In this toxic world where harmful chemicals enter your body on a daily basis, there is the inevitable need to detoxify. You intake arsenic and heavy metals along with the food you eat and the water you drink. Even the air that you breathe and which comes into contact with your skin contaminates your body with airborne particles and gases. Toxins will never cease to invade your diet and environment. The good news is detoxifying your body will not cost you a lot of time, money, and effort.

Saunas, apart from their relaxing and soothing benefits, are proven to be one of the easiest and most effective ways to get rid of the bodys pollutants. Saunas stimulate sweating by subjecting the body to a high temperature, from about 100 to 200 degrees Fahrenheit depending on whether one uses the conventional sauna or the much lower temperature of the far infrared sauna (FIRS). When you sweat, toxic chemicals that have accumulated in your body are purged out of your skins pores. It is estimated that around 30 percent of bodily wastes are expelled from the skin by way of perspiration. Further, the waste products secreted through the skin are more than common than those which are discharged with the urine and stool. Health practitioners have noted that smokers who use the sauna will often leave a yellow residue on their towels. Sauna owners also reported that a thick, black layer of accumulated tar build up on their sauna benches.

The sweat route is indeed the most natural, most passive, and most convenient way to eliminate body toxins. There is no drug to take and no pain to endure. While sweating is a natural mechanism, it must still be induced properly and safely to make it thoroughly effective in liberating harmful chemicals out of the body. Clinical studies show that an hour spent in a sauna will release about a quarter of sweat. Getting a sauna will surely cost you bucks, more so if you intend to install one in your private home. But when you consider the lifelong incapacity and enduring expenses of suffering from toxin-induced diseases like cancers, diabetes, Alzheimers disease, and heart stroke, a sauna is relatively cheap. Apart from releasing toxins, you also enjoy the calming and rejuvenating feeling saunas give by improving your body circulation and skin complexion. Ultimately, a proper sauna not only cleanses the skin surface but also purifies the body on a cellular level. Thats bodily cleansing inside and out!

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Tags: Clogged Sweat Glands, Hyperhidrosis, Sweating

 

The sweat lodge has been used by the indigenous population of the Americas all the way from the Eskimos south to the Mayans. Sweat lodges were used for everything from cure for illness and aching muscles to ridding oneself of evil spirits. In Europe the Romans used a more elaborate system of saunas while the Scandinavians used a simpler seat lodge similar to the Native Americans. These European cultures realized the diverse benefits of making the body sweat to release toxins. In Finland where the sauna has been a mainstay for over 1,000 years it is estimated that there is one sauna for every seven people!

Making the body sweat using dry saunas helps rid the body of toxic metals that exist in our environment assisting the kidneys in detoxifying the entire body. The sauna is also better to use if weight loss is desired due to the fact that it is harder on the body and burns additional calories. In fact, a 20 minutes sauna session may burn as many calories as a two or three miles jog! Remember that you are rapidly losing fluids when using a sauna and you need to replenish during and after to avoid any heart rhythm disruption as well as fatigue.

Sweating in a dry sauna also speeds up the metabolism and inhibits the development of bacteria and viruses. It also creates a reaction similar to fever that kills viruses and enhances the immune system. Another huge benefit of dry saunas is that they have been shown to lower blood pressure over time as well. Dr. Andre Lwoff, a French scientist who specialized in studying viruses showed that high temperatures in times of infection fought off viruses. A German physical education specialist by the name of Ernst found that marathon runners had no incidence of cancer which he attributed to their sweating out heavy metals that can cause cancer.

The benefits of using saunas to help your body release toxins on a daily basis have been proven over and over. You will see improved blood circulation, release of heavy metals and other toxins, weight loss, clearer skin and improved immune system response. Like anything that is taxing on the body you should consult your physician to be sure that it is safe for you to use saunas especially if you are over 60 years old or have a family history of heart disease.

About the Author

Gregg Hall is a business consultant and author for many online and offline businesses and lives in Navarre Florida with his 16 year old son. For information on sweating to help weight loss go to http://www.sweatawaythepounds.com

Tags: Sweating, Sweating Information

 

You may consider a home sauna to be a luxury, an item that offers pleasure and comfort but is ultimately inessential to your well-being. The results of years of research, however, may just convince you of what sauna enthusiasts have believed for centuries - that sauna use offers tremendous health benefits that simply cannot be denied.

A main objective of any sauna bath is to make you sweat, and sweating is a natural, necessary function of the human body. It's one way the body can rid itself of extra heat and water and eliminate harmful toxins that have built up inside it over time. As Dr. Sherry A. Rogers writes in her book, Detoxify or Die, "The bottom line is that sweat is the only proven method for getting the most dangerous toxins out of the body." In their studies of far infrared saunas, Japanese researchers have concluded that perspiration induced by infrared sauna use contains as much as 300% more toxins than sweat expelled during exercise. Included among these toxins are aluminum, cadmium, lead and mercury.

The health benefits of sauna bathing go beyond assisting detoxification, however. As your body increases sweat production to cool itself during a hot sauna bath, your heart increases blood circulation. Heart rate, cardiac output and metabolic rate increase, while diastolic blood pressure drops, helping to improve overall cardiovascular fitness.

Sauna use may also contribute to healthy weight loss. A letter published in a 1981 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association claimed that "a moderately conditioned person can easily 'sweat off' 500 grams in a sauna, consuming nearly 300 calories - the equivalent of running two to three miles. A heat-conditioned person can easily sweat off 600 to 800 calories with no adverse effects. While the weight of the water lost can be regained by rehydration with water, the calories consumed will not be."

Most indisputable are the claims that regular sauna use helps relieves stress and promotes relaxation. It has been repeatedly demonstrated that spending just a few minutes in a hot sauna bath reduces anxiety levels, soothes nerves and warms tight muscles. Not only has sauna use been shown to encourage deeper, most restful sleep, infrared sauna therapy has been effective for relieving pain associated with arthritis, backache, bursitis, fibromyalgia, headache, sprains, strains and other muscular-skeletal ailments.

"I am convinced that the far infrared sauna is something that everyone should do to restore health," writes Dr. Rogers. In a society struggling with toxic build-up, heart disease, stress and anxiety disorders, and weight problems, it seems the home sauna has indeed become much less of a luxury and much more of a necessity for healthy living.

About the Author

Pertti Olavi Jalasjaa is the author of "The Art of Sauna Building," an acclaimed reference book on sauna construction. He is also the general manager of Great Saunas, which has been manufacturing and selling high-quality saunas to sauna enthusiasts around the world since 1974. Visit Great Saunas online at www.greatsaunas.com.

Tags: Hyperhidrosis, Sweating, Sweating Information

When you cannot seem to do anything without your face and scalp braking into a terrible sweat it is often do to excessive facial sweating. This disorder affects millions and millions of people worldwide and it is vital you know that there is hope.

Excessive facial sweating is a frustrating thing to have and too many people are too embarrassed to visit their doctor about this condition. It is important that you get over this and see your doctor as soon as you can. There are plenty of methods for dealing with this condition and it is time that you started seeing which ones were right for you.

Everyone sweats. We do it to release toxins that have built up in our bodies and we do it to control our temperature. That is why when we exercise we sweat, we are exerting ourselves and getting too hot, so the body tries to cool itself down. How this works is simple, by making the skin wet, we feel cooler when air hits us. Unfortunately not all of us only sweat when we have been working out. Many sweat even when not doing anything physical, and we sweat a lot. This is hyperhidrosis and when this sweating happens mainly in the facial and scalp area it is called facial hyperhidrosis.

The face and scalp have so many pores that it makes sweating in these areas excessively too easy if you ask me. Excessive facial sweating may feel like a curse but you can try a number of different methods to both control it and prevent it completely.

There are some surgical methods that your doctor may wish to employ to help you with excessive facial sweating but these should not be done right out of the gate. It is vital that you take the time and effort to try other options before resorting to any kind of surgical procedure. Surgery may be a quick fix but it is also a permanent one and why go through the pain and suffering, never mind the expense if you don?t really have to. Better to try all the other methods first and eliminate them as possible cures for hyperhidrosis.

Good methods of dealing with excessive facial sweating are those that are painless and easy to manage. The treatments are often very different than those employed for other types of excessive sweating. Because the facial area is made up of such sensitive and delicate skin you cannot use the same topical treatments on it that you would use for other parts of the body such as the underarm area. That skin is much tougher and can handle stronger things coming into contact with it.

Before you put anything at all on your skin it is best to speak with your regular doctor. Better yet, if you have a dermatologist then speak with this professional. This is the person that you can trust. They know best what is good for your skin and what is not. They have spent a lifetime learning all about how to treat the skin of the entire body and they will be able to help you in a big way when it comes to dealing with excessive facial sweating.

Sometimes excessive sweating from facial hyperhidrosis at public gatherings may cause extreme unhappiness, this is unfortunate on just one of the reasons why you need to take care of this problem today. It also brings psychological trauma to people who suffer from it. So start looking for a cure today and make a change for the better.

Tags: Face Sweat, Stress Sweating

 

Marisa Belger tests out the very best in eco-friendly antiperspirants

By Marisa Belger

TODAYShow.com contributor

updated 10:08 a.m. PT, Wed., Oct. 17, 2007

 

Having trouble keeping up with our increasingly organic, eco-friendly world? Let me be your guide! From all-natural makeup to the best in eco-conscious jeans, I will test and review the products and treatments that are best for you and the planet.

Like most people — with the exception of the guy next to me in yoga class yesterday — antiperspirant/deodorant has been a part of my life since adolescence. I first sensed a less-than-fragrant odor wafting in my direction during a particularly strenuous game of high school field hockey. During the water break I scanned the faces of my teammates searching for the owner of said scent until I realized — with great shock — that it was I who smelled like a lumberjack who hadn’t showered in two weeks.

So began my journey into the antiperspirant aisle of my local drugstore. I tried them all: Secret, because it was made for a woman; Degree, because it was made for a man and a woman; and Arrid Extra Dry, whose advertisements promised that I could “get a little closer.” I swiped on chalky white solids and drippy roll-ons. And if they didn’t smell like summer rain or a cool breeze, my underarms emitted an all-day scent of “shower fresh.” 

After college I began to suspect that things smelled too good to be true. Scientists were beginning to link antiperspirant to Alzheimer’s disease, and as the armpit is the closest neighbor to the breast, some breast cancer researchers were also becoming suspicious of our antiperspirant/deodorant choices. As of today there is no conclusive evidence that underarm products cause disease, but the jury is absolutely still out.

Evidence or not, the research got me thinking: Human beings are designed to perspire; sweating actually releases toxins from the body. So how can it be safe to not only prevent the sweat glands from doing their job (antiperspirant), but to also coat the skin in chemicals that make us smell artificially fresh (deodorant)? I took my question to Christine Harlow, a.k.a. “The Ingredients Investigator,” who has been researching the safety of the ingredients in our most common personal care products since 1991.

Harlow’s response? It’s not. Safe, that is. Many of the products we use on a daily basis — think shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, hair gel, lotions and cosmetics — are loaded with toxic chemicals, and antiperspirant/deodorant is no exception. “First you need to learn to read the ingredients on product labels,” she says. “But most of those ingredients you probably won’t recognize unless you’re a chemist.” Deciphering multisyllabic ingredients is probably the last thing you’ll feel like doing while standing in the deodorant aisle of CVS, but Harlow’s toxic cheat sheet will have you separating the bad guys from the harmless in no time.

Top five ingredients to avoid

Parabens: These preservatives come in several forms (methyl, ethyl, propyl, benzyl and butyl) and have been found in breast cancer tumors — though the link to cancer has yet to be substantiated. Parabens are found practically everywhere. Really, spend five minutes in your bathroom today and you’ll find parabens lurking in products in the medicine cabinet, the shower, and your makeup bag.

Aluminum and friends: Aluminum should be wrapped around sandwiches and not absorbed into the body where, as I mentioned earlier, it has been connected to Alzheimer’s disease. But aluminum is a key ingredient in antiperspirant and may look like any of these on a label: aluminum chlorohydrate, aluminum zirconium tetrachlorohydrex gly or any other aluminum compound.

Triclosan: Sounds like a toilet bowl cleaner, but it’s really a chemical that is classified as a pesticide by the FDA. It’s thought to contain carcinogenic contaminants and is stored in body fat. Also look for triclosan in antibacterial soaps.

Talc: This seemingly benign duster of baby bottoms is often contaminated with asbestos (which is carcinogenic). The catch? The amount of asbestos in talc is unregulated, so you don’t know how much asbestos you’re in for when you buy products containing talc. 

Propelyn glycol: As a “penetration enhancer,” propelyn glycol sounds as if it should be sold with Viagra, but it is actually believed to be a neurotoxin that may cause kidney or liver damage.

Smell good, feel good

So what’s a stinky girl (or guy) to do? Luckily several personal care companies are catching on to the public’s desire for toxin-free products. And I’ve tested most of them as I’ve searched for the ultimate all-natural deodorant (every health food store sells natural deodorant and some drugstores are even catching on to the trend). One note: if you’re going to go natural, you’ll have to leave antiperspirant behind as it’s impossible halt all sweating without turning to some major chemicals. The good news is that your body will eventually adjust (it will, trust me) by slowing the production of what at first feels like gallons of perspiration.

I experienced several mishaps as I first began experimenting with natural deodorant. Learn from my mistakes.

Tip No. 1: nobody over the age of 7 should attempt to get through a humid August day armed with nothing more than two swipes of apricot deodorant. Apricots belong in trail mix, not on armpits. Look for deodorants that have a fresh, clean fragrance that isn’t too sweet. Citrus and sage work well for both men and women — I’ve had success with Weleda’s citrus deodorant spray (Weleda’s rose deodorant is also lovely, ladies) and I’ve converted my active, athletic (read: sweaty) husband to Burt’s Bees Herbal Deodorant, which is heavy on sage oil.

Tip No. 2: Stay away from clear solids unless you enjoy the sensation of having your upper inner arm stick to your upper inner torso. Sprays and roll-ons are best — natural roll-ons tend to be less watery than their synthetic counterparts. If you are willing to blow your toiletry budget on a truly divine natural deodorant, Dr. Hauschka is my all-time favorite. The Fresh scent is made with witch hazel and sage while the Floral has subtle notes of lilac and jasmine — and they work! I’ve exercised, sat through stressful meetings, and raced to meet deadlines all while maintaining a delicate floral fragrance. As a bonus, drhauschka.com features a clickable ingredient list for each of their products. You’re only one click away from knowing what, exactly, Sodium Magnesium Silicate is (a naturally occurring mineral which absorbs extra moisture).

Tip No. 3: The Crystal body deodorant makes an excellent paperweight.

For more information on the ingredients in the products you use, check out the Environmental Working Group’s Cosmetic Safety Database.

Marisa Belger is a writer and editor with more than 10 years of experience covering health and wellness. She was a founding editor of Lime.com, a multiplatform media company specializing in health, wellness and sustainable living. Marisa also collaborated with Josh Dorfman on “The Lazy Environmentalist” (Stewart, Tabori, and Chang), a comprehensive guide to easy, stylish green living.

 

 

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21208797/

Tags: Deodorant Information, Deodorant Men, Deodorant Women