In Finland, the steam bath, or sauna, is an historic tradition. For over a thousand years the sauna has been an important part of Finnish life and Finnish culture, cherished by every Finnish man.

woman and child. The sauna is credited for much of the rugged vitality and endurance—the sisu—of the Finnish people.

In a country of less than 5 million people, there are an estimated 700,000 steam bath facilities—one sauna for every 7 people! Most Finnish saunas are in separate buildings specially constructed for this purpose. Every farm has its own sauna, usually built on the shore of a lake or river. Most family houses in the city have saunas built on the lot, usually in the back yard.

Finnish sauna bathing starts with loyly, which is the Finnish word for steam Water is thrown over hot stones, hot steam fills the room and raises the temperature. The bather can sit on a low or high bench, depending on the temperature he prefers. The usual temperature for a Finnish sauna is about 212° F, sometimes even higher. For the uninitiated I would not advise temperatures higher than 180-190° F.

In order to further increase the effect of heat and stimulate sweating, the Finns use birch brooms, vihta. Fresh birch branches with leaves are tied together to form a short broom. They are used fresh in summer or dried in winter. The dried broom is dipped in warm water and regains the same shape as the fresh one. Bathers hit themselves all over with these birch brooms. It may seem odd and eccentric to the uninitiated, but you have to try it for yourself to appreciate the fantastic delight and unbelievable pleasure the sauna with a birch broom can give.

After hot loyly, bathers usually jump into the nearby lake or river, or in winter they run out and roll in soft snow. What an exhilarating and delightful experience! Then they return to the sauna and warm up again, either by sitting up on the benches or taking more loyly with the brooms. Following this they wash themselves with warm water and soap and finish by throwing a bucket of cold water over themselves. In modern saunas, of course, there are showers and even swimming pools.

Finally, the bathers take a long relaxing rest on the benches in the dressing room and allow the wide-open pores to close, perspiration to cease, and the body to return slowly to normal temperature.

Therapeutic properties of sauna

In addition to the prophylactic and therapeutic benefits of an artificially raised fever, which a prolonged steam bath always accomplishes, the sauna bath is specifically conducive to profuse therapeutic sweating. Many toxins, accumulated in the system as a result of metabolic wastes and sluggish elimination, are thrown out of the body with perspiration. The skin is our largest eliminative organ, “the third kidney.” The skin should eliminate 30 percent of the body wastes by way of perspiration. Hundreds of thousands of tiny sweat glands act not only as the regulators of body temperature, but also as small kidneys, detoxifying organs, ready to cleanse the blood and free the system from health-threatening poisons. When the kidneys, cannot eliminate the normal quantities of urine due to overwork or a weakened condition, the body tries to eliminate such wastes by way of the skin. Uric acid, a normal compound of urine, is found in large amounts in the perspiration. The chemical analysis of sweat shows that it has almost the same constituents as urine.

The American conception of the sauna seems to be that it is helpful in reducing weight by eliminating several pounds of water through sweating. But the benefits of the sauna are far beyond mere reducing. You not only lose water by sweating in the sauna, but sweating also cleans your body of toxins, wastes and impurities.

Thus, the prophylactic value of a steam bath for normally healthy people wishing to stay healthy and prevent illness, is easy to realize. However, the therapeutic value of sauna is just as great as the prophylactic.

The therapeutic property of sauna is attributed to the following facts:

Overheating with loyly stimulates and speeds up the metabolic processes and inhibits the growth of virus or bacteria.

The vital organs and glands are stimulated to increased activity.

The body’s healing and restorative capacity is accelerated.

The eliminative, detoxifying and cleansing capacity of the skin is dramatically increased by the stimulating action of the sweat glands.

The body is thoroughly cleansed and rejuvenated inside and out.

Many authorities attribute the phenomenal therapeutic properties of sauna to the Finnish custom of jumping into cold water or snow during bathing. The sudden changes in temperature are known to stimulate adrenal glands; the effect of the alternate hot and cold bath is likened to a cortisone injection.

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