Water has been used for thousands of years to improve health and is now being rediscovered by doctors, sports players and stressed office workers as a terrific means of recuperation.
Healing with water, or hydrotherapy, has been around since records began. There’s evidence that people built water installations as early as 2400 BC. The Egyptians and Assyrians used mineral waters for their health. Most famously, the Romans were huge fans of water therapy, ranging from hot and cold water to steam rooms, but it was equally popular with the Japanese, Chinese and Greeks.
The mention of scabies is likely to have most people recoiling in horror. An infestation of small mites that dig under your skin and leave eggs to hatch along the way is hardly attractive.
Unfortunately, it is precisely this stigma that stops many people getting help immediately. As well as prolonging a sufferer’s discomfort, this delay puts friends and family at a significantly higher risk of becoming infected too.
We are just past the peak of a 30-year cycle of scabies in the UK, but despite it being a common complaint, most of us remain hopelessly ignorant of what scabies is, how it is spread and how to treat it.
