Medicated bath, as one of Chinese traditional external therapies, is known as soaking some parts of body in a tub full of warm water mixed with herbs for stimulation of skin, acupuncture points, channels and collaterals with water temperature as well as absorption of herbs through skins so as to achieve treatment of diseases and health preservation. Different from regular bath or hot spring bath, it is required to add different herbs into tubs based on different diseases under traditional Chinese medical principles of treatment determination on the basis of differentiating symptoms and signs. It is known as a "green therapy" in the medical field and welcomed by patients increasingly, for the effective elements of herbs are taken directly into the blood system through skin instead of going through and being digested by the stomach and intestine. It has such advantages as quick efficacy, comfortable, no toxicity or side effect and no additional burden to the liver.

Chinese medicated-bath therapies, with an over two-thousand-year history, were widely recorded by many famous Chinese ancient therapeutists.

The medicated bathing therapy is further subdivided into partial medicated bath and whole-body medicated bath. The partial medicated bath is often used to foot and lower leg, for foot per traditional Chinese medical theory is an important part for qi and blood circulating, viscera interconnecting as well as channels and collaterals linking inside and outside, up and down where the three yin channels and three yang channels of the foot are interconnected. With reflecting regions in respect of internal organs and other parts, foot is composed of 52 pieces of bone and more than 60 muscles, known as "the second heart of human". As for lower leg, the horny layer is relatively thin, good for skin absorption of herbs. The whole-body medicated bath is to soak and steam all body but head and neck, suitable for patients suffering from extensive and general disease for larger active area and higher availability of medicine.

As the largest organ of body, skin has many functions as secretion, absorption, permeation, eccrisis and sensation besides resistance to exopathogens. The medicated bathing therapy is to treat diseases by making use of these physiological functions through local effect and entire action. The local action is taken by applying medicine directly on the body surface, muscle and joints so as to improve their metabolism, regain their functions and exert therapeutic effect concerning locations and causes. The entire treatment is to regulate the yin, yang, qi and blood as well as internal organs' functions by absorbing medicine into the blood system through skin.

Scleroderma, whether localized scleroderm or systemic scleroderma, appears in forms of skin symptoms mainly. The typical skin symptoms can help for definite diagnosis. The medicated bathing therapy allows medicines to act directly on skin and joints, obviously effective in relieving skin swelling, sclerosis, atrophia, pigmentation, depigmentation, arthralgia, contracture and Reynauds syndrome as well as regularizing internal organs functions, which offers an evident efficacy in treatment of splanchnopathy caused by systemic scleroderma.

Conclusively, the medicated bathing therapy can bring about the following effects by means of drug action, water temperature and magnetic treatment such as regulation of qi and blood, balancing yin and yang, dredging the channels, reaching the juncture between the muscle and the skin, expelling evil factors, normalizing function of the stomach and spleen, dispersing cold by warming the meridians, expelling wind evil and removing wetness evil, removing toxic heat, relieve the swelling, dispersing accumulation of pathogen, regulating the meridians and relieving pain, nourishing skin and promoting tissue regeneration as well as providing aesthetic health care. It is effective not only in treatment of stubborn rheumatism like scleroderma, polymyositis and rheumatic arthritis, but also in treating asomnia, constipation and fracture. Brought along a breakthrough in efficacy and good news to the sufferers, it is popular among patients.