Observations placeholder
Efficacy of Waon therapy for fibromyalgia
Identifier
023654
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Wikipedia
Waon therapy, developed in Japan, is a sauna-like form of hyperthermia therapy for patients with chronic heart failure. Waon is a Japanese word meaning soothing warmth. Waon therapy is proposed to improve prognosis and quality of life.[1] The sauna room is an evenly warmed room at 60 °C (140 °F) with no hydration added. Patients sit in it for 15 minutes, after which, they are wrapped in thermal blankets and laid down to maintain heat for 30 minutes
Chronic heart failure patients suffer from an inability to pump enough blood to their tissues and heart, resulting in systolic and/or diastolic dysfunction. Waon therapy improves many indicators of heart function including: cardiac output, stroke volume, ejection fraction, while also having benefits in vascular function including decreased vascular resistance and blood pressure.[2] Improvements were also seen in left ventricular diastolic dimension and left atrial dimension
A description of the experience
Intern Med. 2008;47(16):1473-6. Epub 2008 Aug 15. Efficacy of Waon therapy for fibromyalgia. Matsushita K1, Masuda A, Tei C. 1The First Department of Internal Medicine, Kagoshima University Hospital.
OBJECTIVE: Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is a chronic syndrome characterized by widespread pain with tenderness in specific areas. We examined the applicability of Waon therapy (soothing warmth therapy) as a new method of pain treatment in patients with FMS.
METHODS: Thirteen female FMS patients (mean age, 45.2+/-15.5 years old; range, 25-75) who fulfilled the criteria of the American College of Rheumatology participated in this study. Patients received Waon therapy once per day for 2 or 5 days/week. The patients were placed in the supine or sitting position in a far infrared-ray dry sauna maintained at an even temperature of 60 degrees C for 15 minutes, and then transferred to a room maintained at 26-27 degrees C where they were covered with a blanket from the neck down to keep them warm for 30 minutes. Reductions in subjective pain and symptoms were determined using the pain visual analog scale (VAS) and fibromyalgia impact questionnaire (FIQ).
RESULTS: All patients experienced a significant reduction in pain by about half after the first session of Waon therapy (11-70%), and the effect of Waon therapy became stable (20-78%) after 10 treatments. Pain VAS and FIQ symptom scores were significantly (p<0.01) decreased after Waon therapy and remained low throughout the observation period.
CONCLUSION: Waon therapy is effective for the treatment of fibromyalgia syndrome.
PMID:
18703857