The influence of hydrotherapy on asthma, a pilot study
Item
- Title
- The influence of hydrotherapy on asthma, a pilot study
- Author(s)
- Graham Andrew
- Abstract
-
The study was designed to assess if a regime of daily, alternate hot and cold showers improved lung function in asthmatics and if the hydrotherapy had a cumulative, training effect on the individual.7 healthy, but asthmatic, female subjects from the British College of Osteopathic Medicine (BCOM) participated in the study.
The study was divided into a pre-study testing day and 3 sections of 7 days; making for a total of 22 days running consecutively. The pre-study day allowed for a pre-study spirometry test and to collect anthropometric data on the subjects. During the following three weeks, the subjects recorded daily stress, mood and symptom records and their daily peak-flow readings at home. On the last day of each week they attended the BCOM exercise physiology laboratory to undergo a full lung function assessment using the Microloop 3300 spirometer.
The weeks were divided as follows:
Week 1 - the pre-intervention week. It acted as a control week as no changes were made to the subjects' lifestyle and they showered as they normally would.
Week 2 - the hydrotherapy intervention, consisting of a daily shower of 12 minutes (3 minutes hot, followed by 1 minute cold water repeated 3 times)
Week 3 - the post-intervention week mirrored the pre-intervention week in its procedures. It was included to assess how long, if at all, any changes elicited by the intervention lasted.
A two-way, repeated measures of analysis of variance test demonstrated that there was no significant change (p>0.05) in any of the lung function parameters tested.
The null hypothesis stating, 'A regime of alternate, daily hot & cold showers does not have a significant effect on lung function in asthmatics as measured by the following parameters: weekly Forced Vital Capacity, Forced Expiratory Volume in 1.0 Second, Peak Expiratory Flow & Forced Expiratory Ration and daily peak flow readings' can be accepted.
The failure to produce a statistically significant result was believed to be due to two possible reasons; the inherent variables and the efficacy of the intervention, i.e. the intervention being of insufficient quality, both in exposure and time and the innate non-plasticity of muscle to temperature adaptation. - presented at
- British College of Osteopathic Medicine
- Date Accepted
- 0
- Date Submitted
- 1.1.1970 00:00:00
- Type
- osteo_thesis
- Language
- English
- Submitted by:
- 62
- Pub-Identifier
- 13668
- Inst-Identifier
- 1076
- Recommended
- 0
- Item sets
- Thesis
Graham Andrew, “The influence of hydrotherapy on asthma, a pilot study”, Osteopathic Research Web, accessed May 5, 2025, https://www.osteopathicresearch.org/s/orw/item/1089