Steam bathing has been an integral part of the treatment modalities of natural health systems for a millennia.

	As early as 200 BC, the bathhouses of the wealthy in India included an insulated room with stone benches placed around a fireplace.
	The sudatoria, or steam room, was a popular haunt in the public baths of early Rome.
	The hannan, or Muslim bathroom, which in Europe developed in the Turkish bath, was built around a domed, central steam chamber.
	Famous health resorts in Europe have used steam baths for centuries as part of the hydrotherapy treatments.
	Steam baths also play an important role in the Ayurvedic tradition of India, where the swedana, or steam bath, is part of the traditional purification treatment.
	To the Native Americans, sweat baths were not only a healing therapy, but part of powerful spiritual rituals as well.
	Even in Finland where sauna bathing is such a national pastime that the Olympic team finds it necessary to lug a portable sauna with them wherever they go – sweat bathing traditionally had spiritual overtones. The Finnish believed that Loyle, steam that rises when water is thrown on the heated stones inside the sauna, drove out evil spirits.

As superstitious as such beliefs may sound today, they make more sense when viewed in the light of healing. Today it is widely recognized that negative emotions produce negative or toxic chemicals in the body which have to be released before true healing can occur.

The Benefits of Steam Sauna >>