Can Hydrotherapy Help With Skin Conditions?

Can a hot tub make your skin feel like new?

However, there is a little more to it than that. You have to be careful and often you walk a fine line between the benefits and the dangers when it comes to your skin. If you aren’t careful, you could end up with dry skin or even something called hot tub folliculitis. More on that later.

First, let’s take a look at some of the benefits hot tubs can have to our skin if we use them regularly as a part of our daily health routines.

The Benefits of a Hot Tub Session

There are many great things that hot tubs can do for us – especially our skin. By understanding these benefits, we will be able to truly grasp why a regular soak can do wonders for your body and, of course, your skin.

1. Cleans and Disinfects – Your skin takes a beating every day as it protects the rest of your internal organs. A dip in a hot tub will not only make you feel better, but it will also clean any dirt and grime that has accumulated on you throughout the day.

2. Improves Circulation – No one ever doubts that a nice soak in your spa will help your circulation. It is actually one of the reasons why it is so popular especially among athlete This improved circulation won’t just help your muscles, however, it is also very good for your skin, because it also improves elasticity.

3. Opens Your Pores – How often do you hear about how receptive your skin is to both treatment and healing when your skin is warm, and your pores are open? Exactly. Regular soaks in a hot tub will help open up your pores so your skin not only looks its best, but feels great as well.

4. MicroSilk® technology- for a hot tub with MicroSilk and relaxing in your spa will even stimulate collagen production, and moisturisation through oxygen – rich microbubbles.

MicroSilk® hydrotherapy oxygenates the water up to 70% more than ordinary tap water, with microbubbles approximately 50 microns in diameter.

At such a small size, these microbubbles are able to enter the skin’s pores, removing impurities, carrying oxygen for improved metabolism, lightly caressing skin for exfoliation, and improving hydration for dry skin.

Consistent warmth and improved circulation through an enhanced “Sauna Effect”

Tiny MicroSilk® bubbles remain suspended then collapse in the water, keeping heat in the spa and around the body, rather than floating to the top and accelerating the release of heat back into the atmosphere.

Contained heat energy provides a bather with consistent warmth across the body and enhances the sauna effect, thus more effectively drawing in moisture, improving circulation, opening pores to release toxins, and increasing cardiovascular activity. Deeper relaxation and improved serotonin levels through inhalation of negatively charged ions.

• The dissolving microbubbles in a MicroSilk® bath cause anions to be released at the surface of the water.
• When anions are released at concentrations above 50,000ions/cc they are shown to have therapeutic effects of improving serotonin levels.
• The anions at the surface of a MicroSilk® spa’s water are released at concentrations in excess of 80,000 ions/cc, resulting in therapeutic effects such as neutralizing free radicals, improved over- all feelings of wellbeing, calm, and deeper sleep.

As you can see, there are many reasons why a good soak in a hot tub can be just what your skin needed to look and feel its best. But, like anything, too much of a good thing can be bad.

Dangers to Watch Out For

As much as hot tubs can be good for your skin, they can be bad for it too. Take a look at some of these negative side effects and what you should do about them. By mitigating these, you can make sure your skin gets all the benefits of the hot tub while not having to experience any of these rare drawbacks:

Burns

Remember, the water in a hot tub is hot. Sometimes it can even be too hot. While most hot tubs are only able to heat so much these days, that doesn’t mean that it won’t be too much for your skin. Watch your skin and if you notice areas that hurt or look too red, then it may be time to get out before you are burned. The maximum water temperature should not exceed 400C.

Dry Skin

This is one of the most common problems you will find if you use a hot tub very often. Hot water will dry out your skin, especially if you stay in the water for too long. The warm water will strip away your body’s natural oils making your skin feel dry. In more extreme cases it can even crack and hurt as well. After you soak in your hot tub, make sure you take a quick shower to remove the excess chemicals from your body and then try applying a moisturizer to your skin if it feels dry.

Hot Tub Folliculitis

If you keep your hot tub properly maintained and make sure that whatever sanitation system you use is regularly checked, this shouldn’t be a problem.

However, occasionally you may find patches of red, irritated skin after regular soaks. While this could just be dry skin or even a small burn, it could also be hot tub folliculitis.

Basically, this is inflammation of the hair follicles caused by a bacteria known as pseudomonas aeruginosa. This bacterium is commonly found in pools and hot tubs. In most cases the only treatment needed is to check your purification system and stay out of the hot tub for a few days, but more extreme cases will need medical care from a professional.

Washing your costume separately, by hand in clean water, and washing yourself in the shower after a soak in the tub can also help to ensure that you don’t suffer from this condition.

Best Course of Action

In most cases, regular use of a hot tub will only help your skin. However, if you have experienced any of these negative side effects, you will need to do something about them straight away. First, try limiting your time in your hot tub. You can still take regular soaks; just reduce the time you are in there by five or even ten minutes.

If that isn’t enough, you could try washing off the excess chlorine or bromine after you soak in your hot tub and then applying a moisturizer. Really, we recommend doing this no matter who you are. By cleaning off the chlorine/bromine and moisturizing your skin after it has had a good soak, you give your skin all it needs to look its very best each and every day.