THERMAL THERAPY..... OK, TAKE A HOT BATH

Now, I've read it all.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

We're back to mud.

I love going to the spa. It just feels good to get pampered every now and then. If we talk about now, I don't love massage anymore. Touch, especially touch that rearranges tender points, is not a good thing. 

It hurts like hell.

Now it seems that mud-bath therapy and balneotherapy (bath therapy) has hit the scientific pages regarding Fibromyalgia. For two weeks the subjects received "thermal therapy" (OK, a bath or a mud bath) for six days a week. 21 got a mud bath and 20 got a hot bath. Most of the patients reported a reduction in pain.

WELL, OF COURSE THEY DID.

Who hasn't felt better after a hot bath? My daughter has stories galore. Anything that went wrong.....get in the bath. As far as I'm concerned, a hot bath helps everything. You just feel better. I only see an eensie-weensie problem.

I can't live in the bathtub.

My goodness, who gets grants for this????

And, how can I get in on it?

There are studies about moderate drinking helping Fibromyalgia symptoms, now mud baths. Like I've said, if you're half lit of course you're not going to be in as much pain. There is the obligatory disclaimer about not drinking with certain medications, thank goodness. The same premise applies here. Who wouldn't feel better after a mud bath or a hot bath?

I find that when I get in the tub of swirling water at night it helps me relax. I take a muscle relaxer and take a good book, my diet coke and I light some aromatherapy candles and try to keep my muscles from going into painful spasms. It's one of those simple pleasures that, for just a few moments when I close my eyes, put me on a beautiful, verdant tropical island far away from the barren wasteland of Fibromyalgia. 

I love that part of the evening. There is one slight problem with a jetted tub and I cannot stress what I am about to tell you enough. Never, and let me say it once again, never put even a little bit of bubble bath in a jetted tub. Then after you've been dumb enough to do that, never lay back and close your eyes and surrender yourself to blissful meditation.  First of all, Philosophy's Amazing Grace bubble bath in your nostrils is vile. Second of all, it makes a TON of bubbles. It takes forever to get rid of the bubbles and the serenity of the bath will be replaced by the irritation of cleaning up bubbles.

OK, any followers that are doctors?? I have a wonderful idea for a study. We need to take 50 women who have Fibromyalgia. I'll leave the weeding out the candidates to the doctors. The control group will have a yummy, moist, chocolate filled, chocolate cake and the placebo group will receive edamame. The trick is to have each group watch each other eat. Then we report which group felt better after eating. (note: we do not weigh the control group after the study.) Let's name it "the chocolate cake hypothesis."

I think that would qualify as a scientific study.

When does common sense get into scientific publications?

Will insurance cover spa visits?

I do have so say one thing.

In some respects, I do like this study......