Sauna Bathing May Have a Wide Range of Medical Benefits

In Finland, sauna bathing traditionally involves bathers not only immersing themselves in steam, but also slapping themselves with branches until their skin is red and tingling, then diving into cold water or rolling in the snow. Now researchers find that sauna bathing -- even of the conventional kind, sans cold and slapping -- may have a wide range of health benefits. Saunas bathe people in steam from water thrown on heated stones. This tradition may have its origins in baths described by