A dry sauna is a small room or building, typically made out of wood, that's intended for therapeutic heat treatments. During a sauna session, you can sweat up to a pint of liquid while increasing your pulse rate and blood circulation. Although many of the health claims made for saunas have yet to be verified in clinical studies, other medical benefits have been documented by scientific research with promising results.
Identification
Saunas have been used for thousands of years by many cultures around the world. Saunas are either wet or dry, with both types using a gas, electric or wood heater. In a wet sauna, water is poured over warm rocks to produce steam, while a dry sauna involves no steam. The temperature in a wet sauna is lower than in a dry sauna, because humid air transmits heat more effectively.
Temperature
The temperature in a sauna can be set based on personal preference, but the Finnish Sauna Society recommends 80 to 100 degrees Celsius, or 176 to 212 degrees Fahrenheit. Because bacteria have been found among people who frequent health clubs, use a towel as a skin barrier while in a sauna to avoid direct contact with the bench. Start with short sessions in the sauna of 15 minutes or less until you get acclimated. Many people like to follow a sauna session with a plunge into cold water. This temporarily increases blood pressure, so use caution if you have a history of hypertension.
Benefits
An article published in 2001 in the "American Journal of Medicine" reported that benefits from long-term sauna use may include a lowering of blood pressure in patients with hypertension, relief to patients with asthma and chronic bronchitis, less pain and improved joint mobility in patients with arthritis, and relief from psoriasis. Lawrence Wilson, a nutrition consultant, adds that heating the body in a sauna can activate and enhance many metabolic processes, and improve circulation to help fight both acute and chronic infections.
Expert Insight
A study in 2005 at Japan's Nishi Kyusyu University treated patients with chronic pain using dry sauna therapy and found that the patients showed a decrease in the visual analog pain score, number of pain behavior, self-rating depression scale and anger score. Research published in the Russian journal "Terapevticheskii Arkhiv" in 1985 documented that sauna use on patients with asthma and chronic bronchitis had a bronchodilatatory effect and helped return the heart's pumping of blood to normal levels. A study published in the "Annals of Medicine" in 1990 reported significantly fewer colds among sauna users versus a control group. During the last three months of the study, the incidence of colds in the sauna group was half that of the control participants.
Warning
The Department of Internal Medicine and Biocenter Oulu at the University of Oulu in Finland says to seek a doctor's opinion about sauna use if you have unstable angina pectoris, recent myocardial infarction or severe aortic stenosis. Very few acute heart attacks and sudden deaths occur in saunas, but alcohol consumption during sauna bathing increases the risk of hypotension, arrhythmia and sudden death, and should be avoided.
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