People have been using sauna for centuries and it is far from a new idea. Thought to purify and detoxify, saunas were common in Roman and Greek bathhouses around 2000 B.C. The Turks made public sauna baths, the “Hammam” popular and accessible and a cleansing ritual was born. The Native Americans built sweat lodges for the purpose of purification and prayer. Then modern sauna originated in Finland and is an important part of their lifestyle – for a population of 5.3 million there are approximately 2 million saunas in Finland!!

Is this sauna a legitimate way to improve health?

A 2018 comprehensive review in Mayo Clinic Proceedings summarizes the many important benefits of sauna.

1. Decreased risk of vascular diseases such as high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease (CVD), stroke, and blood clots
2. Decreased risk of Alzheimer’s
3. Decreased risk of pulmonary diseases including flu (and likely COVID)
4. Decreased risk of death from all causes
5. Treatment of skin conditions
6. Pain reduction from rheumatic diseases, low back pain and headache
7. Each sauna treatment produces a similar physiologic response that you get with moderate to high-intensity exercise

Does sauna really help remove toxins from the body? A study published in 2016 showed that sauna helps with elimination of pesticides (organophosphates) from the body. Exposure to pesticide residues is thought to be a significant risk factor for many chronic diseases particularly neurodegenerative disease like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

I believe so strongly in the benefits of this practice that I replaced the rarely used bathtub in my master bath and installed an infrared sauna. We also built two infrared saunas in our clinic to provide these health benefits to our patients. A nice aspect of the infrared type sauna is that there is no steam (thus no humidity), only rays that heat up the body without raising the overall temperature of the room. This makes for a more pleasant and tolerable experience than a steam sauna.