Everyone knows about the advantages of warm water spas. They promote relaxation, family fun and improved health. But did you know that in certain cases spa ownership can also help you out with your income tax?

According to IRS Publication 502, certain medical expenses are deductable when filing federal income tax. Medical expenses are defined as the costs of diagnosis, cure, treatment, mitigation or prevention of disease. They also include the costs supplies, equipment and diagnostic devices used for these purposes.

The cost of a swimming pool or a spa may be deducted if swimming, hydrotherapy and other forms of warm water exercise are prescribed as treatment or physical therapy. ThermoSpas products offer a wide range of hydrotherapy options, including specially designed exercise and swim spas.

Bear in mind that medical care expense deductions must be primarily to alleviate or prevent a physical or mental illness or defect. They cannot include expenses that are incurred in the pursuit of general health benefits.

You can deduct capital improvement expenses if they are incurred for the installation of special equipment in the home. But their primary purpose must be for the medical care of the tax payer, the spouse or a dependent. The cost of permanent improvements that increase property value may be partially included as medical expenses. Reduce the cost of the improvement by the increase in property value. Only the difference may be deducted as a medical expense. If the improvements result in no increase in property value, the entire cost can be considered a medical expense. Have your property appraised to determine actual increase in value.

However, you should be aware that the IRS may question the deductions on the grounds that the pool or spa may also be used for recreation. If you can show that the spa is specially equipped to alleviate your medical condition, the IRS will be more likely to allow the deduction. For example, if an osteoarthritis patient’s physician has prescribed daily swimming as treatment, and certain disease-specific features are included in the spa (such as hand-rails, hydrotherapy devices, etc.), the IRS would likely allow the deduction. The key point is that you must demonstrate that the spa was specially designed to provide medical treatment. Before deducting the cost of a spa, contact your physician, your tax professional and the ThermoSpas support staff (1-800-876-0158).

In general, only reasonable costs required to accommodate a home for an ill or disabled person are considered by the IRS as legitimate medical care. Any costs incurred for other reasons, such as for architectural or aesthetic purposes, are not considered to be medical expenses.

Operating and maintenance costs for a capital asset, such as a spa, are considered to be hidden costs and are deductable, even if none or only a portion of the capital asset was considered to be deductable. Such costs include water, electricity, cleaning, repairs, chemicals and maintenance. Again, contact your tax professional before taking these deductions.

Thorough record keeping is absolutely essential. Properly document all medical expenses with receipts. Also be sure to retain a written recommendation from your doctor expressing your medical requirement. Any expense that can be considered personal, and not medical, is not deductable. However, this shouldn’t discourage you from deducting legitimate medical expenses.

The IRS examines large deductions for medical expenses, and a doctor’s recommendation is not a guarantee of IRS approval. Sometimes, the IRS disputes the medical necessity of expenses, even when a doctor’s recommendation is provided as justification. IRS Publication 502 includes a complete list of authorized medical expenses and also spells out those that may not be deducted.

If you plan to deduct spa expenses from your federal income tax, consult a qualified tax professional and review IRS Publication 502. Also, remember that tax rules change from year to year.

ThermoSpas Hot Tub’s can provide much more than a sense of warmth and relaxation. For many people, the time they spend in a hot tub can supply substantial pain relief, improved flexibility and even heal certain common ailments that so many suffer from today.

Anybody that has ever enjoyed time in a hot tub can confirm, your body starts to feel much better the very instant you enter the warm water. The most instantaneous feeling is one of optimism, followed soon after by all-encompassing warmth that you feel all over.

It is the combination of the circulation of the water and the fact that it is heated that produces hot water therapy and supplies an essential transformation in how your body and circulatory system functions. After you have immersed yourself in the hot water, the temperature regulating system of your body starts to try and re-establish and preserve a normal body temperature.

This causes your heart to work faster, driving blood to the exterior of your body in an effort to diffuse the extra body heat the hot tub has provided. The end result is that the volume of blood moving throughout your veins increases considerably, while cleaning out any unwanted material that might be clogging up your veins.

Just imagine if you will, how many people with high cholesterol levels lives would be saved in they used ThermoSpas Hot Tub’s to help themselves remove those vein clogging substances. The number would be considerable, if only more people knew about it. Unfortunately, the doctors and the large pharmaceutical companies cannot make money using this highly successful all natural therapy, so they fail to pass along this critical information, even though it is in their patient’s best interest.

When your body starts trying to cool itself down, it begins to sweat at an increased rate, in an attempt to supply more moisture to the outside of your body, which should decrease your body temperature. Under ordinary conditions it would evaporate and lower your body’s temperature. But, since your body is submerged in hot water, the sweat cannot cool the skin through evaporation.

The advantage of this is that your blood continues to flow at a faster rate than normal helping to remove anything that might be blocking up your veins. At some point as the body’s core temperature rises and the circulation is improved, the hot tub user is overcome by a prevailing feeling of relaxation.

Many medical experts believe as the blood is warmed, it spreads throughout the body and brings about the expansion of your blood vessels. This dilation reduces the resistance to blood flow and the ability of your blood to flow throughout your body easily is appreciably improved. Just imagine the number of people that suffer from heart attacks or strokes that would benefit from regular warm water therapy.

By expanding the blood vessels the end result is that you have improved the circulation of blood throughout your body, which of course is highly advantageous for a multitude of reasons. As this surge of warm, nourishing blood reaches deeper and deeper into your body, more blood vessels dilate and your muscles become very relaxed.

Some of the Advantages of Hot Water Therapy are the Following

• Instant pain relief for soar and painful muscles.
• Temporarily increased blood flow and the enlargement of your veins.
• Reduced stress to muscles and joints because you are in a weightless environment.
• Increased metabolism with more oxygen moving into the body tissues.
• Increased blood volume.
• Improved blood supply to muscles.
• A location that encourages total body relaxation.
• Reduction in the swelling caused by sprains and strains.
• A quiet place to relax and move into almost a “Dream state of Mind”.

Almost any doctor will tell you that warm water exercise provides a safe, ideal environment for arthritis sufferers to ease stiff joints, relieve stress and relax tense muscles. Water buoyancy significantly reduces pressure on the joints, making it much easier to perform the full range of motion in exercise routines. The Mayo Clinic has found that arthritis patients who exercise in warm water also gain the benefits of aerobic fitness, muscular strength and endurance, flexibility and better balance. It also helps to control weight, which alleviates strain on diseased and painful joints.

Many people with osteoarthritis (OA) find movement to be so painful that they miss out on the benefits of consistent physical activity. Even though study after study has confirmed that strength training and aerobic exercise can reduce pain levels, improve body functionality and advance the general health of arthritis sufferers, people who are experiencing significant pain find it very difficult to get motivated for exercise.

However, when patients exercise in warm water, they benefit from several therapeutic effects at once. The warm water opens the blood vessels, which reduces blood pressure and induces relaxation. Muscles are able to shed harmful wastes and toxins. As muscles warm with increased blood flow, they become more flexible as the fibers stretch in relaxation. This reduces pain and enhances range of motion. Buoyancy, by decreasing strain on the joints, makes it easier to engage in movements that would be painful on dry land. ThermoSpas offers a variety of warm water spas to meet practically any water exercise requirements. These include exercise spa models that support practically any exercise that can be done in a gym.

As you begin a program of hydrotherapy, start slowly at first. Ease your joints into exercise, especially if you haven’t been active for a while. Pushing too hard can overwork the muscles, which aggravates joint pain. Before you begin your exercise routine, allow plenty of time for the beneficial effects of the spa’s warm water to take effect. Give yourself about 20 minutes.
Move your joints slowly to warm up. Consider doing range of motion exercises for five to 10 minutes before you move on to more vigorous strength building or aerobic exercises. Pay attention to what your body is telling you. Don’t push yourself beyond what you think your joints can handle. Remember to take it slow and easy. You can build up your exercise intensity and work for longer periods as you progress.

Range of motion exercises relieve stiffness and increase your ability to move your joints through their complete range. These exercises involve movement of the joints through their normal range of motion, such as or rolling the shoulders forward or raising the arms over the head and backward. These exercises can be done daily or at least every other day. When done in a warm water spa, they are especially beneficial. ThermoSpas patented Total Control Therapy (TCT) technology allows the bather to customize the spa experience to meet individual needs. With TCT, water jet and bubble flow can be individually adjusted to optimize comfort and effect, making range of motion exercises especially beneficial and comfortable.

You may notice some pain after exercise, especially if it’s been a while since you last worked out. Generally, if pain lasts for more than two hours after the cessation of exercise, you probably have exercised too strenuously.

The scientific journal Sleep has reported that a soak in a hot tub can be a cure for insomnia. For those who have tried everything, this drug-free, natural approach may at last be the key to a restful night’s sleep.
 
The effects of insomnia can be devastating; for the sufferer, their family and the wider community who bear the cost of fatigue-related accidents and lost productivity at work. While up to 70 per cent of us have reported experiencing insomnia at some time or another, there are is a very unfortunate minority who suffer from chronic insomnia – an ongoing and debilitating inability to sleep. This is the kind of insomnia that last for a month or more: Just enough time to drive you nuts.

There are four different kinds of insomnia. Early waking (when you wake up at 4 am and can’t go back to sleep), middle waking (in the middle of the night), light sleeping (a strange feeling of being awake and yet still dreaming) and onset insomnia, when it’s impossible to get to sleep in the first place.

While the usual tips often help a little (avoiding stimulants before bed, avoiding stress, avoiding watching TV or staring a a computer screen before bed), they are often only truly effective when used in conjunction with some kind of physical aid.

For most insomnia sufferers, this means drugs, which can often cause as much fatigue and grogginess as they alleviate. What are the drug-free alternatives?

Sleep, the journal devoted to all things sleep-related, published a study showing a very clear link between the daily use of spas and the reduction – or cure – of light sleeping and onset insomnia.

The best effects were found to be when subjects took a 25 minute soak around two hours before they wanted to go to sleep. It seems that less than 25 minutes is not long enough for the warmth of the water to penetrate muscles and increase the blood flow enough to cause true relaxation. The subjects needed to be fully submerged (aside from their head) to get the full effects.

The two hours is pretty crucial. Any less than this and the body is still too warm to sleep well. Any more, and an insomniac will miss the ‘melatonin wave’ created by the relaxing warm soak. Melatonin is the chemical our body produces to make us sleepy.

The temperature of the water matters too: The researchers found that a constant, comfortable temperature of no more than 104 degrees, and no less than 100 degrees was vital to induce a restful sleep.

Not easy to achieve in the average family bathtub.

All these aches and pains give rise to a multitude of remedies. Pain killers and muscle relaxants may prove helpful, but they are short term measures and sometimes addictive. The best way to eliminate these woes is through a long term exercise program. Frequently, a hot water spa can play a significant role in these programs.

Exercising in a hot water spa is also known as hydrotherapy. The concept has been used for thousands of years to treat a variety of ailments. Modern spa technology, such as that employed by ThermoSpas, allows hydrotherapy to be done at home with unparalleled convenience and privacy.

A spa’s hot water can dramatically increase the therapeutic effect of exercise. The first basic element is relaxation in hot water. Next is massage to locate and loosen troublesome areas. Gentle and rhythmic exercises work the muscles, remove toxins and improve circulation. Stretching improves both flexibility and muscle tone. Finally, cool down rounds out the exercise routine.

When exercising in a spa, the body experiences a temporary increase in blood pressure as the circulatory system quickly responds to the increase in body temperature caused by the hot water. Then, blood flows to the skin surface where it increases in temperature. As this heated blood is pumped through the veins and arteries, they expand, causing blood pressure to drop. The rush of warmed blood then penetrates deeper into body tissues, bringing increased oxygen levels.

As body temperature rises, it uses more oxygen. Heart and respiration rate increase, which benefits the body by eliminating waste products and toxins.
There are many benefits of exercising in hot water. They include:

• Sedation of sensory motor neurons and relief of pain
• Stimulation of the liver to convert lactic acid
• Decreased blood pressure
• Weightlessness and reduced gravitational stress to muscles and joints
• Increased metabolism as more oxygen flows into body tissues
• Increased respiration rate
• Enhanced elimination of body waste and toxins through increased sweating
• Increased blood volume
• More blood supply to muscles
• Increased surface circulation
• A soothing environment that promotes total body relaxation

Who can benefit from hydrotherapy? Typical conditions include back pain, arthritis, neuralgia, muscle spasms and tension, sprains, strains, stiffness, bruises and high levels of stress.
Of course, some conditions do not respond to hydrotherapy. Among these are acute fever, severe cardiac complications, seizures, vascular disease, cancer and tuberculosis.

A healthcare professional should supervise hydrotherapy when an individual is pregnant or suffers from an acute injury, loss of sensation, cardiac problems, diabetes, obesity or impaired balance.
ThermoSpas swim and exercise spas offer a wide range of hydrotherapy options. Optional rowing machine attachments help you build endurance and upper body strength. These attachments are so effective that they can be used for crew training.
Jogging against the steady and adjustable current of a ThermoSpas exercise unit simulates the ideal treadmill, allowing you to jog while protecting your joints. Workout intensity can be varied by adjusting the jets.

ThermoSpas Spa Trainer helps you tone, tighten and contour to stay trim and fit. In addition, exercising in water will leave you feeling cool and comfortable throughout your entire session – plus helping prevent muscle pulls and strains. You can sculpt a superior physique in the privacy of your own home. Spa Trainers provide almost every exercise available in a gym, from aerobics to body building. In addition, they’re great for teaching children how to swim. You can help them become stronger swimmers by increasing the current flow as they progress.

The backbone of ThermoSpas’s benefits is its patented technology termed as TCT which is short for Total Control Therapy. TCT technology helps users to tailor the flow of water and bubbles in order to suit his or her individual needs. TCT technology was originally developed based on the idea that everyone has different needs and even an individual’s needs would change from time to time, so in order for the spa to really be effective it needs to give the user some control over the experience. The way this works can be explained via an example supposing you and a friend have had a grueling day at work, while you are stressed to the limit your friend has a really awful back pain. With TCT technology you can lie in the water with your friend and enjoy a steady flow of water while your friend can increase the intensity which massages his back, so even though you both are sharing the same spa your experience can be different.

TCT works by utilizing six pumps as opposed to just two pumps used by many other manufacturers. These six pumps allow the user to control the jets by turning them on and off at their individual seating without effecting anyone else. The bather can also adjust the intensity of the flow based on what they feel will work for them thanks to the Throttle Control Valve. These adjustments can help users experience everything from slight soothing sensations to a powerful massage like sensation which fits every requirement. The innovative Variable Air Control Valve adds another dimension of customization by allowing the user to control the amount of air mixed with the water jet.

In addition to the customization features mentioned above the patented Pillow Jet technology allows every bather in the water to turn on a gentle massage type water stream around their neck and shoulder at the push of a button. The intensity of this is also controlled via a valve; the result of this is that you get a fully rounded neck massage.

ThermoSpas’s flexible technology makes it possible for it to address a whole range of physical issues. It helps with everything from relaxation to easing of muscular tension using soft pillows and lumbar contour support.

If you have just walked out of the weight room or finished playing hours of golf with your friends the ThermoSpas helps provide the perfect environment for rapid and effective recuperation by easing your aches and pains. The adjustable water jets combined with individual seating allows you to choose exactly the right level of comfort and relaxation you are seeking.

According to the National Sleep Council 20 minutes spent in the hot tub prior to hitting the hay can actually improve your quality of sleep. ThermoSpas’s timers can be automatically set to turn off once you have been in for 20 minutes. Thanks to the noise free approach of ThermoSpas you will have no problem placing one of these near your bedroom.

Another study conducted by the New England Journal of Medicine stated that people who spent 30 minutes in a hot tub every day five to six days a week had lower blood sugar levels. The study also showed that these people lost as much as 3.5 pounds in just three weeks without the help of a special exercise regime or diet program. Each day researchers uncover exciting new benefits of hot water therapy which only solidifies what ancient people new hundreds of years ago.

Ancient hot public baths were cleverly designed to harness the power of the earth to heat the water. Hot springs and volcanic vents were a major source of hot water in the ancient world but wherever those were not available furnaces were erected. However furnace heated water was expensive and something only the wealthy could afford.

The hot tub of today incorporates the same principle used by the ancient world which combines heated water and powerful massage jets. The benefits today are just as valid and widespread as they once were in the old world. However the major difference is that they are affordable which means that they are no longer restricted to the rich.

It was actually in the 1960’s that the hot tub industry began to catch on as manufacturers associated romance and fun with a hot tub. It was later by the 1980’s that many people began to become aware of the many benefits that these hot tubs presented in terms of family bounding and relaxation. The hot tub became the home’s hot bed of discussion, quality family time and fun second probably to only the dinner table. The hot tub was responsible for mending broken family relationships and strengthening existing ones all without the monotony that television was offering.

It was in the early 1990’s that more and more people began to use hot tubs as a part of treating their physical pains and aches. Patented technology such as the Thermal Control Therapy (TCT) which was used in ThermoSpa’s hot tubs allowed individuals to control the intensity of the jet and the flow of bubbles. The seating stations allowed them to enjoy a therapeutic massage based on the tyepe of pains they wanted to ease. The TCT technology helped treat a number of problems such as arthritis, sleep disorders, stress, muscle and joint pains etc.

Probably one of the biggest perk for many people is the fact that warm water relaxes the muscles which in turn helps ease all muscular pain. The way this works is that the warm water heats the muscle which then relieves pressure on the central nervous system. As the muscles relax the pressure on the constricted blood vessels slowly ease away providing almost instant relief.
When in the market for hot tubs and spas it’s important to understand the difference between a spa and a hot tub. A hot tub is a tub or a large container that you fill with water to soak your body in. many tubs include a built in heater which is used to heat the water to the desired temperature where it stays that way.

The word spa means hot spring in Belgium, the major difference between a spa and a hot tub is that a spa has water jets that increase the flow of water along with air bubbles which massages your body. Many people wrongfully use these terms interchangeably without considering the jets that a spa incorporates making it much more effective at relieving body pain.
The spa industry is constantly growing thanks to products such as ThermoSpas which makes it possible for everyone to enjoy the luxury of a hot spa at home. Unlike decades ago enjoying a warm water powered massage in your private spa is no longer a luxury only for the elite.