[N396]Nutrition For Health And Fitness

The term sauna is an ancient Finnish word referring to the traditional Finnish bath. A sauna is a small room or house. It is a kind of bath to experience dry or wet heat sessions. It can be a social event in which all the members remove clothes and sit in temperatures of over 80 °C. Around the world, doctors, researchers and other professionals have discovered the incredible value of using sauna heat to help boost the human body’s white blood cell count, stimulate its immune system, facilitate detoxification, and produce a state of general relaxation that is vital to the healing process.

Historical evidences show that the Finns built the first wooden saunas in the 5th or 8th century. In Finland swimsuits, towels, or any other garments were rarely worn in the sauna. Families often use to go to the sauna together. In these private saunas swimsuits or towels were never worn. In public saunas it is usually common that men and women go to the sauna separately, although people of both sexes may sometimes bathe together. Historically saunas were the most sacred places after the church, and houses which had enough money to build a sauna had one. Finns always prefer to be sitting in the sauna in silence. The temperature is usually kept between 80°C and 110°C. Sometimes people use to make a 'vihta'; Small fresh birch branches with leaves on, are tied together and people swat themselves and their fellow sauna bathers with it. Vihtas can be brought from a shop, and they may be stored for use later on. Use of vihta improves blood circulation, and its birch odor is considered very pleasing.

Currently there are a wide variety of sauna options are available. Heating sources may comprise of wood, electricity, gas and other more unconventional methods such as solar power. There are wet saunas, dry saunas, smoke saunas, steam saunas, and those whic work with infrared waves are functioning all over the modern world. The Finnish term for a heat source of sauna is kiuas. There are two major kinds of kiuas: continuously heating and "always on". Continuously heating kiuases have a small heating capacity, and these can be heated up as per demand basis, while "always on" kiuas have a huge heating capacity and it can take up to one whole day to heat up.

Temperatures approaching and greater than 100 °C would be totally unbearable. This problem effectively negotiated by controlling the humidity in the sauna. The hottest saunas use to have comparatively low humidity levels. This allows air temperatures that could boil water to be tolerated and even enjoyed for longer periods of time. Other types of sauna, where the humidity approaches 100%, set to a much lower temperature of around 40 °C to compensate. The "wet heat" would cause scalding if the temperature were set much higher. Finer control over the temperature is achieved by choosing a higher level bench for those wishing a hotter temperature and a lower level bench for a more moderate temperature level.

Good sauna manners require that the door to a sauna not be kept open for long so that it cools the sauna. Leaving the door even partly open or keeping it open for a minute will significantly cool down the small amount of hot air present inside the sauna.

Findings suggest that it is more than the heat of a sauna that is so beneficial to human health. Tests have pointed out that the practice of tossing or splashing water on heated rocks in a traditional sauna produces very high quantity of negative ions in the air inside the sauna. It is concluded that air rich with negative ions offers enormous benefits for the human health, while lack of negative ions or a higher ratio of positive to negative ions in the air we breathe can cause physical harm. Regular sauna bathing can be an effective therapy for the people laden with conditions like arthritis and hypertension and a sound measure for prevention against colds, flu and other health hazards.

Saunas can be dangerous too. Heat incapacitation or hyperthermia can result from saunas. Cool showers or plunge after coming out of a sauna always results with a great increase in blood pressure, so be careful, a very careful moderation is advised. A good practice is to take a few moments after exit the sauna and before entering a cold plunge.