Who Benefits From a Sauna ?
Health effects of the sauna
In the old days, people used the sauna as a place to treat illnesses. In the sauna, folk healers could concentrate on their work in peace and quiet and patients were receptive to treatment because there were many deeply held beliefs and a certain respect connected with the sauna. The belief in the healing properties of the sauna remains strong even today, although we now know that sauna bathing does not prevent or cure long-term illnesses. But it can improve the bather’s wellbeing in general, be beneficial to the health and in some cases even cure symptoms. Sauna speeds up the heartbeat, improves the breathing and circulation, raises the body temperature, stimulates the metabolism and may, at least temporarily, lower the blood pressure.
 Medical science believes that the sauna has considerable health benefits. Sauna bathing toughens the body and pacifies the mind. Expertise in the beneficial effects of the sauna is rooted in traditional Finnish-Karelian folk medicine.
Care of both body and soul
Some people firmly believe that the primary purpose of the sauna was to warm up the body. A sauna bath would prevent colds, soften up tense muscles and alleviate any pain, exhaustion or depression. At the earliest stages water was used sparingly; the skin was supposed to become clean through perspiration. Gradually, though, the sauna's function as a place where the body was thoroughly cleaned by washing and flushing became important.
The basic sauna ritual is the same as it always was: warming up, sweating, taking löyly vapor and whisking, washing and cooling off. Cooling off nowadays often includes swimming. Many people like to cool off in the open air, and there are also brave ones who want to roll in the snow or take a dip in the sea or lake through a hole in the ice.
A sauna bath without a birch whisk is like food without salt as the saying goes. The bather uses the whisk to beat himself lightly; this raises the blood circulation in the skin, speeds up perspiration and produces a pleasant aroma in the hot room. The whisk is normally made of young birch twigs which are aromatically superior to all other trees. Out of season this “birchy” smell of summer can he reproduced by using dried or frozen whisks.
Sauna bathing does not only clean the body but also purifies the mind. The bather's frame of mind after a leisurely relaxed sauna ritual could be best described as euphoric. It is like a rebirth; all unpleasant feelings fall away and you feel at peace with the whole world. This is what Finns mean by the care of the soul received in the sauna.
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