Are not Saunas Supposed to Be Hot?

The short answer to the question posed in our title is, “Yes, saunas are supposed to be hot.”  Otherwise, they wouldn’t generate the sweat that is, after all, much of the point of a sauna session in the first place.   That sweat, as everyone knows, has important detoxifying qualities.

 

And that point gets to the crux of the question.  Saunas are supposed to be hot.  But how hot do they have to be to have the best effects?  At what temperature does the risk of overheating outweigh the benefits of a good sweat?  Do you really need to sit in a place where the air temperature is as high as 200 degrees Fahrenheit to realize the most effective detoxification?

 

The answers might surprise you.  But they’re also not quite as simple as you might expect them to be.  First, you have to know something about the way heat in a sauna is generated.  This distinction really comes down to two methods: heating the air or heating objects.

 

Yes, hot air will eventually heat objects, including the human body.  The question is, “How long will it take to get that object warmed up to an optimal temperature?”  Hot air will warm the human body to about one-eighth inch below the surface before the person being heated needs to get out of the sauna.  This is true whether the sauna is heated with burning wood, natural gas or electricity.

 

Unless the electricity powers a far infrared sauna heater.  In an mPulse aSPIRE sauna; the air gets hot, but not nearly as hot as in a standard sauna.  In fact, an infrared sauna with an air temperature of 120 degrees Fahrenheit generates a detoxifying sweat just as or more effectively than a regular sauna at an air temperature of 180 degrees Fahrenheit.

 

You can stay in a far infrared sauna longer than a regular sauna without putting yourself in danger of damaging your heart, which is a possibility at the high temperatures in a regular sauna.

 

But why is it that you can get as much from a far infrared sauna at 120 degrees as a traditional sauna at 180 degrees?  The answer lies in the magic of infrared radiation. 

 

Far infrared radiation is the sun’s own warming power.  It’s not ultraviolet radiation, so it doesn’t cause sunburn.  But it does penetrate the human body as much as two inches.  This deep warming generates a deep sweat that carries more toxins to the skin’s surface through the pores.

 

The deep heating of far infrared radiation not only provides better detoxifying; it also has other beneficial effects.  It can help relieve pain, lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure, improve skin.  It can even help with weight loss.

 

So the answer still is, “Yes, saunas are supposed to be hot.” But they don’t have to be that hot to be effective.  They just have to generate the right kind of heat in the right place.

 

by Woody Wilson