The Turkish bath facility helps cure disorders such as cervical and lumbar spondylosis
Hot bath in cold storage. That's exactly the case with the hoary Turkish bath in the city. For more than a decade the only ‘garam hamam' at the Government Nizamia General Hospital in Charminar is lying unused. For want of funds and initiative, patients are deprived of this ancient mode of treatment.
Hot favourite
Now serious efforts are on to revive the Turkish bath.
As part of the regimental therapy unorthodox methods like cupping, steam bath, cauterisation, emesis, diuresis and purgation are employed for treatment of various disorders like cervical and lumbar spondylosis .
The Turkish bath is another sure-fire way of curing patients affected with paralysis, obesity, rheumatism and Parkinson disease .
The ‘Garam Hamam' used to be a hot favourite with patients. But over the years it fell in disuse for want of minor repairs.
All that it required was supply of hot and cold water, repair of the hot water tub and the steam bath chamber. But this simple matter was not attended to.
Thanks to the hospital superintendent, Dr. Mohd Rafi Ahmed's initiative things are looking up now.
The other such Turkish bath in Hyderabad is situated at Puranapul. It is attached to the 17th century Mian Mishk mosque. This ‘Garam Hamam' was built in tune with the Islamic principles of hygiene and purification.
But today it lies in a state of utter decay and unapproachable.
The facility at the Unani hospital is much better. The steam bath chamber still remains out of order and the ‘Garam Hamam' can do with some renovation. The peeling plaster and the seedy look sure gives the creeps.
Effective
The ‘hamam' is a square chamber with a wooden cot and a shower. Using medicated oils the masseur works on the patients.
Thereafter the patients are made to lie in the rectangular hot water tub.
“The therapy sounds strange but it does wonders,” says Mohd Saleem, a lecturer at the Hospital.
Once the Turkish bath becomes fully operational, patients will have yet another effective therapy to avail.
Comments:
Such treatments should not be allowed without scientific verification. It may be counter productive.
The place in the picture more looks like a horror film set than a Turkish Bath.
what is scintific verification? who is the authority? I am the age of 57 have never used any medicine or even a tablet in my life.. I do every day one hour pranayama and asanas. any time i get flu with heavy nose running, i just inhale steam come out of hot water mixed with turmeric and flu is gone. there is an institute at Annavaram temple hill SAHAJA run by devasthanam really does wonders with their gingelly oil massages, steam bath, partial steam and vibrators massage gives patient great releif besides mud bath and sankhu prakshalana(complete abdominal cleaning. Let us not forget our basic values and fall pray for useless and greedy doctors, scientists for their useless discoveries. I am with 18 hemoglobin and it is just because i am against medication.. who gave authourity to these discoverers to play with crores of lives for selling drugs under pretext of treatments?
The place is so dirty. Why don't the Government of India do something to the health system in India?
If it would have been in a category of attractive hospitals ,people would have thronged to have look.The nizams were more generous towards their subjects,they built whole city to facilitate common man.let me remind readers that it is the same Turkish bath for which many of our Indian brethren pay hundreds of dollars in Istanbul,turkey.
It is really matter of concern about the pathetic condition of the Garam Hammam at Nizamia Tibbia College. It was abandoned due to negligent approach of the authorities towards Unani System. I do agree the photograph shown is also a matter of concern. But I would like to inform Nadia and Venugopal that the garam Hammam is a part of Unani Regimental Therpies.After going through all the abandoned or ruins of Hammam we tried to review this concept once again in India. There two Hammam building in good conditions at Bhopal. We visited there and rough map has been designed and the construction of the Hammam is going to be taken at Vaniyambadi, Dt. Vellore, Tamilnadu. Hakim Akbar Kauser has taken initiative to construct/ review this Hamma at his place.The Garam Hammam is time tested and very effective Unani treatment mentioned in Classical Unani literature.
dr pasha, has commented well on hammam at nizamia tibbi college, hyderabad. it is the need of hour to review the technique of old hammam so that the people can get rid of life style diseases.
How the place 'LOOKS', seems to matter most? Probably if the place is sanitized, Painted, tiled more modern furniture would add some confidence. After all Civilization is Coated, Suited, Booted not the content.
Interesting article and varying comments by other Hindu readers. I can understand that it can give symptomatic relief to people with aches and pains from various ailments but I am afraid it does not cure anyone with arthritis or spondylosis etc. Mr Venugopal's views unfortunately come across as biased against doctors possibly because of his experiences with the medical profession but to completely discredit science as a whole is akin to disfiguring his face for a sore on his lips.
I would also agree with his view that one does not need any (allopathic or for that matter alternative) treatment for flu or colds as they are self limiting illnesses which your own immune system can take care of in the majority of cases. However the fee paying public expect an immediate cure for their ailments and quite often doctors tend to acquiesce to this fact as otherwise they would go elsewhere.
I agree that prnayam is the best but everybody cannot do it.One has to learn it.Regarding Garam Hamam, one can built it in house as a wooden box with a lid like a Water Tank.Keep a stool inside it for sitting and keeping the neck outside.Pass the steam from a boiling water which is kept outside with the help of a tube or so.Sit for 5 minutes and then pour cold wter on your head and body.This will help to remove number of aches in the body.Precaution is to keep the head outside the box and keep a towel on the head. This helps a lot.