How a Sauna Can Help Boost Your Health

By Lisa Treen

Taking a seat in a sweat bath could be the most healthy activity you've had all day. The heat from the sauna produces an artificial fever and urges every organ of the body into action. It may not feel like it since sitting down in a sauna is so relaxing, but your organs are working as hard as they would be if you were mowing the lawn or running. Skin, the body's biggest organ, and the sweat it manufactures are getting rid of dangerous toxins from the interior of your body.

Your Body's Response to Sauna Heat

When you lounge in a sweat bath, warmth receptive nerve endings produce acetylcholine, a chemical which alerts the 2.3 million sweat glands embedded in the skin. The most abundant type of sweat glands, the eccrine sweat glands, are the ones that react to warmth. Depending on the person, up to 1 liter of sweat can be excreted during a 15 minute sauna. Eccrine sweat is clear and odorless; any odor is only created by the presence of bacteria.

When you take a sauna, the heat causes increased blood circulation near the skin and stimulates sweating which helps with the body rid itself of unwanted materials and enhances general circulation. A sauna can be particularly helpful to people who suffer from severe allergies or toxic poisoning, because it purges their bodily systems.

A Fifteen Minute Workout

Sweat also has the function of being a judicious garbage collector. It can perform the same function as the kidneys in getting rid of heavy metals in the circulation but in a lot less time. Ninety-nine percent of what sweat brings to the outside of the skin is water, but the remaining one percent is mostly unwanted wastes. Excessive salt carried by sweat is generally believed to be beneficial for cases of mild blood pressure.

Urea, a by-product of normal metabolic processes, can cause nausea and headaches in mild cases or vomiting, coma or death in extreme cases. Sweating is such an effective de-toxifier that some physicians recommend home saunas to supplement kidney machines. Sweat also draws out lactic acid which causes stiff muscles and contributes to general low energy. Sweat flushes out toxic metals such as copper, lead, zinc and mercury which the body absorbs in polluted environments.

Even nicotine in a smoker's body can be flushed out by sweat. The perspiration that occurs over the entire body while in a sauna will help promote clear, healthy skin and even provides a temporary, rosy afterglow. Even with all these beneficial effects to the body, most people still see saunas as primarily a place to relax. The soft heat and humidity soothes and relaxes tired muscles, relieves stress, and promotes a wonderful after Sauna feeling of satisfaction and well being.

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