ReviewEnvironmental science and pollution research international2022
Balneotherapy year in review 2021: focus on the mechanisms of action of balneotherapy in rheumatic diseases.
Review in Environmental science and pollution research international, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 56 citations in OpenAlex.
- Evidence-based balneotherapy in Hungary. Updated systematic review and meta-analysis of the Hungarian clinical trials.International journal of biometeorology · 2026Pooled it
- Spa therapy and peripheral serotonin and dopamine function: a systematic review.International journal of biometeorology · 2024Pooled it
- Effects of balneotherapy on stress, anxiety, and depression: results of a multicenter randomized controlled trial with six-month follow-up.BMC complementary medicine and therapies · 2026Trial
- The effect of warm saltwater and warm water baths on pain, fatigue, sleep quality, and functional capacity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a randomized controlled studyBMC complementary medicine and therapies · 2025Trial
- Evaluation of the benefits of neutral bicarbonate ionized water baths in an open-label, randomized, crossover trial.Scientific reports · 2024Trial
- Evaluation of the therapeutic and the chemical effects of balneological treatment on clinical and laboratory parameters in knee osteoarthritis: a randomized, controlled, single-blinded trial.International journal of biometeorology · 2022Trial
- Balneotherapy, a Complementary Non-pharmacological Approach for Non-Inflammatory Complaints in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: A Pilot Study.In vivo (Athens, Greece)Trial
- A sulfate-arsenical-ferruginous water affects apoptosis, oxidative stress and the gene expression of inflammatory mediators and of a panel of MicroRNA in IL-1β stimulated human osteoarthritic chondrocytes.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- Ethnopharmacological knowledge and physicochemical properties of hot springs in Bhutan.BMC complementary medicine and therapies · 2025Article
- Longer Health Resort Therapy Improves Outcomes in Long COVID: A Retrospective Study.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Article
- Balneotherapy in Fibromyalgia Syndrome: protocol of "FIBROTHERM", a prospective multi-center, two-cohort observational study.International journal of biometeorology · 2025Article
- Neuroimmunomodulation induced by mud-bath therapy: clinical benefits and bioregulation of the innate/inflammatory responses induced by a peloid enriched with rosmarinic acid in elderly patients with osteoarthritis.International journal of biometeorology · 2025Article
- Development of a microalgal peloid for thermotherapeutic uses.International journal of biometeorology · 2025Article
- Comparison of the effectiveness of dry needling and balneotherapy on pain, mood, anxiety, kinesiophobia, disability, and quality of life of patients with myofascial pain syndrome: A prospective, single-blind, randomized study.Turkish journal of physical medicine and rehabilitation · 2025Article
- Anti-Inflammatory Pathways Modulated by Microbial Polysaccharides from Euganean Thermal Muds in Zebrafish.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- COVID-19-Related Discontinuation Impact on Patient-Reported Outcomes in Long-Term Thermal Therapy: A Single-Center Observational Study at Saturnia Thermal Springs.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Water-based interventions in rheumatic diseases: mechanisms, benefits, and clinical applications.Rheumatology international · 2024Review
- Thermal Water Reduces the Inflammatory Process Induced by the SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein in Human Airway Epithelial Cells In Vitro.Biomedicines · 2024Article
- Signaling Paradigms of HAntioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Impact of Spa Therapy on Symptoms and Quality of Life in Post-COVID-19 Patients with Chronic Conditions.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Balneotherapy (BT) is one of the most commonly used non-pharmacologic complementary therapies for different rheumatic diseases. Its beneficial properties probably derived from a combination of mechanical, thermal, and chemical effects, but the exact mechanism of action is not elucidated. This review aimed at summarizing the current knowledge about the effects of BT, and identifying its possible mechanism of action in different rheumatic diseases. Pubmed and Scopus were used to perform a search of the literature to extract articles including terms related to BT and rheumatic diseases published in the period from 2010 to 2021. We selected pre-clinical studies, randomized controlled trials, and clinical trials. The results of clinical studies confirmed the beneficial properties on different mediators and factors of inflammation, oxidative stress, cartilage metabolism, and humoral and cellular immune responses in patients affected by chronic degenerative musculoskeletal disorders. The data derived from OA and RA-induced murine models revealed the efficacy of different BT treatments in decreasing pain, inflammation, and improving mobility, as well as in reducing the expression of matrix-degrading enzymes and markers of oxidative stress damage. Different in vitro studies analyzed the potential effect of a mineral water, as a whole, or of a mineral element, demonstrating their anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and chondroprotective properties in OA cartilage, synoviocytes and chondrocytes, and osteoblast and osteoclast cultures. The presented data are promising and confirm BT as an effective complementary approach in the management of several low-grade inflammation, degenerative, and stress-related pathologies, as rheumatic diseases.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.