So many of us want to be happy but how many of us truly are through and through? Probably very few. We are all in search of something fulfilling, thrilling, and to make us happier people. Sizeable numbers of us chase after money and professional success, believing these things to be most fulfilling yet when we arrive at our goals, how long does this happiness last – not long. So then we maybe we read on a blog that something like a steam room makes happier people and so we try that. But the feeling doesn’t last. For some, they don’t even feel anything. We continue within this mindset of unhappiness indefinitely.

Another thing to try is in an effort to fill this void of happiness, we buy ourselves things like smartphones, cars, houses, electronics, and more. The ultimate goal of all this behaviour is to get at the happiness yet we never get there. The unfortunate thing about happiness is that the only way to be truly happy is, first, to admit there’s not really any such thing. Permanent happiness doesn’t really occur. There’s always seemingly another challenge coming around the corner or some beast ready to throw us down. Just because permanent happiness may not exist, this doesn’t mean we should suffer or that there aren’t moments of happiness and joy out there. Here’s what we mean.

Don’t get a cold in the first place! The common cold’s not a major risk to health but what an inconvenience it can be. The best cold treatment is preventative. A steam room can certainly help, as can a number of other things. Here’s a little bit of background on how you can stay healthy, regardless of what cold virus may be going around.

The common cold is spread through sneezing, coughing, and person-to-person contact. If an infected person touches a doorknob, for example, the virus can hang out there and catch on a new person. Not everyone exposed will end up developing symptoms or a common cold. Influences on whether a person gets a cold or not relies on if they already have immunity or if one’s immune system is already strong enough to fight it off. Considering a steam room strengthens the immune system, this may be one way to fight off the virus.

In buying a sauna to install in your home, you’re going to see models with ceramic heaters and others with a carbon fiber heater. There are some differences between them, as there are for other heaters out there. If the whole ceramic heater v. carbon fiber debate confuses you a little, you’re not alone. A lot of people don’t quite know the difference and while it can be trivial to some, for others it’s crucial choosing the right kind of heater for their home sauna setup.

Infrared rays

A home sauna can benefit most from a carbon fiber heater which emits warm rays akin to far infrared than ceramic heaters will produce. With a carbon fiber heater, its heat is beneficial and healing. Comparatively ceramic heater heat comes at a higher temperature which means you won’t be able to stay in the sauna for as long and you may not be in there long enough for significant tissue penetration. A carbon fiber heater’s going to heat from the inside out, providing relief from stress, sore muscles, and aching joints in a way you won’t get from ceramic.

Heat distribution

On a carbon fiber heater, the heating surface area is easier in providing heat distribution compared to a ceramic model. This is because a carbon fiber heater’s surface area is much larger, is composed of thin carbon plates, and was designed in a way to prevent hot spots and cold spots from developing. With ceramic heaters, you’re going to have a lot of unevenness in heat distribution because they aren’t built the same. If you want your heat to be dispersed fairly, carbon fiber wins out every time.

Are saunas bad for you? They could be, if you fall into one of the unfortunate demographics of people who aren’t recommended to use a sauna.

Saunas have nearly two dozen benefits to its name that have been scientifically proven – improving mitochondrial health and energy levels, slowing aging, improving heart health and blood pressure, removing toxins from the body, speeding up weight loss, improving athletic performance, increasing muscle growth, speeding up muscle recovery, promoting the growth of new brain cells and the repair of neurons, improving skin health, increasing red blood cell count delivering more oxygen to cells, decreasing pain and fibromyalgia symptoms, lowering inflammation, fighting infection, minimizing the risk of certain cancers, fighting Alzheimer’s and dementia, acts as an anti-depressant, improves symptoms in some autoimmune conditions, improves chronic fatigue syndrome symptoms, and fights diabetes and insulin resistance.

Did you see that paragraph! That’s a lot of positives. Despite all these reasons to try it, for some people, it can be very dangerous to do a sauna. If you fall into one of the following categories, don’t use a sauna without speaking to a doctor first. There are increased risk factors for these people that could mean fatal consequences in some rare cases.

Deep in the Mediterranean, one will find hammams. These facilities serve to reinvigorate and inspire the mind, body, and spirit. A steam and a scrub here works similar to a spa in North America. In countries like Morocco, a hammam is the cultural equivalent there to a spa.

A hammam is based off traditional Roman bathing rituals that were brought to the region centuries ago. At the time, which was long ago, private homes did not have any plumbing. This attracted families and individuals to hammams, in addition to it being a place where one could socialize and cleanse themselves prior to prayer. Hammams have survived for as long as they have in the culture because they were seen as the best way to get clean, far more effective than any shower can get a person.

Hammams provide spiritual value, was a place to come to meet others and socialize, and could provide health benefits as well. The steam room element in a hammam helps to remove dead skin cells, gradually loosening them and allowing you to rinse these cells off upon stepping out. Depending on the size of the hammam, there may be multiple rooms in which to find relaxation. The muscle relaxation in particular can be a major benefit from a hammam that any user can look forward to experiencing.

Russian bathhouses, affectionately referred to as banyas, have been used for centuries and is a key part of the culture. For those who aren’t accustomed to what banyas are, the bathhouse includes a steam room with wooden benches, leafy branches used in a massage, and typically buckets or pools of cold water. In a lot of these environments, a user gets a traditional steam bathing experience alongside occasional whacking with a branch and being given ice cold water therapy.

Banyas have been used to provide warmth, strong and healthy skin, and better overall health among Russian families for years. In certain parts of the country, a person will take a steam and then walk out to lie down in the snow bringing together the benefits of heat with cold. The oldest bathhouse in Russia is the Sanduny in Moscow which was first opened in 1808 believe it or not. Elegant and beautiful, this maintains traditional banya rules which means the men are with the men and the women are with the women.

In a way, a banya isn’t a type of steam room but is more similar to a spa. So in this way, all a banya’s is a Russian spa. Banyas can offer some customizations in the sense that different spa treatments are offered, such as body mud wrapping to the traditional branch massage. Before entering a banya, a person must disrobe and dress themselves in bath shoes, a hat, their sheet, and towel. In a Russian banya, you start with a short time a la 15 minutes in a steam room. No moisturizers or cosmetics should be used in the steam room.

Chronic fatigue symptoms are debilitating, preventing those with severe cases from working or leading productive lives. In some cases, a person with CFS/ME may experience mental health difficulties such as anxiety or depression. There are a variety of chronic fatigue symptoms which an infrared sauna may be able to help with.

A study looking at two patients with chronic fatigue syndrome put them through infrared sauna therapy once a day for 35 straight days. This was followed with a program where they partook in further sessions once or twice a week. This program continued for a year afterwards. This study monitored patients over the course of this entire period and found statistically significant improvements in symptoms like physical and mental complaints, fatigue, depression, confusion, and with insomnia. Both patients experienced the same intensity of relief, suggesting the helpfulness a sauna has on chronic fatigue.

These symptoms weren’t the only thing that was helped using an infrared sauna for chronic fatigue. Energy levels actually rose slowly but surely. The hours of non-sedentary activity also increased. In fact, at the time that therapy began, both patients were not working. By the six-month period, both patients were able to return to work. Although research on the topic of a sauna improving chronic fatigue, there’s enough anecdotes out there and smaller studies as mentioned that have us very excited for the future. Surely, there is something to a sauna that potentially can help chronic fatigue sufferers who have run out of options.

If a sauna improves mood in a statistically significant way, wouldn’t that classify it as an anti-depressant? There are many people who say yes. After all, anti-depressants don’t always work. Arguably, a sauna may be just as effective at treating depression and depression-related symptoms as anti-depressants. Here’s a little more about the ways in which saunas act on depression.

Depression is linked to many things, including an elevated core body temperature. There’s actually research showing a link between hyperthermia and depression. Normally, one may see ‘elevated core body temperature’ and think the cure is to cool it down. As science shows us, it actually is the opposite approach. When the body gets a spike in body temperature, bringing it higher, this can lead to an improvement in depression. There are 4 main ways in which a sauna helps with depression.

 A sauna temporarily spikes inflammation which increases heat-shock proteins (HSPs). This lowers the baseline inflammation levels in the body, normalizing the inflammatory and immune pathways through hormesis.

Consumers don’t realize all the different customizations, features, and options at one’s disposal when selecting an infrared sauna for their home. There are an almost endless number of ways saunas can be designed to suit a space, preferences, or needs of the individual.

More sauna buyers are personalizing their purchases through end-to-end customizations. There’s naturally the more basic options of choosing the size and whether it should accommodate one person or multiple people, where you want it installed, whether it will be in a corner, etc. There’s also a matter of choosing the type of wood you want, such as a Canadian red cedar or a hemlock. There’s also plenty of other ways to upgrade your sauna. Here are just a few of them.

 Infrared saunas are all the rage right now on Instagram and in popular culture but in Europe, traditional saunas still reign supreme in many ways. There are major differences between both, though many of the benefits are the same.

Saunas attract a wide array of people. There are so many different reasons to go. They can be listed by the dozens. Of course, a sauna’s relaxing on the body and mind but they also improve the appearance and function of our skin, helps to eliminate toxins, helps with healing, and has numerous other benefits. For these reasons, saunas are common to spas, fitness centers, gyms, hotels, condo developments, and other commercial facilities.

There’s no shortage of infrared saunas to install in residential homes either. Investing in one adds property value and also provides you the chance to enjoy the benefits all from home. If you haven’t looked at saunas before, you’ll probably come to realize that you can get infrared or traditional. Here are the key differences between infrared and traditional saunas.

Millions of Canadians and Americans use saunas for their health benefits every day. Worldwide, there are even more people who tap into the healing powers of infrared saunas and traditional Finnish saunas. They’ve been used for centuries and yet, saunas are still controversial fodder among some scientists and those in the medical community. Why are sauna medical benefits widely ignored, misunderstood, and at times chastised by some – we sought the answer to this question.

Surveying the reasons why a person walks into a sauna, they’ll usually tell you one of two things. They’re doing it because it’s relaxing or for the perceived health benefits. Despite increasing evidence outlining over two dozen health benefits of a sauna, including on some points where saunas produce statistically better outcomes than certain medications treating the same condition, most doctors ignore this. Many think it’s either placebo and they haven’t bothered to examine the evidence.

Restless leg syndrome is a neurological conditions characterized by uncomfortable, uncontrollable sensations in the legs. People with restless leg syndrome, also known as RLS, describe it in a number of ways. Sometimes, it can feel like insects crawling inside the leg and other times, it can be burning, tugging, or like someone is trying to rip apart the leg muscles. Severity can range from mild discomfort to being severely painful. Although there are medications, they are not effective for everyone.

With RLS, the person usually has an uncomfortable urge to move the legs as their subconscious believes movement will provide relief. This commonly sets in at night. One tries to rest and remain still enough to sleep, and is unable to because of the restlessness. At times, this can lead to an inability to walk during a flare up of restless leg syndrome and as mentioned, an inability to sleep usually resulting in a diagnosis of insomnia. Higher rates of RLS are detected in women, seniors, and individuals who are overweight, although there is a genetic component to this as well.

For runners, when they push themselves long enough and tough enough, some of them can achieve what’s called a ‘runner’s high’. This is essentially a feeling of warmth and really, really good. For some, it’s as intense as a chemical altering drug and then for others, it can be quite mild. This high is oftentimes associated with the release of endorphins but this is not what actually causes it.

A runner’s high comes from the release of dynorphins which is the exact opposite of endorphins. Endorphins make you feel good while dynorphins create a feeling of dysphoria. How does this create a high? Well, through an intense release of dynorphins, what happens is that it’s like a system rebooting. This makes you more sensitive to endorphins and thereby as you’re running, endorphins are coming out and your system’s reacting very intensely.

Hot sauna time done 4-7 times a week has been shown to improve symptoms in some autoimmune conditions in some patients. For tough-to-treat physical conditions like Type 1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis, a sauna may be able to offer significant benefit. Here’s the thing. The benefits of a sauna on autoimmune disorders has been shown to work in ‘some conditions’ and in ‘some patients’. The research is still building here but it’s been so far very promising.

Why saunas help autoimmune conditions is believed to be because of the increase in production of heat shock proteins (HSPs). These help to regulate the immune system while suppressing the overactive responses common in autoimmune disorders. Although a sauna is not going to cure an autoimmune condition, it can bring down the prominence of symptoms which can improve quality of life. As someone with Type 1 diabetes or rheumatoid arthritis will tell you, when the condition can’t be cured, the focus turns to how to treat individual symptoms and how to maximize quality of life. Hence, this is also where a sauna comes into play.

Slowly opening your eyes after a good night’s rest is satisfying. You feel refreshed and ready for whatever the day brings. Sleep like this not only gives you confidence to move forward but has also been shown to help keep your heart strong, reduce stress, and fight depression. For many, unfortunately, falling asleep and staying asleep ain’t easy.

A steam room for insomnia has been shown to help, as the experience of enjoying a steam rejuvenates, relaxes, and renews the body. It can help the body by putting it in a restful state. Patients with chronic fatigue have even found a steam room can help reduce the effects on tiredness. In combination with a steam room, there are plenty of other ways to maximize the likelihood of you getting a good night’s rest.

5-HTP

5-HTP is a natural supplement also known as 5-hydroxytryptophan. It’s a by-product of L-tryptophan. Essentially, this is an amino acid which is known to help with the serotonin neurotransmitter production, believed to help with the sleep-wake cycle.

Diabetes and insulin resistance requires daily on-the-go treatment to keep a person healthy. Saunas are one way to minimize the symptoms of insulin resistance and combat diabetes. Thankfully, they aren’t nearly as expensive as some pharmaceuticals and as long as you keep regular sessions up, there’s no telling how much benefit you could derive from a sauna. Why infrared saunas are so helpful comes down to several factors.

Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are one of the reasons why. When you enter into a sauna, HSPs are activated. HSPs are associated with many things, including repairing damaged cells, helping in recycling old damaged cells, and preventing future damage. Higher levels of HSPs have been associated with many positive things including helping with Type 2 diabetes, helping with insulin resistance, and managing glucose control.

The spa is a wonderful place for the body and soul. As tantalizing as things like mani-pedis, massages, and facials are, a steam room is a spa secret that hits big with health benefits. Surprisingly, there are a lot of reasons why steam rooms are worth their time.

Steam rooms are not saunas. A steam room uses a water-filled generator to create moist heat, surrounding you with hot, humid temperatures. Comparatively, a sauna uses wood-burning, electric, or gas to create hot and dry heat. In a steam room, you’re getting moisture with is amazing for the skin as well as a higher temperature and humidity. Here are the top 5 reasons steam rooms get action at the spa.

Congestion

Like after you feel taking a hot shower, a steam room clears congestion from colds and flus immediately. Inhaling high amounts of moisture loosens nasal congestion, clearing sinuses completely. If you have additional symptoms however, such as a fever, you may not want your core body temperature raised so be sure to use a steam room carefully.

Steam rooms have so many health benefits, some more well-known than others. A lot of these benefits are in the treatment of existing conditions, and many of the benefits are preventative. One of the conditions that steam room use can help to prevent, that’s a little less known, is Alzheimer’s disease.

A factor that is currently believed to contribute to the onset of Alzheimer’s disease is the build-up of misfolded proteins. These proteins, such as beta amyloid, may play a major role in the onset of a variety of neurodegenerative diseases, including the aforementioned Alzheimer’s disease. Recent research has shown that steam room use can potentially help reduce this cause.

Regular steam room use increases the levels of HSPs and FOXO3 in the body. Recent research suggests that these levels contribute to the repair of misfolded proteins. The proteins are restored to their original structures. The misfolded proteins tend to clump together and form plaques. These plaques lead to a variety of conditions, such as cardiovascular disease. As the misfolded proteins are also believed to play a part in the development of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, this means that steam room use could potentially reduce the risk of developing these conditions.

You may not think much changes in the world of saunas and steam rooms but advances in designs, locations, and new technologies have made the world of saunas ever more interesting! These are just a few of the biggest 2019 sauna trends you may want to consider if you’re looking to upgrade or install a sauna in your home or place of business. Here we go!

Sauna exercise

We’ll get into the design trends a little later but in North America, the trend of combining the experience of a sauna with exercise is becoming more popular. Yoga, tai chi, and similar low impact exercise programs are assembled in various cities across Canada and the US. Although there are numerous benefits to enjoying a sauna void of any other activity, combining it with a yoga session or some tai chi has helped give some an added level of difficulty and more accomplishment walking out of there.

Who doesn’t want clear skin? When you do a sauna right and follow a regular weekly routine, you’ll be surprised by how well it works to keep breakouts at bay and to keep your skin looking glowing.

For those that are used to sauna, we don’t need to tell you. Saunas are freakin’ amazing! Accomplishing a good sweat after a rough day, rough night, or tough workout – there’s nothing better. The heat will detoxify the skin, increase blood flow to the organs, and relax your mind, body, and spirit. About what it can do for your skin though, it comes down to the heat and the sweating.

Sweating is a very restorative process for our skin. We usually sweat from exercise, which is increasing heart rate, improving circulation, and kicking up our blood flow a notch. Pores are opening, toxins hiding in those pores are getting flushed, and ultimately with less bad stuff embedded into our skin, we come away from sweating with smoother skin. In a sauna, no strenuous activity is required to get those same benefits. The infrared heat stimulates blood flow, beats the heart faster, and helps to move more nutrients to the skin.