抄録
New information has been accumulated in the various fields of balneology including reports in terms of the molecular genetics. Recently, fatal accidents with hot-bathing have been increasingly reported. This has become a serious social issue especially in a high-aged population like in Japan. These backgrounds therefore create the theme for the meeting “New Development and Challenge of Balneoterapy”. I have here presented about the new approach for balneotherapy in a high-aged population, which was focused the anti-aging effects to promote health and well being. It is well known that balneotherapy (BT) has not only warming-up of body temperature, but also have the inhibition of inflammation and the increase of metabolism. I can suppose that BT is effective for aged people to keep the increasing core temperature, and then they will live in healthy long life as anti-aging action. We have examined the effects of BT in patients with chronic heart failure. It was concluded that BT showed to improve both of the cardiac function and inflammatory status. In animal study, repetitive hyperthermia (RHT) by bathing indicated to attenuate the progression of cardiac hypertrophy and to delay the transition to heart failure. From data of heart tissue samples, the levels of heat shock protein were partly elevated and the telomere biology which is a marker of aging process was improved by RHT. Thus, BT may be useful as a novel therapeutic tool for anti-aging action as well as patients with heart failure.
