# Does a sauna or steam room do you any good? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [September 20, 2009, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-sauna-or-steam-room-do-you-any-good/510818 "2009-09-20T11:06:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![SeanArenas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeanArenas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeanArenas)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-sauna-or-steam-room-do-you-any-good/510818/41 "2009-09-28T17:46:31Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > Gonzo, > > Wikipedia says that in the US, saunas are often a lower temp. for safety (??) reasons, and that water isn’t dumped on the heater. So how hot is the dry sauna? If you have taken a warm shower and towelled yourself dry, and don’t wear a wet bathing suit, then it should \*\*not \*\* take 10 min. for sweat to start! Because I start sweating soon after I go inside. > > As for automatic jets of steam - that’s dumb. What’s the use of that? Is the room tiled like a real steam bath? Would be better to either have a proper steam bath or a real sauna with a bucket of water and a laddle, than a half-assed mixture that doesn’t work the way the real thing would. I think some people in the U.S. say “wet sauna” when they mean steam room. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-sauna-or-steam-room-do-you-any-good/510818/42 "2009-09-29T16:38:43Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > First, md2000, nobody is going to force you to go to the Sauna if you don’t want to, so it’s not necessary to rant against it. Also, a tip on the side: denigrating something if you’ve never tried it and don’t know how it really works makes you look like an idiot. > > No. Clams are boiled in hot water to cook them, in order to kill them and make the meat tender for eating. > > Sauna works with hot 90 C dry 10% air, in order to do something good for your body. > > The snow doesn’t have to be -30, that’s not necessary. > > If you mean whipping as in ‘beating somebody with a heavy whip to cause pain, like a slave’, then no. > > If you mean ‘it feels good once it stops’ in the sense of ‘hitting myself on the thumb is good once the pain stops’, then no, nobody above said that. Please try reading again. And nobody said that ‘feels good once it stops’ is the main reason or logic for sauna. > > I’ll try again to explain the concept in simple words, if that helps you: > The additional feeling of well-being - well you have to experience for yourself, I would say, if you didn’t have such a hate towards Sauna that I don’t want people with your attitude around when I go Saunaing. > > I’m not sure - is sloped-brain an insult towards asians, or are your referring to Neanderthals? Because I’ve never heard of Neanderthals having Saunas, though the Finns claim they have had them for 20 000 years or so. > > There might be a side effect that the widening of the pores due to the sweating helps better than normal washing. I’ve never had the opportunity to test it, either. They say humour is lost on some people. Sorry. Yes, I’ve done saunas quite often and it does feel really good. The Finnish girl who told me about this was laughing when she said it. I think it was “humour” which apparently some Finnish people do have. The only person who didn’t have a sense of humor around the sauna was the pool lifeguard who saw me lying on the bottom of the pool while I was cooling off and jumped in. Actually, I’m surprised. Many people have mentioned the “open your pores, drain them, and slam them shut” as a benefit of the many heat treatments - hot tubs, hot showers, saunas, steam baths, etc. The more you let the sweat flow (sauna, steam bath) rather than just wetting yourself, the better it’s supposed to be. the quicker the pores shut, the better too - so I’ve heard. Medically, I have never looked for confirmation. Oh, and the “slope-brain” refers to Neaderthals. Yes, it’s a reference to a macho attitude that pain is good, an oddity that many societies have come up with at times for odd reasons. In case you didn’t catch it, I was denigrating the idea. (“denigrating” is also not a racial insult). I didn’t think the Neaderthals themselves actually had saunas; at least, they have never found a neanderthal who was buried with one, or a cave lined with cedar. ---
**Author:** ![carlosfh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a8b319/32.png) [@carlosfh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlosfh)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2009, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-sauna-or-steam-room-do-you-any-good/510818/43 "2009-10-01T15:49:49Z")
It seems that one of the benefits of a sauna/steam-room was missed: heat to relax the muscles. Of course, you don’t need a steam room to apply heat to your muscles. Most likely, applying direct heat to the sore muscle area would be of greater benefit, but nonetheless, heat (and ice) is a proven technique for treating certain strains and muscle soreness. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-sauna-or-steam-room-do-you-any-good/510818/44 "2009-10-14T17:37:41Z")
[It’s not a sauna or steam room _per se_, but it is related somewhat to the topic at hand.](http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/10/14/arizona.sweat.lodge/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![Zamander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/2acd7d/32.png) [@Zamander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zamander)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-sauna-or-steam-room-do-you-any-good/510818/45 "2009-10-15T08:40:37Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > Sauna Rules (as in how to properly for health benefit, not as in ‘mind your p and qs’) > Step 0 (Cleaning): Take a warm shower and soap all the dirt and old sweat off. \*\* Dry off throughly: your skin has to be dry\*\* otherwise, your own sweating will be delayed. I supposse those rules are alright and everything, but the deal with drying off before the sauna so that you’ll sweat? That’s not really an obligatory thing, people do both and I don’t think that the main reason for sauna is sweating or anything that specific. It’s just something we’re accustomed and like to do. But here’s some other details on finnish sauna-culture as I’ve experienced it. I’m finnish and I’ve been to finnsih saunas all my life, from traditional smoke saunas(the smoke is there when it is heated, not while bathing) and all others and I must say that the sort of sauna referred here in discussion as a ‘wet’ one is more prevalent, meaning that water is thrown on the rocks quite often. When you cast the water on the rocks, it increases humidity and feels hotter as the humidity rises. Of course this is a matter of taste as well. Those benefits you mention might be correct however, it’s just that in Finland we tend to just wing it the way we’re used to. But as it is part of the culture, there are variations depanding on context: Public saunas by swimming pools &c: No swimming suits, you can sit on the bench on own risk, although people don’t usually seem to have a problem with this. Quite often it’s possible to use disposable paper seats called ‘peflets’, which I prefer. Whether the sauna is dry or not depends on whose throwing the water. Quite often it’s someone who likes his sauna hot and scalding and applies the water on to the rocks accordingly. I suppose it’s okay to complain, but as a finnish male, this might be construed as a weakness an unmanliness, so I guess this depends on how much you care about the opinions of some strange geezers. Home saunas, in a family context: The wetness of the sauna depends entirely on the family in question, although I at least have the understanding, that wetness might be a bit more common based on my own experience. I’d guess that when kids are involved, parents teke it easier, even if they would like more watetr in the air. Saunaparties, business sauna, studentsauna bachelor’s partysauna &c: These come in many variations. If foreigners not used to sauna are present, things generally go easier at first. In student parties and other’s there’s usually the option to cool off or take a swim and often drink some beer or cider. And as usually is with these sort of occasions, people start to relax a bit more and the sauna gets hotter(and wetter). So if people don’t like it, they usually stay away after it gets competitive. At this point, in an all male company or even with mixed sexes, nobody thinks less of anyone if they want cool-off for a bit and come back later or just stop alltogether, but complaining is kind of a _faux pas._ Although I’ve noticed that I enjoy the more scalding hot saunas after heavy exercise during the winter, then cooling off and then going to relax a bit when it’s not so hot any more. As it comes to temperature, I usually go for 80-90 C at home, but some crazies will heat it up above that. I don’t stay for very long with that heat especially if they throw water like there’s no tomorrow. As it comes to cooling off, that whole snow business and jumping into a freezing lake is done somewhat, but in my experience is not as routine noaday as it might have been. Actually I don’t know how usual it was before, but I haven’t done it since I was a kid except for afew times when it seemed that everyone was doing it and I got carried away. And besides, people do go to sauna in the summertime and most of the lake-jumping is done then. And it’s nice to relax between saunaing by just sitting with a beer and watching the view. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-sauna-or-steam-room-do-you-any-good/510818.md?page=2)