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Abano Terme mud is a living substance: it can neither be purchased in the pharmacy, nor can it be warmed-up for personal use or consumption. It is an enriched clay, the result of a certified process of maturation; thanks to this process, mud is provided with a strong therapeutic value, as an anti-inflammatory and an analgesic; also, it provides the whole organism with several benefits.
Let us briefly see the reasons of its uniqueness:
Composition:
Thermal mud is a mixture of a particular clay with thermal water; the clay is extracted exclusively from two little lakes of our area, Lispida and Arquà Petrarca, located at the foot of the Euganean Hills.
The thermal water with which the clay is bathed, goes up from underground because of the particular composition of the rocks which are present there, after a long subterranean path made through many years by the Pre-Alps, during which the simple rainwater gets enriched with mineral salts and warms itself up.
Therefore, this water gets actually transformed, and it is classified as salted-bromide iodic hypothermal water in the Euganean Basin.
Maturation:
At rest in the tanks
Once it is filtered and purified, the clay extracted from the lakes is left to stand for at least 2 months in the special tanks with which every thermal hotel is equipped. In these tanks, the clay gets submerged by thermal water, which is introduced inside them and made flow constantly at a temperature of about 70°.
The transformation process
During this period, the composition of water and the constant exposition to sunlight give rise to a progressive modification of the chemical and physical composition of the clay, in particular for the increase of its plasticity and for the heat retention index.
The microbic colonization
Thermal shock facilitates the development of colonies of non-pathogenic bacteria, diatoms and cyanobacteria, which are responsible for the beneficial effects of mud that is now mature and ready for therapeutic application.
Therapeutic value:
The certified process of maturation of the thermal clay enriches mud with cyanobacteria and, in particular, with the strain called ETS-05
(belonging to the Phormidium type; indeed it was isolated for the first time in our muds); it produces glycolipid substances provided with an high anti-inflammatory activity: these proprieties are so unique and effective that they got an European patent.
Mud action:
Mud is applied on the interested areas of the body at a temperature of 40°C on one side, mud produces an intense skin vasodilatation and muscular relaxation, on the other side the thermal shock stimulates metabolism with the consequent release of hormones.
Cortisol and endorphins: the first one is a “natural cortisone” with an anti-inflammatory value, the latter has an analgesic effect and helps increasing the threshold of pain in the treated subject.
In this sense, thermal mud acts as a veritable medicine, with a double action and no collateral effects.
Mud therapy effects:
A mud therapy cycle (minimum 6 sessions, although the complete cycle should be of 12 daily consecutive sessions) leads to analgesic, muscle relaxant and anti-inflammatory benefits, which can be perceived already at the end of the cure, along with a recovery of joint structures.
At long term, a mud therapy cure aims at preventing a new acute phase of the inflammatory states and at the slowing down of the degeneration of the treated pathologies.
