Sauna benefits: What is the connection between saunas, negative ions, free radicals, hot rocks and your health?

I wasn’t clear about the connection between negative ions and sauna benefits until I found the missing piece of the puzzle. I confess it took time before my mental list of sauna benefits included negative ions. I knew what negative ions were but their connection with health was sketchy at best. The key was connecting electrons, atomic charges, free radicals, antioxidants and hot rocks.

NEGATIVE IONS AND STEAM

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• Let's start with a basic look at atoms and chemical reactions. Going back to High School science class again you remember that atoms are made up of protons, electrons and neutrons. Electrons have a negative charge and protons have a positive charge. Neutral atoms (I think of them as happy atoms) have an equal balance of positive and negative charges. In other words they have the same number of electrons as protons.
  
  
• Adding or subtracting protons from an atom is rare (on earth) and results in things like atomic explosions and solar energy. Electrons have a lot of energy and leave or join atoms pretty regularly. Moving electrons produce things like electricity, lightning and negative ions.
  
  
• A negative ion is simply an atom that has too many electrons and therefore extra negative charge.
  
  
• Several things create negative ions including radioactivity, lightning and moving water. Splashing water on heated rocks in a sauna produces steam and an abundance of negative ions.
  
  

  
  

  ANTIOXIDANTS AND FREE RADICALS

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• I often heard that free radicals are bad and antioxidants are good for your health but the reason escaped me. The reason is clear when we look on the atomic level. Free radicals are positively charged molecules. In other words they are missing at least one electron. To be happy they need to take an electron from some other molecule. Since electrons have energy it’s like free radicals want to take energy from other molecules (a bad thing).
  
  
• Antioxidants are called “electron sinks”. They have extra electrons that they can give up. In fact the more they give up the happier they are. They want to give away energy (a good thing).
  
  
• Do you see where this is going? The antioxidants balance the free radicals and keep them from draining energy from other molecules in your body. More antioxidants mean fewer free radicals. This means a better balanced (happier) you.
  ANTIOXIDANTS AND NEGATIVE IONS

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• OK so let's connect antioxidants with negative ions. That’s easy, they are a kind of negative ion. Since they have extra electrons they have extra negative charges, therefore they are negative ions.

  
  
  

  NEGATIVE IONS AND SAUNA BENEFITS

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• One way to produce negative ions is to add mechanical energy to water, in other words move it. This is what happens at a waterfall, during a rainstorm or when you splash water on your KONNOS (hot sauna rocks). Some of that special smell and feeling after a rainstorm comes from the abundance of negative ions in the air. In a sauna when you make “löyly” (sauna steam) negative ions become available to your body, which can balance your free radicals. Negative ions work just like antioxidants do. The Finnish discovered this connection when investigating why traditional wood burning sauna stoves were so much more popular than the newer electric ones. People reported sauna benefits like increased energy and a sense of well being much more in wood burning saunas than they did with electric heaters.
  
  
• The difference turned out to be that woodstove rocks tend to be hotter and produced more negative ions. In addition electric coils produce positive ions, which act like free radicals. It turns out that if electric heaters are adjusted to heat the rocks enough those positive ions ground out on the rocks. Most electric heater manufacturers have now taken this into account so you don’t have to tweak your electric heater.
  
  
• Negative ion generators are available and very popular in Europe. Some studies indicate that they can improve a patient’s response for burns, respiratory disease, infection and some cancers.
  

  
  

  Once again “löyly” turns out to be one of the most important sauna benefits. This is what produces the negative ions that are so beneficial to our health.

  
  
  
  
  

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  Sweating Detoxification Negative ions