The Sauna Benefits


Sauna Benefits

Extreme heat, excessive sweating, being uncomfortably close to completely naked strangers: for most of us, this is what comes to mind when we think of saunas. People are fond of discussing just how terrible they think saunas are- the germs, the dangerous heat, the discomfort of sweating, passing out from the confined, heated room. While these rumours have become quite popular, the fact is that spending time in a sauna benefits your health. Saunas are helpful health enhancers, and can improve the well being of your body and mind. Read on to discover how spending time in a sauna increases your well being!

How does it help?

1. Saunas help increase your body’s detoxification: Every day, our bodies take in toxin- from the foods we eat, pollution we breathe, etc. What ever our lifestyles, we cannot avoid absorbing some toxins. One of the ways by which our bodies rid themselves of these toxins is sweating. Typically, our eccrine glands will emit around a quart of sweat a day. That is a great amount of toxins leaving the body! Here is how the sauna benefits you. In just fifteen minutes’ time spent in a sauna, your eccrine glands sweat out as much as they would in a day. In this way, using a sauna benefits your body by helping it get rid of unwanted toxins in order to better cleanse your system.

2. Saunas help reduce your stress: Let’s face it- every one can use a bit of a de-stresser. And a recent study has shown that sauna benefits can actually minimize anxiety and diminish stress in some users. After 9/11, a group of fire fighters participated in the New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Program, a sauna detox program. After completing the treatment, the participants experienced decreased levels of stress, and even reported lessened symptoms of depression. 84 percent of participants had stopped using the drugs they had, prior to treatment, had relied upon to remedy emotional, cognitive, and physical symptoms. Why? The firefighters reported that, after using the sauna for 33 days, they no longer experienced symptoms! Talk about some serious sauna benefits!

3. Saunas for Cardio: While sitting in a sauna will not replace your cardio routine at the gym, it is true that using a sauna benefits your body’s cardiovascular system. The sauna helps encourage your heart to pump more blood through your body: your heart gets a little gentle exercise, similar to what it would experience from a very mild workout. This is a great way to gently workout your heart, helping it to slowly build its tolerance for exercise and oxygen. The heat of the sauna also causes your capillaries to dilate, which helps improve the blood flow in your body. In fact, the Journal of the American College of Cardiology reports that spending just 15 minutes a day in a sauna for two weeks improves function of the cell lining of your arteries by 40 percent. Healthier arteries means a healthier you- that’s definitely one of the sauna benefits!



Spending time in the sauna benefits your heart health, decreases your stress, detoxifies your body, and is an absolutely cozy fitness option on a cold and wintry day! With all these sauna benefits in your favour, it’s time to buckle down and get sweaty!

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