RHEUMATIC DISEASES

The Dead Sea represents an unique reservoir of salts that provides a special potential for outdoor Balneotherapy. Patients suffering from any kind of arthritis undergo their treatment including bathing in the Dead Sea, bathing in pools containing Dead Sea water or thermal sulfur spring water, self application of black mud at the Sea shore, envelopment of warm mud packs to the joints and medical massage.

In addition to these active therapies, the ambient environmental conditions, such as: uniformly warm temperatures and a low level of relative humidity, high barometric pressure, oxygen-rich air, bromide-rich atmosphere, and floating in the Dead Sea water, aid to the improvement and the well-being of the patients and their joints.

Experience and careful examination of the patient help the physician to decide in which quantity and frequency of the above mentioned therapies and therapeutic skills have to be applied. Usually, Dead Sea baths and self mud applications are used on a 2- or 4-time daily basis, where the other procedures are provided only 2 or 3 times a week.

With an improvement of symptoms allows this, medications like pain killers and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents can often be reduced, and sometimes be stopped completely. However, disease modifying drugs have to be continued (or may be slowly reduced), as the results rarely appear before the two or three first weeks of treatment. (Table 7)

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RHEUMATIC DISEASES AND CONDITIONS TREATED AT THE DEAD SEA

Inflammatory arthritides

1. Rheumatoid Arthritis 
2. Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis 
3. Seronegative Spondylarthropathies : Bechterew disease (Ankylosing Spondylitis), Psoriatic Arthritis, Reactive Arthritis (e.g. Reiters syndrome)

Degenerative arthritides

1. Osteoarthritis
2. Back and Neck Problems
3. Chronic or Acute Low Back pain and Cervical Syndrome

Other conditions

1. Fibromyalgia 
2. Tendonitis 
3. Bursitis
4. Recovery from different orthopedic surgeries