A Visit to the Sauna

Stressed after a busy day at work? Are your muscles sore from working out? Feeling like you're going to catch a cold any day now? Is your neck tight from sitting behind a computer day after day? If you can answer any of the above questions affirmatively, then you could benefit from the effects that a sauna or a steam bath has on a human body (and mind).

Sauna is a Finnish word for a steam bath and also denotes the building, designed especially for the purpose of bathing - today usually thought of as a log cabin with a furnace or a fireplace and wooden planks for sitting. Such cabins or similar structures, such as tents made from animal skin, holes dug into the ground and covered with wooden roofs etc., have been widely used by people who in their natural environment experienced bitter winter weathers. These people have proven the value of sauna therapy through the centuries and we can enjoy some of the same benefits today in many spa centres or even in the comfort of our own home.

Sauna today is meant to be used for a relaxing and even meditative ritual whereby one takes time for oneself and unwinds from one's everyday routine in order to gather strength and new energy. That is not so distant from the actual mindset of ancient people with regard to the sauna. In some traditions sauna was actually a holy place where the souls of ancestors gathered and so it was strictly forbidden to speak loudly or behave disrespectfully while taking a bath. In today's culture when nudity is usually closely linked with sex it is perhaps difficult for some to think of both of them in separate terms. However, sexuality or sexually explicit behaviour has never had a place in the traditional sauna. There is a saying in Finland that one should behave in a sauna as if in a church. Besides steam-bathing, sauna was also used as a place for medicinal purposes such as blood-letting, preparing the deceased for the funeral, and for women to give birth. The reason for these activities to have found their place in the sauna was due to the fact that sauna was by definition the most hygienic place available, but, especially with the last two, also due to the aforementioned immaterial presence of ancestors who, as was believed, could give comfort to the grieving relatives of the deceased and also spiritual assistance to the newborn baby and its mother. The circle of life was thus completed in the sauna itself.

There are many different kinds of baths available and they all have roots in different traditions - Finnish sauna, Turkish steam bath, Roman caldarium, our modern-day infrared sauna and so on. The main difference between them is in the temperature range, level of humidity, and the media that they use for the purpose of heating the body. Let us shortly explore some of the options we have when visiting a spa.

Finnish sauna, also known as dry sauna, employs the use of a furnace that heats stones on its top and they in turn heat the air passing through them. The purpose of hot stones is also in the fact that a bather can spill water over them and so immediately achieves a rise in the temperature inside the sauna and naturally also a rise of the humidity. If essential oils are added to the water, the benefits of the sauna are combined also with the benefits of aromatherapy. The temperature range of a Finnish sauna is somewhere between 80-100°C (175-210°F) and the humidity level anywhere from 40-60%.

Conversely the so-called Turkish steam bath or hammam also goes by the name of wet sauna, particularly because of the fact that it uses steam rather than air to heat the body. The temperature is much lower than in Finnish sauna and ranges from 40-50°C (105-120°F), whereas the humidity is 100%. Hot steam, which can also be enriched by adding essential oils, envelops the body and heats it, thus making it sweat. It is noteworthy that an aromatherapeutical steam bath can be especially beneficial as a preventive measure against colds and infections of respiratory organs.

The Roman caldarium (hot room) was in fact only one of the rooms of a typical bathing complex used by ancient Romans, the others being the tepidarium (warm room) and frigidarium (cold room). Today's Roman saunas, however, are usually an attempt to combine a Finnish and Turkish sauna. In its essence, the Roman sauna is a dry sauna with humidity level somewhere between 50-70% and a temperature at about 60-70°C (140-160°F). The combination of a lower temperature and lower humidity level results in a less strenuous bathing and might be especially suitable for the elderly, people not yet used to steam-bathing, and all those that feel overwhelmed by the immediate effects of a Finnish or Turkish sauna.

As with any physical activity (and steam-bathing is a physical activity par excellence even though we may not be running around the spa or lifting up weights) the body needs some adjusting or training - if we take up regular visits to the sauna, our body will get used to it and we will gradually feel the full potential of the sauna therapy first hand.

Sources:
1. "The Finnish Sauna"
2. Wikipedia: "Sauna"
3. BBC News: "Sauna rivals feel the heat"
4. Raven Kaldera: "Fire and Water: Sauna purification"
5. Wikipedia: "Caldarium"
6. Cheryl Carpenter: "Health Benefits of a Steam Bath"
7. "Aromatherapy essential oils"
8. "Bergland - Brilliant by nature"
9. Picture source