Perception and lived experience on health effects of natural hot spring water bath

Abstract

Background: Natural hot spring bath has enormous health benefits. The water found in natural hot springs contains a variety of different minerals which shows positive benefits on rheumatism, skin diseases, gastritis, sinusitis, cardiac diseases, joint pain and many more. The healing effect is mostly from mineral composition.Methods: Phenomenological study was conducted on twenty-one participants who were taking natural hot spring water bath in Singha tatopani, Myagdi. Each participant was randomly selected. Eight In-depth interview and two focus group discussion were used for collecting information. People who have immediate bath experience were included in the study and those who were ill and not able to response the question due to illness were excluded from the study. Informed consent was taken from each participant before participation. Afterwards transcripts were transcribe and translated in English and analyzed using thematic analysis was done with the means of Ms. Excel.Results: Participants perceived natural hot spring water bath has positive effects on health and experience large sweating and excretion of urine while bathing. It helps to run their digestive system smoothly, improve blood circulation, and prevent skin problem, relief uric acid, sinusitis, pneumonia, tonsillitis, nose allergy, chest allergy, bronchitis and insomnia. Hot spring foment their pain organ and promote health of accidental victims, physically handicapped people, minimized uterine problem of women, eye itching and epiphora (watery eye).Conclusions: Common diseases Gastritis, rheumatism, skin disease, uric acid can be relieved by taking natural hot spring water bath as well as it help to promote and improve their health status. That’s why natural hot spring water bath can be a beneficial for improvement of public health.