It’s Time You Start Taking Sauna Baths

It's odd to think that stepping into an extremely hot environment could be soothing. But it is, incredibly so! Spending time taking a sauna bath can be extremely rewarding, both mentally and physically. These hot rooms have been in use throughout Scandinavia for hundreds of years, and have slowly been spreading across the globe. When you're taking a sauna bath in a good sauna, you expel a lot of sweat. Rivers of sweat. That's the way it should be. When you step out, you'll feel clean, refreshed, and rejuvenated from the heat, just like if you had spent some time bathing in a luxurious bath tub surrounded by candles. Regular Sauna Use There are many benefits to using a sauna regularly. However, many sauna manufacturers will promote questionable claims and overhype preliminary studies to make it look like sauna baths work miracles. You can find plenty of information out there about how saunas will help you lose weight (they will: water weight, not fat), cure cancer,  give you superpowers, etc. Most of these claims are either outright fabrications, or they are based off very small studies with low quality. That said, there are many significant benefits to regularly using a sauna. I'll run through a few of them here. Benefits of Sauna Bathing Perhaps the biggest benefit of using a sauna is that it can relax the body, clear the mind, and lift the spirits. Simple as that, the mental boost you get from a spa-like visit to a sauna is perhaps the biggest benefit. Nobody asks for scientific studies to prove that you got benefits the last time you took a bath in your bathtub. Yet, people seem to want science to back their claims about sauna use. Well, here are a few well-studied findings related to time in the sauna. Saunas and Longer Lives Perhaps the most compelling study out there looking at sauna use looked particularly at the death rates from cardiovascular disease and stroke. It was discussed by Harvard Medical School. This study examined 2,300 Finnish men over 20 years, which makes it a pretty robust study. It found that “frequent visits to a sauna were also associated with lower death rates from cardiovascular disease and stroke.” The study was done using traditional Finnish saunas, and may not carry over to (more common) infrared saunas. Saunas and the Immune System The evidence isn't super strong here, but there are some studies that have found traditional sauna baths may improve immune system functioning, and could potentially aid in combatting the common cold. The heat from a traditional sauna can raise your white blood cell count. This could improve the efficiency of the immune system. Chronic Fatigue There was a small study done that found that the use of an infrared sauna, combined with rest under a blanket, can offer significant relief to those suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome. The effects weren’t present during the sauna sessions, but became apparent after the sauna [...]