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Negative ions for health: Saunas

Physiologically, the presence of negative ions in a steam bath is as important as heat. The discovery of negative ions in certain types of saunas a few years ago became headline news in Finland. Until then, the healing power of the sauna was attributed to relaxation and increasing circulation. Now, negative ions add startling new possibilities.

Since the early 1950s scientists have suspected that ions play an important role in how the body works and therefore how we feel. Research has shown that the abundance of negative ions in the air we breathe is highly beneficial, while a lack of ions or a higher proportion of positive to negative can cause physical harm. The role of ions in everyday life has become intensely topical among researchers in the medical profession.

An ion is simply a molecule with a charge electric, positive or negative. Ionization, or ion formation, occurs when enough energy acts on a molecule to make downloading a electron. Since electrons are negatively charged, the molecule stripped of an electron has a more positive charge and becomes a positive ion. The lost electron scoots around loose until it binds to another molecule that causes the new molecule to become negatively charged – a negative ion.

Radioactive substances in cosmic rays and the crust of the earth, generating the majority of ionization. But the fire, crashing water (like water falls and surf), and plants during photosynthesis can produce negative ions. Europeans take ion depletion seriously and simple negative ion generators have been installed in many businesses, banks, hospitals, and passenger cars even airplane cabins. Moreover, in this country, Europe and the Soviet Union, negative ion therapy has been used in treatments to help victims burns heal faster, to cure respiratory diseases, to rid the body of infections in general, and even stop the spread of some types of cancer.

On the contrary, scientists have found that if the air is full of negative ions and very few more positive, we become anxious, tired and tense. This condition is known as "pos-ion poisoning," and often occurs as a result of weather disruptions, air conditioning central, smog, and driving too long within the limits of a car. Pos-ion poisoning has, in fact, been linked to heart attacks, aggravated asthma, migraines, insomnia, rheumatism, arthritis, hay fever, and most allergies.

The effect of negative ions on sweat bathing was discovered when investigators were trying to account for the tremendous popularity of sauna wood burning stoves over electric stoves. subjective reasons, such as the fragrance of wood burned, do not fully explain why Finns felt so refreshed after a forest sauna and heated completely off of certain heated saunas electric. Tests showed that the practice of splashing water on heated rocks produced a large amount of negative ions.

Many electric stoves, that was not getting hot enough rocks and the brighter the metal heating coils were sprouting more positive ions in the air. The researchers learned that if the rocks were properly heated in electric stoves, the positive ions, being larger and less mobile, land on the hot rocks.

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