Heat Therapy

Heat therapy, also called thermotherapy is the therapeutic use of heat with physical and psychological benefits, benefits that are both immediate and long lasting. Heat applied to specific areas or systemically to raise body temperature induces a number of physiological changes that result in significant healing throughout the body.

Heat has always been used in various forms for therapies and its history dates back thousands of years. Sunlight, heated sand or stones, and heated water were initially used as an effective means of therapy for ailments and pain. Native Americans sat in sweat lodges for rheumatism and other ailments, and cultures around the world have long recognised the healing properties of heat.

There are many techniques by which heat may be delivered. Our INUA saunas, infrared cabins and vitariums are whole-body heat treatment devices. The difference between saunas and infrared cabins is, that saunas warm the air and infrared cabins warm objects. This means that saunas warm the external layer of the skin, and heat is transferred to the deeper layer by conduction. Infrared radiation is absorbed by our body and penetrates deep in our skin dependent of wavelength.

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We can find rituals and traditions associated with sweating in many different cultures. Some of them have a deep ceremonial or mystical significance, while others used sweating primarily for physical cleansing and warmth. The sweat lodge of the Indigenous people of the Americas e.g. is used for ceremonial steam baths and prayer. The Temazcal of the pre-Hispanic Indigenous people in Mesoamerica was used as part of a curative ceremony to purify the body and also for healing the sick, improving health, and for women to give birth. It continues to be used today as cleansing of mind, body and spirit.

In ancient Greece and Rome many physicians shared the opinion that knowledge how to control human body temperature will allow them to cure all diseases. For example, the Greek philosopher Parmenides (ca. 540 – ca. 470 B.C.) was deeply convinced of the effectiveness of hyperthermia as evidenced by the words: “Give me the power to produce fever and I will cure all diseases”. This view was shared by Hippocrates (460 – 370 B.C.), a Greek philosopher and scientist who is considered the “father of medicine”. He claimed that the disease must be incurable if it can not be cured by using heat.

The first scientific inquiries into the use of thermotherapy were conducted in the 19th century. German physicians observed regression of sarcoma in patients who suffered prolonged high fevers due to infectious disease.

Today thermotherapy is applied in many different kinds of heat therapy devices, such as e.g. heating pads, cordless far infrared therapy wraps, shortwave, microwave devices, hydrocollactor packs etc. Heat therapy is medically used for the treatment of muscle spasms, myalgia, fibromyalgia, contracture, bursitis, infection, cancer, headaches and migraines. Our INUA whole body treatment devices – saunas, infrared cabins and vitariums – have numerous scientific evidence based health benefits. If you would like to deepen yourself in the topic, please visit our page with scientific articles about heat therapy.

Heat Therapy

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