It used to be that those suffering from
even mild asthma could not enjoy the health benefits of
a sauna
because the high heat would trigger an attack. But now some
doctors are using
saunas to treat asthma –
with tremendous success.
“Sauna is excellent for asthma,” says Dr. Jozef Krop, author of Healing
the Planet: One
patient at a Time.
Dr. Krop is a pioneer in sauna therapy and has
published papers about
patient success with asthma as far
back as 1988.
In one study published in the medical journal Clinical Ecology (1987/88)
Dr. Krop cured a
teenage girl of her
asthma after years of failed treatment from
respiratory specialists, who
prescribed steroids. “Her symptoms
did not clear with environmental
control, immunotherapy,
or anti-candida treatment,” says the report.
“They cleared after sauna
therapy.”
Dr. Krop’s pioneering work in sauna therapy caught on in several clinics
in the United States
after he published
his results. Many Canadians are only now experiencing
the fruit of his
investigations due to the increasing
availability of far-infrared
saunas. They allow patients to
sweat without over-heating the lungs.
“Basically any sauna is good for you because it makes you sweat,” says
Dr. Krop, “but the far
infrared sauna
allows you to put much sicker people inside, or people
who are intolerant to the
high temperatures [of regular
saunas].”
This low heat sauna changed the world for Bonnie Lesky, an advertising
executive from
Toronto. For years
she was shackled to her asthma inhaler and had to use
it for relief several
times a week. She purchased a
far-infrared sauna for her arthritis but
was delightfully
surprised when, after a few months, her asthma was
almost completely
gone.
“I never thought it would eradicate asthma, but I barely even use the
inhaler anymore,” says
Lesky.
For years she suffered cold-induced asthma that was triggered with the
slightest amount of
exertion in
freezing weather. “Last winter I couldn’t go outside without
the inhaler. This year I
barely needed it at all.”
Perhaps saunas are one of the best-kept secrets in asthma therapy. Dr.
Krop explains that
they work on
asthmatic symptoms because profuse sweating is known to
remove toxins from
the body’s fat cells.
“We’re not talking about fat on the belly or the buttocks,” says Krop.
“We’re talking about the
fat cells in the
cellular membrane. Every cell membrane contains fat,
and my feeling is that the
smallest parts of the lung –
the alveoli – are not flexible when toxins
are present in the fat.
When you remove the toxins they operate better.”
For Bonnie Lesky the sauna has finally allowed her to walk outside in
comfort during the long
winter months.
“Having the sauna in my home has definitely been worth
it,” says Lesky,
literally breathing a sigh of relief.