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. [Read more...]