Sweat : 4 benefits of sauna
Late Summer is the time of the earth element and its associated organs of the spleen and stomach. After a hot Summer, Late Summer (it’s own season in Chinese Medicine) here in the northeast tends to be hot and humid, and it’s a part of our culture to reach for cold foods and drinks, big raw salads, and ice cream, ice cream, ice cream (I’ve never lived anywhere that seems to love ice cream as much as the northeast!). The humidity of the external environment combined with this hard to digest diet of cold, raw foods and dairy can lead to an internal environment in TCM called excess dampness. Internal dampness is often generated when the Spleen, the digestive organ in Chinese Medicine, is not functioning ideally. This creates an excess of fluid that can accumulate in different areas in the body.
As this condition is caused by weak Spleen Qi, food therapy is an important tool to bring the system back into balance and relieve excess mucus, phlegm and fogginess in the body/mind. You can read about food therapy for this time of year here. Sweating can also be very beneficial. Spending time in a sauna, whether infrared or traditional, every week can help relax the tissues of the body, relieve inflammation, and help to tonify the spleen by releasing accumulated toxins and excess water through the natural process of sweating.
Improves the Skin
The skin is the body’s largest organ, and sweating is the body’s natural process of flushing toxins via increased circulation. Better circulation also helps the cellular turnover of the skin, improving conditions like acne, blackheads, fine lines and dullness.
Immunity boosting
By unburdening the body from waste through sweating, the heat stimulates increased production of white blood cells - also a function of the Spleen. Digestion becomes more efficient, leading to less sugar cravings from a sluggish, taxed system, and the cellular wall of the digestive tract has a chance repair, providing a beneficial environment for good gut flora which keeps us healthy and less prone to long-term impairment.
Stress Relieving
One of the most damaging habits to the Spleen is rumination and over-thinking. Stress wreaks havoc on the body and the mind. When the body is under chronic stress, hormones like cortisol and adrenaline - those which ready the body for fight or flight - are secreted and make it more difficult for hormones like insulin to work properly. Long periods of stress left unchecked result in impaired feedback mechanisms along the adrenal-hypothalmic-pituitary axis, leading to symptoms like insulin resistance. Increasing the body temperature releases endorphins and a cascade of feel-good benefits like decreased muscle and mental tension.
Assists in weight loss
Cultural fat phobia has lead most of us to cruelly view weight gain and obesity as conditions symptomatic of a lack of willpower, control regarding food, discipline about exercise, or other factors that are indicative of person’s general constitution, intelligence, and drive. There are so many factors that can possibly contribute to being overweight, but one of the causes is having chronic inflammation in the body. Regular sauna sessions in combination with common sense practices like regular movement and a well-rounded diet for an individual’s constitution will help the body/mind feel better, run more efficiently, and let go of the extra mental and physical weight that isn’t serving us.
Interested in the infrared sauna? We offer package discounts and add on appointment discounts when you’re coming in for acupuncture and massage.