It has long been noticed that the bathhouse has a healing effect on the human systemic organs. The steam room helps get rid of all kinds of symptomatic manifestations, serious diseases of the respiratory, blood, endocrine systems, and skin. People often ask questions about how the bath affects various organs and what healing effect it has.
The steam room helps to get rid of all kinds of symptomatic manifestations, serious diseases of the respiratory, blood, endocrine systems, and skin.
Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor of the First St. Petersburg State University. I.P. Pavlova, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Areg Artemovich Totolyan.
Editor: Hello, Areg Artyomovich! Everyone knows that steaming in a bathhouse has a general strengthening effect, but how does a bathhouse affect human health from a medical point of view?
A. A. Totolyan: Hello, dear readers! Indeed, the Russian bathhouse has a long history and traditions. What could be more wonderful than taking a steam bath with a birch or oak broom, and then drinking aromatic tea, after which you feel healthy and full of energy. But, as they say, everything should be in moderation. There are a number of restrictions.
Vaping promotes the leaching of a large number of beneficial microelements through the skin pores, which is simply dangerous for some people.
Attention! First of all, the bath is not recommended for those who have diseases of the cardiovascular system, hypertensive patients, patients of endocrinology clinics, and people over 75 years old.
We should not forget that vaping promotes the leaching of a large number of beneficial microelements through the skin pores, which is simply dangerous for some people.
The effect of hot air on the human body
Active sweating begins at ambient temperatures above 37°C. This process protects the human body from overheating. The higher the temperature in the steam room, the more sweat comes out through the skin pores. Intensive activation of blood circulation makes it possible to additionally supply all human vital organs with portions of blood. How does the bath affect the human body in this case? Such an action can both improve the health of the steamer and cause significant harm to him. It all depends on your general physical condition, age and gender.
Editor: Let's take a closer look at how a bathhouse affects the body of an adult, man or woman. In what cases should visiting the steam room be limited, and in what cases is it simply necessary?
The first entry into the sauna should not exceed 10-15 minutes for experienced steamers, and for beginners who like to steam, only 5-7 minutes is enough
A. A. Totolyan: Okay, let's decide how the bath affects blood pressure? First of all, you should know that high blood pressure (BP) is above 140 per 90 mm Hg. Art. For beginner hypertensive patients, bath procedures reduce blood pressure, and if the blood pressure is critical, steaming in a bath is strictly prohibited. Any experienced steamer will tell you that before entering the steam room, certain conditions must be met:
- Before the steam room, you should take a warm shower without getting your head wet;
- The first entry into the bath should not exceed 10-15 minutes for experienced steamers, and for beginners who like to steam, only 5-7 minutes are enough.
Bathing should be fun. First, you should lie down on the bottom shelf, then get out and do a light massage, then repeat everything for another 10-15 minutes. Since the bath affects blood vessels, such an addiction to the heat will be as gentle and safe as possible for the body.
According to Japanese scientists, visiting a sauna is beneficial for people with heart failure
Editor: Areg Artemovich, you touched on the topic of blood vessels. How does a bath affect the blood?
A. A. Totolyan: The effect of the bath on blood circulation depends on the set temperature. The higher the temperature in the steam room, the greater the volume of blood emitted, which leads to increased work of the heart muscles and blood vessels. Is sauna good for the heart? Scientists around the world are arguing about this, as well as how the bath affects pregnancy. There is still no clear solution, although the work of Japanese scientists led by Takashi Ohiro from Toyama University suggests that visiting a sauna is beneficial for people with heart failure. However, Japanese scientists do not provide supporting reports on the effect of the Russian steam room on the human heart.
Attention! Sick people with heart pathologies should not get carried away by long stays in the bathhouse and/or sauna. Pregnant women should not engage in steam treatments.
Man vs swimsuit
When going to a public sauna in a new country or even in a new company, every person again and again faces a piquant question: are separate or shared saunas for men and women accepted here, and is it necessary to wear a bathing suit in the second case? For example, contrary to popular belief, in Scandinavia men and women most often enjoy the sauna separately. In some areas of Germany, on the contrary, it is not customary to be ashamed of the naked body in any company, because hygiene procedures, by definition, are not of an intimate nature. Today you can completely rid yourself of such doubts with the help of a personal sauna, in which the rules of behavior are determined only by you. As well as temperature, humidity, duration and frequency of procedures. This became possible thanks to the invention of a special electric heating element. The origins of the invention were Swedish businessman Sven-Olof Jansen, who since 1941 has been producing resistances and heaters for irons, toasters, electric stoves and heaters. One day, the Finnish consul, who was visiting the city of Halmstad, asked Jansen if it was possible to use an electric heater in a sauna instead of conventional wood-burning stoves. Thus was born the Tylo company, which today remains the only manufacturer of electric sauna stoves with heating elements of its own production.
The adrenal glands, on the contrary, are activated, as under the influence of any stressor, causing the concentration of adrenaline and norepinephrine in the blood to increase, and a paradoxical feeling of relaxation and vigor appears in the soul. The bronchi expand, the frequency and depth of breathing increase, which additionally activates heat transfer and compensates for the lack of oxygen in the brain. But the effect of hot air on the mucous membrane of the respiratory tract reflexively enhances changes in the cardiovascular system. Muscles relax due to relaxation of the central nervous system, increased blood supply and increased local temperature. Massage - manual or with the help of “young rods” - helps to further relax them. At the same time, the movement of air accelerates its heat-insulating layer at the surface of the body, and for the one who waves a broom, it also increases overheating of the body due to the release of heat during muscle work.
The science
Pirates prevented Americans from adopting the metric system
The “correct” bathhouse for expectant mothers
Does a bath affect conception? This question is often asked in gynecological consultations. There are various restrictions under which women are strictly prohibited from visiting saunas and baths. In addition to acute and chronic diseases, for which the fair half of humanity is prohibited from steaming, there are other reasons:
- increased blood or intracranial pressure;
- inflammatory pathologies in the pelvic area;
- menstrual period;
- complications caused by pregnancy.
In case of inflammatory pathologies in the pelvic area, visiting the bathhouse is contraindicated.
In order for the pregnancy to be successful, a woman should be careful about steam rooms, since the bathhouse affects conception. Why is this so, and what should women consider?
The first stage of the menstrual period is characterized by the maturation of the egg. This requires a comfortable temperature regime, which is determined by the indicators characteristic of a given period, which is at a lower level compared to the average temperature of the cycle. The middle phase is the period of ovulation, when the egg is ready for fertilization. Exposure to high temperatures can prevent the egg from fully releasing from the follicle. In addition, heat exposure can stimulate premature ovulation, which is also undesirable for a healthy body. However, the most unpleasant thing about how a bath affects the conception of a child is overheating after fertilization.
Exposure to high temperatures can prevent the egg from fully releasing from the follicle
ATTENTION! The high concentration of hot air in the steam room contributes to a negative impact on the vital functions and development of the fertilized egg, and this can lead to miscarriage at the beginning of pregnancy.
Editor: Areg Artyomovich! After all, not only the woman is involved in pregnancy planning. How does a bath affect conception in men?
A. A. Totolyan: If we define pregnancy planning, then it is the steam room that can cause the main threat to the male body, since the bathhouse affects potency. Despite all the usefulness of bath procedures, this is perhaps the most negative point. The normal functioning of the testicles depends on the comfort of the temperature, which should be about 33°C. I would like to dwell on this point in more detail and understand how the bath affects testosterone and gonadotropin.
Health benefits of hot steam
Regular use of the sauna helps:
- cleansing the body of toxins and waste;
- improving metabolism;
- activation of gas exchange, oxygen saturation and removal of unnecessary CO2 molecules through the lungs and skin;
- stimulating the production of immune defense cells (leukocytes) and increasing immunity;
- improving overall well-being and good spirits.
Many of those who like to go to the bathhouse note that regular visits to the steam room give vigor and good spirits, relieve stress and unpleasant thoughts, and charge you with positivity for the whole day.
After 2-3 hours of rest, many people feel a surge of energy for the whole day.
Circulatory system
Alternating hot steam and cool air in the waiting room is an excellent simulator for arteries, veins and capillaries. How are saunas and blood vessels connected?
During a visit to the steam room, a person:
- the number of heart contractions increases;
- the volume of circulating blood increases 1.2-1.5 times from the original;
- the lumen of blood vessels expands, blood supply to arteries and veins increases;
- peripheral blood circulation increases: organs and tissues receive more oxygen and nutrients.
- The contractility of the right and left ventricles of the heart increases.
Improves blood circulation in peripheral tissues
Respiratory system
In the bathhouse, the breathing rate increases noticeably, because the body actively consumes oxygen from the air and removes carbon dioxide. At the same time, the tone of the pulmonary vessels remains elevated. This helps cleanse the respiratory tract of old mucus and ballast substances and facilitates gas exchange.
Note! If you are not allergic to essential oils, now is the time to use them in the bath. Add 1-2 drops of fir, eucalyptus or orange oil in the steam room. This simple procedure is an excellent means of preventing colds.
The use of essential oils is not only an aromatherapy session, but also a method of preventing ARVI
Musculoskeletal system
Due to the expansion of the spasmodic vascular network, more nutrition is supplied to the affected areas of the musculoskeletal system. This helps to enhance regenerative processes, quickly restore impaired joint mobility, and reduce pain.
In addition, the bath helps eliminate lactic acid formed in the body after intense physical activity, relieves muscle spasms and tension.
Hot, humid air helps with muscle and joint pain
Benefits for the respiratory tract
The bathhouse cleanses the lungs and bronchi very well. Excess mucous substances are removed from them, as a result of which breathing becomes much calmer and more balanced.
Where to order the construction of a bathhouse?
Our company Wood-Brus is engaged in the construction of bathhouses in Moscow on a turnkey basis, on a shrinkage basis and using “frame technology” from the Vologda forest (spruce and pine - 50/50). Our production, located in Ustyuzhna, allows us to set competitive prices for services. If you wish, you can purchase a standard version of the project or order an individual solution. The exact cost of work in an individual case can be found out from our consultants. If you choose standard options, then you can look at their cost in the corresponding catalog presented on our website. Contact us and enjoy the final result!
Sports and sauna
Sports and sauna are inextricably linked with each other. Not a single one of our athletes can do without a Russian bathhouse. Let's see for ourselves.
Athletes' experience
Football
In the book “Stars of Big Football,” Honored Master of Sports Nikolai Starostin writes: “Do you know what a football bath day in Moscow is? This is a forum, the backstage, the stands of the masters of football. Players from all teams flock here to the Central or Sandunov Baths of the capital after calendar meetings. Do you want to know all the football news, scores, conflicts? Please. All the celebrities in the steam room are healthy and limping. Masseurs are working hard. Yesterday's opponents play each other with brooms in a friendly manner. The heat, thickly infused on a birch leaf, is conducive to relaxation and conversation. Footballers relax their muscles and souls.”
“In such a steam room, a football player is a hero!” - said the pre-war coach of Moscow Spartak Pyotr Gerasimovich Popov, whipping up the heat with two brooms at once.
Honored Coach of the USSR Konstantin Beskov recalls the famous victorious performance of our team: “The British climate, as everyone knows, is not so great. Dank dampness, fog. “I wish I could warm up in our Russian bathhouse!” - Vsevolod Bobrov daydreamed. The guys just sighed. And here is unexpected news: it turns out that our Soviet embassy in London has a real Russian bathhouse. I remember how triumphant Vsevolod Bobrov, Vasily Trofimov, Mikhail Semichastny, Evgeny Arkhangelsky - in short, the whole team. Because everyone, without exception, was in love with the Russian bathhouse. We had a blast!
A bathhouse for a football player, as for any athlete, is an essential thing. As long as I can remember, I have always been grateful to her for the charge of vivacity, strength, and wonderful mood that she gives.”
Now almost every football team has bathhouses. Here the football players recuperate and prepare for new battles.
Hockey
A hockey player plays about a hundred matches a year. You can't do without bruises and bumps in the current game - extremely powerful, with whirlwind heat. Where do hockey players heal their injuries? In the steam room. The beneficial heat and all the bath procedures that accompany it are excellent for helping with all kinds of joint sprains, ruptured ligaments and muscles, and other injuries.
“For those hockey players who are friends with a hot bath, injuries heal at least twice as fast,” says Honored Coach of the USSR Anatoly Tarasov. Look, the skeptic is still going to the doctors, and his teammate, who was injured in the same match, and much more serious, is already playing at full speed. And the bathhouse also gives us a fighting spirit, without which we are worthless in hockey battles. You take a steam bath with a broom, and the blood, as they say, boils in your veins.”
“I can’t imagine myself without a steam room! - says Anatoly Firsov. Without a sauna, hockey is not hockey. There is hardly anything better you can think of after a match or training session. You feel how overworked, heavy muscles regain lightness. But I think that even if I didn’t go in for sports, I would still love the bathhouse. Great pleasure! I love the bathhouse so much that I built it with my own hands near Moscow. A bathhouse is a bathhouse, and that says it all. I know that my delight is shared by Valery Vasiliev and many others.”
Basketball
“We played a lot,” recalls the “patriarch of Russian basketball” Stepan Vasilievich Vasiliev. More than my strength allowed. Such was the greed for the new sport. But most of us worked in factories and factories! Let's say I had a hard job as a manual typesetter in a printing house. I was extremely tired. Some of us heard that the famous wrestlers and weightlifters of that time rested not just anywhere, but in a Russian bathhouse. Such as, for example, the famous three Ivans - Poddubny, Zaikin, Shemyakin. The pleasure is inexpensive! We decided to try it too. We ourselves didn’t notice how desirable the bathhouse became for us basketball players. On the bath shelf we came to our senses after work and hard training. For as long as I can remember, the Russian bathhouse has always been in the forefront of my mind. I think I lived to a ripe old age because I was and am friends with her.”
“The national team,” said Olympic champion Ivan Edeshko, “has the following formula: 3+1. Three game, or training, days, and the fourth is “unloading” and always includes a bathhouse. Let's say I like to thoroughly, as they say, steam myself to the bone. Sometimes even one birch broom is not enough. But Sergei Belov loves the bathhouse in his own way. Seryozha sits calmly and silently on the bath shelf, not showing any special emotions. Resting, blissful. And sometimes it seems to us that our basketball strategist is hatching new cunning plans.”
Volleyball
“I am grateful to the Russian bath,” says the number one volleyball player in the history of this game, Honored Master of Sports Konstantin Reva. Refreshes body and soul. If you don’t overdo it, then on the volleyball court the blow comes with some special ease and its strength increases. The only thing I don’t like is the “bath hussars”. The bathhouse requires that it be treated sensibly, and not flaunted with its daring: they say I can sit out everyone on the shelf and endure any heat. This kind of guy doesn’t so much steam with a broom as he swaggers around, shouts when he needs to and when he doesn’t need to, so that water is constantly being pumped into the stove. He gets so fired up that he barely makes it home from the bathhouse. In a word, it does not restore strength, but wastes it.”
Athletics
Perhaps one of the first in world athletics to use a sauna to improve his athletic performance was the outstanding Finnish stayer, Olympic winner and world record holder Paavo Nurmi. Here's what he said:
“After difficult kilometers of distances as a stayer, I, like our lumberjacks, began to look for salvation from fatigue in the sauna. And this magical heat in a small wooden house turned out to be life-saving. I came to the conclusion that the sauna can not only restore strength, but also give new energy. After all, this is training our engine - the heart. Breathing training. What about nerves? There is nothing more beneficial than a sauna. You forget about worries. But you don’t become demagnetized, but experience a surge of calm confidence, unshakable cheerfulness.
Word, I began to consider the sauna as an additional (and irreplaceable!) training tool. And I was not mistaken. Because I constantly felt that the bathhouse helped me lose seconds on the treadmill. With my help, my colleagues in sports began to use the bathhouse. For example, arrows. The sauna made them more resilient, increased muscle strength, and helped them concentrate, which is extremely important in their sport. In those distant years, we did not yet have scientific research on the physiology of the bath, but we came to these conclusions through practical means. I am glad that the current sauna researchers, equipped with the latest equipment, have fully confirmed our guesses.”
Weightlifting
“Without a bathhouse,” says multiple world and Olympic champion, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor Arkady Vorobyov, “the life of a weightlifter is unthinkable. Here he “cleanses”, steams the muscles, restores strength, and loses excess weight. After all, weightlifters, as well as wrestlers and boxers, compete in a certain weight category.
After consulting with a coach or a doctor, the athlete adheres to a certain weight that is optimal for him and physiologically justified. It is often said that an athlete must maintain the weight at which he reached his highest athletic form and achieved high performance in competitions. Well, there is logic in this!
On the bathhouse shelf I meet not only weightlifters, boxers and wrestlers, but jumpers, rowers, and equestrians. All of them, thanks to the bath, get rid of extra pounds.”
The healing effect of Roman baths
Sessions visiting Roman baths help cope with a large number of diseases. This type of bath has the following effects on the body:
- After the visit, the functioning of the cardiovascular, endocrine, respiratory and circulatory systems improves. If you visit the bathhouse correctly, hypotensive patients will be helped. This is due to the fact that when temperature changes, the vessels become more elastic, due to which the heart muscle is strengthened. It has a beneficial effect on people who suffer from respiratory diseases. But in this case, you can visit the bathhouse only after consulting a doctor.
- Thanks to the change in temperature in the bath, the body hardens. Thanks to this, people get sick less, as the body’s defenses are activated. With regular procedures, the immune system is significantly strengthened.
- Increases the number of red blood cells in the blood.
- The Roman bath has an excellent relaxing effect. Sessions will help cope with severe tension and stress.
- Thanks to ongoing procedures, people can cope with pain from arthritis, sciatica, and also say goodbye to joint pain.
These are not all the beneficial properties of the Roman bath. But getting the desired result is possible only with the right visit.
What is a Roman bath?
A Roman bath is a special room that has a special heating system. The room is heated with dry hot air, the temperature of which in the tepidarium is within 45 degrees, and in the laconicum within 65 degrees. Both rooms are equipped with benches, which are placed at different heights.
Cooling of visitors takes place in special pools with different water temperatures. The peculiarity of such a bath is that it is always made only from natural stone. It can be not only marble, but also granite.
To maintain the desired temperature and humidity level, special thermal water is used. It is supplied to the baths through pipes. The temperature in the pools is also maintained using healthy thermal water.
Under the floor of a Roman bath there are ovens and boilers with water. Steam is supplied to the steam room through pipes. Another distinctive feature of Roman baths is the incredibly high level of moisture. But the air temperature is low compared to other types of baths.
Roman bath in cosmetology
Cosmetologists of all salons recommend visiting the Roman bath, as it has the most valuable effect. With the help of high temperature, the pores of the epidermis open, due to which the body is cleansed of fat accumulations, sweat and dirt. The procedures also help get rid of toxins, bad cholesterol and waste. This has a beneficial effect on the skin.
After the sessions, the skin tone is evened out and acquires a healthy appearance. It becomes soft and velvety. The skin of the face gets rid of oily shine, and even some types of acne. Cosmetologists recommend using masks and peelings during sessions.
The Roman bath is recommended by cosmetologists as a good safe method of fighting extra pounds. But the most important thing is not to overdo it. The procedures remove excess salts, toxins and water from the body, normalizing metabolic processes.
