Steam and heat play a vital role in our health. Because heat and steam is hot, it relaxes the muscles and ligaments of the body and hydrates the skin. Without hydration, the skin becomes dried up and withered, as anyone who has spent six weeks in plaster for a broken bone can tell you.
Stress can have a really adverse affect on our health, compromising the immune system and causing all sorts of nasty diseases. Steam bathing reduces stress by relaxing the body and it also increases blood circulation. This plays an important part in carrying nutrients to all parts of the body. Steam bathing increases cardiac output of blood to the skin surface from 10% to 50%, so it’s easy to see how extra nutrients are quickly carried around to stimulate growth and repair.
Toxins are part of our body processes and when steam is applied it opens up the sweat glands, enabling them to excrete toxins and waste that may take days to get rid of otherwise. A steam bath will increase the heartbeat without increasing the blood pressure as the tiny capillaries expand to accommodate the extra blood flow to the skin. Steam helps the body to detoxify from heavy metals and alcohol, cleanses the lymph system and stimulates the cardiovascular system.
Dry heat is also beneficial. Heat will relax tight muscles and bring pain relief from strains, stiff muscles and tiredness. It is frequently used in the subacute and chronic stages of injury as pain relief. It also helps to prevent injury by relaxing the muscles. Athletes ‘warm up’ before they do any serious workouts. Those who don’t intend to do a serious workout can still benefit from the application of heat in a number of ways. The relaxation afforded by a hot bath or shower will relax a tense person so they can get to sleep more easily.
When facial tissue is steamed, the pores open, the muscles relax and toxic waste is brought to the surface where it can be washed off. When a steam bath is taken, a similar thing happens. Steam baths are better than a sauna, because there is no chance for the toxic material to dry on the body. Steaming keeps the body at a higher temperature, thus killing all unwanted bacteria. In fact, heat treatment – hyperthermia – is now approved as a breast cancer therapy in the US. This is because cancer cells are more vulnerable to heat than normal cells.
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