The effect of balneotherapy on ambulatory blood pressure

Context . Balneotherapy, a treatment that includes carbon dioxide and mud b aths as well as massages and physical therapy is successfully used in the t reatment of rheumatic pain and other disorders such as cardiovascular and g ynecological disease. Objective . To study the effect of a 3-week treatment of balneotherapy on 2 4-hour ambulatory blood pressure in 35 patients. Design . Balneotherapeutic applications were applied between 2 and 5 times a week and had a duration of 20 minutes. The mean 24-hour blood pressure, d aytime blood pressure (7 AM to 10 PM), nighttime blood pressure (10 PM to 6 AM), nighttime dipping, and 24-hour blood pressure variability were measur ed. The effect of balneotherapy was evaluated using analysis of variance: I n addition, the circadian variation of blood pressure was calculated using a cosinor analysis. Setting . The Austrian spa resort Bad Tatzmannsdorf. Participants . 35 balneotherapy patients (15 men, 20 women). Intervention . Balneotherapy. Main Outcome Measures . 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure was measured with an ambulatory monitor using an oscillometric method. Results . The results indicated that the 24-hour blood pressure and day- an d nighttime blood pressure of patients with medium and high initial values decreased significantly (P <.05) after 3 weeks of Balneotherapy, whereas pa tients with low blood pressure showed almost no change. The 24-hour blood p ressure variation pattern of patients with medium values remained nearly un changed during the balneotherapy. In contrast, a clear improvement in the c ircadian variation variables of patients with high initial Blood pressure c ould be detected at the end of balneotherapy. Conclusion <bullet> Patients with medium and, especially, higher initial bl ood pressure values seem to benefit from balneotherapy.