Saunas

For those of you who know about and have experienced using a sauna, you may know that your time spent in that hot steamy environment results in a substantial rise in one’s internal body temperature.

This is known as Artificial Induced Hypothermia, although many may not know this the health benefits of this process are well known.

Hippocrates the well-known founder of modern western medicine said these words over two thousand years ago.

“Give me the power to create a fever, and I shall cure any disease.”

Fever is the body’s natural way of fighting off infections, so when your body has a fever the higher internal temperature stimulates the function of the immune system and inhibits the growth and spread of bacteria and viruses.

White blood cell production is increased and the production of antibodies speeds up,
As does the creation of interferon, which is an anti-viral protein that has powerful immune boosting substances.

Fever also creates an in-hospitable environment for bacteria and viruses.

The majority of microbes can only survive and reproduce within a fairly narrow temperature range, and once the temperature rises above and beyond that range the reproduction speed of the microbes will fall dramatically.

An example being: The growth rate of the polio virus is 250 times slower at a temperature of 140 degrees Fahrenheit than it normally is at 98 degrees.

Known as the” artificial fever” brought on by the sauna isn’t quite as beneficial as a real fever, it can give you health benefits as studies at the Mayo Clinic in 1959 revealed.

It showed that there was an increase in white blood cells of 58% whilst undergoing heat therapy treatments.

Many sauna users have discovered that using the sauna when the first symptoms of a cold appear has stopped it from developing further.