The Finnish Fountain of Youth

by Jean ter Horst

Warm water and cold air have been important medicines of nature from ancient times. Moreover, one finds the combination of hot air and cold water even in antiquity and among peoples of lower cultural levels. The sweat tent with large stones heated in a wood fire was wide spread among the shepherd and hunter cultures of the Asiatic Steppes and among the Indians. Roman authors report similar contrivances among the Teutons, of hot foot baths and free bathing in rivers and lakes.

The invention of the bath tub is attributed to the higher cultures of the eastern Mediterranean and the invention of the shower to the Greeks. The Greek gymnasiums were not only sport places but also bathing places. The tubs were set in niches in the walls. One considered a bath more than pleasure or clean-sing. Homer confirms that the bath can do away with all unusual frames of mind. The Greeks had already made use of the warm mineral springs in the hot springs, and the Romans were true masters in the use of natural hot springs and in the creation of artificial large thermal baths. The famous Doekletians spa held over 3000 people. The baths in the post Christian Roman times, which were often fed from mile long aqua-ducts, were the heart of the Roman settlements, as for example in Trier. Aachen's place as capital of the Frankish kingdom was also due to Charlemagne's preference for itsrefreshing baths. Eginhard, the biographer of the Frankish king, reports of his patron's unbeatable swimming accomplishments.

Bathing came into disrepute here and there for several centuries through the dogmas of the anti-secular church. The crusaders brought the oriental joy in bathing back into favor in the Occident. As the outspoken worldly pleasure no longer followed ritual regulations, the hygienic conditions were more than insufficient; more and more bath houses had to be closed because their visitors got the Lucs (venereal disease) there. The horror of cleanliness went so far that one no longer washed at all in the court of France's Louis XIV, the "sun king"; the unavoidable stink was covered with buckets of perfume. The astounded people, who lived around Elizabeth I said she took a monthly bath "whether she needed it or not!" In the second half of the 18th century the first public bath was reopened in Germany. Approximately a century later followed public baths for women and a further 50 years went by before the family bath was no longer considered objectionable.

In the meantime the old bathing forms were not only maintained in the country and in rural cultures, but also further developed. In the last two decades the hot air bath in the form of the Finnish sauna has again become popular in Europe. From time immemorial the sauna has been the center of culture and health care for the Finns. The Finns were born in the sauna and brought there to die, the saunas being usually situated on the shore or on one of the countless islands of one of the many lakes. It is a thickly planked wood house. In the old form an open fire smouldered in the middle of the room without a chimney. Fat field stones lay in the fireplace and slowly gave off heat. Nowadays this sooty smoke sauna in seldom found; the modern heating technics have done away with it: A closed oven conducts the smoke up and out and develops the greatest heat in the sauna room. Temperatures of 230° to 245° F. are not infrequent in Finland. The sauna plays the same role there as the bath-room does here. One hardly finds a new house without a modern sauna. Even the schools are equipped with saunas.

The Ideal Sauna Arrangement

A correct sauna must consist of the following parts:

1. a heated cloakroom where the clothing can be left free from steam vapors;

2. a room sufficiently large for washing the body with hot and cold water, and a good conductor for carrying off the steam;

3. sweat chamber;

4. cold shower, diving well and foot basin with warm water, perhaps in the wash-room;

5. open air relaxing area; as a substitute a well-aired, dry and cool room with beds;

6. a quiet room.

It is seldom that one finds all these requirements fulfilled. In order to attain a complete sauna effect, one can do without the diving well which can be substituted by the cold shower.

The washroom is to he placed so that the steam does not enter the waiting room, which must definitely have a low rate of humidity. The sweat chamber should be kept about 2'h meters high. It must be wood panelled on all sides and one must be able to completely air it out so that the dampness in the wood can be evaporated. The benches at least 50 cm in width and 50, 100 and 150 centimeters in height should offer enough room for all sauna visitors to lie down. It is recommend-able to make these benches like lattice work so that the air can encircle the body well. For the sake of this effect one must take into the bargain having to heat more airspace.

The wood lining is necessary so that the wood can extract the moisture from the air. At the beginning of the bath the relative humidity mustn't exceed 20% and it must not rise to more than 30% during use. If the humidity exceeds 35% the effect of the sauna is questionable and its use often difficult. The temperature directly under the ceiling should be 212° F and on the top step 176° F. Higher temperatures are bearable with lower humidity but one should avoid them however, and if occasion rises do without brushes and tassels.

In constructing a sauna one should choose the heating system which is least expensive in that area. It is only important that the heating unit should not radiate directly into the room but rather just send hot air into the sweat chamber. Ovens with higher radiant heat can be walled in like filigree work with chamottes or bricks. If the shower and diving well are to be separate from the washroom, one should do without warm water except for the warm footbath.

The relaxing room, in which sufficient beds are ready, must be cool and dry; if an open air resting area is lacking, at least a cold, thoroughly aired room must be available.

10 Rules for a Sauna Visit

1. Eat a snack about a 1/2 hour before.

2. Visit the toilet once more before.

3. Wash thoroughly with a mild soap before entering the sweat room.

4. Dry thoroughly and take another, towel for sitting and lying on.

5. Be sure your feet are warm. A warmed stone may help when no foot basin with warm water is available.

6. Use no warm water between the sauna rounds. Use warm water sparingly before-hand too.

7. Remain in the sweat room only as long as it is comfortable, on no account more than ten minutes (with very good acclimatization 15 minutes maximum) and don't visit the sweat chamber more than 3 times.

8. After each sauna round inhale the cool air deeply before outwardly cooling off.

9. Have a massage after at least one sauna round. Use at least the tassel; it has a better and deeper effect than the brush. — The tassel is a substitute for the bird-trod which was common earlier in bath houses in Germany under the same name. Dr. W. Groh suggests bast as a material whidi lends itself, due to its durability and suppleness. One can easily make oneself a tassel and take it along to a sauna visit. One makes it about 3 centimeters thick and — measured from the handle — 25 to 30 cm long.

10. If you take a sunlamp treatment do it beforehand and in a careful dosage.

The Effects of the Sauna

The sauna is a bath which refreshes the autonomous nervous system by purposeful application of cold and hot air, of cold water and little water steam which gives the body strong resistance through the adaption of the circulation system to sharp temperature changes.

On entering the sweat room the body defends itself against the suddenly attacking heat by the increased release of warmth. The evaporation warmth is drawn from the body by strong breaking out in sweat. The moisture, evaporated into the air, is soaked up by the wood panelling so that the humidity remains low and the high temperature can be born by the body without particular difficulty. It is only after several minutes that the body adjusts to the increased external temperature, in that its temperature rises to about 39 ° C. It is important for the success of the sauna that this fever zone be raised during the course of the sauna.

The happenings during the sauna are not difficult to understand. During the stay in the sweat chamber, the skin's blood vessels enlarge and expel the water from the body. During the cooling off the vessels become smaller from the cold, enlarge however again as a reaction and thus create a pleasant feeling of warmth. This "circulation gymnastic" stimulates the central of the autonomous nerve system by which the unconscious proceedings of the body are regulated, and thus leads to an increase of metabolism, glandular and digestive functions, which are able to mutually regulate each other from this shock and to set aside the hyper- and subfunctions of the organ simultaneously.

The respiration is also stimulated by the sauna. Skin and respiratory tract are directly effected by temperature changes and in-crease their functions first. The blood circulates more violently and pulls the waste of the metabolism with it.

Only in this way can the sauna be considered a means to combat obesity. It isn't a drastic treatment whose success can be measured by the weight one has lost during the saunabath. The body quickly regains the lost fluids. Only with support of a meaningful diet can the metabolism advancement be fully utilized. To this belong most of all restrictions in the use of salt, fat and alcohol, on the other hand, however, a sufficient amount of high value proteins. The evil doers are not the viruses and bacterias but men themselves, who strip the body of its resistance by unnatural living habits. Warmth and cold are natural irritations to whose reaction the body is adjusted.