Balneotherapy for fibromyalgia: time to take the waters?

Balneotherapy – the treatment of health conditions and diseases by bathing in thermal mineral waters – could be an activity to try if you have fibromyalgia.

Popular in many European countries, balneotherapy has been cited by people with fibromyalgia and other chronic pain conditions as being helpful.

A team set out to look at the evidence and found 11 trials involving 672 people that were relevant.

There were variations between the trials in terms of water types, time spent in the water, temperature of water and the mineral ingredients. But there were some positive findings.

“Evidence indicates that balneotherapy can benefit fibromyalgia in pain and quality-of-life improvement,” the team explains after analysing the data.

But the research that exists is moderate, even weak, so trials involving greater numbers of people who have balneotherapy for longer periods of time are needed.

Click here to read the original findings. For more fibromyalgia research, click here.

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