The objective of a cure is to treat a chronic disease “differently”. If, during the months that follow, the symptoms become less frequent and the medication taken decreases or can stop for a while, you’ve won! “The improvement lasts an average of six months”, emphasizes Dr Gérard Pagès, spa doctor in Rochefort, Charente-Maritime.
Less painful knees, reduced doses of anti-inflammatories, less swollen legs… these are the benefits expected by the 550,000 spa guests who go each year to one of the hundred spas in France to treat a chronic problem. . These are most often rheumatic pains or venous insufficiency, or even skin or respiratory diseases. Finally, and this is less known, certain cures also treat psychosomatic disorders.
Each spa has its own water… and its indications
The common point of the treatments is of course the use of thermal water, the composition of which depends on the resorts and defines the indications. But how to choose? Is it better to treat your rheumatism in Jonzac or in Rochefort? His asthma at La Bourboule or Saint-Gervais? His eczema at La Roche-Posay or Avène? If the geographical criteria and the size of the station intervene, word of mouth and, above all, the advice of the doctor are decisive. Whatever the station, the care protocols are similar anyway. All cures include at least four treatments per day, according to the indications of the spa doctor consulted at the start of the cure. More and more resorts are also developing workshops to help better manage their illness. The spa treatment is indeed a privileged moment to regain control of your health.
At first, the body may “overreact”
Application of mud (peloids from Rochefort, vegetable mud from Barbotan-les-Thermes…), mobilizations in the pool, baths… all this relaxes, decongests, calms pain and allows you to gradually regain joint mobility. But it is not rare at the beginning, in particular in the event of cure against osteoarthritis, to observe an awakening of the symptoms, in the form of pains, rednesses, insomnia… The first time, that surprises but after , we are used to it, say the curists! “It’s a good sign, it’s your body which is changing, which is recovering”, explains Dr Pagès to his worried patients. The intensity of the “thermal crisis”, as doctors call it, is also considered a sign of efficiency!
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