This has helped me a lot so I post it for your benefit.
Bains Drivatifs, which I shall call B.D. for short, have been publicized in France, for the last 20 years I think, by Franoise Guillain. They are part of a whole therapy of which there are aspects I disagree totally with. These B.D. on their own were recommended by Louis Kuhne, a German naturopath, in the 19th century, included in a variety of water therapies. Some of them sitz baths.
B.D. is a particular type of sitz bath.
The procedure is identical for men and women.
Measure the inside of toilet bowl. Find yourself a plastic basin that will fit in.
Raise the plastic lids of the toilet.
Fill the basin with cold water + a handful of ice cubes (depending on weather and duration of BD - the water should stay cold) and fit it in the toilet.
Lower the first lid of the toilet and sit on it with legs parted wide.
You should be as warm as possible, well clothed except for the groin. Socks etc if needed.
For the required time you should leisurely rub (not hard!) a cloth on both sides of the pubis dipping it in the cold water between your legs at each turn.
From the perineum till the hip bone, then across the pubis to the other hip bone. Not on the genitals, this is true for men and women. On the sides, in the creases between the pubis and the thighs. Up or down as you wish. Eventually the tops of the thighs get a bit pink.
At no time are you sitting in the water. At no time is water aimed at the genitals, even if some may fall there. At no time should you rub the genitals, as this brings a sympathetic response that is contrary to the effect you want.
The aim is to create a difference in temperature between the sides of the pubic bone and the rest of the body. Friction is a plus too. If your skin is irritated, don't rub so hard, only use the water softly until it is comfortable. Cold + friction is best; cold with no friction works more slowly but still works.
That's it. Nothing more, nothing less.
After a while you start feeling a kind of very light internal shiver. Not always felt but it happens nonetheless. This is a movement of the lymphatic system. If you are attentive you can feel it under your scalp, inside your lungs etc. After a couple of weeks it happens also in the day while you are living your life. This is because the tiny muscles that shake your lymphatic vessels have exercised and become stronger so they can act on other triggers.
When you have finished if you have time go under your warmest blanket with a hot water bottle on the liver or the middle of the chest for a while. This is optional.
No need for equipment or drugs. PLAIN cold water, do NOT add herbs etc.
The effects :
- This moves the lymphatic system into action extremely fast.
It powerfully helps to move the lymph to divert it to the bowels (hence the name "Bains Drivatifs"). You get rid of junk and can have several bowel movements a day.
It also brings more fresh lymph to parts difficult to reach (this is different for each individual) with the essential nutriments contained in the fats it carries.
Since the lymph distributes a lot of hormones, so this procedure speeds the delivery of hormones, and their reactions to one another. Very helpful. Also helps moving immunity around.
- It balances the parasympathetic and sympathetic systems and counteracts the many sympathetic stimuli we inflict on ourselves through stress etc which are an important part of our problem. You may hear the inside sound 'anhata naad' of yoga, the sound of very deep relaxation, happening very fast and easy. I believe that part of the good effects of B2 derive from the fact that it is food for the parasympathetic system. Balancing the two chemically is one thing, which many may find difficult. BD does it immediately for a short while, but as time goes on, your body relearns to do it several times a day on its own.
- It has powerful effects on the low abdomen area, refreshing and draining it. Bowels, reproductive and urinary systems.
- It has a powerful effect on the head area, which is directly connected. Whilst it is possible to affect the abdomen with massage and drugs, action on the inside of the head is not so easily achieved. You may experience tears and a cleaning of tear ducts, shiny eyes etc.
- It has effects everywhelse else where lymph can reach, starting generally with the core but eventually you find wrists and ankles freer etc.
- Apart from these lymphatic effects, there is a very powerful effect due to the lowering of temperature INSIDE. This is in a way the reverse of saunas and FIR saunas etc. I found that sweating is fine to get rid of some water soluble toxins, but heat induced sweating is not. Heat hurts my brain in some way. This is a way to detox WITHOUT heat. This internal refreshment (from circulation of colder lymph and blood) brings about a detoxification by ejecting lymph into the bowels AND a therapeutic effect at the same time. Since the parasympathetic mode is the healing mode, if there is irritation we cannot hope to heal. I suppose this cold therapy is related to the wearing of cold jackets, stays in very cold rooms etc, which all require money and time. This does NOT.
Since a very important effect of the BD is the stimulation of parasympathetic nerve impulses, if you just spread your cold water fretting because it takes too long, if you are stressed in any way, because you are cold, you are in an uncomfortable position etc..., you are missing half of the point. This is why it is not a good idea to read, listen to the news bulletin etc... while doing it. You should just concentrate on what you are doing and on the feelings experienced all over your body. ?When your parasympathetic effect is activated, you will feel very relaxed, sometimes you hear a humming sound in your ears, you start seeing slightly better, it is a pleasant experience. In fact, you could have gone on longer that prescribed. Because you have just given to your body a few minutes when stress has been deactivated. I found that by doing this regularly I can recall more easily during the day in other activities that slight internal tremor that signals the spread of the anti-stress response. Maybe this is also a retraining of the nervous system? Maybe BD can help you reverse the stress training we are subject to at work? I suspect so.
Timings : not more than 10 mn for the first 10 days. See what happens, then you can slowly increase to 25 mn per day is you weigh about 70 kg.
It works from the start. I improved my condition slowly but surely. Unfortunately, if you stop doing BD, the effects stop too. Maybe the more you have kept at it, the longer they last? When you take a break of more than 5 days, you should start again at 10 mns and increase slowly the timings.
When I was younger we did it with a sponge to kids to make their fever go down. Kids = 1 mn is enough if they are babies. 5 mns for toddlers.
DO NOT GO TOO FAST. It can be very tiring in the beginning, with lots of detox. Keep well hydrated and warm at all times. The worst scenario is it can brutally empty sinuses and increase blood flow to the eyes. This can happen later while you sleep. You may stress your eyes in your sleep and since they are suddenly more free in the orbits, you can give yourself a vitreous detachment. EASY DOES IT!!!!
BD should not be done for six months after surgery. Also, best done on an empty stomach of course.
Emergency BD are very useful for headaches, fever, pain.
Good luck!
Bains Drivatifs, which I shall call B.D. for short, have been publicized in France, for the last 20 years I think, by Franoise Guillain. They are part of a whole therapy of which there are aspects I disagree totally with. These B.D. on their own were recommended by Louis Kuhne, a German naturopath, in the 19th century, included in a variety of water therapies. Some of them sitz baths.
B.D. is a particular type of sitz bath.
The procedure is identical for men and women.
Measure the inside of toilet bowl. Find yourself a plastic basin that will fit in.
Raise the plastic lids of the toilet.
Fill the basin with cold water + a handful of ice cubes (depending on weather and duration of BD - the water should stay cold) and fit it in the toilet.
Lower the first lid of the toilet and sit on it with legs parted wide.
You should be as warm as possible, well clothed except for the groin. Socks etc if needed.
For the required time you should leisurely rub (not hard!) a cloth on both sides of the pubis dipping it in the cold water between your legs at each turn.
From the perineum till the hip bone, then across the pubis to the other hip bone. Not on the genitals, this is true for men and women. On the sides, in the creases between the pubis and the thighs. Up or down as you wish. Eventually the tops of the thighs get a bit pink.
At no time are you sitting in the water. At no time is water aimed at the genitals, even if some may fall there. At no time should you rub the genitals, as this brings a sympathetic response that is contrary to the effect you want.
The aim is to create a difference in temperature between the sides of the pubic bone and the rest of the body. Friction is a plus too. If your skin is irritated, don't rub so hard, only use the water softly until it is comfortable. Cold + friction is best; cold with no friction works more slowly but still works.
That's it. Nothing more, nothing less.
After a while you start feeling a kind of very light internal shiver. Not always felt but it happens nonetheless. This is a movement of the lymphatic system. If you are attentive you can feel it under your scalp, inside your lungs etc. After a couple of weeks it happens also in the day while you are living your life. This is because the tiny muscles that shake your lymphatic vessels have exercised and become stronger so they can act on other triggers.
When you have finished if you have time go under your warmest blanket with a hot water bottle on the liver or the middle of the chest for a while. This is optional.
No need for equipment or drugs. PLAIN cold water, do NOT add herbs etc.
The effects :
- This moves the lymphatic system into action extremely fast.
It powerfully helps to move the lymph to divert it to the bowels (hence the name "Bains Drivatifs"). You get rid of junk and can have several bowel movements a day.
It also brings more fresh lymph to parts difficult to reach (this is different for each individual) with the essential nutriments contained in the fats it carries.
Since the lymph distributes a lot of hormones, so this procedure speeds the delivery of hormones, and their reactions to one another. Very helpful. Also helps moving immunity around.
- It balances the parasympathetic and sympathetic systems and counteracts the many sympathetic stimuli we inflict on ourselves through stress etc which are an important part of our problem. You may hear the inside sound 'anhata naad' of yoga, the sound of very deep relaxation, happening very fast and easy. I believe that part of the good effects of B2 derive from the fact that it is food for the parasympathetic system. Balancing the two chemically is one thing, which many may find difficult. BD does it immediately for a short while, but as time goes on, your body relearns to do it several times a day on its own.
- It has powerful effects on the low abdomen area, refreshing and draining it. Bowels, reproductive and urinary systems.
- It has a powerful effect on the head area, which is directly connected. Whilst it is possible to affect the abdomen with massage and drugs, action on the inside of the head is not so easily achieved. You may experience tears and a cleaning of tear ducts, shiny eyes etc.
- It has effects everywhelse else where lymph can reach, starting generally with the core but eventually you find wrists and ankles freer etc.
- Apart from these lymphatic effects, there is a very powerful effect due to the lowering of temperature INSIDE. This is in a way the reverse of saunas and FIR saunas etc. I found that sweating is fine to get rid of some water soluble toxins, but heat induced sweating is not. Heat hurts my brain in some way. This is a way to detox WITHOUT heat. This internal refreshment (from circulation of colder lymph and blood) brings about a detoxification by ejecting lymph into the bowels AND a therapeutic effect at the same time. Since the parasympathetic mode is the healing mode, if there is irritation we cannot hope to heal. I suppose this cold therapy is related to the wearing of cold jackets, stays in very cold rooms etc, which all require money and time. This does NOT.
Since a very important effect of the BD is the stimulation of parasympathetic nerve impulses, if you just spread your cold water fretting because it takes too long, if you are stressed in any way, because you are cold, you are in an uncomfortable position etc..., you are missing half of the point. This is why it is not a good idea to read, listen to the news bulletin etc... while doing it. You should just concentrate on what you are doing and on the feelings experienced all over your body. ?When your parasympathetic effect is activated, you will feel very relaxed, sometimes you hear a humming sound in your ears, you start seeing slightly better, it is a pleasant experience. In fact, you could have gone on longer that prescribed. Because you have just given to your body a few minutes when stress has been deactivated. I found that by doing this regularly I can recall more easily during the day in other activities that slight internal tremor that signals the spread of the anti-stress response. Maybe this is also a retraining of the nervous system? Maybe BD can help you reverse the stress training we are subject to at work? I suspect so.
Timings : not more than 10 mn for the first 10 days. See what happens, then you can slowly increase to 25 mn per day is you weigh about 70 kg.
It works from the start. I improved my condition slowly but surely. Unfortunately, if you stop doing BD, the effects stop too. Maybe the more you have kept at it, the longer they last? When you take a break of more than 5 days, you should start again at 10 mns and increase slowly the timings.
When I was younger we did it with a sponge to kids to make their fever go down. Kids = 1 mn is enough if they are babies. 5 mns for toddlers.
DO NOT GO TOO FAST. It can be very tiring in the beginning, with lots of detox. Keep well hydrated and warm at all times. The worst scenario is it can brutally empty sinuses and increase blood flow to the eyes. This can happen later while you sleep. You may stress your eyes in your sleep and since they are suddenly more free in the orbits, you can give yourself a vitreous detachment. EASY DOES IT!!!!
BD should not be done for six months after surgery. Also, best done on an empty stomach of course.
Emergency BD are very useful for headaches, fever, pain.
Good luck!