 65 degrees. Wring it out loosely and fold lengthwise to a 9-inch width or thereabouts and place it on the larger cloth or towel. Or you can tuck the cold pack around the abdomen while standing up, if you first put it on the dry pack and wrap it about your abdomen when you lie down. Be certain it is tight and in contact with the skin at all points. If too long, it can overlap in front of the abdomen. Be sure that the pack is airtight for proper reaction.
Other hydrotherapy remedies will be described in succeeding chapters (see also index).