Luxury—the New Necessity!
This past spring I invited my cousin Sharon to join me on spring break in Florida. It was the first time we had spent time together in years. We spent a week of talking, laughing and solving life’s problems, and yes we even spa-ed together! Ladies spa-ing together is like a World Summit meeting, you can read about it this issue.
Spas have replaced the shopping sprees friends use to do 20 years ago – now it is the Spa- spree. Even men are seeing spas as an opportunity to de-stress. Spas now offer man-cations—guys getting together at a spa! Whether they are on a golf vacation or business meeting, it doesn’t matter any more—spas are OK to go to, no matter who or what you are!
Unfortunately we see it as luxury but I think it is a necessity. I now have made a commitment to myself to de-stress more often and I have a standing appointment at my massage therapist every two weeks. My luxury is being good to myself and to start looking after me.
You’ll love our cover story. The Chrysalis Inn and Spa offers wonderful pampering and caters to those looking for a luxurious escape. It makes a perfect girlfriends’ getaway or a romantic couples’ destination.
I hope that your next luxury is about you and committing to a better self. Whether you choose a hands-on-therapy, a medical treatment or a trip to a hot springs, de-stressing and investing in your health is a luxury you shouldn’t put off any longer—enjoy!
Mary
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A Spa to Call Your Own
I think that spa-going is turning into a rite of passage. As a mother I want to pass on a clear message to my daughters that being good to one’s self is perfectly OK and necessary. In fact, I have just booked my nine-year-old daughter Paige into her first spa day camp. It is an entire day dedicated to girls to teach them how to care for their nails, skin and hair! What a fabulous idea (see that in our next issue).
This issue, you’ll read all about Canadian celebrity Sass Jordan as she tells us about her favourite spa. She prefers the quality of an out-of-the-way spa that gives incredible service to their clients. It is not the biggest or most architecturally significant but it offers unique treatments for people looking for lifestyle changes.
Spas aren’t just about beautifying the outside anymore. Within these pages you will find spas that treat health concerns, dietary habits and offer the latest in revitalizing technology.
Finding that extraordinary spa, for some us of there isn’t just ONE, but when you find a place you love, make it your special escape because we all need a place to call our own.
Stay well,
Mary
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Wet steam bath (”Turkish” sauna)
Wet steam bath is different from Finnish sauna, seats are made of ceramics and it is a rule to enter it completely naked. The temperature in steam sauna is much lower then in Finnish (dry) one; it is around 45ºC. The main particularity of these baths is high air humidity which is 100%. The heated steam is released to the sauna with the addition of essential oils creating pleasant aroma and additional health benefits. The main benefits of this sauna are in the revitalization of respiratory system. Furthermore, high humidity with a mild temperature opens the skin pores, cleans the impurities from the epidermis and beneficially affects the skin. Finally, steam sauna will relax your muscles and body in general. Steam sauna today is an integral part of almost every wellness and sauna centre, or thermal baths and SPAs in
Extra supplements and where you can try it
We recommend you to visit steam saunas in “Sauna land” in a Water park Atlantis, in
Popularity: 94% [?]
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Infrared sauna
Infrared sauna is a kind of Finnish sauna, but using the special infrared heater instead of “classical” sauna stove, which heats your body by generating the far infrared radiation rays, similar to those produced by sun. This kind of radiation is beneficial for the general health. Bathing in infrared saunas is completely different then in “regular” ones, the temperature is much lower (50 to 60ºC), but you still sweat same as in Finnish sauna. Infrared sauna dehydrates you, so it is recommended to drink plenty of fluids before and during the sweat bathing. Bathing in infrared sauna has many health benefits: cosmetic benefits for the skin – it kills acne, relief pain in the muscles, improving metabolism and blood circulation, helps with the faster recovery from injuries…and other similar benefits as all the sweat baths in general.
You can visit infrared saunas almost everywhere – mainly in sport and recreational centres, public swimming pools, SPAs and sometimes even in beauty centers.
Popularity: 43% [?]
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Children and sauna
Children can use the sauna, but with some additional precautious. Children’s’ sauna bathing can take place when a child is able to express its discomfort and unpleasant feeling in an understandable way (to its parents). Then you can try the sauna with your child, but be sure to leave the sauna when it starts to feel uncomfortable. Besides this, you should follow some ‘rules’. You should allow your child to sit just on the lower benches where it is a lower temperature. Normally, for children from age 2-5, staying in sauna for 10 minutes, at temperature of 70ºC is too much.
It is important to say here that 70% of Finnish children have their first sauna bath before the age of one year and moreover, 95% of them before the age of two. More interesting is the fact that the Finnish children are among the healthiest in the world.
Popularity: 22% [?]
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Skin
We can surely say that sauna removes the impurities from the skin pores and keeps a bather’s skin soft and supple. Furthermore, combining sauna bathing and brushing with a rough brush removes the dried skin cells accumulated in the epiderm. In one word, sauna and other sweat baths significantly increase the freshness and the cleanness of our skin. This dimension of skin care through sauna bathing can be best described by the words of Ilmari Kianto in his novel The Red Line: “There in the gentle löyly, the wrinkles on her face smoothed away, and the deep-blue shadows under her eyes gave way to a healthy color. It was as if the heat had also melted away the darkness of her soul...“
Popularity: 12% [?]
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Sweating
Sweating is one of the essential processes for our health. In sauna, body is exposed to high temperature, for enough of the time to start to perspire. Through sweat our skin cleans itself of the impurities ‘accumulated’ in its pores thus, it rids the body of some wastes. Furthermore, sweating helps our skin to be clean and soft. During a proper sweat bathing, according to the Finns, sauna elicits a quart of sweat per hour. According to sauna expert Mikkel Aaland, “during a 15-minute sauna, sweating can perform the heavy metal excretion that would take the kidneys 24 working hours. Ninety-nine percent of what sweat brings to the surface of the skin is water, but the remaining one percent is mostly undesirable wastes.” The doctors also encourage the use of sauna. A world known physician and medical expert Dr. Weil, declares:” I generally encourage sweating. It helps the body to rid itself of unwanted materials and improves general circulation.”
There are also some delusions related to the sweating and the weight loss in sauna. Lots of people think they would loose weight permanently due to the sweating in sauna. That is not correct. The truth is that you will burn some calories and become ‘lighter’ for a few hours thanks to the sweating in sauna. But it is because of loss of your bodily fluids and you will get the kilos back very soon. You are normally thirsty after sauna, and those fluids will be restored just at the time when you have first drink or glass of water. Thus, any eventual weight loss induced by sweating will be recovered very soon.
Popularity: 15% [?]
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Who should not use the sauna?
Only people having the inflammatory diseases and injuries, or running fever should avoid sauna completely. People who can have health risks by using saunas are persons with heart disease, high blood pressure, asthma or some skin disease. Still, saunas may be good for these people also, but if bathing “cautiously”, keeping the temperature under the 90ºC and avoiding the fast changes from hot to cold and opposite. These people thus, should no plunge right into cold water immediately after the sauna bathing, as most of the Finns do.
It is also recommended to avoid bathing in sauna if you are physically exhausted, or if you have passed through some long illness.
Thus, if a person suffers from some serious illness, a heart disease, respiratory or cardiovascular diseases, it should consult its physician before taking sauna.
Popularity: 37% [?]
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Feeling of comfort
The golden rule for sauna bathing is to enjoy the sauna. It is the feeling of comfort. You can go to the sauna as many times as you like and stay in sauna for as long as you wish, but just as long as it feels comfortable for you. In one word, sauna baths suits everyone who is aware of his own limitations. Using the sauna means relieving from the both, physical and mental stress. Outwardly, you are completely relaxed, while your inner organs are tremendously active. At the same time, from the inside out you are being cleansed by your skin and its excretion - sweat.
We know that sauna can not cure or prevent the long-term illness, but we can surely say it improves the general well-being of a bather and has the great benefits for the health, and in some cases even cures the symptoms. It strengthens the immune system, improves the blood circulation, stimulates the metabolism, raises the body temperature, cleans the impurities from the skin pores and reduces the stress.
The Finnish folk healers explain: “You really soak in the sauna. If you feel that your veins hurt and your sides are sore, the sauna is the remedy. If you have a headache, have a sauna. If you have a cough, don’t. After the cough has stopped, then have a sauna. If you are cold and have a sauna, the coldness will descend into your heart. You must first warm yourself inside and then have a sauna."
Popularity: 13% [?]
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SAUNA AND HEALTH
If you are in a “reasonably” good health, the benefits of sauna are great for you, but if using it with the precautious. Thus, for any healthy person sauna bathing does not present any health risk. If you are listening to your body and staying in sauna just as long as you feel comfortable, you will have no hazards. For the ages, the Finns have used the sauna as place for treating illness, cleansing and healing the body and soothing the mind. Maybe the best way to present the opinion that Finnish people have about the benefits of sauna is to quote the old Finnish proverb: “If liquor, tar or sauna don’t help, your condition is fatal (an illness will cause the death)”.
Popularity: 18% [?]
