Long-term empirical experience with drinking cures of natural mineral waters in spas and home cures made it possible, with advancing medical knowledge and based on recent experimental and clinical trials, to include drinking cures as the main therapeutic method into comprehensive spa treatment in diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, in some metabolic diseases, diseases of the kidneys and efferent urinary pathways and as substitution treatment in conditions caused by deficience of some microelements in the human organism. In the submitted article the author evaluates the present state, principles of drinking cures and selection of natural mineral waters for cures. He discusses in detail the amount and time pattern of drinking cures and other prereguisites to make them successful.

        Key words: natural therapeutic mineral water, drinking cure, principles, selection, dosage