Using Water for Better Health

Hygeia is the ancient Greek Goddess of health, who taught people to be healthy living in harmony with nature’s laws. There is a long European tradition of using water for healing as evidenced by the famous mineral water hot springs. Common folk and medical doctors promoted practiced for health using water. In the 1800’s Sebastian Kneipp cured himself of TB and started treating his sick parishioners with the methods that worked on him. He advocated barefoot walking in the dew or snow.

In the Unites States, John Harvey Kellogg established the famous Battle Creek Sanatorium, which used many water treatments. Naturopaths inherited this tradition and still use many of these proven techniques. Daily practices with intelligent use of water can be incorporated into our lifestyle to promote good health.

Here’s how:

1. Shower at a comfortable temperature, and then bring hotter water to head and spine and friction your body. Turn cold water for as long as you can tolerate it, then go back to hot, alternating 3 or 4 times. You will feel a refreshing buzz as your circulation is stimulated.
2. When using the sauna at the gym, stay in only until your breath is warm. The steam room will warm you up faster. Always finish with a cold water shower.
3. Walk barefoot each morning in the morning dew until you almost feel achy. The more you move the longer you can stay in it. Come inside immediately put on wool socks. If you continue this year around, you will be acclimated to the snow and you can walk in it barefoot each morning. This practice enhances the immune system and you may not get sick all winter.
4. The arid land or city-bound variation of dew walking is to tread cold water in a bathtub, pacing back and forth with the water mid-calf high. Continue until your feet experience a flush of warmth, then step out and dry them briskly with a coarse towel and get into warm footgear or into bed. This is also a treat for run-down conditions, tired or aching swollen feet, or insomnia.
5. The Neti Pot comes from the Indian Ayurvedic tradition. The idea is to pour salt water through the nostrils from side to side, facilitated by using a container that looks like a teapot with a short spout. The Neti pot may be purchased from a health food store or naturopathic clinic. Fill you pot with lukewarm water ½ teaspoon of sea salt. (The water will burn your nose if you leave out the salt) Angle your head to the side over a sink or basin, and pour the contents on one nostril so that it flows out the opposite one. Refill the Neti Pot and pour in the opposite direction.

Enjoy the hygienic uses of water and feel revitalized!