Fango mud packs to treat ailments
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
IN ANCIENT Rome, people placed their trust in the healing and palliative powers of fango — the warm mineral-rich mud from volcanoes. Deep-acting warm mud has been used at spas and physiotherapy practices to treat various ailments. In contrast to Italy, where there is aged fango and fango fortified with algae and microorganisms, in Germany, the climate stifles the volcanic mud's maturing process.
"In fact German natural fango is a matter of ground volcanic stone," said Professor Juergen Kleinschmidt of the Institute for Medical Balneology at the University of Munich. In Germany, it's only mined and produced at a few places: Kaiserstuhl, a small group of hills in the upper Rhine River valley in southwestern Germany, and near Freiburg in the southwest. "To apply fango, we first mix the fango powder with thermal water, then it looks like cement," said Dirk Schrader, director of pool operations at Vital-Therme Bad Wildbad in Germany's Black Forest. It's then heated to 43 to 50 degrees and spread over the intended area of the body in a three-centimetre thick layer. This allows the minerals to penetrate the skin. "Moisture is maintained during the approximately 20-minute treatment by airtight material that is then wrapped around the relative part of the body," said Schrader.
There are mud packs that are done on a particular body part and there are full-body mud packs. Generally, the warmth of fango provides a pain-mitigating or healing effect typically on muscular-skelatal areas of the body. "It has been scientifically proven that fango helps relieve not only rheumatism-related illnesses, joint pain and spinal ailments, but also muscle tension and colic," said Kleinschmidt. The immune system also is bolstered and the body's self-healing mechanisms are stimulated.
A natural fango treatment, which normally comprises six mud packs or 10 or more at a spa and whose costs are covered to a large degree by German health insurance, can ease afflictions for months. Within a wellness treatment, fango has a beneficial, recuperative effect. "It reduces stress by stimulating circulation and metabolism," said Schrader. "Aside from that it also is simply fantastically relaxing."
However, sometimes when people refer to fango, what they really mean is a warm paraffin pack. This is considered acceptable and sufficient when it comes to the typical treatments that are available in cities and towns, said Kleinschmidt. Ingredients in the paraffin, however, cannot be emphasised because colour and fango particles contained in the wax cannot penetrate.
A fango treatment, whether natural or paraffin, benefits people who have poor circulation or high blood pressure because of the degree of warmth it generates.
DPA
"In fact German natural fango is a matter of ground volcanic stone," said Professor Juergen Kleinschmidt of the Institute for Medical Balneology at the University of Munich. In Germany, it's only mined and produced at a few places: Kaiserstuhl, a small group of hills in the upper Rhine River valley in southwestern Germany, and near Freiburg in the southwest. "To apply fango, we first mix the fango powder with thermal water, then it looks like cement," said Dirk Schrader, director of pool operations at Vital-Therme Bad Wildbad in Germany's Black Forest. It's then heated to 43 to 50 degrees and spread over the intended area of the body in a three-centimetre thick layer. This allows the minerals to penetrate the skin. "Moisture is maintained during the approximately 20-minute treatment by airtight material that is then wrapped around the relative part of the body," said Schrader.
There are mud packs that are done on a particular body part and there are full-body mud packs. Generally, the warmth of fango provides a pain-mitigating or healing effect typically on muscular-skelatal areas of the body. "It has been scientifically proven that fango helps relieve not only rheumatism-related illnesses, joint pain and spinal ailments, but also muscle tension and colic," said Kleinschmidt. The immune system also is bolstered and the body's self-healing mechanisms are stimulated.
A natural fango treatment, which normally comprises six mud packs or 10 or more at a spa and whose costs are covered to a large degree by German health insurance, can ease afflictions for months. Within a wellness treatment, fango has a beneficial, recuperative effect. "It reduces stress by stimulating circulation and metabolism," said Schrader. "Aside from that it also is simply fantastically relaxing."
However, sometimes when people refer to fango, what they really mean is a warm paraffin pack. This is considered acceptable and sufficient when it comes to the typical treatments that are available in cities and towns, said Kleinschmidt. Ingredients in the paraffin, however, cannot be emphasised because colour and fango particles contained in the wax cannot penetrate.
A fango treatment, whether natural or paraffin, benefits people who have poor circulation or high blood pressure because of the degree of warmth it generates.
DPA
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