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Saunas are well-known for their many health benefits. Most of these benefits stem from the fact that saunas naturally make you sweat. This sweat then depletes your body of toxins, cleans your skin, while also strengthening your skin at the same time.

With that being said do saunas help with acne? Since they naturally cleanse your skin doesn’t that mean they naturally help with acne? In this article we’ll discuss this common question and ultimately guide you to the correct answer.

How Your Skin Works

To answer the above question you first need to understand how your skin works and why you acquire acne in the first place. First, your skin has two main types of glands. There are sebaceous glands and sweat glands. These glands secrete substances to help keep your skin strong and healthy.

The sebaceous gland surrounds hair follicles and has a purpose of secreting waxy substances onto the surface of your skin. This waxy substance that is secreted from the gland is called sebum. Sebum helps make your skin healthier by moisturizing it and by giving it vital nutrients that your skin needs. Another purpose of sebum is to help lubricate your skin so that sweat rolls off easily when your body is overheating. It also fight against bacteria as well.

Sweat glands, as most people know, are glands that secrete fluid when your body is heating up. These glands are vital as they regulate your body’s temperature so that it functions correctly. If you did not have these glands then you would over heat when doing extreme activity or when in a hot environments. This would then cause many health issues as your body needs to work within a certain temperature.

Even though these glands are essential to keeping your body healthy, they also create cosmetic issues that everyone hates. The main cosmetic issue that we are referring to in this post is acne. The cause of this acne stems from a blockage of the sweat glands. There are multiple things that block the glands, but the most common are dead skin, cosmetics, and bacteria.

When this blockage occurs you acquire blackheads, white heads, pimples and boils. It should also be known that black heads occur when the blockage is at the surface of your skin. White heads, pimples, or boils occur when the blockage is underneath the skin.

How Sweat Affects Your Skin

The main reason why saunas are so effective at treating acne is because they make you sweat profusely. Since sweat naturally cleanses the skin, extreme sweating will only make this process faster and more effective. This means that saunas are the catalyst of a bigger formula to make your skin healthy and better looking. With that being said we should analyze how sweating affects your skin to gain the most from sauna bathing.

First, when you sweat the old skin gets cleansed and is replaced by new skin. Saunas allow you to shed off the dead skin quicker, leaving you with a layer of healthy looking new skin. This then prevents the old skin from blocking your glands and creating acne.

Secondly, the sweat you secrete also helps remove unwanted bacteria in your skin. This bacteria is another cause of acne when it blocks your glands. So when you sweat you cleanse the epidermal layer of your skin. This then makes your skin look stronger, healthier, and younger looking.

Another benefit to sweating is that it gives your skin essential nutrients. These nutrients cause your skin to work more efficiently and look better. Sweat also fills in empty spaces in your skin. This allows it to look more plump and firm. So if you’re looking for a natural anti-aging remedy then sauna bathing is the best option for you.

Why Should You Use A Sauna To Treat Acne?

Will all the above information you might be asking yourself why you should use a sauna to treat acne? There are other avenues of treating acne so why is sauna bathing special?

The answer to this question is that sauna bathing is 100% natural. The act of sweating is probably one of the most natural things your body does. This gives you a healthy avenue to treating your acne as you won’t be using harmful chemicals on your skin. A long with this comes other health benefits that saunas promote.

Sweating naturally detoxifies the body and skin. Sweat is composed of around 99% water. The rest is composed of metals and toxins. Specifically, we get rid copper, mercury, lead, and nickel when we sweat. So using a sauna gives us extra benefits that other avenues of treating acne don’t.

To add onto to this saunas have been shown to be more effective at deep cleaning pores then using cleansers. So instead of just cleaning the upper layers of your skin with harmful chemicals, sauna bathing allows you to get deep into the skin without actually damaging it.

With continuous use of sauna bathing one can change their look dramatically. Your skin will begin to clear up, become healthier, look younger, and stronger. So ones vitality will improve tremendously when sauna bathing.

How To Use Saunas To Treat Your Acne

If you’re looking into using sauna bathing as a natural remedy to treating your acne, then you need to first find a sauna to use. For most people this can be done by using the sauna at their local gym or spa. If you don’t go to one already then you might want to start your own membership. If not this then you can purchase your own home sauna and sauna bathe whenever you want.

With that being said you can use whatever sauna you have access to. This includes traditional dry saunas, infrared saunas, or steam saunas. You simply just need something that is hot enough to make you sweat profusely.

What You Need:

* A Sauna (Traditional, Infrared, or Steam Sauna will all work)
* A Bathing Suit (Or anything you feel comfortable sweating in)
* A Couple of Towels (At least one to sit on and one to dry off with)
* A Loofah (Or a brush or towel to scrub your face with)
* A Natural Face Cleanser (Or your preferred face cleanser)
* A Water Bottle

The first step into treating your acne with saunas is to take a shower and wash your face with your preferred cleanser. Make sure to wash your face efficiently and then completely rise all the cleanser away. You want to make sure the soap is completely rinsed away as leaving residue on while in the sauna can damage your skin.

Once you finish dry off and head into the sauna. Once in the sauna lay your towel on the bench and just sit. Give your self some time to just sit and relax. Soon your body will begin to feel hot and you will start sweating. (If you like you can splash water on the sauna stones to create steam)

Once you begin to sweat a lot then you can take out your loofah or preferred exfoliating device. Begin to scrub your face or problem areas gently. As you sweat the bacteria, dead skin, and cosmetics will begin to secrete out of your healthy skin. Continue scrubbing until you feel you have effectively scrubbed away all the waste.

Once your done scrubbing you should sit in the sauna for a couple extra minutes. Just sit and let your body naturally sweat away all the waste in your skin. If you begin to feel too hot or dizzy then exit the sauna and cool down. You should drink some water and allow your body to cool.

If you feel okay to go in the sauna a second time then please do so. You should sit in the sauna for an extra couple of minutes so you can sweat even more. Just remember the more you sweat the more effective the sauna will be at treating your acne. Once you feel you’re too hot then exit for the final time.

Once out of the sauna you can then get a drink of water, take a shower, and cool down. When in the shower make sure to use cold water. This will cool for your body down while also closing your pores. Make sure not to use soap when rinsing off. It might sound good to use it again, but doing so might agitate your skin and possibly damage it.

If you repeat this process everyday or ever other day then you will see a significant change in your acne. You just have to stay consistent with it. Understand you might still get some acne while doing this treatment, but it will be much less than before. Eventually you might be able to get rid of your acne completely.

Just remember that this avenue of treating acne is extremely healthy. Sweating is a natural process so you won’t be damaging your skin with any bad chemicals. You also might save some money since face washes can be very pricy.

Be Safe!

As with anything you should be safe and cautious when using a sauna. Make sure you’re healthy and conditioned enough to use a sauna. Make sure you bring water in the sauna and never over push yourself while in there. If at any point you begin to feel dizzy then leave the sauna and cool down. (You don’t want to overheat yourself!)

So please be carefully and sauna bath in caution. If you want to learn more sauna safety tips then click the link above.