Sauna use has strong potential to become a central technique in PT practice. Specific areas of physical therapy that would likely benefit from sauna are cardiopulmonary, geriatric, and orthopedic where exercise is used as a stimulus to improve cardiovascular functioning. A unique quality of sauna that makes it particularly useful to these areas is that sauna is one of the only cardio exercises that does not require movement and can therefore accommodate a wider range of patients based on ambulatory ability. Knee, hip or other joint problems are not a problem with sauna and in fact may aid in pain relief.

Several researchers found sauna therapeutic in treating high blood pressure and myocardial infarction. See: Empirical Evidence for the Health Benefits of Sauna. In the most recent study, published in The American Journal of Cardiology, researchers used sauna treatment with 41 patients with heart failure and found that sauna treatment increased the heart’s ability to pump blood, and boosted the distance participants could walk in 6 minutes from 337 meters to 379 meters. The team also noticed improved function of the endothelium – the membrane lining the inside of the heart that releases factors controlling the diameter of blood vessels, and clotting. The researchers also found more circulating endothelial progenitor cells – adult stem cells that can turn into endothelial cells. See: Effects of Sauna Treatment on Patients with Chronic Heart Failure.

Heckel HT2000M used for Whole Body Hyperthermia

One present danger in developing the use of sauna in physical therapy is that medical researchers ignore the time-tested traditional methods of sweat rituals that include multiple therapeutic variables. Researchers have followed this path in an effort to isolate the heat as being the only therapeutic agent of the experience. Some researchers would be perfectly happy with putting people into heated cylinder-like canisters. The use of a traditional form of sweat ritual is not only more human but may also be more effective. See: Sweat Therapy Theory. As medical professionals push forward, they would be well advised to take advantage of the numerous extratherapeutic variables available through the traditional use of sweat rituals.

A growing force that supports the traditional use of sauna and other sweat rituals in medical settings is the use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine Practices (CAM). CAM is a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products, (typically forms of traditional medicine), that are not generally considered to be part of conventional medicine. The use of CAM in hospital settings is becoming common practice. The most common CAM practices offered in hospitals include acupuncture, yoga, meditation, and variations on massage such as reiki. As a CAM practice in a medical setting, sauna offers comprehensiveness yet flexibility. Sauna offers the potential for significant effects to mind, body and spirit and can be integrated with a wide range of techniques and expertise. The combination of sauna with counseling/psychotherapy further amplifies the therapeutic opportunities to patients receiving physical therapy. For more information on integrating sauna with counseling/psychotherapy into a wide range of healthcare settings, see: Sweat Therapy: A Guide to Greater Well-Being.

We sauna enthusiasts are easily amused.

• We smile when we see it snowing outside.
• We laugh between sauna rounds.
• We are happy just looking up at the moon.
• We like the base line in Elvis Costello’s “I don’t want to go to Chelsea.”

The article explains how sitting in cold tubs “bring new blood and fresh cells to an injured or sore area. They also flush lactic acids and reduce inflammation.”

Yet maximum benefits are achieved by the rubber band theory of sauna therapy:  10-15 minutes in an authentic Finnish sauna, then a proper cool down (jumping in a cold lake, or a long cold shower or a cold tub).  Repeat three times.

Saunatimes suggests that the Minnesota Vikings, and all pro football teams for that matter, carve out 50 square feet or so to outfit locker rooms with an authentic Finnish sauna, wood burning preferred.  With a little proper instruction, players will be able to double the benefit they are currently achieving with cold tub therapy.

NOTE TO ATHLETIC TRAINERS:  Position a walk through shower between sauna and cold tub, so participants may wash off sweat prior to cold plunging.

SUMMARY:  Cold therapy is just half the story.  Sweat Therapy and cold therapy work together for the ultimate “ahhhhhhh!”.

(Jerry Holt/ STAR TRIBUNE/jgholt@startribune.com, reprinted without permission)”]

Vikings Eric Frampton sat in the cold tub after a Thursday practice at Winter Park.

• Bicycling: $100 bike shorts and you can go 80 miles without your ass on fire.
• Canoeing: light kevlar canoe and you can portage to Montana.
• Yoga: the right teacher and your body and mind are in synch vs. feeling like you’ve just hung sheet rock for 8 hours.

Same gig with sauna.   One’s appreciation and enjoyment of the authentic sauna experience is heightened by good technique and a good sauna.  Unfortunately, most hotel saunas and health club saunas are lame.  What’s worse, most hotel saunas and health club saunas are in environments of huge compromise, antithesis of nature and fresh air .  Three Tips:

1. Cold water plunge.  The temptation is to turn the shower to lukewarm.  Avoid this, take as cold of a shower as you can handle.  This is important for maximizing the rubber band theory of sauna.
2. Cool down between rounds.  Sit outside between rounds.  March through the hotel lobby in your towel and seek a cool spot outside for cool down.  Avoid the self consciousness of looking like a dork.  Nobody cares.   Fresh air is important for the cool down, body and mind.  You paid to be there, it’s not your fault they haven’t provided a nice outdoor courtyard.  Bring a beer with you.
3. It’s ok to be a Low Bench Larry. When tossing water on sauna rocks, hotel saunas and health club saunas often suffer from burning “ouch” vs. Loyly “ahh”.   A good sauna round is 10 minutes or so in the hot room, and equal time cooling down.  With an all on or all off extreme of electric sauna stoves, sometimes the low bench is how one can ride out the burning sensation of water on the sauna rocks.

So, like an expensive road bike, or kevlar canoe or high end yoga classes, we sauna enthusiasts have chosen to build our own saunas – our backyard sauna, or cabin sauna for our own health and wellness satisfaction in the misty garden all wet with rain.

No guru, no method, no teacher, just you and I in nature.

Sorri (1988) wrote a psychoanalytic view of sauna bathing and described it as follows (p.236):

Sauna bathing is a pleasant and relaxing experience that combines psychic,

physical and social pleasures. A person’s inner feelings about sauna bathing, its

essential components are mainly unconscious. The sauna bath reduces the

aggressive behavior and enables bathers to forget the commonplace pressures of

everyday life. The sauna evokes memories of childhood development, awakening

feelings of maternal warmth and paternal power in the bather.

Dr. Sorri discussed how the sauna is an excellent place for philosophizing and creative thinking, “dissolves” stress and negative feelings and declared the sauna a “positive mental health resource.”

Reference

Sorri, P. (1988). The sauna and sauna bathing habits – A psychoanalytic point of view. Annals of Clinical Research 20, 236-239.

Do you have trouble sleeping?  I urge you to try an authentic sauna.  Not an infrared, or a steam room, but three decent rounds in an authentic Finnish sauna, allowing adequate time between rounds to chill out and relax.

As Richard Ashcroft of The Verve poignantly announces: “the drugs don’t work.”  Taking sleeping pills are not the answer to sleeping all night.  A sauna session is a natural process.  Whether it’s body stress or mind stress, three decent sauna rounds will greatly enhance the necessary state of relaxation, critical to sleeping all night.

Life is short, we all deserve to have a good night’s sleep.  Sauna is a great help for sleeping disorders.

Ever meet somebody and tell them you’re into sauna to which they respond, “I just don’t like to sweat.” Ever wonder what that’s all about? Ever wonder if their dislike of sweating reflects their uptight, neurotic personality style?

Recent research supports that those with higher neurotic personality traits have greater difficulty coping with heat stress (LeBlanc, Ducharme, Pasto, & Tompson, 2003).

LeBlanc, Ducharme, Pasto, and Tompson (2003) investigated the relationship of personality traits to people’s responses to warm and cold environments with 20 young healthy adults. The personality measure used was the Big Five Personality Inventory. Higher scores on each of the five scales are related to higher self-reported levels of Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism and Openness.

For both the cold and the hot environments, the researchers found that people who scored high for Neuroticism (tendency to be anxious, fearful, sensitive, & self-critical) had both a higher discomfort rate and a lower autonomic nervous system (ANS) response.

In other words, when in the cold environment (10º C) they reported it to be highly uncomfortable and shivered less than normals. In the hot environment (40º C), they found it highly uncomfortable and sweated less.

So now the big question is: Do people with more stabile personalities gravitate toward sauna or does sauna help promote a more solid personality? My guess is it’s a little of both.

Reference

LeBlanc, J. Ducharme, M.B., Pasto, L. and Thompson, M. (2003). Response to thermal stress and personality. Physiology and Behavior, 80, (1) 69-74.

Before you watch the video, let me say that I rarely think about the health benefits when I’m in the sauna. I just do it because it feels great. Now, if you are into the health benefits, traditional saunas are just as good, if not better, than infrared rooms. Mainly because you get both the heat benefits and the surge of negative ions. But…that’s another post. Enjoy!

“What? Are you crazy? It’s 102 today!”

Exactly. It’s 102. Just as some runners use saunas to train for hot weather running, I use saunas to tolerate hot weather in general. It works remarkably well.

When you’re first introduced to the sauna, your inclination is to head for the hills when the steam comes barreling toward you. After a few sessions you start to realize that, not only is it quite tolerable, but it actually feels gooooooooood! When the steam hits, you learn to just let it in.

And so it is when I walk out of my 73 degree air conditioned house into 102 degrees…

I just let it in.