Beauty Benefits

• Intensive and comprehensive cleansing effect on skin "One is most beautiful two hours after the Sauna" goes an old Finnish adage. Certainly, as a neither labor nor material-intensive skin care treatment, steam bathing produces unique results. By inducing sweating, it creates an intensive and comprehensive cleansing effect on the skin and its sweat glands; by enhancing circulation, it stimulates a surge of blood flowing to the skin, sweeping away impurities and flooding poorly nourished areas with nutrients. The facial steam has long been an invaluable part of any esthetician's treatment regimen. In recent years, with new products being launched that facilitate whole-body steam treatments, many practitioners have turned to the beauty enhancing benefits of full-body steam treatments."Healthy skin is skin which has been cleared of obstruction," explains Dr. Chris Clark., Medical Co-Director at The Raj, a natural health and beauty center. Steam therapy liquefies the impurities hidden in even the minutest bodily channels."
  

• Enhances circulation and blood flow to skin Within just a few minutes, there is an increase of cardiac output, increased blood flow to the skin produced by the tiny blood vessels in the skin expanding to accommodate the increased blood flow. At usual room temperatures of about 70° Fahrenheit, the cutaneous (skin) blood flow is 5 - 10 percent of cardiac output at rest. However, during the steam bath, the blood flow to the skin can go as high at 50 to 70 percent of the cardiac output!
  
• Nourishes skin with nutrients The increased blood flow brings vital nutrients to skin and subcutaneous tissue, stimulating cellular activity and growth. The parts of the skin that normally suffer from poor circulation benefit especially from this treatment.
  
• Aromatherapy treatments for total relaxation
  
• Superior to body wraps in treatment of cellulite "Dr. John Welbes, Director of the College of Massage Therapy in Omaha, Nebraska, recommends steam bath in the treatment of cellulite, finding it superior to body wraps in raising tissue temperature. "Body wraps are very slow;" says Dr. Welbes, "it may take an hour to achieve the same temperature increase that you can get in about 10 minutes in a steam bath." According to Dr. Welbes, the heat helps loosen the fatty tissue so that it is less solid and can more easily be broken down.
  
• Increased body metabolism.. "Sweating is therapeutic, but so too are other physiological effects of the steam bath. Dramatic effects derived from the circulatory changes are caused by the intense heat exposure. Steam treatments have a stimulating effect on the cardiovascular system. The heart rate increases as much as 50% to 75% during a 10-20 minute steam bath session. The pulse rate increases from 75 beats per minute to between 100-150 beats per minute during a 15-20 minute treatment. This increase blood circulation, but not blood pressure, since the heat also causes the tiny blood vessels in the skin to expand, accommodating the increased blood flow. According to A.C. Guyton, M.D., an authority in the field of medical physiology, the metabolic rate is increased 100% for every 10° C rise in temperature. An increase in temperature from 98.6° F to 104° F should increase metabolism by about 30%.
  
• Emulsifies fat of sebaceous glands The skin's more than 2 million eccrine glands respond to rising body temperatures by excreting sweat to cool the skin and the blood in the skin's capillary vessels. According to Dr. J. Perasalo of the Finnish Student Health Services in Helsinki, sweat emulsifies the fat of the sebaceous glands far more effectively than water and clears them of sebum and the bacterial flora they usually contain.
  
• Enhance the development of collagen At the same time nutrients are being rush via the increased blood supply, fluids that rush to the surface of the skin enhance the development of collagen, says Ben H. Douglas, Ph.D. of the University of Mississippi Medical Center. The effect is to fill in the spaces around the cells and even plump up wrinkles.
  
• Hydration to dry skin Steam baths are better for the skin than the sometimes dry heat of the sauna. This is why the facial steam bath has long been an invaluable part of any esthetician's treatment regimen. According to some researchers people with psoriasis find that regular steam bathing helps to keep their skin lesions free of thick scales for extended periods if used in conjunction with petrolatum, emollients, or some topical antisoriatic treatment after bathing.

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