Healing with water
Media
Part of Panorama
- Title
- Healing with water
- Language
- English
- Source
- Panorama Volume XVII (Issue No.7) July 1965
- Year
- 1965
- Subject
- Hydrotherapy
- Water immersion
- Human body
- Rights
-
- Abstract
- Abstract: If an artery was blocked, nature used the capillaries to carry on the work of irrigation in the manner secondary roads take over when the main road is blocked/' so says Dr. Salmanoff.
- Fulltext
- ■ “If an artery was blocked, nature used the capil laries to carry on the work of irrigation in the manner secondary roads take over when the main road is blocked/' so says Dr. Salmanoff. HEALING WITH WATER “Medicine is waiting for its revolution. Over the past 100 years the arts and the other sciences have had their revolutions, but not medicine. At the moment medicine is at tacked on all fronts by homeo pathy, naturism, psychoanaly sis, acupuncture and a whole army of healers. The old temple is crumbling, and a good thing too. Whatever it was in the past, modern me dicine has become an enor mous public danger with its anti-biotics, its ultra-sounds, its pneumothorax and its muti lating surgery. It has become, in effect, a technology.” This alarm warning was given by an old scientist who died in Paris two years ago. He was called Alexander Sal manoff, he had diplomas from the University of Moscow, Pa via and Berlin and was a for mer doctor to Lenin. He had lived in Paris since 1932. The greatest revolutions spring from the simplest of ideas. This is how Salmanoff began. He began with a sim ple fact: "Man came from water, he lives by water which repres ents two-thirds of his weight. If a human corpse weighing 70 kilograms is dried there re mains only three kilograms of colloidal matter." Alexis Carrell, following the same line of thought, es timated that in theory it would require 200,000 liters of liquid a day to irrigate every part of the body. In effect nature is much less ge nerous; a man weighing 50 ki los has 35 liters of liquid in his tissues comprising five li ters of blood, two liters of lymph and 28 liters of extra and intra-cellular liquid. Salmanoff said that when the movement of these liquids was slowed down illnesses oc curred; if they stopped the person died. The problem was how the oxygenization of the 46 PANORAMA body and the elimination of waste products were carried out. Alexander Salmanoff began to tackle the problem when he was a young man. He dis covered that the first impor tant thing was to treat the capillaries — of which man has about 100,000 kilometers in his body — the tiny chan nels which carry necessary supplies to each cell and take away waste products. Capillotherapy was born. Today it is practised in Switzerland, Germany, France and the So viet Union. Salmanoff trained dozens of students. One of them, Dr. Roland Sananes, today conti nues Salmanoff’s work in Pa ris. Just what is the "Salma noff Method?" Sananes said that the word "method" was incorrect as it was more of a philosophy, a doctrine which could be call ed the doctrine of the “com plete man.” When Salmanoff first began to study the prob lem of the movement of the liquids he began a veritable revolution. The general out line of Salmanoff’s theory is as follows. It was necessary to find a way of irrigating the most accessible parts of the body. He discovered the means of penetration; the ca pillaries, and later found the method, that of hydrotherapy. For example we draw all our energy from the air in the form of oxygen. With the exhausted air of the towns it is often necessary to augment the supply. Oxy gen is carried by the red glo bules in the blood and its hemoglobin. The usual diameter of a red globule is seven microns and the varia ble diameter of a capillary between seven and 30 mic rons. Therefore if the capil laries can be extended to the maximum three or four glo bules, instead of just one, can pass along them at the same time. Thus more oxygen can be absorbed. Hydrotherapy is used to dilate the capilla ries There are several methods; 1) compresses. These should be hot and damp. A towel folded in three and soaked in hot water should be wrap ped around the chest just under the arms. This should be covered by a further towel folded in three and a piece of flannel. The wrapping is kept on for 20 minutes and should be applied in the July 1965 47 evening. It should be retain ed for longer periods for chest ailments. 2) Foot baths. These should be taken in water at 40 degrees centigrade with the water coming up to the ankles. The treatment is ex cellent for hyper-tension, cir culatory troubles and mi graines. 3) Arm baths. This is a technique developed by the German Dr. Schweninger. The forearms are placed in water at 38 degrees centi grade (almost body tempera ture). A quarter of an hour later the temperature is in creased to 44 degrees and the arms are left there for a fur ther five minutes. The re sults have been effective in cases of sinusitis, flu and head colds and often specta cular in cases of glaucoma and cataract. It was found that the plac ing of the fore arms in warm water caused, by means of vaso-dilation, the displace ment of about 600 cubic cen timeters of blood. The treat ment is therefore particularly recommended for circulatory ailments which have caused, or risk causing, congestion. Acupuncture also recog nizes this phenomenon be cause it links the head with the extremities of the arms. 4) Hyperthermic baths; baths in water hotter than the body temperature are re commended for case of rheu matism, children’s ailments and polio in its early stages. The water begins at a tem perature of 37 degrees and then, after 12 minutes is in creased to 41 degrees. Three minutes later the patient should be removed from the bath, wrapped in blankets for three quarters of an hour and given warm drinks. The baths should be taken at bed time after a light meal. 5) Scapidar baths; This was Salmanoff’s favorite treat ment. There are two types which produced opposite ef fects; one is a white emul sion, the other yellow. The first brings oxygen to the cells and increases arterial tension, the other dissolves waste products and reduces tension. It is used for rheu matism, sciatica, neuralgia, hypertension, sequels to cere bral congestion and arterial troubles. — Jean Barial, AFP. 48 Panorama