The History Of Sea Therapies

Sea plants, seawater, sea salt and oceanic clay have long been popular physical-therapy ingredients in Europe. Recommended as medical therapeutic agents as early as 1578, seawater and sea derivatives were administered for rheumatism and general rehabilitation. In 1753, The Uses of Sea Water, by English author and physician Charles Russel, explained the various therapeutic properties of seawater. In search of those therapeutic benefits, the European elite sought out ocean-side resorts with bathing facilities.

With marine hospitals, which started in England in 1780, the seawater craze quickly became French domain. The first French marine hospital, Petit Berck, opened in 1861. In 1865 Joseph La Bonardière coined the term thalassotherapy (from the Greek thalassa for "sea" and therapeia for "care") and began a tradition of serious study regarding the health benefits of seawater. In 1899 Louis Bagot started balneotherapie (bath therapy) treatments at the clinic at Roscoff called the Institut Marin de Rockroum. This was the first true thalassotherapy clinic in Europe.

French scientist René Quinton devoted much of his life's work to the study of seawater and in 1906 published L'eau de Mer, Milieu Organic ("Sea Water, Organic Medium"), which demonstrated the chemical similarity between blood plasma and seawater. Quinton's colleague Claude Bernard discovered that the body is comprised of 70 percent water. Working from Bernard's findings regarding the makeup of blood, intracellular fluid and lymphatic fluid in the body, Quinton stated in 1897 that the human system is analogous to the systems found among marine life: "In the internal environment of our system, and only there we find the same mineral make-up, the same physiognomy, as that of sea water".

From this notion that seawater is a complete mineral source came multiple ideas of the healing powers of seawater. Quinton's study indicated that seawater and human plasma are almost identical in their composition of mineral salts, proteins and various other elements. Quinton also established that human cells could continue to live in seawater, while they break down and disintegrate almost instantly in any other medium.

This original connection between seawater and the healing benefits brought through its trace elements and molecular structure expanded over the years. Various forms of seaweed were scrutinized for healing properties, and many different types of therapies sprouted from the balneotherapy and thalassotherapy treatments that were popularized in the 1800s.

Today, the same healing principles apply.