Since the earliest recorded history, water has always been believed to promote healing and has therefore been widely used in the management of medical ailments. Through observation and centuries of trial and error, and scientific methodology, traditions of healing through aquatic treatments have evolved.

Aquatic therapies are beneficial in the management of patients with musculoskeletal problems, neurological problems, cardiopulmonary pathology, and other conditions. In addition, the margin of therapeutic safety is wider than that of almost any other treatment milieu.

Knowledge of these biological effects can aid the skilled rehabilitative clinician to create an optimal treatment plan, through appropriate modification of aquatic activities, immersion temperatures, and treatment duration.

Historically, the field of Physical Medicine viewed hydrotherapy as a central treatment methodology. In 1911, Charles Leroy Lowman, the founder of the Orthopaedic Hospital in Los Angeles, which later became Rancho Los Amigos, began using therapeutic tubs to treat spastic patients and those with cerebral palsy after a visit to the Spaulding School for Crippled Children in Chicago, where he observed paralyzed patients exercising in a wooden tank. On returning to California, he transformed the hospital’s lily pond into 2 therapeutic pools

At Warm Springs, Georgia, Leroy Hubbard developed his famous tank, and in 1924, Warm Springs received its most famous aquatic patient, Franklin D. Roosevelt. A wealth of information, research, and articles on spa therapy and pool treatments appeared in professional journals during the 1930s.

At Hot Springs, Arkansas, a warm swimming pool was installed for special underwater physical therapy exercises and pool therapy treatments with chronic arthritic patients.

By 1937, Dr. Charles Leroy Lowman published his Technique of Underwater Gymnastics: A Study in Practical Application, in which he detailed aquatic therapy methods for specific underwater exercises that “carefully regulated dosage, character, frequency, and duration for remedying bodily deformities and restoring muscle function.”

During the 1950s, the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis supported the corrective swimming pools, and hydrogymnastics of Charles L. Lowman and the therapeutic use of pools and tanks for the treatment of poliomyelitis.

In 1962, Dr. Sidney Licht and a group of physiatrists organized the American Society of Medical Hydrology and Climatology, which historically met at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.

PRI started offering Aquatherapy classes over 5 years ago. Join us in our 92-degree salt-water pool. This is the safest possible low-impact therapy with world-class fitness results. Includes cardiovascular strengthening, core work, and stretching. If appropriate for patients, there are also running and jumping exercises. Bring your own towel and lock. Spacious locker room and post therapy shower space are also available.

For more ideas on how to keep your body healthy, contact our office at

Tel:      (416) 477-1101

E-mail: reception@priclinic.com

Web:   www.priclinic.com