Evaluation of the Role of Balneotherapy in Rehabilitation Medicine
review Grade D 2018 Open access
Authors: Matsumoto, S.
Journal: Journal of Nippon Medical School 85 (4) : 196-203
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Key Findings
- Narrative review of balneotherapy across rehabilitation medicine — rheumatic/musculoskeletal disease, dermatological disease, chronic pain, cardiac disease, and neurological disease — general thermal/mineral-water balneotherapy, not peat-specific
- Cites a systematic review/meta-analysis of 18 clinical trials showing balneotherapy superior to tap water for chronic low back pain and knee/hand/shoulder osteoarthritis in the long term
- Japanese hot-spring (onsen) studies show improvement in atopic-dermatitis-like and psoriasis-like skin inflammation in animal models via downregulation of inflammatory cytokines
- Author's conclusion: a developing evidence base supports balneotherapy across chronic arthritis, chronic pain, and neurological disease, though many individual studies are of limited quality and better RCTs are needed
A broad rehabilitation-medicine review of balneotherapy — general thermal and mineral-water bathing, including Japanese onsen and sand-bath traditions — across chronic pain, arthritis, cardiac, and neurological conditions. It is not peat-specific and does not address humic or fulvic acid chemistry, so its relevance here is peripheral: mainly as one more corroborating citation for the already well-sourced link between balneotherapy and improvement in joint inflammation and back pain, alongside more targeted peat-specific studies elsewhere in this library.
balneotherapyrehabilitation-medicinereviewosteoarthritislow-back-painjapanonsen