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Dead Sea cure

Anna Selby

The Dead Sea has been a centre of therapeutic excellence for at least two thousand years. It was so renowned during Cleopatra's time that she is said to have persuaded Mark Antony to conquer the region for her and went on to build the first pharmaceutical and cosmetic factories. Dead Sea treatments are still used to alleviate a wide range of chronic conditions, particularly asthma and other breathing problems, arthritis and skin diseases, as well as hypertension and Parkinson's disease. The therapy is so highly regarded by some EU countries, such as Germany, that long stays in the area are available courtesy of their health insurance plans.

This is not a policy that extends to Britain where hydrotherapy and other forms of naturopathy are usually regarded as quaint eighteenth-century - and ineffective - phenomena. Perhaps the factor that stretches our credulity most about the claims of klimatherapy, as it is known, is that it consists of simply being there - breathing in the air, sitting in the sun, bathing in the water and maybe massaging a bit of mud into the skin.

At eighty years of age, Hilda Richardson approached the idea of klimatherapy with a certain amount of scepticism. She has been controlling the symptoms of psoriasis (using steroid-based creams) and osteo-arthritis (with cortisone injections, painkillers and TENS machines) for over 20 years and her expectations were fairly low.

"When you've had conditions as long as I have,' she says, 'you assume you're stuck with them for life, but I did think it might ease the pain of the arthritis or soothe the skin irritation or just stop things from getting any worse. The psoriasis had given me sores, constantly peeling skin and intense itching - and scratching makes it worse, of course; while the arthritis is in my back, ankles, hands and wrists. My hands and wrists would often swell up dramatically and my ankles would ache so much they would keep me awake at night."

Water and air may seem unlikely to cure symptoms like these but the Dead Sea's water and air boast certain unique properties. At 400m below sea level, this is the lowest point on earth. According to Dr Mohamad Kanan at Jordan's Zara Medical Centre on the Dead Sea, this has far-reaching effects. 'There is high atmospheric density and pressure so the air is charged with high levels of oxygen. The high year-round temperatures cause a constant evaporation of the Dead Sea and the resulting haze infuses the air with bromine, magnesium and other minerals. It also filters the sun's rays. The short UVB rays are mostly lost so it is mainly UVA rays that reach the area, allowing safe, prolonged exposure to the sun with minimal sunburn.'

People who arrive too ill to go into the sea often improve sufficiently just by taking the air that they can go on to take the water in a matter of days. And it is the water itself that is the most potent part of the treatment. The Dead Sea is what is known as a 'terminal lake' - its only water loss is by evaporation - so it has a unique concentration of salts and minerals. Ten times saltier than the Med, every litre of Dead Sea water contains 1.2kg of them, meaning virtually nothing can live in it - hence its name. In Madaba, just south of the Jordanian capital, Amman, there is a sixth-century mosaic map showing fish swimming away from the Dead Sea in fear of their lives.

For people, on the other hand, the benefits of being in the water are legion. Calcium clarifies the skin surface and relieves pain; sodium balances the skin pH; chlorine is a natural antiseptic that boosts the skin's protective layer and reduces swelling; magnesium enhances functioning of skin metabolism, facilitates breathing and protects against allergies; bromine is a muscle relaxant; potassium regulates the body's water balance; iodine improves thyroid health and cell metabolism; sulphur detoxifies and stimulates the metabolism.

According to Dr Kanan, the treatment should be long term for the best results - six weeks is ideal. He emphasises that klimatherapy does not claim to cure ailments but its ability to relieve their symptoms is immense and usually lasts for around six months. Hilda Richardson was astonished at the results.

"When I saw Dr Kanan, he told me to bathe in the sea for at least ten minutes twice a day and to spend as much time in the sun as possible. He also recommended a mud massage at the spa for my arthritis, though this wasn't an essential part of the treatment. To be honest, it sounded more like a holiday than a therapy but I'd come this far so I did exactly what he told me. Every day, to my amazement, my skin improved. On the first day, the dryness and peeling started to disappear. Within three days, my skin was smooth, the sores cleared and even the itching that drove me mad had stopped."

"I spent a day in the spa and had a wonderful treatment where I was massaged in hot mud and then wrapped up in plastic and left to float on a waterbed for about 40 minutes - I fell fast asleep. Afterwards my feet and ankles were massaged. And after that, my joints tingled and felt easy to move and all the aches and stiffness disappeared. I can turn my head to look over my shoulder further than I've done for years. This was over two months ago and there is still no sign of any symptoms returning. I realise I can't expect this to last forever but it's already given me complete relief for much longer than I dared hope. If there's any way I can go again when the symptoms start to reappear, I'll be back in Jordan as soon as I can."

For more information, contact the Jordan Tourist Board on 0207 371 6496

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