Sand Baths

SAND BATHS, the application of heated sand for therapeutic purposes. Sand baths were known even in deep antiquity. The diseased part of the body or the entire patient, with the exception of the head, is buried in sand, and depending on the disease, the heating lasts 1–1.5 hours. Therapeutic sand resorts operate in Germany, France, and Italy. In the USSR, sand baths are used in Yevpatoria. Natural sand baths (using solar heating) on the shores of the Black Sea, as well as at certain northern seaside resorts, have had wide application. The dependence of natural sand baths on the weather has necessitated a transition to the artificial heating of sand. The sand must be clean, fine, well-dried, and repeatedly sifted. Depending on the quantity of sand required for the bath, heating is performed in furnaces, on iron sheets, or in mechanized apparatuses. The latter consist of large wooden boxes, inside which pipes are laid for conducting steam or hot water, and there are devices for mixing the sand (Figure 1). Of the two openings, the upper one serves for pouring in the sand, and the lower one for discharging the already heated sand. The resulting hot sand is thoroughly mixed in a wooden tub (Figure 2) with cold sand to the required temperature.

Figure 1. Simplified apparatus for heating sand.

Figure 2. Sand bath.

General sand bath. The height of the sand is 10–15 cm; the patient, with a cold compress on their head, lies on the sand and is covered by it entirely, except for the head, neck, and upper part of the chest. Then the bath is covered with a woolen blanket, and the patient remains in the bath for approximately an hour. The sand, having become moist from profuse sweat, adheres tightly to the body, and a warm shower or water bath is used to wash it off. Sand baths are used in the summer in the open air or in a cool room. After washing, the patient is usually wrapped in a warm blanket and put to bed to achieve even greater sweating. Local sand baths are used in the form of: 1) half-baths (sand is poured onto the lower extremities and abdomen); 2) bags with heated sand, with which the diseased part of the body is wrapped; 3) direct application of the diseased organ to heated sand. Usually, sand baths are started at 45° and gradually brought up to 55°. The temperature of a local sand bath can be brought up to 60°. The duration is about 1–2 hours, taken daily, totaling 30–40 baths per course. The physiological action is based mainly on thermal properties and mechanical influence. The advantage of sand baths over water baths consists in the fact that sand uniformly imparts its temperature to the surface of the body and exerts a gradual thermal irritation upon it, which is facilitated by the stable temperature and slow heat dissipation of the sand, as well as the tight adherence of the latter to the surface of the skin, filling all its irregularities. The result of sand baths is both a sharp intensification of general metabolic processes and, in particular, increased perspiration and subsequent cutaneous respiration (1–2 kg per bath). The mechanical influence of sand baths is caused mainly by the pressure of the mass of sand and the irritation of cutaneous nerves, as well as a massaging effect on small vessels and capillaries. Sand baths are relatively easily tolerated by patients (with the observance of caution regarding temperature and duration, they are well tolerated even by cardiac patients). The body temperature in the axillary cavity at a sand temperature of 47–50° rises by 0.3–1.3°, the pulse quickens by 10–40 beats, and respiration by 5–15 per minute. Indications are insufficiently developed. Sand baths are used for various chronic polyarthritides, severe forms of sciatica, chronic inflammatory processes in the pelvic region, and also where increased perspiration is required (e.g., in chronic nephrosis). In general, the indications for sand baths are close to the indications for mud therapy.