Valoarea terapeutică a apelor minerale

The mineral waters from Romania have a wide hydrochemical variety. There are three predominant types of mineral waters: salty, sulphurous-sulfate and carbogaseous, in which, according to the nature of locally levigated rocks, some secundary hidrochemical features can appear (iron, arsenium, potasium, calcium, magnesium, chlorine). The mineral waters bottled in Romania can be called gaseous waters, because they contain large quantities of gases, represented mainly by carbon dioxide. Their carbogaseous characteristic is the result of the incorporation of carbon dioxide encountered in their subterranean circulation. The chemical characteristic of the circulation waters is determined by the nature and composition of the rocks levigated by them, in both their descendant and ascensional movement. In this way there are created the mineral waters with specific and sometimes complex compositions, such as acid-carbonic (arsenical, ferruginous), clorosodic, calcium bicarbonated etc. Mineral waters as therapeutic factors are most frequently used for internal cure (crenotherapy) and, depending on their composition, they are also used for external cures, for bathing, inhalations, irrigations etc. Although the cure with mineral waters can use various and individualized techniques, according to the type and the stage of the disease, and also to the patient’s reactivity, there is a general scheme for conducting the treatment. European Directive 2009/54/CE forbids to assign a mineral water the property to prevent, treat or cure some diseases. However, there is accepted to be mentioned on the label of mineral waters some general indications, such as: “it stimulates digestion”, “it can facilitate the hepatobiliary functions”, “it can have a diuretic effect”, “it can have a laxative effect”, or “it corresponds to a low-sodium diet”, if all these effects had been scientifically proven.