Short- and long-term beneficial effects of medicinal mineral water administration.

Medicinal mineral water, being provided by recognized immunosuppressive properties, results useful for treating many pathological conditions. A well-known source of sulfurous and oligomer medicinal mineral waters is located in Caramanico Terme (Pescara, Italy). Caramanico Terme is a small town in the Majella's National Park, and its precious and peculiar environment offers a medicinal mineral water (also known as cures or crenotherapy), that since 1576 is administrated to a large number of patients (around 15,000 per year). However, no scientific conclusions on the efficacy of Caramanico's Terme medicinal mineral water properties are available. Therefore, we have carried out an epidemiological study, enrolling a population of 370 subjects that have received crenotherapy. Such a population has been also compared to a control group of individuals (untreated, N = 287), never undergone any medicinal mineral water administration. Detailing the geomorphological characteristics of Caramanico Terme environment, we have also analyzed the results of the study that showed that pathology-relapses, as well as related manifestations of symptoms and drug employments, were largely reduced after one or more cycles of crenotherapy. On the other hand, a sub-group of subjects receiving crenotherapy for more than 5 years (N = 166) presented a highly reduced prevalence of a large spectrum of pathologies (cardiovascular, inflammatory, neurological and cancer diseases), with respect to an overlapping population (in terms of age and genders) of untreated subjects. We have also clarified the role of aging and long-term effects of medicinal mineral-water administration. Altogether, these data indicated that the clinical employment of Caramanico's Terme medicinal mineral water produces short- as well as long-term beneficial effects, both with respect to the amelioration of life quality of patients and in reducing the probability to develop major disabling pathologies (i.e., cardiovascular, cancer and neurological diseases). Therefore, these data will open novel strategies for a larger application of crenotherapy.