What is "mud bath"

Mud \Mud\ (m[u^]d), n. [Akin to LG. mudde, D. modder, G. moder mold, OSw. modd mud, Sw. modder mother, Dan. mudder mud. Cf. Mother a scum on liquors.] Earth and water mixed so as to be soft and adhesive. Mud bass (Zo["o]l.), a fresh-water fish ( Acantharchum pomotis or Acantharchus pomotis) of the Eastern United States. It produces a deep grunting note. Mud bath, an immersion of the body, or some part of it, in mud charged with medicinal agents, as a remedy for disease. Mud boat, a large flatboat used in dredging. Mud cat. See mud cat in the vocabulary. Mud crab (Zo["o]l.), any one of several American marine crabs of the genus Panopeus. Mud dab (Zo["o]l.), the winter flounder. See Flounder, and Dab. Mud dauber (Zo["o]l.), a mud wasp; the mud-dauber. Mud devil (Zo["o]l.), the fellbender. Mud drum (Steam Boilers), a drum beneath a boiler, into which sediment and mud in the water can settle for removal. Mud eel (Zo["o]l.), a long, slender, aquatic amphibian ( Siren lacertina), found in the Southern United States. It has persistent external gills and only the anterior pair of legs. See Siren. Mud frog (Zo["o]l.), a European frog ( Pelobates fuscus). Mud hen. (Zo["o]l.)

1. The American coot ( Fulica Americana).

2. The clapper rail.

   Mud lark, a person who cleans sewers, or delves in mud.

   Mud minnow (Zo["o]l.), any small American fresh-water fish of the genus Umbra, as Umbra limi. The genus is allied to the pickerels.

   Mud plug, a plug for stopping the mudhole of a boiler.

   Mud puppy (Zo["o]l.), the menobranchus.

   Mud scow, a heavy scow, used in dredging; a mud boat.

   Mud turtle, Mud tortoise (Zo["o]l.), any one of numerous species of fresh-water tortoises of the United States.

   Mud wasp (Zo["o]l.), any one of numerous species of hymenopterous insects belonging to Pep[ae]us, and allied genera, which construct groups of mud cells, attached, side by side, to stones or to the woodwork of buildings, etc. The female places an egg in each cell, together with spiders or other insects, paralyzed by a sting, to serve as food for the larva. Called also mud dauber.

alt. The immersion of the body in mud, for therapeutic reasons. n. The immersion of the body in mud, for therapeutic reasons.

n. a bath in warm mud (as for treating rheumatism)

A mud bath is a bath of mud, commonly from areas where hot spring water can combine with volcanic ash. Mud baths have existed for thousands of years, and can be found now in high-end spas in many countries of the world.

Mud baths come from many sources:

• lakes (e.g. Lake Techirghiol)
• saltwater sea (e.g. Dead Sea in Jordan and Israel)
• hot springs (e.g. Calistoga, Napa Valley, California)
• mud volcano (e.g. Tiga Island, Malaysia, El Totumo, Colombia)

Mud baths in the United States are mostly found at the resorts in California and Miami Beach, Florida. The mud is a combination of local volcanic ash, imported Canadian peat and naturally heated mineral waters. Historically, the mud bath treatment has been used for centuries in Eastern and Western European spas as a way to relieve arthritis.

In Romania, Lake Techirghiol is famous for treatments with mud baths. The lake's hypersaline environment is due to the successive evaporation of sea water that remained in its basin after a tectono-erosive phase exhaustion created a fluvial-marine firth and the lake's connection to the sea closed. The accumulation of salts in the water is also a result of a semiarid climate with higher temperatures in summer, leading to pronounced evaporation. The lake's higher salinity (83.6 g/l in 1970, and 63.6 gl/l in 1980), in spite of a decrease over time, has been a bottleneck in the selection of the lake animal and plant species.

In Italy, in Lido delle Nazioni at Ferrara offers mud bath therapies. It is claimed that the treatment, which is founded on contact with bromine salt water, has anti-inflammatory, detoxifying, analgesic, relaxing and revitalizing properties.