Prof. Jens Jordan from Hannover Medical School gives patients who complain of low blood pressure a large glass of tap water. They should drink 500 milliliters in one gulp. A little later her blood pressure rises by up to 50 mmHg. Jordan found out why with colleagues from Berlin. They tracked down previously unknown “antennas” in the liver that monitor the water balance and thus indirectly influence blood pressure. In Burnaby, Canada, Dr. Ryan Allen installed HEPA filters in 25 households without telling the residents if and when they went into operation. After 14 days, Allen’s team checked the test subjects’ vascular function. Once the filter had cleaned the room air, blood flow improved by 10 percent and the inflammatory parameter CRP (C-reactive protein) fell by almost 33 percent.
In plain language, this means: The cleaner the air, the healthier our blood vessels are. Researchers at University College London have just published a similarly simple remedy for obesity: fewer fires, i.e. reducing the heating. Since the 1970s, the average room temperature in Europe has risen from 18 to 21 degrees Celsius. The consequences: Our body uses less energy and its ability to break down or convert unhealthy fat decreases. In short: we are gaining weight. As a countermeasure, the researchers recommend a room temperature with a Brrrr factor: 16 °C. Then the body burns 3600 more calories in 18 days.
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If you turn down your heating, you can avoid being overweight
These are just three of numerous current studies that all show that a new four-element medicine is emerging. The idea of the Greek philosopher Empedocles that all being, including human beings, consists of earth, fire, air and water is experiencing a renaissance. Of course, his idea that diseases arise from an imbalance of these elements is no longer tenable. But: Our body produces heat, consists of 70 percent water, breathes air and needs minerals (earth). In Empedocles’ time, therefore, ailments were alleviated by supplying elements. And that is exactly what modern four-element medicine is doing again today – very successfully! Here we introduce it to you and tell you when it helps.
2500 years old – more modern than ever
Greek philosophers fiercely argued about what (or who) holds the world together at its core. It is the water, Thales of Miletus proclaimed. No, the air, replied Anaximenes. Nonsense, fire is the primary substance, claimed Heraclitus. Empedocles (495-435 BC) stopped the quarrel: All being consists of the four elements earth, fire, air and water, he said. Man and every thing are composed proportionally of these elements. If there is an element imbalance in the body, it becomes ill. To heal it means in the sense of the four-element-doctrine: supply the missing element or e.g. B. discharge too strong a fire.
The elements in brief:
AIR People dominated by this element are lively. The following treatment methods use it: climatotherapy (cure by the sea or in the mountains), speleotherapy (stay in tunnels with e.g. radon-containing air), whole-body cold therapy (short stay in cold air up to -145 °C) .
WATER -Characters range from calm to ponderous. “Water medicine” includes: Kneipp cures, balneotherapy or thalassotherapy (treatment with sea water), medicinal baths, drinking cures, affusions, inhalations with steam.
ERDE stands for reliability, but also melancholy. The following methods use the element: mud baths and packs, fango (treatment with volcanic mud), thalasso (therapy with mud) and healing earth.
FIRE makes strong-willed, but also short-tempered. The following “fire therapies” exist: hyperthermia (overheating of the body with ultrasound, microwaves or 40-45 °C warm flushing), external heat applications (packs, compresses, plasters, red light, hot-water bottle, heating pad).
AIR
Every breath delivers pure energy
Without air, our body cannot produce any energy. Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is the name of this fuel, which “mini power plants” in the cells produce with the help of oxygen. Even the World Health Organization recommends highly concentrated oxygen for cluster headaches . Apart from that, with every breath we take in air components that are good for us.
Take a deep breath: how air can heal People with allergies and asthma in particular feel better
by the sea or in the high mountains . Now it’s clear why: The air on the North and Baltic Seas contains saline water droplets. This “stimulating climate” improves lung function by up to 22 percent. The maritime aerosol, as it is called, also massively reduces the number of germs in the nose and throat and increases general performance. In neurodermatitis patientsthe sea air also smoothes the skin. It’s different in the mountains: there the body adapts to the lower oxygen content in the air. Already in a three-week hiking holiday, the blood pressure normalizes, blood sugar and blood lipid values improve and the body fat percentage decreases, as the University of Innsbruck found out. Atopic dermatitis symptoms are reduced by half, asthmatics and patients with the chronic lung disease COPD subsequently need less medication and also have fewer inflammatory markers in their blood. Extremely cold air (-145 °C) has a similar effect on people with rheumatism : even two months after such cold therapy, there is significantly less pinching in their joints.
Tip for at home
It sounds banal: Get out into the fresh air as often as possible! dr For example, Agnes van den Berg of Wageningen University in Holland found B. recently discovered that people who have an allotment garden have to see a doctor much less frequently.
WATER
The body is not sick, but thirsty
. (Sea) water covers around 70 percent of our planet. This enormous availability led to the fact that the natural element was considered a remedy early on. Hardly any metabolic process in our body works without water, the cells need it for the exchange of information. Water is so important that we have our own receptors for it (study by Hannover Medical School). While swimming, the body becomes almost weightless and receives a gentle pressure massage from all sides.
Immerse yourself in medicine: how water can heal
Hydrotherapy with sea or thermal water has a lasting improvement on the skin with neurodermatitis, psoriasis or vitiligo , as a new French study involving more than 14,000 patients shows. In addition, water treatments alleviate the pain of fibromyalgia and arthritis patients, improve their joint function and lead to those affected assessing their quality of life significantly more positively again, according to an extensive meta-analysis by the University of Essen. Pastor Sebastian Kneipp was also right: Researchers at the University of Halle-Wittenberg recently demonstrated that treading water causes our body to develop more immune cellsforms and is better able to cope with infections – if you do it regularly for at least four weeks. However, water does not only heal from the outside. Current comparisons show that inhaling seawater helps with hay fever and respiratory diseases at least as well as other remedies. It has a decongestant, expectorant and blood circulation-promoting effect. And water, which contains a lot of silica, can even protect against Alzheimer’s , as a French study of around 7,600 women showed. If it is rich in magnesium, the risk of diabetes decreases , and water with a lot of bicarbonate protects the heart .
Tip for at home
Two to three times a week, fill the bathtub three-quarters full with cold water and walk back and forth in it like a stork for 1-2 minutes with your bare lower legs. Just wipe off the water, do not dry. Pull warm socks over your feet and then move vigorously. That strengthens the immune system!
EARTH
Doctors prescribe mud instead of tablets
Already 3000 BC. the Egyptians used earth as a remedy. The so-called geophagy – the “earth eating” – was a common ritual among many primitive peoples. Whether loam, loess, mud or clay, the tiny mineral particles all have two ingenious properties: they have a gigantic surface, i.e. plenty of space for pollutants from their environment, and they can also lock them inside – forever.
Magnet and sponge: how earth can heal
If an element has been used for such a long time, it speaks to its effectiveness. But can it be measured scientifically? Yes! A study by the Berlin Charité shows that healing clay masks significantly alleviate skin problems such as pimples or blackheads within six weeks. In the fight against arthrosis , researchers at the University of Torkat in Turkey are more likely to use warm mud packs than hyaluronic acid injections. In a current study, both therapies worked equally well, but the mud packs had no side effects and also meant that an important inflammatory parameter in the patients did not increase any further. Applied internally, healing earth binds excess stomach and bile acid and stops itBacteria that damage our gut flora and helps to easily eliminate unhealthy fats and cholesterol from food. It also reduces bloating, gas and nausea .
Tip for a
healing clay compress at home: let 3-4 tablespoons of healing clay soak up in a liter of cold water for 1-2 hours. Dip a sufficiently large cloth, let it drain, place it wet on the inflamed area and fix it with a dry cloth. Leave on for 30-90 minutes.
FIRE
Viruses don’t like heat
There is a small fire blazing in each of us: our metabolism only runs optimally at a temperature between 35.8 and 37.2 °C. When pathogens attack us, the body reacts with a fever. This allows the immune system to work faster and makes it difficult for heat-sensitive viruses and bacteria to multiply – a mechanism that four-element medicine also uses in the fight against cancer.
Heat up the pain: How fire can heal
Before patients at the University Hospital in Göttingen are wheeled into the operating theatre , the nursing staff in the waiting area put a blanket over them and turn on an air heater. They call it “pre-operative pre-warming”. This means that the patients survive their procedures better and the risk of infection after the operation is significantly reduced. Radiation or chemotherapy also work better in cancer patients who are “overheated” to 40 to 45 °C before their treatment. Because the so-called hyperthermia, which has now been shown by several large studies in different types of cancer, makes tumors more sensitive. Another, also very effective, depth effect is provided by heat ointments against muscle tension, as researchers at the German Sport University Cologne found out using a special infrared method. Just 15 minutes after application, the ointment stimulates blood circulation up to a depth of 25 mm. The pain subsides and mobility increases significantly. Fibromyalgia patients can cope better with pain after “fire” therapy with infrared radiation.
Tip for at home
Hot potato wrap for sore throat : Boil 2-3 potatoes, squash them on a long, narrow cloth and spread them out. Fold the towel over, put it around your neck and fasten it with another towel. Leave on for 20 minutes.
These three therapies harness the power of multiple elements
Balneotherapy combines medicinal water drinking cures, special baths (e.g. in sulfur water), Kneipp treatments, inhalations, wraps, moor and mud packs with exercise, sport and a change in diet.
Climatotherapy rests on three pillars. Firstly, the temperature, humidity, wind force and oxygen content of the spa air regulate blood pressure and breathing. Secondly, a high salt content in the air or a low-pollutant and pollen-free environment causes the symptoms to subside. Thirdly, the stronger UV radiation at the spa has a positive effect on people with skin diseases. A special form of climate therapy is healing gallery therapy.
Thalassotherapy uses the “power of the sea”. The sea water itself (baths, showers, inhalations), the stimulating climate (e.g. hiking or Nordic walking in the surf zone, see climate therapy), packs, masks or wraps with sea salt, mud or algae as well as massages and gymnastics are used. Like balneotherapy, thalassotherapy also helps to reduce stress, increases well-being in the case of rheumatism and (chronic) muscle tension, alleviates sleep problems and supports the body in losing weight and detoxifying.
DO HEALTH INSURANCE PAY?
The assumption of costs for treatments according to the four-element medicine is in most cases a so-called individual case decision. This means: A doctor who wants to prescribe a corresponding therapy for you, or the (spa) clinic in which you would like to be treated, must first sufficiently justify the medical necessity to the insurance company. However, you can get 48 healing clay capsules for around 7 euros, a 15-minute sea mud bath costs around 40 to 45 euros and a week of healing gallery therapy from 130 euros. The so-called Hufeland directory lists some of the therapies presented here. It is managed by the Hufelandgesellschaft in Berlin published. Private (supplementary) insurances reimburse all naturopathic treatments mentioned therein. More and more statutory insurers are now also introducing “tariffs with a focus on naturopathy”. So: be sure to ask!
