Kome Nuka ... Enzyme Bath

[Guest guest]

Hi,

I thought this looked interesting. We've spoken about things like warm baths and showers, and paraffin dips, but I hadn't heard of this before. I guess the idea originated in Japan but now is also available in the states. In Freestone, California, at least. Has anyone here ever tried this? Sounds like it might very well help relieve the stiffness and pain of sore joints ... at least temporarily. If interested, you can check the website URL for further information. Or at the 2nd link, you can see pictures taken of a woman while she was submerged in the rice bran mixture.

Aloha,

Georgina

What is an Enzyme Bath?

http://osmosis.com/enzymebath.html

The enzyme bath is a therapeutic heat treatment that originated in Japan. There the establishment of over 40 centers in the past 35 years evidences its growing popularity. At least one center boasts a tub almost as big as a football field. Osmosis Enzyme Bath in Freestone is the first location in the U. S. to offer this unique form of heat therapy. We cater to a steadily growing and enthusiastic group of users, from the San Francisco Bay Area and around the country, who have discovered for themselves the many benefits of the enzyme bath.

"What Happens When I Do the Enzyme Bath?" The enzyme bath treatment consists of three parts and lasts an hour and a half. It begins in our Japanese tea garden where your personal bath attendent serves you an herbal tea blended especially for Osmosis. The tea is mixed with enzymes made from over 25 different organically grown plants. This preparation is a digestive aid that is soothing to the whole body and works with the metabolic processes that occur during the bath.After enjoying your enzyme drink, you go to the dressing room and change into a Japanese robe. (you may use the baths with or without a bathing suit) Next you enter a private bath area where large wooden tubs are filled with a fragrant blend of cedar fibers, rice bran, and plant enzymes imported from Japan. These ingredients heat naturally, by fermentation, creating biologically generated warmth that mimics the body's natural heating process. Once a place for your body is dug into the warm mixture, you step into the tub, settle into the place which has been shaped to support you, and are gently covered up to the chin. Once comfortably immersed in this bioactive substance, you become glowingly warm and may perspire.The amount of time spent in the bath varies from person to person and ranges from ten to twenty minutes. The maximum time is twenty minutes. Many people in the bath find themselves drifting between a dreaming and waking state where they have no sense of time. During the bath, you will feel the unique quality of the heat working through your body. The experience is deeply relaxing and restful. The bath frequently gives at least temporary relief from joint and muscle pain; it is very soothing for the nervous system. Circulation is increased, and metabolic pathways are opened. The enzyme bath also helps the digestive process. After the bath, excess cedar fiber is brushed off your body outside of the tub with the help of an attendant and then you shower.After you dry off, the treatment continues with either a comforting 75-minute massage or a half-hour "blanket wrap".Lying down in a resting room, covered warmly in blankets, you will find yourself relaxing deeply as the heat and energy continue flowing throughout your body. A Metamusic session is available during the wrap.

Principle of the Enzyme Bath: The heat in the Enzyme baths differs from other heat treatments in that it is produced biologically by a fermentation process. This process requires over 600 active enzymes. The largest organ of the body, the skin, comes in direct contact with intense enzyme activity in the enzyme bath, which, in addition to heat, produces its own electro-chemical environment. This combination of heat and energy influences body chemistry and natural cleansing processes, and breaks down body wastes in the subcutaneous layer of the skin. The surface of your skin, your pores, and even the cells themselves are thoroughly cleansed.Fermentation is nature's purification process. This basic, yet complex, biological activity penetrates gently and deeply. Until recently it was thought that the primary function of enzymes was for the digestion of food. Now it is known that even minute quantities of these bioactive proteins perform a tremendous variety of tasks, triggering most essential bodily functions. These potent biological catalysts are responsible for exchanging oxygen from the lungs into the bloodstream, running current through the nervous system, moving muscles, conducting the business of the immune system, and even regulating the blinking of an eye.The action of the enzyme bath imitates much of the work that is constantly being performed by the internal organs to produce both heat and enzyme activity inside the body. When the body is immersed in this bioactive medium, circulation and metabolism are stimulated from outside, giving a boost to the internal organs which usually perform these functions on their own. This is part of the reason the bath is both relaxing and energizing at the same time!Please Note: Heat treatments are not recommended following the consumption of alcoholic beverages, for those with high blood pressure, or for women during pregnancy, without consulting a health practitioner.

Another page with information (and pictures):

Rice isn't just for eating

http://www.tokyotidbits.com/archives/000131.html

Here is my mom buried in rice. She introduced me to this AMAZING experience. It's a wooden box full of the outer layer of rice mixed in with special bacteria that does what bacteria does and produces major heat. You basically strip down and get covered in this stuff for 15 minutes...and that must be the maximum because when you get out, your body is jeeeellllooooo. The rice and bacteria combined with the heat open your pores, suck out bad stuff, and infuse you with good stuff (minerals?). Sorry I can't be more specific, but there's something phenomenal going on: you get heated to the core in a very different way than a hot bath.

Apparently it's good for a variety of ailments. The place was packed with both the young and old, male and female. Some people go twice a day and have purchased the 'super discount deal' which costs a million yen for a bunch of tickets at 1,000 yen. The usual price is 2,500.