Are saunas good for you?

Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Neil.

And I'm Georgie. In winter, people find different ways of keeping warm, like wearing extra clothes or staying indoors, but in some countries there's another way of keeping the cold out – going for a sauna.

Yes, Nordic countries like Sweden and Finland have a long history of taking saunas, but now they're popping up in Britain too. Have you ever been for a sauna, Georgie?

I have, yes. And if I'm honest, I'm not a huge fan. I don't really like being too hot. It's uncomfortable. What about you, Neil?

Oh really? I quite like a sauna. You feel really refreshed afterwards.

So, what is a sauna? Well, a typical sauna is a small wooden room heated with steam to around 80°C. It's hot enough to make anyone sweat, but are saunas good for your health as well? That's what James Gallagher wanted to find out for BBC Radio 4 programme Inside Health.

We're seeing what saunas do to the human body. They're popping up all over the country with claims that high temperatures boost your health and well-being, but are they all they're cracked up to be?

James wants to find out if saunas are all they're cracked up to be. He means, "Are they as good as people say?" And that's exactly what we'll be finding out in this episode, along with some useful new words and phrases.

And remember, you can practise all the new vocabulary from this episode with the

But now I have a question for you, Georgie. The word sauna comes from the Finnish language, but what does it mean? Does it mean: a) sweat, b) hot water, or c) bathhouse?

Ooh, I'm going to guess c) bathhouse.

OK. Well, we'll find out if you're right at the end of the programme. In recent winters, saunas have grown in popularity in the UK. BBC reporter James Gallagher met some people going to Môr A Sawna, a beach sauna in South Wales. He asked them why they love saunas so much.

Hello everyone!

Hello!

Who loves a sauna?

Me!

Tell me why. Speaker 1 Ah, it's just so relaxing. It just makes you feel at ease. Speaker 2 It's also great for relaxing muscles if you're tense or anything like that at all. Speaker 3 Yeah, I always love coming down here when I'm a bit stressed out, and by the time that I'm finished, I feel like I've completely reset. It's wonderful.

The first speaker says saunas make her feel at ease – a phrase meaning comfortable and relaxed. And the next speaker thinks saunas are great if you feel tense – an adjective meaning worried and unable to relax.

Saunas make the final speaker feel like she's reset. You might already know the word reset to mean turning a computer off and on again when it's not working, but used in connection with a person, reset means to start again after a rest, so that you feel better about life.

So, it seems saunas do help people feel better, but is there actual medical evidence that it's good for us? Here's James Gallagher again, speaking with Professor Damian Bailey, an expert in human physiology for BBC Radio 4 programme Inside Health.

When we start to connect this to the arguments around health benefits, is there a health benefit to going in the sauna?

Yeah. I mean, I looked at the research really closely. I was fascinated by the evidence – huge benefits. I mean really huge benefits. And it's cultural, of course. Five million people in Finland – 90% of them use saunas. Maybe we should be copying what the Finns do, because there's a 40% reduction in all-cause mortality with the sauna-goers. Now, this is what we would call observational data, but it's based on thousands and thousands of sauna-goers. These are observational data sets, so we really do need what we call RCTs – randomised controlled trials – so everything, just as you've mentioned there, everything is absolutely controlled. But we can't turn our noses up at the current data – the observational data.

Damian discusses the evidence from Finland, a country where 90% of the population are regular sauna-goers, and it's impressive – a 40% reduction in deaths from all causes. But it's important to remember that this is based on observational data – information collected from watching people's natural behaviour and not from controlled medical trials.

Nevertheless, this observational data is based on evidence from thousands and thousands of Finns over many years. That's why Damian thinks we shouldn't turn our noses up at it. We shouldn't reject it simply because we think it's not good enough for us. Well, all this talk about saunas has made me want to give it another try, but not before you reveal the answer to your question, Neil.

I asked you what the Finnish word sauna means. Is it: a) sweat, b) hot water, or c) bathhouse?

And I said bathhouse. Am I right?

You are absolutely correct. Well done!

Yay!

OK. Let's recap the vocabulary we've learned in this episode. If something is not all it's cracked up to be, it isn't as good as people say.

When someone's at ease, they feel comfortable and unstressed, whereas a tense person is worried and unable to relax.

When someone resets, they start again after a rest which has made them feel better about life.

Observational data is information collected from watching people's natural behaviour without interfering in it.

And finally, if you turn your nose up at something, you reject it because you think it's not good enough for you. Once again, our six minutes are up. But if you want to improve your English with more trending topics and useful vocabulary, you'll now, it's goodbye.

Goodbye!