Sauna breathing – can hot air be harmful?
What is the importance of a breathing sauna when bathing
Inhaled air, even when it is very cold or very hot, is moisturized in the upper respiratory tract and adapted to body temperature. In a hot sauna room, the mucosa of the oropharyngeal-oral cavity cools the inhaled air from 80 – 90’C downwards, almost to body temperature. It has several consequences. Capable of accommodating and transporting enormous amounts of heat, innumerable blood vessels in the mucous membrane expand, which generally increases their functional abilities (“hardening”). Blood flowing from the throat to the heart carries a lot of warmth inside the body; the lung surface is probably heated by 1 – 2, K, as in a fever. Because of this warming, the oxygen absorption in the blood decreases, the phenomenon is already well known for a long time.
The ability of red hemoglobin to carry oxygen is lower in warmer blood and higher in colder blood.
Another reason why the body is temporarily supplied with less oxygen, is the thinning of the air. This is due to its significant heating by 60 – 80’K during heating the sauna. Salt Cave.
Two rules for proper use of the sauna are based on these facts: It is not allowed to do physical exercises (gymnastics, swimming) while using the sauna! This could cause more oxygen demand. When leaving the sauna room, choose the shortest path for an open-air bath, because the airways there are cooled the fastest.