Medical water therapy (also called medical hydrology) is practiced worldwide both for relaxation and treatment of diseases. While this practice is still thriving in Bhutan, there is a lack of proper documentation and critical study. Therefore, the current study reports on the water therapies practiced in Bhutan and their health benefits. We used four-stage process: (1) a review of literature on balneotherapy (both traditional textbooks and scientific papers); (2) listing and surveying the hot springs, mineral, and holy spring waters; (3) reviewing the health records of the patients maintained at the traditional hospitals and interviewing traditional physicians and patients about health benefits; and (4) reviewing available literature to identify existing clinical trials data to provide evidence for hydrotherapies. We found three main forms of hydrotherapies are practiced in Bhutan, which comprises herbal bath therapy, balneotherapy, and spiritually empowered waters. The most popular hydrotherapies are herbal bath and hot spring therapies. Herbal bath therapy needs traditional physicians’ prescriptions, while hot springs do not require it. Through field surveys, ten different hot springs (tsha-chu) and 17 medicinal water or mineral springs (sman-chu), and 17 holy spring-waters (sgrub-chu) were identified. In general, medical water therapies are used by the Bhutanese people to treat various ailments, including gastritis, neurological disorders, arthritis, dermatological diseases, and rheumatological and musculoskeletal disorders. Even though a lack of scientific evidence makes it difficult to draw concrete conclusions on their traditionally claimed efficacy and safety, there are clinical evidences documented from other countries.

Introduction: Bad-mKhris-mGo-Nad is a type of headache caused by imbalance of bile and phlegm humor. In gSo-ba-Rig-pa, headache is categorized in two categories such as primary headaches and secondary headaches. In total there are 14 types of headaches and Bad-mKhris-mGoNad is one among the principal headaches. The gSo-ba-Rig-pa based bloodletting therapy for Bad-mKhris-mGo-Nad has been practiced by the traditional medicine practitioners since the inception of gSo-ba-Rig-pa more than 2500 years ago. Bloodletting is also believed to be one of the most important and effective therapy in the treatment regime of gSo-ba-Rig-pa. The Subsequent Tantra (last tantra) states that the bloodletting is the best remedy for all types of bile and blood-related disorders. This study was conducted to observe the effectiveness of bloodletting procedure among diagnosed cases of Bad-mKhris-mGo-Nad. Methods: It was an observational prospective study conducted at the National Traditional Medicine Hospital, Kawangjansa, Thimphu. The three main parameters measured were frequency, duration, and severity of the headaches. The samples consisted of 31 patients with 23 females and 8 males. Data collection was carried out over the span of seven months (June - December, 2018) Results: The association test between before and after 10 days, before and after 30 days of bloodletting was conducted on 30 patients by using Mid-Point test in Open Epi and the result was observed to be statistically significant at p< 0.05. Conclusion: This study shows that the bloodletting therapy on Tshoksang reduces the pain duration and frequencies of headaches. Moreover, it was also established to be effective in reducing the severity of the headache caused by Bad-mKhrismGo-Nad.