By: Jean Johnson for Back1You could smell the sulphur as soon as we walked in the door. It was a rainy fall evening in the Northwest with summer’s heat and a perfect evening to see if some balneotherapy, which means soaking in thermal waters straight from within the earth, might help my aching back.
Carson Hot Springs is like a place time forgot. The bath house is complete with rows of old-fashioned iron tubs into which freshly drawn water is supplied for bathers. The place sits back from the Columbia River 10 miles and was built in 1901 by Isadore St. Martin, who discovered the hot springs on a hunting trip. A hotel was added in 1923, but other than that, Carson has remained a relic of the past, an homage to an era when early European setters tried to recreate cherished aspects of their mother countries here in their adopted homeland.
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The Burton Report, by Charles V. Burton, MD, medical director of the Center for Restorative Spine Surgery in St. Paul, Minnesota, offers the following insights on how soaking in water of any kind helps the back:
The human spine was never optimal in its design for biped ambulation on a high-gravity planet such as earth.
We know that individuals who have good muscle strength, tone and flexibility and who exercise on a daily basis have relatively less in the way of back problems and associated disability.
The great advantage of floating in water is that there is no associated body loading. For this reason, swimming and aquatic aerobic exercise are spine-friendly. |
Carson was doing a brisk business the night we were there, but it hasn’t always been the case. By the 1940s, interest in spas declined throughout the United States. Many of the medical claims that came out of formalized spa treatments in Europe were outlawed here as the population increasingly rejected older folk cures and embraced modern medicine with its promise of health through discoveries like the polio vaccine and antibiotics. More recently, however, as complementary and alternative medicine has enjoyed an upsurge in popularity in the United States, desire to visit more elaborate spas has brought business back. A Cochrane review available through the University of Maryland Complementary Medicine Program explains that little in the way of demonstrable evidence has been accumulated to prove the benefits of back water therapy.
Balneotherapy, or spa therapy, means “bathing in warm water at about 36 degrees Celsius with minerals added to it or naturally occurring. It is thought that balneotherapy decreases gravity on painful joints to soothe pain, relieve muscle spasms, and improve muscle strength and function.”
John W. Lund, PhD, director of the Geo-Heat Center (GHC) at the Oregon Institute of Technology in Klamath Falls, Oregon, wrote: “unlike European spas where medical cures of specific ailments are more important, U.S. spas give more importance to exercise, reducing stress, lifting depression, and losing weight.”
Carson Hot Springs: A Back Saver, At Least Temporarily
What Lund says matches my experience. I’m a typical American and relaxing away some stress was on my agenda the other night when we drove the hour from Portland up the Columbia River to Carson Hot Springs. Fresh from yet another stint at the keyboard, though, giving my back a break was also central among my concerns. The Carson experience didn’t disappoint. Easing into my private tub of steamy sulphur water was like entering another realm. I closed my eyes and soaked. The spasms in my back that had bothered me on the drive withered and then disappeared.
Once I had communed with the spirit of the water, the bath attendant said my cot was ready. Off we went to a shadowy realm full of cots and people contemplating the aftereffects of the waters. She wrapped me in a towel and I was left to relax.
Indeed, for me on that particular evening, taking the waters really did seem to help my back. I’m not sure how long the effects lasted, as the next day I was back doing the exercises my regular therapist recommends. But one thing’s certain, having a languid spa experience on a rainy autumn night sure didn’t hurt.
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