I have just arrived home from Koh Samui, Thailand after doing a 2 week pranayama yoga retreat.
At the centre, Samahita, there was a herbal steam room available which I was able to use as often as I liked. I did try & do exactly that as I knew the benefits were fantastic. Since my last juice fast 2 months ago & leading up to leaving for Thailand I had been going weekly to a sauna in Palm Cove with a friend, so I enjoyed the fact that I could continue this.
Sweating is a mechanism to cool the body, however deep sweating where the core body temperature of a person is raised, allows many toxins like heavy metals to be excreted from the body. It also helps to remove bacteria & dead skin cells keeping the skin working well & looking fresh & beautiful. According to Dr Ben H Douglas, the nutrients & minerals from sweat & the pumping of blood around the skin help to maintain the collagen structure of the skin.
Our skin is our largest organ and therefore needs to be taken care of & not forgotten. It behaves in a very similar way to the liver – detoxing and cleansing our body. We cannot forget to remember to skin brush, exfoliate, gwasha (a mix of pure alcohol & bicarb soda which cleanses the pores and if followed by the application of coconut oil on the skin allows fantastic vitamin D absorption) & avoid nasty chemical laden moisturises. Coconut oil is a fantastic moisturiser.
Not only do saunas remove toxins & heavy metals they also burn calories (as the process of sweating burns calories), aide in deeper sleep (when your body temperature is raised in the late evening it will fall just before bed assisting slumber), relieve stress (by relaxing the bodies muscles, improving circulation & stimulating the release of endorphins) & help to keep our largest organ (our skin) healthy & happy.
My sauna visits initially started out as a social catch up, however now that I have gained more knowledge about the benefits of them it has become something that I really look forward to & know that it is doing my body good.
There are a couple of different types of saunas, be that a steam room or infra red sauna, however they all work on the same philosophy. The one in the picture below was the herbal steam room I enjoyed in Thailand. It had eucalyptus oil added to the steam creating greater cleansing of the respiratory system and offering antibacterial properties.
If you live in the Cairns area, there is a sauna out at Palm Cove at the Novotel that is really cheap to go to & very accessible for regular visits if you don’t mind the drive north. Others are available in town however I’m not sure on their cleanliness.
