saunas

[Aquarius]

I've read that sweating is good, how good are saunas? I love them

 

[Centralforce666]

It depends what you are trying to achieve.

And the state of your body.

For a yin or blood definicient person, excessive sweating is very bad. Even the qi deficient person will suffer if they sweat too much.

A person with excess dampness or phlegm or an externally contracted pathology such as cold, heat or wind will benefit from mild sweating.

Going to a sauna habitually for many years, in the absence of phlegm and dampness (such as an overweight person might have) will damage yin and blood.

 

[Aquarius]

Ahh I see I see, what about having saunas everynow and then? Like twice a year? Haha

 

[Centralforce666]

Infrequent saunas such as this, if you are in relatively good health, should not pose an issue.

If you were a chemotherapy patient in late stages of leukaemia with sever malnutrition then even one sauna could be very problematic..

But I don't think that even remotely describes you or anyone else here.. At least I hope not!

 

[Aquarius]

Infrequent saunas such as this, if you are in relatively good health, should not pose an issue.

If you were a chemotherapy patient in late stages of leukaemia with sever malnutrition then even one sauna could be very problematic..

But I don't think that even remotely describes you or anyone else here.. At least I hope not!

Okay, thanks

 

[curio]

Apparently, there are alot of benefits to semi-regular sauna usage.
https://www.foundmyfitness.com/reports/sauna-report.pdf

On the opposite end of the spectrum, there's cryogenic therapy, cold baths & showers.
https://www.foundmyfitness.com/reports/cold-stress.pdf

Maybe those crazy Finns are onto something. Sit in a sweltering sweatbox for a few hours, down a few cases of vodka, then go skinny dipping in an icy lake.

 

[EnkiUK]

I use a Sauna right after the gym Aquarius feels great. Get on them bro.

 

[Centralforce666]

I use a Sauna right after the gym Aquarius feels great. Get on them bro.

Ecstacy *feels* great too.. But we still don't want to "get on them".

 

[EnkiBR]

It depends, I live in Brazil, the water here has fluoride, consequently very toxic.
If your country does not have fluoride in the water, it is very good to remove toxins and cleanse the liver.

 

[Valontuoja]

I have taken sauna baths at least twice a week since childhood. It hasn't had any kind of negative effects on my health, here are also lots of old people who have went to sauna weekly for decades. It doesn't have any kind of negative effects on you in any way if you are not sickly and don't fall asleep. Sauna is integral part of my culture and it also has some mythological significance in Finland.

Himmler learned this trough Yrjö von Grönhagen, who gave him information about Finno-Karelian mythology as part of an Ahnenerbe research mission. Himmler used saunas when he visited Finland, according to some sources he kept using those in Germany too.

A sauna is not purely Finnish idea (even though I wish it was), most cultures have had their own variations of this. Xianity destroyed much of sauna cultures in Europe because of "immoral action" (prostitution) etc happening in saunas. I remember reading that xians closed pagan bathhouses when they got control of the Roman empire. Roman bathhouses weren't saunas in the strict sense of the word but its somewhat similar.

 

[Centralforce666]

I have taken sauna baths at least twice a week since childhood. It hasn't had any kind of negative effects on my health, here are also lots of old people who have went to sauna weekly for decades. It doesn't have any kind of negative effects on you in any way if you are not sickly and don't fall asleep. Sauna is integral part of my culture and it also has some mythological significance in Finland.

Himmler learned this trough Yrjö von Grönhagen, who gave him information about Finno-Karelian mythology as part of an Ahnenerbe research mission. Himmler used saunas when he visited Finland, according to some sources he kept using those in Germany too.

A sauna is not purely Finnish idea (even though I wish it was), most cultures have had their own variations of this. Xianity destroyed much of sauna cultures in Europe because of "immoral action" (prostitution) etc happening in saunas. I remember reading that xians closed pagan bathhouses when they got control of the Roman empire. Roman bathhouses weren't saunas in the strict sense of the word but its somewhat similar.

I don't know what the climate is in Finland, but is there a high humidity percentage?

Also, what is the common/traditional diet of Finnish people?

 

[Valontuoja]

I don't know what the climate is in Finland, but is there a high humidity percentage?

Also, what is the common/traditional diet of Finnish people?

Majority of population lives in the southern parts of the country where the biggest cities are. According to Köppen climate classification southernmost tip of Finland is part of humid continental climate region. But majority of the country's landmass belongs to the subarctic climate region still here doesn't seem to be much changes in humidity. For comparison southern capital city Helsinki has 80% humidity annually and Oulu (the most populated city in the north) has nearly same.

Answer from Finnish Meteorological Institute

Humidity is dependent primarily on temperature. The humidity of the air is highest in July and August and lowest in February. Like temperature, humidity decreases towards the north. Relative humidity reaches its mean high in November and December (90%) and its mean low in May and June (65% to 70%). The figure does not vary very much within any region in any season.

https://en.ilmatieteenlaitos.fi/climate-elements

I really can't answer your question about Finnish diet because I'm not familiar with English food terms in anyway. But by looking at the following Wikipedia page I can assure that it seems to be correct.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_cuisine

 

[Persistenceiskey]

I have taken sauna baths at least twice a week since childhood. It hasn't had any kind of negative effects on my health, here are also lots of old people who have went to sauna weekly for decades. It doesn't have any kind of negative effects on you in any way if you are not sickly and don't fall asleep. Sauna is integral part of my culture and it also has some mythological significance in Finland.

The rest of the world is just jelly because they don't have sauna culture :3

It's great. You get some friends, some dried birch tree branches, get the heat up. Then you beat each-other with the birch branches. Once you've sweated enough you run out of the sauna but not before you take the kauha and throw 3 full amounts of water on the stove and run out laughing while the others swear in the heat you've created, amirite Valontuoja? You find a nearby lake/river or pile of snow and jump into it. There are also competitions on who can stay in the sauna the longest when you get the heat upwards of 80°C (176°F)

Sadly though, there seems to be the tradition of drinking alcohol after saunas or after sessions of saunas but if you leave that aside then basically... It's awesome!

 

[Aquarius]

I have taken sauna baths at least twice a week since childhood. It hasn't had any kind of negative effects on my health, here are also lots of old people who have went to sauna weekly for decades. It doesn't have any kind of negative effects on you in any way if you are not sickly and don't fall asleep. Sauna is integral part of my culture and it also has some mythological significance in Finland.

The rest of the world is just jelly because they don't have sauna culture :3

It's great. You get some friends, some dried birch tree branches, get the heat up. Then you beat each-other with the birch branches. Once you've sweated enough you run out of the sauna but not before you take the kauha and throw 3 full amounts of water on the stove and run out laughing while the others swear in the heat you've created, amirite Valontuoja? You find a nearby lake/river or pile of snow and jump into it. There are also competitions on who can stay in the sauna the longest when you get the heat upwards of 80°C (176°F)

Sadly though, there seems to be the tradition of drinking alcohol after saunas or after sessions of saunas but if you leave that aside then basically... It's awesome!

I wanna be Finnish :/

 

[Centralforce666]

I don't know what the climate is in Finland, but is there a high humidity percentage?

Also, what is the common/traditional diet of Finnish people?

Majority of population lives in the southern parts of the country where the biggest cities are. According to Köppen climate classification southernmost tip of Finland is part of humid continental climate region. But majority of the country's landmass belongs to the subarctic climate region still here doesn't seem to be much changes in humidity. For comparison southern capital city Helsinki has 80% humidity annually and Oulu (the most populated city in the north) has nearly same.

Answer from Finnish Meteorological Institute

Humidity is dependent primarily on temperature. The humidity of the air is highest in July and August and lowest in February. Like temperature, humidity decreases towards the north. Relative humidity reaches its mean high in November and December (90%) and its mean low in May and June (65% to 70%). The figure does not vary very much within any region in any season.

https://en.ilmatieteenlaitos.fi/climate-elements

I really can't answer your question about Finnish diet because I'm not familiar with English food terms in anyway. But by looking at the following Wikipedia page I can assure that it seems to be correct.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_cuisine

The high humidity compared with the sheer damp content of the food, assuming that the information on that Wikipedia page is correct shows that the Finnish people have a lot of dampness to remove from their body and therfore stand to benefit from regular sauna use.

If a Finn moved to a more arid country, or their diet was a significant departure from the Finnish diet or even a standard Western diet then they would find that it would eventually cause them problems.

 

[Valontuoja]

The rest of the world is just jelly because they don't have sauna culture :3

It's great. You get some friends, some dried birch tree branches, get the heat up. Then you beat each-other with the birch branches. Once you've sweated enough you run out of the sauna but not before you take the kauha and throw 3 full amounts of water on the stove and run out laughing while the others swear in the heat you've created, amirite Valontuoja? You find a nearby lake/river or pile of snow and jump into it. There are also competitions on who can stay in the sauna the longest when you get the heat upwards of 80°C (176°F)

Sadly though, there seems to be the tradition of drinking alcohol after saunas or after sessions of saunas but if you leave that aside then basically... It's awesome!

Yeah, agreed Finnic (I love you Estonia) sauna cultures are the best thing ever.

I tried to avoid mentioning sauna competitions because in 2010 here was a big news story about official sauna championship competition where a Russian guy died while taking because of his own stubbornness for not giving up. The Finn who "won", he was actually disqualified for not leaving without aid, got seriously injured and spent several months in hospital. I understand that you are probably talking about unofficial competitions and fun games with friends instead of this deadly meme competition but I still wanted to bring this up. The only good thing about that event was the patriotic memes since a Finn won against a Russian yet he payed really heavy price for his victory. Overly serious competitions like that are probably the only causes of death related to saunas along with the people who fell asleep and burned alive (this however is uncommon but I have heard of people who died or injured themselves this way)..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E3i-kMLCIk

I agree about alcohol too, I have never been into drinking despite our reputation as alcoholics. Luckily the younger generation seems to drink less... I want to one day write something about sauna's mythological significance same way I wrote about Kalevala epic but I have one writing in mind that I need to finish first. Still I have heard interesting things such as etymology of "löyly" (sauna steam, Estonian "leil") being related to words meaning soul and breath. I also want to study more about the connection of Ahnenerbe and saunas along with sauna mentions in Kalevala and ancient magic poems of our ancestors.