Women
Network >> Health
& Environment
It's long been known that ducks, swans and geese can carry bird flu viruses, and now the Asian bird flu is turning up in Europe as found in Greece, Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Germany that mute swans killed by the H5N1 virus. Dead swans found in Denmark are still being tested. Some health officials say these discoveries show that waterfowl are moving the virus around but ornithologists say this case is far from proven.
Peter Marra, a migration expert at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C said that about 30 percent of ducks might be carrying some form of low pathogenic avian influenza, which doesn't hurt them or other ducks or animals that they might interact with. It used to be assumed that the virulent H5N1 virus killed migrating waterfowl before they traveled anywhere, but that assumption has taken some hits in recent months.
Last week, a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed that some migratory waterfowl can live with the virus inside them. The virus started spreading last fall along migratory pathways that took it west to the Black Sea and then south into Africa. Migrating waterfowl are delivering the dreaded Asian bird flu to poultry farms, by flying overhead and defecating on flocks or in nearby waters.
Meanwhile, Michael Fry, a migration expert with the American Bird Conservancy said that wild birds were victims of the bird flu, but he didn't think those birds are really spreading the disease.
Fry says there are several problems with the waterfowl-as-carriers theory. First, while it's clear that migrating birds pick this virus up at poultry farms, there's no evidence linking their droppings to subsequent die-offs.
He said that there are many places that waterfowl go that if they were with any frequency carrying the disease, this disease would be everywhere.
Health officials need to focus less on ducks, swans and geese, and more on other ways the virus may be spreading. They should start by making sure poor poultry farmers are compensated when they kill infected flocks, lest they sell off birds that don't appear sick.
Fry suspects that sales like these have been driving the spread of H5N1 virus to a much greater extent than migrating waterfowl.
Read more!
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What Can You Do To Lower Your Drug Costs?
Understanding why drug costs are so high, you may feel that it is impossible to find a way to reduce them. But this simply isn't true. There are several things you can do to make prescription drugs more affordable.
As mentioned briefly above, it pays (literally) to be informed. If your doctor doesn't possess the knowledge regarding all the drug choices available for your condition, take initiative and conduct some of your own research. Ask your doctor if there are any older versions of the newest drug you've been prescribed and find out if the drug is as effective. If it can do the job just as well as its newer relation, and comes with a cheaper price tag, it won't take you long to make a decision.
Secondly, find out if there are any generic versions of the drug you need available in your area. Generic drugs are the same drug but without the brand name price tag. This type of drug is similar to the no-name brands you find in your local grocery store. The product is exactly the same but less expensive because you're not paying for the name (and hence the advertising).
If you are uninsured or underinsured, make sure you exhaust all your insurance options. Calculate the costs associated with purchasing an insurance plan and determine whether or not you can find a plan that will ultimately weigh in your favor. Also, find out if you can benefit from Medicare. Medicare Part D is one option you should research, although for many Americans it has actually made prescription drugs more expensive and seems to have been created to benefit the drug companies rather than the American public. The process can be confusing, but if you
take the time to find out if you are one of the lucky few to benefit, it could be worth your while.
Finally, many Americans have chosen to order discount drugs online, from either American or Canadian pharmacies. American online pharmacies offer older and generic versions of drugs at a reduced cost, while Canadian operations can actually offer brand name prescriptions (or whatever prescription you require) for a significantly lower price. This is simply because the Canadian Government regulates the cost of drugs, which means you pay less at the cash register. As long as the pharmacy is licensed to conduct international pharmacy services, ordering online from a Canadian pharmacy is a safe and affordable alternative to the high cost of drugs in the U.S.
Contributed by Katerina Mitrou from www.rxcarecanada.com, a Canadian pharmacy online. RXcarecanada.com takes the search out of your research by providing you the lowest prices on medication.
Read more!
As mentioned briefly above, it pays (literally) to be informed. If your doctor doesn't possess the knowledge regarding all the drug choices available for your condition, take initiative and conduct some of your own research. Ask your doctor if there are any older versions of the newest drug you've been prescribed and find out if the drug is as effective. If it can do the job just as well as its newer relation, and comes with a cheaper price tag, it won't take you long to make a decision.
Secondly, find out if there are any generic versions of the drug you need available in your area. Generic drugs are the same drug but without the brand name price tag. This type of drug is similar to the no-name brands you find in your local grocery store. The product is exactly the same but less expensive because you're not paying for the name (and hence the advertising).
If you are uninsured or underinsured, make sure you exhaust all your insurance options. Calculate the costs associated with purchasing an insurance plan and determine whether or not you can find a plan that will ultimately weigh in your favor. Also, find out if you can benefit from Medicare. Medicare Part D is one option you should research, although for many Americans it has actually made prescription drugs more expensive and seems to have been created to benefit the drug companies rather than the American public. The process can be confusing, but if you
take the time to find out if you are one of the lucky few to benefit, it could be worth your while.
Finally, many Americans have chosen to order discount drugs online, from either American or Canadian pharmacies. American online pharmacies offer older and generic versions of drugs at a reduced cost, while Canadian operations can actually offer brand name prescriptions (or whatever prescription you require) for a significantly lower price. This is simply because the Canadian Government regulates the cost of drugs, which means you pay less at the cash register. As long as the pharmacy is licensed to conduct international pharmacy services, ordering online from a Canadian pharmacy is a safe and affordable alternative to the high cost of drugs in the U.S.
Contributed by Katerina Mitrou from www.rxcarecanada.com, a Canadian pharmacy online. RXcarecanada.com takes the search out of your research by providing you the lowest prices on medication.
Read more!
The Rising Cost of Prescription Drugs
If you're like many Americans, the rising cost of prescription drugs may be costing you your health. In particular, seniors living on a fixed income with no insurance are finding it difficult to pay for necessary prescriptions out-of-pocket, and as a result, may be failing to receive the treatment they need to stay healthy. Often, the struggle can put a big strain on seniors finances.
But why are prescription drug prices so high, especially when most people who require medication are usually not in a financial position that allows them to afford the full price tag? The real reasons are more complicated than what you might suspect, but one thing?€?s for certain ?€? drug prices have been skyrocketing.
The reason that is most often touted (by the drug companies, of course) for the high price of drugs is research and development (R&D) costs. The drug companies contest that the only way to pay for the development of new life-saving drugs - that will improve the lives of millions of Americans is through profits from current drug sales. The high prices, they say, are merely a reflection of the spending that is necessary for the creation of newer, better drugs.
But is this the truth? Are drug companies using a large percentage of current prescription drug sales to fund R&D? If so, are the new drugs under development truly going to improve the health of the people who need them most? Sadly, this doesn't appear to be the case.
In reality, drug companies spend more on advertising, lobbying and political contributions than they do on research and development. Most of the money you pay for prescription medication ends up in the pockets of marketers and politicians, so that you can be convinced that you need the newer and better drugs that are under development.
In addition, research and development tends to focus on more marketable types of drugs that the drug companies can sell to the largest amounts of people. How many times have you seen advertisements for a drug that can help alleviate such serious medical conditions as social anxiety disorder and seasonal allergies? Unfortunately, this means that most large drug companies tend to neglect the development of life-saving drugs for more serious conditions, as the numbers are not there to rake in high profits.
Developing new allergy or anxiety drugs, however, does not require massive amounts of money, as these drugs have already been developed. Neither does rehashing previously developed drugs to be marketed for a new ailment. Usually the newer drugs under development aren't new at all. So even the money that is spent on R&D, it can be argued, is an unnecessary expense driven by the market more than by the country's medical needs.
Unfortunately for the consumer, all the money spent on advertising rather than development, and providing drug information to physicians about specific new drugs that need to be marketed, makes it very likely that you will end up paying more money than you should. Also, because your doctor is only provided with information on the latest and greatest drugs, he/she will be more likely to prescribe you the more expensive drugs. Perhaps surprisingly, there are older versions of drugs on the market that work just as well as their updated counterparts (sometimes better) as well as generic versions of brand name drugs that come at a significantly reduced
cost. Of course, the drug companies do not market these drugs and do all they can to keep generic drugs off the shelves for as long as possible.
That's another place your money goes when you buy prescription drugs lawyers. Drug companies spend a lot of money paying for court cases to extend the patents of certain drugs. Even though the cases are often lost in the end, court processes can take months to resolve buying more time for the drug companies to be the sole profiteers of a particular drug. When the patent on a drug runs out, other companies are allowed to create and sell a generic version of the drug. It is usually sold for a lower price, which takes customers away from the brand name and reduces that drug company's profits. In the end, patents are often extended anyway because the drug company finds a new application for the drug, thus artificially extending the life of the patent and keeping generics off the shelves. You end up paying more because a less expensive generic alternative is not available and you are forced to shell out for the higher priced brand name drug instead.
For the lucky people who have insurance that covers the cost of their drugs, this may be indirectly allowing the drug companies to charge more than they would if everyone had to pay full price. Because many people never see the true cost of their prescriptions, the price is not something they worry about. As a result, drug companies feel freer to raise prices and costs continue to rise. The bottom line? A large percentage of what you pay for drugs is taken as profit.
Contributed by Katerina Mitrou from www.rxcarecanada.com, a Canadian pharmacy online. RXcarecanada.com takes the search out of your research by providing you the lowest prices on medication.
Read more!
But why are prescription drug prices so high, especially when most people who require medication are usually not in a financial position that allows them to afford the full price tag? The real reasons are more complicated than what you might suspect, but one thing?€?s for certain ?€? drug prices have been skyrocketing.
The reason that is most often touted (by the drug companies, of course) for the high price of drugs is research and development (R&D) costs. The drug companies contest that the only way to pay for the development of new life-saving drugs - that will improve the lives of millions of Americans is through profits from current drug sales. The high prices, they say, are merely a reflection of the spending that is necessary for the creation of newer, better drugs.
But is this the truth? Are drug companies using a large percentage of current prescription drug sales to fund R&D? If so, are the new drugs under development truly going to improve the health of the people who need them most? Sadly, this doesn't appear to be the case.
In reality, drug companies spend more on advertising, lobbying and political contributions than they do on research and development. Most of the money you pay for prescription medication ends up in the pockets of marketers and politicians, so that you can be convinced that you need the newer and better drugs that are under development.
In addition, research and development tends to focus on more marketable types of drugs that the drug companies can sell to the largest amounts of people. How many times have you seen advertisements for a drug that can help alleviate such serious medical conditions as social anxiety disorder and seasonal allergies? Unfortunately, this means that most large drug companies tend to neglect the development of life-saving drugs for more serious conditions, as the numbers are not there to rake in high profits.
Developing new allergy or anxiety drugs, however, does not require massive amounts of money, as these drugs have already been developed. Neither does rehashing previously developed drugs to be marketed for a new ailment. Usually the newer drugs under development aren't new at all. So even the money that is spent on R&D, it can be argued, is an unnecessary expense driven by the market more than by the country's medical needs.
Unfortunately for the consumer, all the money spent on advertising rather than development, and providing drug information to physicians about specific new drugs that need to be marketed, makes it very likely that you will end up paying more money than you should. Also, because your doctor is only provided with information on the latest and greatest drugs, he/she will be more likely to prescribe you the more expensive drugs. Perhaps surprisingly, there are older versions of drugs on the market that work just as well as their updated counterparts (sometimes better) as well as generic versions of brand name drugs that come at a significantly reduced
cost. Of course, the drug companies do not market these drugs and do all they can to keep generic drugs off the shelves for as long as possible.
That's another place your money goes when you buy prescription drugs lawyers. Drug companies spend a lot of money paying for court cases to extend the patents of certain drugs. Even though the cases are often lost in the end, court processes can take months to resolve buying more time for the drug companies to be the sole profiteers of a particular drug. When the patent on a drug runs out, other companies are allowed to create and sell a generic version of the drug. It is usually sold for a lower price, which takes customers away from the brand name and reduces that drug company's profits. In the end, patents are often extended anyway because the drug company finds a new application for the drug, thus artificially extending the life of the patent and keeping generics off the shelves. You end up paying more because a less expensive generic alternative is not available and you are forced to shell out for the higher priced brand name drug instead.
For the lucky people who have insurance that covers the cost of their drugs, this may be indirectly allowing the drug companies to charge more than they would if everyone had to pay full price. Because many people never see the true cost of their prescriptions, the price is not something they worry about. As a result, drug companies feel freer to raise prices and costs continue to rise. The bottom line? A large percentage of what you pay for drugs is taken as profit.
Contributed by Katerina Mitrou from www.rxcarecanada.com, a Canadian pharmacy online. RXcarecanada.com takes the search out of your research by providing you the lowest prices on medication.
Read more!
Getting Heart Smart
Cardiovascular disease is the #1 killer of Americans, but many women don't realize they're at risk until it's too late. Now several groups are hoping to change that.
Just a few years ago, heart disease was considered a man's problem. Women especially if they were under 50' didn't worry too much about the cholesterol clogging their arteries or the possibility that pain in their chest might signal serious trouble. Now we know that ignorance could be deadly: More women in America die of cardiovascular disease than all kinds of cancer combined. And it's not just older women who need to be concerned about heart disease.
The choices you make long before menopause, when women's risk of heart disease starts rising, determine how healthy you'll be later on. Do you get regular exercise? Do you watch your weight? Do you know your cholesterol levels? The answers to all of these questions should be yes.
Raising women's awareness is the goal of the Heart Truth campaign, launched in 2002 by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, along with the Office of Women's Health, the American Heart Association and WomenHeart: the National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease. February is the campaign's big month, starting with a splashy New York fashion show on Feb. 3 to publicize the campaign's symbol: a red dress. All the publicity has apparently helped make women more conscious of their risk factors for heart disease and how they can be healthier. According to a recent survey published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, women's rate of awareness that heart disease is the leading cause of death nearly doubled from 30 percent in 1997 to 55 percent today.
Now that they've got our attention, scientists are finding out that heart disease in women looks very different than it does in men. Dozens of studies in recent years have highlighted these variations. Here's a rundown of some recent findings.
Diagnosis: Women with stable chest pain are less likely to be referred for testing, according to a British study published last month in Circulation. Men with the same symptoms got more diagnostic tests, artery clearing procedures or medication, the researchers said. After a year of follow-up, these women were twice as likely as men to have a heart attack or die.
Even when women's symptoms are taken seriously, doctors may miss things. In another study of nearly 1,000 women who had received angiograms an imaging procedure that allows doctors to see whether blood vessels are clogged researchers found only a third of the women had blockages that showed up. But more than half of those without obvious blockages actually had potentially fatal abnormalities in their arteries that only became clear after additional testing. Without more tests, the women would have been told incorrectly that their hearts were healthy. Many women have been falsely reassured, says Dr. Noel Bairey Merz, medical director at Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, who oversees the WISE study (for Women's Ischemia Syndrome Evaluation). Her advice to any women still feeling chest pain after a negative angiogram. Seek out a physician for more testing.
Treatment: Women are more likely than men to be readmitted to the hospital after bypass surgery, according to a study by Canadian researchers published in circulation last month. The study suggested that women may have been sicker when they were admitted because they delayed seeking help or their symptoms were ignored by medical personnel.
Another study published last July in the Journal of the American Medical Association indicated that the benefits of taking aspirin differ between men and women. Aspirin reduces the risk of heart attack in men, but cuts the chances of having a stroke in women. It had no effect on a woman's chances of getting a heart attack or dying of cardiovascular disease.
Prevention: Several recent studies have shown that women can play an important role in lowering their risk of heart disease by watching their weight and staying physically active. But you have to do both because the effect is cumulative. Just keeping your weight down isn't enough. A sedentary lifestyle alone makes you more vulnerable to heart disease even if you are a normal weight. A high level of fitness protects against metabolic syndrome, according to a study presented last November at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association. Metabolic syndrome is the name for a cluster of symptoms including abdominal fat, high cholesterol and blood pressure and insulin resistance that increase the risk of heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. This is an issue for younger people as well. A study released this week from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute's Framingham Heart Study shows that both men and women who have no risk factors for cardiovascular disease at age 50 live substantially longer than people who have two or more risk factors.
What's the take-home message? You need to take charge of your heart health now. A good first step is to assess your risk. You need to know your blood pressure and cholesterol levels (including HDL and LDL both the good and bad kinds and triglycerides, the fat found in your blood).
By Barbara Kantrowitz and Pat Wingert from Newsweek.com
Read more!
Just a few years ago, heart disease was considered a man's problem. Women especially if they were under 50' didn't worry too much about the cholesterol clogging their arteries or the possibility that pain in their chest might signal serious trouble. Now we know that ignorance could be deadly: More women in America die of cardiovascular disease than all kinds of cancer combined. And it's not just older women who need to be concerned about heart disease.
The choices you make long before menopause, when women's risk of heart disease starts rising, determine how healthy you'll be later on. Do you get regular exercise? Do you watch your weight? Do you know your cholesterol levels? The answers to all of these questions should be yes.
Raising women's awareness is the goal of the Heart Truth campaign, launched in 2002 by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, along with the Office of Women's Health, the American Heart Association and WomenHeart: the National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease. February is the campaign's big month, starting with a splashy New York fashion show on Feb. 3 to publicize the campaign's symbol: a red dress. All the publicity has apparently helped make women more conscious of their risk factors for heart disease and how they can be healthier. According to a recent survey published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, women's rate of awareness that heart disease is the leading cause of death nearly doubled from 30 percent in 1997 to 55 percent today.
Now that they've got our attention, scientists are finding out that heart disease in women looks very different than it does in men. Dozens of studies in recent years have highlighted these variations. Here's a rundown of some recent findings.
Diagnosis: Women with stable chest pain are less likely to be referred for testing, according to a British study published last month in Circulation. Men with the same symptoms got more diagnostic tests, artery clearing procedures or medication, the researchers said. After a year of follow-up, these women were twice as likely as men to have a heart attack or die.
Even when women's symptoms are taken seriously, doctors may miss things. In another study of nearly 1,000 women who had received angiograms an imaging procedure that allows doctors to see whether blood vessels are clogged researchers found only a third of the women had blockages that showed up. But more than half of those without obvious blockages actually had potentially fatal abnormalities in their arteries that only became clear after additional testing. Without more tests, the women would have been told incorrectly that their hearts were healthy. Many women have been falsely reassured, says Dr. Noel Bairey Merz, medical director at Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, who oversees the WISE study (for Women's Ischemia Syndrome Evaluation). Her advice to any women still feeling chest pain after a negative angiogram. Seek out a physician for more testing.
Treatment: Women are more likely than men to be readmitted to the hospital after bypass surgery, according to a study by Canadian researchers published in circulation last month. The study suggested that women may have been sicker when they were admitted because they delayed seeking help or their symptoms were ignored by medical personnel.
Another study published last July in the Journal of the American Medical Association indicated that the benefits of taking aspirin differ between men and women. Aspirin reduces the risk of heart attack in men, but cuts the chances of having a stroke in women. It had no effect on a woman's chances of getting a heart attack or dying of cardiovascular disease.
Prevention: Several recent studies have shown that women can play an important role in lowering their risk of heart disease by watching their weight and staying physically active. But you have to do both because the effect is cumulative. Just keeping your weight down isn't enough. A sedentary lifestyle alone makes you more vulnerable to heart disease even if you are a normal weight. A high level of fitness protects against metabolic syndrome, according to a study presented last November at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association. Metabolic syndrome is the name for a cluster of symptoms including abdominal fat, high cholesterol and blood pressure and insulin resistance that increase the risk of heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. This is an issue for younger people as well. A study released this week from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute's Framingham Heart Study shows that both men and women who have no risk factors for cardiovascular disease at age 50 live substantially longer than people who have two or more risk factors.
What's the take-home message? You need to take charge of your heart health now. A good first step is to assess your risk. You need to know your blood pressure and cholesterol levels (including HDL and LDL both the good and bad kinds and triglycerides, the fat found in your blood).
By Barbara Kantrowitz and Pat Wingert from Newsweek.com
Read more!
Bird Flu to Europe
It's long been known that ducks, swans and geese can carry bird flu viruses, and now the Asian bird flu is turning up in Europe as found in Greece, Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Germany that mute swans killed by the H5N1 virus. Dead swans found in Denmark are still being tested. Some health officials say these discoveries show that waterfowl are moving the virus around but ornithologists say this case is far from proven.Peter Marra, a migration expert at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C said that about 30 percent of ducks might be carrying some form of low pathogenic avian influenza, which doesn't hurt them or other ducks or animals that they might interact with. It used to be assumed that the virulent H5N1 virus killed migrating waterfowl before they traveled anywhere, but that assumption has taken some hits in recent months.
Last week, a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed that some migratory waterfowl can live with the virus inside them. The virus started spreading last fall along migratory pathways that took it west to the Black Sea and then south into Africa. Migrating waterfowl are delivering the dreaded Asian bird flu to poultry farms, by flying overhead and defecating on flocks or in nearby waters.
Meanwhile, Michael Fry, a migration expert with the American Bird Conservancy said that wild birds were victims of the bird flu, but he didn't think those birds are really spreading the disease.
Fry says there are several problems with the waterfowl-as-carriers theory. First, while it's clear that migrating birds pick this virus up at poultry farms, there's no evidence linking their droppings to subsequent die-offs.
He said that there are many places that waterfowl go that if they were with any frequency carrying the disease, this disease would be everywhere.
Health officials need to focus less on ducks, swans and geese, and more on other ways the virus may be spreading. They should start by making sure poor poultry farmers are compensated when they kill infected flocks, lest they sell off birds that don't appear sick.
Fry suspects that sales like these have been driving the spread of H5N1 virus to a much greater extent than migrating waterfowl.
Read more!
Owning a Sauna Could Help Your Health
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 for your mental health. 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 and women lifestyle.
Article by Pertti Olavi Jalasjaa, 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
Read more!
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 for your mental health. 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 and women lifestyle.
Article by Pertti Olavi Jalasjaa, 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
Read more!
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