A spa sanatorium was inaugurated on Mar 7 at the Yangdok Hot Spring Resort.

Furnished with top-class medical equipment for balneotherapy, the sanatorium can cater for at least 600 people, said manager Kim Kyong Song.

It has one block for treatment and two for recuperation.

The treatment block has rooms for checkup, private spa bath, physiotherapy, underwater traction, water-gun massaging and treatment by mud and sand bath, among others, while the recuperation blocks have wards, a restaurant, shop, amusement room and service facilities for the accommodation and amusement of patients.

The medical examination and treatment are provided free of charge according to the country’s free medical care system and nominal fees are charged for other services, said the manager.

Kim Sung Ho, director of the convalescence department, said nutrition is very important for the patients as they expend much energy while receiving balneotherapy and every patient there is put on a diet according to scientific planning.

Even highly nutritive ingredients of dish can taste delicious only when they are processed well, said An Kwang Chun, chef at sanatorium block No. 1, adding they are doing their best for the patients’ diets.

Located in a picturesque valley full of pine trees, the sanatorium pleases all patients with quality treatment and service.

The Yangdok hot spring sanatorium offers diverse treatment services by relying on Sokthang spa which is known to have marvellous therapeutic efficacy among others in the country.

It is said that the spa has a special virtue for curing chronic skin diseases, paralysis, physical disorders and other chronic and obstetrical and gynecological diseases.

Doctor Om Kyong Il said that the treatment combining bathing with ultrasonic therapy helps produce good curative effects by stimulating the outer layer of the skin and the peripheral nerves of patients with mobility troubles.

After having a spa bath for 10 to 15 minutes and taking a rest in the resting hall, bathers get access to mud bath, sand bath, electrotherapy or exercise cure according to their treatment plans.

Jong Chun Hui, who suffered from arthritis for a long time, said her symptoms got worse for a few days after she began to receive the treatment based on balneotherapy and pelotherapia, but she gradually felt better along with the relieving of pain.

According to local medical workers at the sanatorium, the clinical expression of living body which comprehensively reflects physiological and pathological responses during the process of balneotherapy is called spa response, and this response appears a week before and after the start of balneotherapy.

The mud treatment room is devoted to curing diseases related to the articular and nervous systems, skin and obesity by applying bath and fomentation based on mud from Lake Sijung, whose medical efficacy is widely known, and other treatment methods that combine mud and electrotherapy.

The physiotherapy room provides patients with skin diseases and pains with ultrasonic, infrared and medium- and low-frequency treatment using medical facilities.

Underwater kinetotherapy is said to be most popular at the sanatorium as various treatment factors act at the same time, including the medicinal efficacy of hot spring, hydrostatic pressure, buoyancy and calefaction.

Bathers receive massage together with such traditional Koryo therapies as acupuncture, moxibustion and cupping.

Han Yong Jin, a department chief, said that treatment efficacy is very marvellous when spa bath is combined with Koryo therapy.