I first heard of cold water dousing as hydrotherapy when I stumbled across this webpage on the subject:

http://www.alliancemartialarts.com/cold.html


I could tell right away it was a good idea, so I took the advice about starting in the middle of summer instead of waiting for New Years Eve (ha ha).

Beginning in August, every morning, I would don my gym shorts, go out in back and dump three consecutive five gallon buckets of cold water over my head. By the time winter arrived, I was well-accustomed to doing this; and when the hose was frozen shut, I usually carried buckets of water out from inside, missing only a few days over the entire winter.

I did not catch cold once that fall, winter, or spring. Otherwise, I usually find myself fighting off several colds, sometimes catching one if I ignore it for too long. Once that winter I did feel something coming on, so I took their advice, went out and dumped even more cold water on my head in the icy outdoor air.

Following the cold water dousing outside, I would go inside for a cold shower. I didn't know than that it would be beneficial to alternate hot water with the cold. In fact, the Alliance article says to avoid it.

Each workday morning I do a series of warm up and stretching exercises, so I would do these outside near the hose faucet. This was a rented house with a large landscaped river gravel area in the rear. I could stand barefoot in the gravel and exercise, or walk on the gravel, or walk out into the snowy back yard while waiting for my three buckets to fill from the hose. I could feel the effect of the stones massaging the soles of my feet, just as I could feel the benefit of walking barefoot and dousing with the cold water.

As is, our current home won't allow for dousing without the yard turning into a mud puddle and I really miss the river gravel exercise area. So I am going to make a place for that this year, with a drain below the stones so the water will disperse without causing a mess. It would also be useful to get rid of the chlorinated water, but I'm not sure how to best do that without spending big bucks. One thing for sure, I will definitely be alternating hot with cold water when I go inside for my shower.

If anyone finds this info useful, please consider that I found walking and standing on that river gravel extremely beneficial to my feet. I think the warm up exercises get the lymph flowing as well.

So there you have it, all rolled into one: five activities that are all part Natural Healing.

1.) Hydrotherapy
2.) Exercise
3.) Barefooting
4.) Foot Reflexology
and...
5.) Deep Breathing (yeah you'll be doing that after you dump that cold water over your head :-)

Here's a follow up from Alliance, on Cold Water Dousing and Deep Breathing,

http://www.alliancemartialarts.com/cold2.htm


including a bit about a famous Russian, Porphiri Ivanov, who discovered all the above and fasting as well when he suffered from cancer and wanted to kill himself quickly. It didn't kill him because he got stronger,and eventually better, using the technique above. His link on the Alliance page is dead, so here's another page that tells his story. Yeah, the soviet "authorities" harrassed Ivanov.Check out that photo!

http://www.logonia.org/index.php/content/view/214/2/