Everyone has heard about the traditional Finnish saunas where people sat on wooden benches in a shack with a wood stove heating stone. The people took turns pouring water on the stones to make hot steam to facilitate sweating. Then, everyone ran outside to dive in a lake or snow to cool off. This type of sauna experience is not for everyone. Now, modern saunas are pods that can be heated by wood or electricity and can be fitted into a room in a home rather than being a separate building in the backyard. Saunas can also be infrared-powered with lower temperatures and the same benefits.
How to Choose the Best Sauna with Rating Sites
With so many companies making both traditional saunas and infrared saunas and claiming their products are the best ones, how do people know which saunas to choose? One good answer is to go to trusted sauna rating sites and let them do the work of testing each product and rating them. Finding out which of the latest products are worth looking into is as easy as clicking on a trusted rating site and reading their reviews.
Choose a site that actually sits in the saunas and tests them before reviewing them. Did they test the EMF levels? Is the rating site affiliated with one or more of the brands or in any way biased? What is the health benefitting a person gets from using a sauna? What are the health risks of using a sauna? Do the site name bad products to avoid and tell everyone which products are overpriced? Does the site answer reader questions about the saunas they are reviewing?
Deciding Between Traditional and Infrared Saunas
People can choose between a traditional type of sauna and the newer infrared sauna to get similar health benefits. Saunas of both types are known for health benefits such as detoxing and relaxing. Studies are inconclusive on which type of sauna offers the best health benefits.
A traditional sauna will have either a wood or electric heater filled with stones. Water is poured on the stones to give steamy heat to the whole pod or room. These saunas run at a hotter temperature of up to 195 degrees which can be overwhelming to some people. Modern saunas have temperature controls that help. Traditional saunas take up to 1/2 hour to heat up for use.
An infrared sauna heats in a different way. They use light to penetrate the skin and heat the body from the inside out. They run at a lower temperature of from 120 degrees to 150 degrees. This heating method penetrates deeper into the body creating more sweat to detoxify the body. Infrared saunas take less energy and are easier to use at home. This is a dry heat. These saunas take about 15 minutes to heat up for use.
Safe Sauna Use
It is important to use the sauna safely to get more benefits with less risk. A session in either type of sauna should be 20 minutes or less and limited sessions per week. Three or four sessions seem to be about right. Drink plenty of water to avoid dehydration. Don’t use alcohol during a sauna session. Don’t use the sauna if you are ill. Do not use antiperspirants since they will limit sweating. Switch to an organic deodorant.
After you get out of the sauna head for the shower to wash off any toxins on the skin the body has sweated out. When a person starts to use a sauna, they should start with shorter sessions and build up to a maximum of 20 minutes. Also, new sauna users should start with lower heat and slowly increase the heat, paying attention to the body and comfort signals.
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