Do you remember the days when all gyms had either a sauna or steam room, that all guests could use after a workout to relax? These saunas served to boost circulation and help remove lactic acid and its by-products induced from exercise. With the opening of 24hrs gyms, we have slowly seen them disappear, to the point of finding a gym that has a sauna for its clients to use has become a rarity.
It is interesting to note that the sauna may have benefitted us more than the exercise that use to precede it.
Written in a book by Paavo Airola is his story of a conversation with a Med. Prof. Werner Zabel M.D who said.
"Until a few decades ago, the great Pontine swamps, not far from Italy, presented a constant source of malaria infections. Then, by government action, the swamps were dried out and the malaria disappeared, but a remarkably strange observation was made recently. While earlier the whole malaria infected area was free from cancer, now generations later, the population there shows the same incidence rate of cancer as the rest of Italy"
The frequent fevers produced from the malaria infections stimulated the body's own defences and in cases where malaria had already developed, the exposure to malaria and the subsequent fever's had a curative effect.
As the great ancient physician, Paramenides once said, "Give me the chance to create fever, and I will cure any disease."
The skin has often been called the third kidney, sweat taken from the skin has shown to have similar constituents as urine. The body excretes up to half a kilogram of wastes a day through the skin, but we no longer expose the skin to the elements. We wear artificial clothing made from synthetics, yes those tights you may wear in yoga really don't do your skin any favours.
When we wear tight clothing such as suits, underwear, jackets, jerseys, socks, tights or long pants the skin can no longer breathe, and these wastes from the skin deposit themselves into the clothing.
Add the bodies warm temperature and you will find bacteria traps itself in the fibres of these clothes. These bacteria produce their own bi-products and gases, that not only slows the process of the skin as an organ of elimination, but poisons it too.
If the skin is not allowed to be exposed to the elements, it itself becomes sluggish. The rate at which these dead skin cells leave the body is slowed down, this dead skin is full of toxins that the body has seized the opportunity to excrete, and eventually you are left with your skin acting as a suit full of toxins, that poisons the wearer. You are suffocated by a toxic suit that you cannot get rid of.
I suggest you move away from the tight fitting synthetic garments if you yourself ever want to be truly healthy.
We have come to a place where we hardly move, we suffocate our amazing bodies with plastic clothes, our circulation is dying as we continue to use artificial heating and air conditioning, never exposing ourselves to the elements, which makes the skin stronger.
In every square centimetre of skin you slough off roughly 5000 dead cells per hour, the problem is that by wearing such tight fitting clothes where are these toxin ridden cells supposed to go?
The answer is nowhere!
(For those of you who have not read my blog on "We must rewild ourselves" I strongly suggest you do.)
It is a basic necessity of the body to sweat, and not only sweat, but to sweat in loose clothing that enables the body to perform this function. Or even better yet to sweat, wearing no clothes. But how do you do that??
I recommended finding somewhere that gives you weekly access to a sauna, join a gym that has one, go to day spas, build one in your home, it really doesn't matter how you get to one, just do it.
Start out by buying yourself a natural bristle skin brush, every day brush lightly with it, like a butterfly flapping its wings, you want it to barely touch the skin, always brush towards the heart, start with your feet, one leg at a time, then from the waist toward the heart, next start at your hands and brush towards your shoulders, then finally from your next down to the chest and chest down to the heart.
Ideally when you have a sauna, stay in there as long as is comfortable, this will probably be 10-15 minutes.
Take a cold shower, or plunge pool, then dry yourself thoroughly and repeat. Do this up to 3 times.
You will never have felt so invigorated. There is no amount of daily washing, exfoliating and scrubbing that will perform such a miraculous job of keeping the body as clean as a sauna can. If you can increase the eliminate of toxins through the skin it also takes the load off the other organs of elimination. (Bowels, liver, kidneys and the lungs)
It is like an internal car wash, every time you expose yourself to heat all your blood rushes to your skin, helping you to sweat, in order for you to cool down. Then the cold brings your circulation back to your core, your organs. There are hundreds of thousands of kilometres of blood vessels and the blood races through these at phenomenal speeds.
When you have finished your sauna, wrap yourself in a towel and go and sit somewhere, allowing your body to bring its temperature back down slowly and finish with a warm shower. NEVER finish on cold!!
A recent study calculated over twenty years showed those that were having saunas twice a week had 23% less heart disease but those who were more frequent with five weekly saunas had 53% less heart disease.
Finally a word about clothing, natural fibres breathe, they allow air to pass through while at the same time trapping a little air, look for clothing made cotton, linen, silk and of course wool. Gone are the days when these materials are out of fashion, as a lot of reputable brands are doing amazing things with these natural materials.
When you look at the true yogi's have you ever noticed what they are wearing. Enough said
Happy sweating everyone and remember Men sweat, Women glow.
My name is Blair Harvey and I have had the pleasure of working at one of Australia's best Health Retreat's for the past fourteen wonderful years. Over those years I have had the delight of working with a spectacular kitchen team, we all have an immense passion for cooking good healthy food that is unique and tantalizing to your taste buds. Together we have not only developed our skills in cooking wholesome, nourishing and out right delicious foods, but we have been committed to broadening our knowledge of healing with whole foods and exploring the beauty of healthy living. Because of our enthusiasm in the benefits of foods and there healing properties I developed a blog to help us SHARE what we have learnt with the rest of the world.
You will find tasty gems of wisdom on health, food and healing, helping to expand your mind and revitalize your knowledge of healthy eating.