Steam Room, Sauna, Sweat Lodge for Detoxifying Sweat!

Sweating is healthy! Allowing the sweat to pour out of you in a steam room, sauna or sweat lodge is one of the best ways to speed up your detox and alleviate detox symptoms. Once you’ve stirred up all those toxins through better diet you’ve got to get them out! And your skin is one of the best routes.

Your skin is your biggest elimination organ. It is often referred to as the third kidney. Sweat and urine has very similar chemical compositions and they are both waste products of your blood. When your kidneys are overworked by toxins your skin has to pick up the slack.¹

Sweating detoxifies your body, by removing the accumulation of potentially carcinogenic heavy metals as well as alcohol, nicotine, sodium and cholesterol. Profuse perspiration also deeply cleanses the skin, creating beautiful and improved tone, texture, and color.

“Give me a fever and I can cure any disease”

Hippocrates, 460 - 357 B.C.

Healing Sweat

Hippocrates recognized that the “artificial fevers” induced by intentional sweating purge harmful pathogens and toxins while fortifying your immune system. Steam room and sauna sessions also strengthen your cardiovascular system.

During a 15 to 20 minute sweat session your pulse rate can increase from an average of 75 beats per minute (bpm) to between 100-150 bpm. This increase in blood circulation, without increasing blood pressure, strengthens your cardiovascular system.

The wet heat of a steam room is also a great remedy for respiratory congestion associated with detoxing, colds, sinusitis, allergies, and asthma. Inhaling the steam relieves inflammation and congestion of the upper respiratory membranes and stimulates the discharge of mucous from the throat and lungs. The steam also relaxes your muscles to soothe coughing and keeps your mucous membranes from drying out.

An Ancient Tradition

The word sauna originates in Finland where people have been using them for at least a thousand years. Original saunas were temporary structures built by the nomads of the land that came to be Finland. Finnish saunas are used for detoxification, bathing, giving birth and healing the sick. Similar forms of intentional sweating have been practiced in other cultures for just as long. In Russia they use banyas. Native American tribes use the sweat lodge or inipi. The Turkish use a hamam, much like a steam room, and the Japanese use an onsen.²

Native American sweat lodge ceremonies are an important part of their traditional lifestyle. They are used for physical, emotional and spiritual purification. Volcanic stones that have been heated in a fire are brought into the sweat lodge. Water is poured over the stones creating steam and releasing the stored heat. These ceremonial lodges purge toxic emotions and energetic “thoughtforms” along with stored physical toxins.

Ready to Get Sweating?

If you have access to a sauna or steam room, take advantage of it! Many gyms have steam rooms and saunas that are available to the public. You may know someone with a steam room or sauna built into their home or be able attend a traditional sweat lodge ceremony.

Once you identify your options, plan several sweat sessions into your detox. The most effective way to get yourself sweating and releasing toxins is to do sauna rounds. Sit in the sauna for 5 to 10 minutes then take a short cold shower. That’s round one. Repeat a few times until your sweat is flowing. As you do this your pores will open and your skin will wake up. With each session your sweat will start sooner and be more profuse, flushing out the toxins more and more efficiently.

Stay hydrated while sweating. Keep a water bottle near and drink as much as you can. Use caution and pay attention to your body while sweating. Be aware that you may become lightheaded, so stand and walk carefully. Refrain from using any sweat therapy if you have a heart condition or other serious illness that may be adversely affected by an increased heart rate.

Hot Shower Therapy

If you don’t have access to a sweat room or sauna, try this easy home treatment. Use hot and cold shower water to simulate the sauna rounds described above. Take a hot shower, as hot as you can tolerate, for 5 minutes. Then turn the water to the coldest temperature that you can tolerate for up to one minute.

Alternate several times. It is also effective to simply end your hot shower with a 30 to 60 second blast of cold water. This will stimulate your lymphatic and immune systems. Make sure to expose your armpit and groin areas to the cold blast to best stimulate a detoxifying reaction.

Ginger Bath for Home Sweat

Another simple way to induce detoxifying sweat at home is to take a ginger bath. For detailed instructions on how to create a ginger bath, please visit our Detox Bath page.

Far Infrared Sauna

A far infrared sauna is a modern technology that uses an infrared radiant heater to emit its heat. This radiant heat is absorbed directly into the body, unlike the traditional methods that use steam or air to indirectly transfer the heat.

In this process, the heat does not warm the air but hits the body and creates heat through conversion of light waves. These types of saunas are becoming very popular for their detoxification and immune boosting benefits. Some health centers offer infrared sauna treatments and portable infrared saunas can be purchased for your home.

Sweating on a regular basis is a great way to stay healthy inside and out. If you love to sweat and would like a sauna in your home, click here for a great deal on a 2 Person Infrared Portable Detox Sauna or find books like Sauna: A complete guide to the Construction, Use, and Benefits...

¹Staying Healthy With the Seasons, by Elson Haas, M.D.

²www.cankar.org

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