Learn How to Get Healthier By Sitting in a Sauna

Why would anyone want to suffer the infernal heat of a sauna? In the very hot, very damp surroundings, your body releases perspiration in uncomfortable amounts. Fortunately, this suffering provides a payoff, since through regular sauna visitation, you may obtain several health advantages. You boost the immune system, get a head start on losing weight, and get relief from congested lungs and muscle pain. Finally, but not the least important, you will be able to detoxify your body by being able to sweat out the impurities. A few of the ways a sauna is good for your health are given below.

Increased Immunity: In a hot environment, your body temperature is bound to increase. Your temperature increases from its natural thirty-seven to thirty-eight degrees C. As a matter of fact, although the sauna pretends to make a fever, you’re not ill. Rather, a sauna makes the body believe it’s ill. The high temperature causes your immune system to produce more white blood cells, antibodies, and interferons, anti-viral proteins that can fight cancer.

Losing Weight: Spending time in a sauna will assist you with dropping some weight in several different ways. First, the increased temperature elevates the heart rate by fifty to seventy-five percent, equal to throwing a Frisbee or a brisk walk. The result of this is the sauna will help you to burn some fat, and this in turn will increase the rate of your metabolism. Time spent in the sauna actually helps to liquefy fat deposits which are then absorbed into the body.

Those who suffer from chronic pain caused by such maladies as arthritis or fibromyalgia will find that they enjoy a sauna for relaxation and for pain relief as well. The heat caresses tired joints, loosens stressed muscles, and distracts from your pain. Thus, if you are considering increasing your pain medication doses, go to a sauna before doing so!

Breathing Difficulties: You probably know that taking a nice steamy shower or bath can work great to relieve respiratory issues experienced during a cold or flu. You inhale great steam amounts, and as a result, the nose clears up and the lungs are soothed. The sauna can dramatically help people with bronchitis, asthma or other respiratory illnesses.

Detox: Probably the sauna’s most well-known benefit is its ability to detoxify. The skin is the largest organ on your body, covering over two square meters of surface area, and with over four million pores, the skin excretes 30% of your toxins. Generally, when you are in a sauna, the heat and moisture will help to open your pores, which is really great, because you will be able to totally and completely detoxify.

Since the heat of a sauna makes your heart beat more quickly, an increased amount of nutrients and oxygen is sent to the layers under your skin. Your skin acquires a happy glow, and there’s a noticeable reduction in acne. The condition of your skin will be soft and blemish free. For all the health benefits of a sauna, twenty minutes of heat and sweat is a small price to pay.

A portable FIR sauna is just one of the various kinds of saunas that you can enjoy in the comfort and privacy of your home. Visit the Home Sauna site to learn more about your options and help you decide which kind of sauna is perfect for you.

Sauna Bathing-An Ancient Past Time

Sauna bathing is an ancient past time although the activity is quite popular in the modern world as well. What is it that makes the sauna such a timeless pleasure?

A sauna is a small room or dwelling specially designed for bathers to experience wet or dry heat sessions. This takes place in a small room where bathers remove their clothing and assume a comfortable position while the hot temperature (greater than 80 °C) penetrates their pores. A sauna bath is not only relaxing but also generates profuse sweating. If water is poured on the hot stones, steam is produced which makes the sauna moist. The sauna is loved not only for it’s relaxing properties, but also for improving the immune system and helping detoxify the body.

Sauna is an ancient Finnish word that describes the traditional Finnish bath. The sauna consisted of a fire wherein stones were heated to high temperatures, then doused in water to release steam heat.The heat would be so strong that often people would undress when this was done.

As time passed, the sauna evolved and began to feature a metal woodstove along with a chimney. Although the temperature was generally set somewhere between 70 and 80 °C, a traditional Finnish sauna could sometimes get as hot as 90 °C. Similar to the earlier style sauna, a steam vapor was generated by dousing heated rocks with water. The combination of heat and steam produced extreme perspiration.

In order to take full advantage of the sauna, the Finns gathered a bundle of bird branches containing tiny, fresh leaves. This was called a vihta. The vihta was used by bathers to gently swipe the skin in order to stimulate the pores, enhance cell production and improve blood circulation. Another benefit of the vihta was that it gave off a very pleasant scent that stimulated relaxation in the same manner that many of today’s aromatherapy products work. In fact, the vihta is still used by some individuals in the sauna.

Saunas relieve stress in two ways. One is the natural relaxation you’d experience when spending time in a dry or wet sauna. .The other way in which a sauna relieves stress is physiological. More potentially harmful chemicals are able to leave the body with the aid of the hot steam. In addition, the formation of new chemicals that are known to cause stress is greatly reduced.

The opening of the pores also makes it easier to remove toxins from the body. Toxins travel through your sweat glands and are released with your perspiration. As noted earlier, a sauna creates a high amount of perspiration and therefore is excellent for detoxification

In Finland home sauna bathing is practiced regularly as Finns regard saunas as the natural and superior method to cleanse the mind and rejuvenate the spirit. Then and now, the sauna remains a key component to healthy living in Finland. Families often bathed together in home saunas, and in the past Finnish women often gave birth in saunas.

As more and more Finns moved to other countries, their customs moved with them, including the sauna. Cultures all over the world now enjoy the pleasure of the sauna. Today, many modern saunas have been improved further, from electric saunas to infrared saunas. The popularity of the sauna has only increased, and people from all over the globe now recognize and enjoy the benefits of the sauna.

Sauna Health Benefits – Why Using A Sauna May Improve Your Health

Many enthusiasts claim that sauna health benefits include relief from arthritis, headaches, colds, hangovers and other ailments.

There’s some truth about many claims, but there are also many exaggerated claims. Still, there appears to be a good amount of research that proves there are real health benefits you can gain from “sweating it out” in a sauna.

Sweating & Health

We live in a very sedentary age and many people just don’t sweat enough. That only highlights the importance of using saunas and steam rooms.

Like eating and breathing, sweating is very important for good health. Yes, it’s that important.

Without sweating, your skin pores become clogged up by stuff like antiperspirants, artificial environments, smog, etc.

Many health and wellness professionals agree that heavy sweating in a sauna will help rid your body of harmful material.

I’ve even read that some physicians recommend home saunas to supplement kidney machines because sweating is such an effective detoxifier.

Depending on the individual, about a liter of sweat can be excreted during a 15-minute sauna.

Heat Effects On Various Systems & Organs

Kidneys. During sweating, blood is sent away from your kidneys and toward your body’s surface. This can help unburden your kidneys and help purge toxins through sweating.

Liver. Congestion of blood in your liver is reduced while you take a sauna. This may improve your liver’s ability to detox.

Cardiovascular System. During a sauna, both your pulse and stroke volume increase. Surface vessels dilate as blood is shunted from your internal organs to the surface.

Repeated sauna use may help decrease elevated blood pressure by enhancing elasticity of your arteries, removing toxins from your kidneys and helping to reduce excessive sympathetic nervous system activity.

Immune System. Heating your body several degrees may boost white blood cell activity and destroy microorganisms that are heat sensitive.

Nervous System. Using a sauna inhibits your sympathetic nervous system while strengthening your parasympathetic nervous system. This means a sauna has a strong calming effect on your nervous system.

Detoxification – An important sauna health benefit

You’ve probably read that saunas are good for detoxification.

First of all, heating your body several degrees dramatically increases circulation.

According to Dr. Lawrence Wilson, this helps remove toxins from hard to reach places like bones, sinuses, and teeth.

Many forms of bacteria are heat sensitive, so the heat from a sauna can weaken or kill some of them.

Also, cells damaged by toxic metals and chemicals are weaker than healthy cells. Exposure to some intense heat may be a death sentence for those weaker cells.

Sweating

Sweating is a great method for removing toxins.

Substances that are eliminated through your kidneys may be eliminated through your skin instead. In this way, sweating helps relieve your kidneys.

In case you’re wondering, sweating from exercise is not the same as sweating in a sauna (or steam room).

First of all, saunas conserve your body’s energy by providing an external heat source. This leaves more energy for detoxification.

Second, sweating caused by exercise activates your sympathetic nervous system. This reduces the activity of your eliminative organs (liver, kidneys, colon).

Parasympathetic Nervous System Enhancement

Stress from any source increases sympathetic nervous system activity.

For the best detoxification results, your body should be as parasympathetic (or relaxed) as possible. Why?

Parasympathetic activity mobilizes your liver, kidneys, and other organs to help eliminate toxins.

Deep Tissue Penetration

Infrared saunas in particular heat tissues from the inside. Some researchers believe this inside-out heating helps facilitate detoxification at deeper tissue levels.

Conclusion

I hope this article helped shed more light about the subject of sauna health benefits.

If you have any health conditions, please remember to consult your doctor before using saunas on a regular basis.

Read more about sauna benefits and how to use a sauna

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