Sauna Health Benefits

Many claim that sauna health benefits include relief from muscle and joint pain, arthritis pain, headaches, hangovers, some of the symptoms of the common cold, weight loss, and many other ailments.

Much of this is true, but many claims are a little exaggerated.

However, there appears to be a good amount of research that proves that there are real health benefits that you can enjoy by taking saunas.

NOTE: I learned a lot about sauna health benefits from reading Dr. Lawrence Wilson’s book Sauna Therapy.

Sweating & Health

Sweating is as important to your health as eating and breathing. Yep, that’s right! Sweating!

It accomplishes a couple of very important things:

1) It helps your body dump waste material,
2) it regulates the critical temperature of your body at 98.6 degrees F.

It helps keep your skin clean and supple.

We live in a very sedentary age and many people just don’t sweat much. This highlights the importance of taking saunas and steam baths.

Without sweating, our skin pores become clogged up by stuff like antiperspirants, artificial environments, smog, and synthetic clothing.

During a 15-minute sauna, about a liter of sweat is excreted (depending on the individual).

Here’s something I read that I find amazing…

During a 15-minute sauna, sweating can perform the heavy metal excretion that would take the kidneys 24 hours!

I admit not knowing how true that is, but many health and wellness professionals agree that taking saunas can excrete a lot of harmful material from your body.

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

Your Skin Is Your 3rd Kidney

You may have heard that skin is sometimes called the "third kidney."

If your skin and its sweat passages become completely smothered, death by accumulated toxins can occur in just hours.

Heat Effects On Various Systems & Organs

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

Liver. Again, because of blood being shunted toward the surface, congestion of blood in your liver is reduced while you take a sauna. This may improve the detoxification ability of your liver.

Cardiovascular System. Dr. Lawrence Wilson writes...

“During a sauna, both your pulse and stroke volume increase. Surface vessels dilate as blood is shunted from internal organs to the surface. Blood pressure usually remains the same or decreases during a sauna session. Repeated sauna use helps decrease elevated blood pressure by enhancing elasticity of the arteries, removing toxins from the kidneys and helping to reduce excessive sympathetic nervous system activity.”

Immune System. Heating your body several degrees can enhance white blood cell activity and destroy heat sensitive microorganisms.

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.

Digestive System. If you feel like you need a bowel movement during or after a sauna, elimination of toxins from your liver and gall bladder might be the cause.

Click here to continue



Related

Sauna Therapy - Dr. Lawrence Wilson's detailed book at many aspects of sauna

The Holistic Handbook of Sauna Therapy - A book from Dr. Sylver's about saunas. Includes photos, charts, and an extensive bibliography.

Sauna Benefits - another article on sauna health benefits

Home Saunas - a look at the various residential sauna options

Infrared Sauna Health Benefits - article highlighting a couple of unique infrared sauna benefits

Go from Sauna Health to the home page

New! Comments