Two thousand years ago, Hippocrates (460-375 BC) declared, “Give me the power to create fever, and I shall cure any disease”. Fever is the body’s natural healing response, a powerful immune system booster whose value is unsurpassed by any treatment or drug that can be administered from the outside. During the fever, production of white blood cells, “the gangbusters of the immune system” increases, along with the rate of their release into bloodstream. There is a corresponding increase in the disease-fighting capacity of these blood cells causing the production of interferon and the speeding of antibodies.
The value of sweat-inducing therapy has been an integral part of the natural health system. As early as 200 BC, the bath houses of the wealthy in India included an insolated room with stone benches placed around a fireplace. The sudatoria or steam room was a popular gathering area in the public baths of ancient Rome. The hamman or Muslim bath house, which in Europe developed into the Turkish bath, was built around a domed central steam chamber.
Ayurveda, an ancient medical system of India, teaches that steam therapy liquefies and promotes the elimination of the impurities hidden in even the minutest of body channels. Chinese medicineviews sweating as one of three methods to rid the body of “bad chi”, misdirected bodily energy which creates imbalance responsible for disease. European healers since prehistoric times have employed sweat and fomentation therapy as a means to dissolve and secrete unhealthy material of the body. To the Native Americans, sweat lodges were not only a healing therapy, but part of powerful spirituals as well. In Scandinavia and Eastern Europe steam and sauna bathing is a national pastime and a social event.
During a heat-inducing treatment, the pores dilate helping to remove impurities from the body, the heart rate and the circulation levels are elevated, similar to that of a light aerobic workout. This increase of circulation brings oxygen-enriched blood full of nutrients to replace the fluids and impurities removed during the sweating process. The skin also becomes much more able to absorb products for proper skin nutrition.
Today it is widely recognized that negative emotions produce negative or toxic chemicals in the body which have to be released before true healing can occur. The skin is our largest organ, and according to some estimates is responsible for eliminating up to 30 percent of body wastes. Because sauna and steam baths stimulate the action of the sweat glands, they enhance this eliminative and detoxifying capacity of the skin. However, releasing of impurities is only one of the things that sweat-inducing therapy accomplishes; the artificial “fever” that steam or sauna bathing induces appears to have immune system stimulating properties similar to those of fever.
The most basic heat therapy are sauna and steam treatments, the other primary use of heat therapies incorporate the use of heat via heat conducting oils or stones while receiving additional therapeutic treatments. Many massage and cleansing therapies utilize heat to help induce the desired treatments benefit. Heat therapy treatments provide deep, long-lasting healthy physiological and psychological effects, many of the beneficial properties include:
– detoxifying and deep cleanses the entire body
– increase blood circulation, lymph flow and metabolism
– improves skin and muscle tone
– relieves muscular aches and pains
– help injuries prevention by increasing muscular flexibility
– reduce pain and discomfort of arthritis
– boosting immune system by increasing white blood cells formation
– prevents and treats respiratory conditions such as common cold, sinusitis, bronchitis, allergies and asthma;
– relieve stress leaving you feeling relaxed, refreshed and rejuvenated.