Cosmopolitan Spa Therapies
A Kaleidoscope Of International Cures:
The word ‘spa’ literally means ‘solus per aqua‘. It is taken from the town of Spa in Belgium, which was one of the first places to recognise the healing properties of mineral-rich water. Hippocrates, father of Western Medicine, was an advocate of regular bathing and other water applications to strengthen the constitution and treat medical complaints. In addition, many early healthcare systems also viewed water as the basis of health. For instance, the ancient Egyptians believed water had both physical and sacred properties. In traditional Chinese medicine, water is central to restoring harmony within the person as it is the carrier of qi (life energy). Similarly in Indian Ayurveda, water is a medium by which prana (life force) travels within the human body. Hippocrates was also a firm advocate of massage as a healing technique. Some of the greatest Western physicians, including Celsus and Galen, recommended using massages as therapy and to prevent illness. Another famed physician, Avicenna also wrote about massage in his Canon of Medicine, a work considered the authoritative medical text in Europe for several centuries. Today the term spa is used to refer to a place you visit to relax, recharge and refresh yourself. A spa treatment almost always involves water, in the form of thalassotherapy, flotation or even a simple floral bath, and includes a massage. Given that an estimated 85 per cent of all illnesses are stress-induced, massage is increasingly utilised both as a preventive and therapeutic treatment, to combat the effects of stress as well as to increase relaxation.
