Making use of the therapeutic powers of a sauna is a commonly practiced activity, which comes with numerous benefits like helping the body relax more, hence a better blood circulation, and improving overall health. Some even use it in battling a cold. There is also a benefit of helping the body flush out toxins via sweating during the process; however, this comes with a risk of feeling sick after sauna, too, when precautions are not observed.
A sauna is a room or enclosement where high heat is generated and released to be used as dry or wet heat sessions. Steam and high heat make the body more relax and feel good. Never the less, many individuals experience a sick like feeling immediately after making use of a sauna, which is down to so many factors which we would discuss later.
Several reasons exist why this could happen, though it could be peculiar to each individual’s preexisting health condition as well as other factors. A few are prolonged exposure, which could leave you facing too much heat, causing dizziness, dehydration from excessive sweat, low blood pressure as a result of enlarged relax arteries and nausea.
Let’s Start Here: Can sauna make you sick?
Undertaking a sauna properly in itself wouldn’t make you sick, but if there are underlying health problems with the body, then it might simply expose such, giving an appearance of “it made me sick.”
For example, elderly people are more prone to age-related total water changes in the body, reduced thirst perception, and kidney function, which poses a high risk for dehydration (according to a 1987 article published in the journal of the national medical association). Also, diabetic individuals also experience dehydration more often, while older people are prone to heat stress.
There is a good chance that after the individuals in this category makes use of a sauna, and they start to experience dehydration because of the excessive amount of sweat lost during the process. All that dehydration could cause a headache, fatigue, and dizziness, giving a sick-like symptom in general. This could also occur to people without a poor health History
For those who are more susceptible to heat stress, staying in the sauna for too long causes the body to become overheated, giving a dizzy and nausea feeling. The extended-stay could even lead to a heat stroke, which can do some serious damage to the body.
Low blood pressure could also be a resulting outcome of sauna due to the body sending more blood to the surface of the skin to cool off as sweat evaporates. This causes blood pressure to lessen, making you feel light-headed, nausea and fatigued, blur vision, and even loss of consciousness in extreme cases.
Five reasons why you are feeling sick after sauna
Feeling sick after a sauna for the sake of this article has been narrowed down to 5 possible reasons
Dehydration:
Dehydration has never been good for the body of man for so many reasons, and though it can be caused by several factors, they all ultimately lead the body to lose a whole lot of water than it normally does.
Associated with dehydration is thirst, dry mouth, dark yellow pee, headaches, muscle cramps, dry skin, and at chronic stage feeling dizzy, rapid heartbeat and breathing, lack of energy and sleepiness, and possibly fainting.
Depending on the level of dehydration, one might experience only a few or many of these symptoms, which causes a sick kind of feeling.
The sauna was too hot:
Due to whatever reason, a man just jumps into a sauna and aim for its peak, without understanding their body and its limits.
The first thing to study is how high the heat can go and would still remain safe for your body. It is important to not exceed temperatures that your body cannot handle, start small, and increase gradually with steady observation. Overheating causes dehydration.
You have been in there for too long:
The sauna is a temporary therapeutic abode, and should only be used as one. Even if your body can withstand a certain temperature, staying there too long can eventually stress it out, getting you dehydrated or more stressed as a result of exposure to heat than relaxed.
Heat stress
This is the body treats as “stress”: heat stress is a common factor which occurs when the body is exposed to extreme heat. Most times, the body is unable to maintain a healthy temperature in response to a hot environment.
The aftermath of this includes dizziness or fainting, fatigue, severe headache or nausea, lack of alertness, excessive sweating, and muscle cramps. This means that heat stress could also lead to dehydration after excessive sweating.
Expanded arteries:
The body’s response to high body temperature is to move blood to the surface of the skin to cool before taking it back into its core. During this process, the arteries expand, becoming larger than it would normally be, therefore causing the blood to flow with less pressure. Low blood pressure is characterized by dizziness or lightheadedness, nausea, possible fainting, dehydration, and blurred vision,
Most of these health conditions which leave you feeling sick are linked with one another. Heat stress can cause dehydration, and so can low blood pressure, while staying too long in the sauna can cause both dehydration and heat stress. This makes avoiding any of these acts the best possible solution to prevent feeling sick after sauna.
How long should you stay in a sauna?
The duration which you should stay in a sauna largely depends on how experienced you are in using one. The more the body becomes accustomed to the whole process, the more it can conveniently handle it.
For beginners, it is important you limit sauna sessions from 5 to 10 minutes, while the more experienced can go as high as 20 minutes, and anything more leaves you with a risk of feeling sick after sauna.
It is also important that you apply the necessary precautions while using the sauna too. Do not turn up the heat to a level that the body becomes too uncomfortable; try to stay hydrated by drinking at least a glass of water before stepping in. Dress properly for easy aeration, or just ditch the clothes altogether, and do not wear any type of juries.
Why you are having headaches and nausea after sauna
Having headaches and nausea after the sauna is mostly aftermath of overexposure to heat (you overstayed your welcome), experiencing rapid dehydration due to preexisting health condition or high turned up too high, and finally low blood pressure. These three conditions can cause any of either nausea or headaches after leaving the sauna and is why the activity should be carried out with care.
A dehydrated body is always at risk of nausea and headaches, and the very act of sauna makes the body sweat a lot, getting rid of water in the body. Also, there’s a chance of it being caused by low blood pressure, which is the body trying to cool the blood, resulting in better circulation at the expense of reduced pressure.
Our Final Thoughts on Feeling Sick after Sauna
Sauna is a very beneficial activity; some might even call it out rightly therapeutic, but should be done with a lot of caution.
Though prolonged exposure looks like a way to get the maximum benefits, it is recommended you don’t spend more than 20 minutes as a pro, and not more than 5 minutes when an amateur. Ending up rather sick than revived is the worse way to end a therapeutic session.
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