Balneology is the study of natural spa waters and their therapeutic applications.
In ancient Greece, healing districts arose in the vicinity of thermal or mineral springs and famous medical schools could be found there.
This tradition was continued in ancient Rome. Many vast bathing facilities were built to meet the demands of the polpulation.
When the Roman Empire fell the technical understanding of water supply systems was lost and the more stringent moral code of Christianity put bathing out of fashion. In the Middle Ages, bathing facilities developed to communication centres, in which not only cleaning baths were taken but also barbers and “Baders“ (= former: German expression for physicians) offered their services.
In the 17th century there was a revival of hydro – and balneotherapy against acute maladies, first in France and England, later also in Germany.
Famous fathers of balneology were Vinzenz Prießnitz and Sebastian Kneipp. First chemical analyses of mineral waters were performed at the end of the 18th century and the ingredients of the waters were determined. In the spas, doctors settled down and were engaged in empirical investigations of the cure treatments and their effects.
Balneology as a scientific field developed in the 2nd half of the 19th century. In the beginning of the 20th century, laboratories and institutes were founded in the spas, which allowed a thorough examination of the patients and a control of the results of the treatments.
History of Balneology
Bathing and cure treatments have been playing an important role for a long time as the healing power of water was already known in the ancient world. Waters were believed to have supra-natural properties, especially if they were peculiar in respect to their taste, colour or temperature.In ancient Greece, healing districts arose in the vicinity of thermal or mineral springs and famous medical schools could be found there.
This tradition was continued in ancient Rome. Many vast bathing facilities were built to meet the demands of the polpulation.When the Roman Empire fell the technical understanding of water supply systems was lost and the more stringent moral code of Christianity put bathing out of fashion. In the Middle Ages, bathing facilities developed to communication centres, in which not only cleaning baths were taken but also barbers and “Baders“ (= former: German expression for physicians) offered their services.
In the 17th century there was a revival of hydro – and balneotherapy against acute maladies, first in France and England, later also in Germany.
Famous fathers of balneology were Vinzenz Prießnitz and Sebastian Kneipp. First chemical analyses of mineral waters were performed at the end of the 18th century and the ingredients of the waters were determined. In the spas, doctors settled down and were engaged in empirical investigations of the cure treatments and their effects.Balneology as a scientific field developed in the 2nd half of the 19th century. In the beginning of the 20th century, laboratories and institutes were founded in the spas, which allowed a thorough examination of the patients and a control of the results of the treatments.
Balneology in Bad Hall
Bad Hall has tradition as a “spa based on science“. In the 1950s the “Paracelsus Institute“ in Bad Hall, Upper Austria, was founded The main task of this institute was the scientific evaluation of the efficiency of the local iodine brine therapy. Its successor is the Paracelsus Gesellschaft as it exists today. Together with the former Paracelsus Institute, about 500 publications on fields dealing with iodine and balneotherapy have been published since 1950.Bad Hall has one of the strongest natural iodine brines of Central Europe
The applied balneotherapeutic treatments (baths, packages, inhalations iontophoresis, drinking cures) accompanied by modern physical therapies (medical gymnastics, electrotherapy) show favourable influences as: lowering of the blood pressure, increased load capacity of the heart, increase of blood supply. Also an unrestrained respiration and a better motility through a relief of the joint complaints are obtained.
Further crucial points of treatments are the new public disease “dry eye“ and osteoporosis.
Treatment of the „Dry Eye Syndrome“ and osteoporosis are also a focus of research.
Indications for cures in Bad Hall – an overview:
- Eye diseases
- degenerative alterations of the eye background, esp. initial stages of macular degeneration
- consecutive conditions of high myopia (opacity of the vitreous body, retinal degeneration)
- vascular diseases (e.g. in connection with hypertension; diabetes)
- affections of the optic nerve
- incipient cataract
- “dry eye“ (sicca syndrome)
- chronic conjunctivitis and inflammation of the margin of the eyelid
- Arteriosclerosis
- angina pectoris
- stroke
- "smoker's leg"
- Hypertension
- Parkinson´s disease
- Affections of the backbone
- disorders of the intervertebral disks
- treatment after joint replacement and operation of vertebral disks
- Osteoporosis
- Phantom-limb pain
- Diseases of the respiratory system
- acute or chronic bronchitis
- asthma bronchiale
- paranasal inflammations
- Iodine deficiency goitre
- Venous diseases
- varicose veins
- stage after thrombosis
