Mud baths are as old as history, and ancient civilizations used to submerge themselves in the mud from their area for all sorts of different therapeutic reasons. There are many different minerals contained within the mud; it is thought that using the various types of mud they can put back minerals into your body that you might be lacking. As many different ailments are caused by a lack of minerals in the body, you can understand the way of thinking of these ancient civilizations.

While it is not at all practical to have a complete mud bath, many spas and natural therapy clinics offer mud packs and wraps that will give you the same benefits. You can also do this for yourself any time by buying a mud pack from the natural health stores.

Different types of mud serve different purposes, and due to the fact that it is possible now to get mud from almost anywhere in the world, there is a wide variety of possibilities to help improve your skin, health and well-being with the use of mud treatments. You can exfoliate your skin with mud wraps, or absorb excess oil. Mud wraps can also be good for stimulating circulation, and in doing so improve the softness and texture of the skin. Using a hot wrap with mud can also released toxins from within the body and the skin while relaxing the muscles at the same time.

Whether these mud packs and mud wraps can do all that they say they can, there is one thing that is certain and that is the fact that they can certainly release a lot of stress and make you feel revived and rejuvenated afterwards.

Stone Therapy
Stone therapy has become very popular recently as an addition to massage therapy. It was popularized in the early 1990s in America where heated stones were incorporated into massage therapy. Since then massage therapists throughout the country have often included stones as part of their massage tools using their own techniques to relieve stress and massage the muscles.

Some massage therapists also include hydrotherapy in the treatment in either of two methods. One method is to warm the stones using heated water, and then use those stones along with massage oil for deep muscle massage. Another method is to use the stones while massaging the body and having heated water running lightly on the area that is getting massaged. The stones retain heat for considerably longer as this heat radiates through the muscles during the massage to get deeper into the fibers, relieving stress and any tension that might be held within the muscle. This type of massage stimulates blood flow, and encourages the body to release waste through the blood.

The heat that radiates from the stones speeds up the process and assists in giving the person getting the massage a lot more benefit than they could expect to receive from a normal body massage. Various different sizes of stones are used to get in all the different nooks and crannies of the body, and it is easy for the massage therapist to choose a different size to target specific areas.

Stone massage therapy is particularly good when combined with reflexology, as the stones make working with the feet a lot easier and the reflexology helps to get a total body work over, relieving stress for more areas of the body.