The Oyamada General Complex of Medicine and Welfare located in the suburbs about 10 km from the center of Yokkaichi City, Mie Prefecture, consists of a hospital, two health service facilities for the elderly, two special nursing homes for the elderly, a care house, two day service center, a group home, and other facilities. There is also an Oyamada Spa Community Home, a spa facility available from morning until night.   We conducted a questionnaire survey for users of the Oyamada Spa Community Home, day service, and day care. The results of the survey revealed the effects of the spa including pain relief, increased appetite, and good sleep in the daily users of this spa.   To the patients with dementia who stays in the facilities and took a bath with assistance during the day twice a week, bathing assistance was given during the night twice a week for 9-12 weeks. As a result, their behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) and sleeping conditions showed improvement.   In 2012, a path of about 500 m around the hospital was prepared, and forest bathing has also been provided. The path has been used for the rehabilitation and care prevention of both inpatients and outpatients. The hospital staff members (40-65 of age) were instructed to walk the path for 8-9 weeks, and the effects including decreased weight were then observed in those who walked more than three days a week.   We present an overview of the research results on spa resort therapy including spa, exercise therapy, diet therapy, and climatotherapy, especially during the period of 2-3 months.

Effects of hot bathing on blood coagulation and fibrinolysis were studied in 35 patients with various diseases by measuring pulse rate and blood pressure and performing peripheral blood and hemostatic examinations before and after a 10-minute hot bath at 40 to 42°C.
Pluse rate increased significantly during the hot bath (p<0.001) However, no changes were observed in the results of blood pressure and perpheral blood examinations.
APTT, PT, fibrinogen, factor II, V, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, von Willebrand factor, prekallikrein, and antithrombin III were measured during coagulation examinations, but no significant changes were observed between those factors before and after hot bathing.
Although no significant changes were shown in plasminogen and antiplasmin during hot bathing, euglobulin lysis time (ELT) was significantly (p<0.001) reduced during the hot bath. It remains to be determined whether the reduction in ELT is due to the release of a tissue-type plasminogen activator from the vascular endothelial cells.
The reduction rate of ELT was studied in patients with each type of disease. The reduction rate of ELT in the patients with hypertension (HT) was larger than that in the patients without HT, and that in the patients with cerebral vascular accident (CVA) was also larger than that in the patients without CVA. However, the reduction rate of ELT in the patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) was smaller than that in the patients without DM. The patients with CVA, HT or DM are considered to have vascular damages. In the effect of hot bathing on fibrinolysis, however, there is a difference in reduction rate of ELT between patients with HT or CVA and those with DM.
This study indicates that pulse rate is increased during hot bathing and fibrinolysis is accelerated.

The purpose of this study was to eliminate factors of accidents during Japanese style bathing of the elderly.
We investigated the age-related changes in cardiovascular and thermoregulatory function in response to the bathing at 40°C. We measured the blood pressure and the heart rate using an automatic spygmomanometer, the skin blood flow at the forearm using laser Doppler flowmetry, the tympanic temperature using a thermistor, and the sweat rate at dorsum manus using the ventilated capsule method during bathing at 40°C for 20min in 10 aged (73.5±8.4, mean±SD) and 10 young subjects (19.8±1.8).
Aged subjects failed to maintain a stable blood pressure during the immersion in the bathtub. While the heart rate during the bathing significantly changed in the young subjects, no change was observed in the aged subjects. Skin blood flow, tympanic temperature, and sweat rate increased during the bathing for both in the aged and the young subjects, though with smaller changes among aged subjects.
These findings suggest that the adaptability of cardiovascular and thermoregulatory functions to heating and hydrostatic pressure during Japanese style bathing decreases with age.