Are saunas good for you?
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What are the cultural origins of saunas?
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Go to the Skills section of our website now, bbclearningenglish.com, and improve your listening today. Hello, this is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Neil. And I'm Georgie. In winter, people find different ways of keeping warm, like wearing extra clothes or staying indoors. But in some countries, there's another way of keeping the cold out – going for a sauna. Yes, Nordic countries like Sweden and Finland have a long history of taking saunas, but now they're popping up in Britain too. Have you ever been for a sauna, Georgie? I have, yes, and if I'm honest, I'm not a huge fan. I don't really like being too hot.
How do saunas impact physical and mental wellbeing?
It's uncomfortable. What about you, Neil? Oh, really? I quite like a sauna. You feel really refreshed afterwards. So what is a sauna? Well, a typical sauna is a small wooden room heated with steam to around 80 degrees Celsius. It's hot enough to make anyone sweat. But are saunas good for your health as well? That's what James Gallagher wanted to find out for BBC Radio 4 programme Inside Health.
We're seeing what saunas do to the human body. They're popping up all over the country with claims that high temperatures boost your health and wellbeing. But are they all they're cracked up to be?
James wants to find out if saunas are all they're cracked up to be. He means, are they as good as people say?
What evidence supports the health benefits of saunas?
And that's exactly what we'll be finding out in this episode, along with some useful new words and phrases. And remember, you can practice all the new vocabulary from this episode with the quiz and worksheet on our website, bbclearningenglish.com. But now I have a question for you, Georgie. The word sauna comes from the Finnish language, but what does it mean? Does it mean a. sweat, b. hot water or c. bathhouse? I'm going to guess c. bathhouse. OK, well, we'll find out if you're right at the end of the programme. In recent winters, saunas have grown in popularity in the UK. BBC reporter James Gallagher met some people going to Moor a Sauna, a beach sauna in South Wales. He asked them why they love saunas so much.
Hello, everyone. Who loves a sauna? Me. Me. Me. Tell me why.
What are the personal experiences of sauna users?
Oh, it's just so relaxing. It just makes you feel at ease.
It's also great for relaxing muscles if you're up tense or anything like that at all.
Yeah, I always love coming down here when I'm a bit stressed out. And by the time that I'm finished, I feel like I've completely reset. It's wonderful. The first speaker says saunas make her feel at ease, a phrase meaning comfortable and relaxed. And the next speaker thinks saunas are great if you feel tense, an adjective meaning worried and unable to relax. Saunas make the final speaker feel like she's reset. You might already know the word reset to mean turning a computer off and on again when it's not working. But used in connection with a person, reset means to start again after a rest so that you feel better about life. So it seems saunas do help people feel better, but is there actual medical evidence that it's good for us?
Here's James Gallagher again speaking with Professor Damien Bailey, an expert in human physiology for BBC Radio 4 programme Inside Health.
What does the term 'observational data' mean in health research?
When we start to connect this to the arguments around health benefits, is there a health benefit to going in a sauna?
Yeah. I mean, I looked at the research really closely. I was fascinated by the evidence. Huge benefits. I mean, really huge benefits. And it's cultural, of course. Five million people in Finland, 90% of them use saunas. Maybe we should be copying what the Finns do because there's a 40% reduction in all-cause mortality rate with the sauna goers. Now, this is what we would call observational data, but it's based on thousands and thousands of sauna goers. These are observational data sets, so we really do need what we call RCTs, randomized controlled trials, so everything, just as you've mentioned there, everything is absolutely controlled.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What are the cultural origins of saunas?
0:00–1:46
2
How do saunas impact physical and mental wellbeing?
1:46–2:28
3
What evidence supports the health benefits of saunas?
2:28–3:27
4
What are the personal experiences of sauna users?
3:27–4:33
5
What does the term 'observational data' mean in health research?
4:33–5:16
6
How should we interpret the health claims about saunas?
5:16–6:49
7
What vocabulary can we learn from this episode about saunas?
6:49–7:34