Sweat Your Way To Radiant Health

Saunas, in one form or another, have been used across ages and oceans. Cultures around the world have recognized the relaxing benefits of rendered heat within a warm, welcoming space. From the Romans to the Japanese to the Scandinavians, heat therapy has been essential for the body to unwind from the stresses and hardships of daily life.

For thousands of years, cultures throughout the world have enjoyed the many therapeutic benefits of saunas, from the elaborate bath/sauna/exercise complexes of the Romans, to the simple but effective “sweat lodge” structures of the Scandinavians and Native Americans. These cultures recognized the many therapeutic benefits of the sauna (i.e., rids body of toxins, aids weight loss, kills viruses), fully enjoying these benefits in a community setting.

In Finland, the sauna is an historic tradition. For over a thousand years, the sauna has been an important part of Finnish life and Finnish culture, cherished by every Finnish man, woman and child according to Paavo Airola in his book Health Secrets From Europe. In fact, the sauna is credited for much of the rugged vitality and endurance – the sisu – of the Finnish people. In a country of approximately 5 million people, there are an estimated 700,000 saunas, one for every seven people! Airola writes, “Most Finnish saunas are in separate buildings specially constructed for this purpose. Every farm has its own sauna, usually built on the shore of a lake or river. Most family houses in the city have saunas built on the lot, usually in the back yard.”

Business meetings between strangers in Finland are often conducted in the soothing surroundings of the sauna and it has been suggested that the combination of high heat and nakedness enabled the Finns to successfully negotiate the international trade minefields between East and West during the cold war. There is a saying in Finland that one must behave in the sauna just as in church. They consider taking saunas very sacred. What can we learn from the Finns about the benefits of saunas?

Sweating is not only an important part of our physical well-being, but in these modern times of water and air-borne pollution, toxic chemicals, heavy metals and poor dietary and exercise habits, the therapeutic internal cleansing of regular sweating is critical to maintain a healthy body and mind.

Dry Air Saunas Vs. Wet Steam Rooms

The hot, dry air of the sauna is therapeutically different from the steam room sauna. The dry sauna causes profuse sweating, the air itself absorbing the sweat. But the water-saturated air of the steam room doesn’t readily accept the sweat released by the body. The steam room makes you feel hotter because your sweat doesn’t evaporate and carry away the heat. This raises a question: Is it better to be warm on the inside or sweaty on the outside?

That depends on what you want from either system. When exposed to heat of any kind, blood vessels in the skin dilate to allow more blood to flow to the surface. This activates the millions of sweat glands that cover the body. The fluid in the blood hydrates the sweat glands, which pour the water into the skin’s surface. As the water evaporates from the skin, it draws heat from the body; it’s nature’s cooling system.

Either the sauna or the steam room can be used to relax and unwind; however, the dry sauna clearly has more therapeutic benefits. For one thing, the dry sauna has an advantage over a steam room by helping to rid the body of more toxic metals picked up from our environments. Of course, the kidneys take out many of these toxins, but a daily sweat can help reduce the body’s accumulation of lead, mercury and nickel in addition to cadmium, sodium, sulfuric acid and cholesterol.

The sauna is also more beneficial over the steam room if weight loss is desired because of the energy expenditure. Compared to the steam room, the sauna places a greater demand on the body in terms of using up calories, therefore assists in fat loss. The heart has to work harder to send more blood to the capillaries under the skin. The energy required for that process is derived from the conversion of fat and carbohydrates to calories. In addition, the sweat glands must work to produce sweat, which also requires energy and more calories. Studies show that a person can burn up to 300 calories during a sauna session, the equivalent of a two to three miles jog or an hour of moderate weight training.

From sweating, you can lose up to a quart of water during a 20-minute sauna. Without replacement, such a high water loss can lead to disruption of normal heart rhythms and cause fatigue and nausea. Therefore, I recommend drinking fresh fruit juice or water before, during and after the sauna. Any attempt to lose weight by depriving your body of replacement fluid is extremely risky and can land you in the hospital. Further, I suggest eating plenty of leafy greens and a variety of vegetables and fresh vegetable juices to replace such essential minerals as iron, zinc, copper and magnesium that are lost in sweat.

Therapeutic Benefits

Sweating by overheating the body in a dry sauna also produces these effects:

• Speeds up metabolic processes of vital organs and inhibits the growth of pathogenic bacteria or virus. The vital organs and glands, including endocrine and sex glands, are stimulated to increased activity.

• Creates a “fever” reaction that kills potentially dangerous viruses and bacteria and increases the number of leukocytes in the blood, thereby strengthening the immune system – important for fighting colds, flu, cancer and bolstering resistance to infections. In other words, it increases and accelerates the body’s own healing activity and restorative capacity.

• Places demands upon the cardiovascular system, making the heart pump harder and producing a drop in diastolic blood pressure.

• Stimulates vasodilation of peripheral vessels, which relieves pain and speeds healing of sprains, strains, bursitis, peripheral vascular diseases, arthritis and muscle pain.

• Promotes relaxation, thereby lending a feeling of well-being.

Studies on Artificially Induced Fever

There is a great health benefit of fever. Nobel-Prize winner Dr. Andre Lwoff, a French virologist, believes that high temperature during infection helps combat the growth of virus. “Therefore fever should not be brought down with drugs,” he said. Two medical doctors, Werner Zable and Josef Issels, have this to say about fever: “Artificially induced fever has the greatest potential in the treatment of many diseases including cancer.” A German physical education professor named Dr. Ernst has found that there are no cancer patients among marathon runners. He conducted a study of marathoners who logged about 20 miles a day. Analyzing their sweat, he found it contained cadmium, lead and nickel. Ernst concluded that these athletes excreted these potential cancer-causing elements from their bodies by perspiring. He and other scientists conclude that it is necessary to sweat profusely at least once a day to maintain good health.

Usually, only the most active of athletes achieve sweat through heavy exercise on a daily basis and usually not of the deep, prolonged, therapeutic type that will flush out toxins and heavy metals. Unfortunately, most people do not exercise enough or spend time in saunas to sweat frequently to eliminate these accumulation of toxins. And yet, we now know to maintain a healthy body and mind, everyone needs to eliminate and flush out these accumulated poisons regularly. And those who are unable to exercise heavily, for whatever reason, have an even greater need to create a regular sweat. Deep sweating through daily saunas is the best method of doing this.

When saunas are used regularly, studies have shown such benefits as improvement of blood circulation, restored youthfulness, toxin and heavy metal reduction, weight control, cellulite reduction, skin cleansing and rejuvenation, allergy reduction, rash reduction and muscle and joint pain reduction.

With a top quality infrared sauna, a person is able to stay in for a longer time, thus able to reap greater benefits than through the use of other saunas. Also, because body temperature will rise slightly, the body reacts in the normal manner by raising the heart rate to a mild aerobic range, increasing blood flow, opening up the capillaries for greater blood flow to sluggish areas, opening up the pores and creating the deep sweat that flushes out the toxins.

On a cautionary note, certain people need to approach saunas slowly and judiciously. Folks over age 60 are in a high-risk group for undiagnosed heart disease. The sauna’s no place to find out. See your doctor before using the sauna. So should those who are on regular medication, obese, pregnant or have thyroid, kidney or respiratory problems, diabetes or high blood pressure.

Today sweating is not only “in,” it’s been proven to be one of the healthiest things a body can do. Nothing beats the feeling and overall well-being or the health benefits you get after you’ve worked up a “good sweat” and the easiest key to a “good sweat” is a sauna. Visit www.healthmatesauna.com or call (800) 946-6001.

© Susan Smith Jones, MS, PhD, is an internationally renowned motivational speaker, frequent radio/TV talk show guest, culinary instructor, holistic lifestyle coach and author of hundreds of magazine articles and 17 books, including her latest, “Unleash the Power of NatureFoods: 50 Revitalizing Foods & Lifestyle Choices to Promote Radiant Health.” To order NatureFoods (autographed copies available upon request ) call (888) 606-4599, ext. 0 (M-F, 9-4 MT) or visit: www.SusanSmithJones.com.