General Survey of the Effect of Balneotherapy at the Sukawa hot Spring by means of Cornel Medical Index Card Method

Abstract

The purpose of this survey is to determine the effect of balneotherapy at the Sukawa hot Spring. The spring provides hot water baths and a special kind of natural steam baths of volcanic origin. The spring water contains alum and green vitriol and shows strong acidity. The steam which blows up from the ground is used for the steam bath. The spring is situated in a alpine plateau, about 1200m. above the sea level, of Kurikoma volcanoes. In summer the climate is mild and the average August temperature is 17.9°C.
Since 1925 studies have been carried out by the staffs of our medical school and Some results were published. In 1935, Miyasaka et al. showed that the most bathers of the spring were the patients with respiratory diseases. It was noted, however, that recently the quality of the bathers seemd to have changed gradually, which led us to reexamine the effect of the balneotherapy on these new population of the bathers.
One hundred and thirty six bathers who stayed more than 2 weeks in the spring and took hot water bath twice daily and stream bath twice daily were used as a material, They were questioned twice by means of the CMI card method, first at the time of their arrival at the spring and the second at the time of departure.
The results are summarized as follows.
In 1935 the patients with respiratory diseases, especially with pulmonary tuberculosis occupied 37 per cent of all the bathers and the patients with gastrointestinal symptomes occupied only 16 per cent. Whereas in 1964 the ratio of the patients with G. I. symptomes increased to 34.7 per cent of all the bathers, most of them with the functional gastrointestinal disorders. The reason of the decrease in the ratio of patients with respiratory diseases may be explained by the fact that during the last 20 years the sanatorium therapy as the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis has been replaced by the effective chemotherapy and by the increase of patients with functional disorders of the gastrointestinal tract, particularly on psychosomatic bases, which have probably due to “stress” elements spreading into our social life.
The balneotherapy was found to be effective in patients with functional disorders of the G. I. tract including psychosomatic diseases of the G. I. tract, which have characterized by soft stool, diarrhea, constipation, epigastri distress or fullness and abdominal dulla ches. Fifty five per cent of these patients, classified in the 3 rd and 4th area of CMI card or as a neurosis group improved after balneotherapy. Recently such psychosomatic diseases are increasing rapidly. In view of the fact that there is no effective treatment available for such diseases except for psychotherapy, the promissing results in our study suggest that the balneotherapy including sanatorium mood in fine circumstances may be a good indication for such diseases.