SaunaScape

Contact lens case (Photo credit: ? Lee J Haywood)

Lots of people need glasses to see. Many estimates say that three out of four people need vision correction of some kind. In the USA, about half the population wears glasses or contacts at least part of the time.

If you are one of those people, when the time comes to visit the sauna, it can be tempting to wear your glasses or contacts into the sauna. It is a bad idea. You run the risk of ruining your lenses. You are better off leaving them outside the sauna.

Contact lenses in the sauna

Contact lenses are perhaps the most tempting to wear in the sauna. Many contact lenses are designed to be worn for days at a time and have been engineered to stay put even during strenuous physical exercise. The hassle of taking these lenses out and storing them just for a quick sauna round may not seem worth the effort.

Unfortunately, saunas and contacts don’t mix well. Contact lenses are made from specially engineered plastics called hydrogels. This means that up to half of the contact lens material is actually water bound inside the plastic. This water helps the lens feel comfortable and allows your eye to breathe.

When you step into a sauna with a contact lens, the high temperature and low humidity in the sauna can cause lens material to give up its water. As the lens dries out, a few things can happen. The lens can change shape, which can cause your lens to stop fitting well or even change the prescription of your lens.

A more serious problem with lenses as they lose their moisture is their ability to let oxygen reach your eye changes. You may not even feel this change, but like wearing your contacts too long, this can put you at risk of eye infections or other types of permanent eye damage.

What about wearing your contact lenses in a steam room or hot tub? They are more humid, so shouldn’t that be okay?

No, steam rooms and especially hot tubs are just as dangerous for contact wearers. The heat of the steam room, even though it has 100% humidity, can still cause your contact to lose some of its moisture. Both the steam room and the hot tub with their lower temperatures can really promote the growth of little nasties. With the moisture inside, there is a very strong chance that one of these can get into your eye and cause problems.

What if I wear my contacts in the sauna?

If you do wear your contacts in the sauna, it isn’t the end of the world. When you have the chance, take them out. If you wear disposable lenses, it’s time for a fresh pair. If you wear a reusable lens, follow your lens manufacturer’s instructions and run them through a full disinfection and cleaning cycle. If you suspect that something is different in your eye, don’t take chances and see your optometrist.

Glasses in the sauna

Glasses aren’t in direct contact with your eye, and many are made from materials with higher temperature limits, so you may think they are better to wear in the sauna. They aren’t. You should also leave them outside.

The biggest issue can be burns from your frames. Human skin begins to burn at around 130°F (54°C). Saunas typically range between 150 and 220°F (65-105°C) – well above the temperature where skin burns. This works because the usual things you touch inside of a sauna, like air, wood and fabric, are all poor conductors of heat to your skin. Metal and rigid plastics are very good absorbers of heat from air and are very good conductors of heat to your skin. With your glasses on, you may quickly find that a normally pleasant sauna experience leaves you with burns on your temples, ears and nose. Ouch.

Another problem with the heat of the sauna are lens coatings. Most modern glasses are coated with a series of special coatings to prevent glare, reflections, and limit certain wavelengths of light from reaching your eyes. Many of these are applied via a polymer film with a low melting point. Bring  a pair of these into the sauna and the film can separate from the glass, sag or distort, all causing vision defects.

More expensive coatings can be applied directly to the lens material using a direct deposition method. The lens and the coating may both nominally be able to resist the temperature of a sauna, but unless all the components were designed to work together at high temperature, wrinkles or small fissures can develop as the lens material expands at one rate and the coatings expand at another. This again can cause vision defects when wearing your glasses, or in severe cases, cause parts of your coatings to flake off of the lenses.

The last thing to think about are the frames themselves. If you have plastic frames, many of these can be reshaped by heating them to a temperature as low as 175°F (80°C) – about the same temperature as a sauna. Some stylish plastic frame materials are coated with other materials to give them a distinct appearance, and should not be heated at all.

With glasses, steam rooms and hot tubs are less of a problem. In both, the temperatures are lower, usually within the normal limits of an extreme environment. Since glasses aren’t in direct contact with your eyes, there is little damage of complications like you could see with a contact lens.

So when headed into the sauna, its best to take your contacts out and your glasses off before heading inside. If you absolutely must bring your glasses in to find your way back out of the sauna, take them off as soon as you get settled, wrap them in a towel and keep them as low as you can where it will be cooler.

Lots of people need glasses to see. Many estimates say that three out of four people need vision correction of some kind. In the USA, about half the population wears...

Photo by Crossett Library Bennington College on Flickr

A common claim is that sweating in a sauna will help rid your body of toxins. It is a common claim of infrared sauna manufacturers and the sauna-based “purification rundown” is a mainstay of Scientology. However, many other experts say that using a sauna to detox is hogwash. Yes, a sauna will expel metabolic wastes, but there is no chance that you can excrete any environmental toxins in a sauna.

A study is now underway at Bastyr University near Seattle, Washington to study whether sauna use can cleanse the body of toxic chemicals.

Dr. Jason Allen is the lead researcher in the study. He notes that there are over 200 synthetic chemicals that are detectable in human umbilical cord blood. Accumulations of these chemicals can cause cancer, obesity, infertility, heart disease, birth defects and other illnesses and developmental issues. At present, science has no proven mechanism to remove these toxins from the body.

In an interview with a Seattle-area radio station, Dr. Allen said “Products are out there that slowly degrade in the environment and accumulate in humans, particularly in fat. So in this study, we picked one chemical that’s detectable in 100 percent of the human population, in fact 100 percent of the mammalian population, and those are PCBs.”

PCBs or polychlorinated biphenyls are industrial chemicals that were commonly used in electrical components. PCBs were banned in the US in 1979 and worldwide in 2001. The pesticide DDT has been banned since 1972, but Dr. Allen notes that DDT compounds can also be found in 100% of the population, even those born years after the ban.

For his study, Dr. Allen built a special sauna that combines both a traditional sauna stove and radiant heating panels. Three groups of otherwise healthy people who are not using any other detox regimen will be studied for three weeks. One group will use the sauna five days each week for two hours. A second group will use the sauna three days a week for one hour. The third group is a control and will not use the sauna at all.

Throughout the study, the sauna using groups will be monitored for health, their mood, and blood samples will be taken to monitor PCB levels in their blood.

Dr. Allen does not expect the sauna to cause people just to “sweat out” the toxins. He expects instead that the sauna will help break down fatty tissues that store these toxins which will then allow the body to expel them through normal means.

If you live near Seattle and want to be part of this study, you can find more information on the Bastyr University Website.

A common claim is that sweating in a sauna will help rid your body of toxins. It is a common claim of infrared sauna manufacturers and the sauna-based “purification rundown”...

Bloomberg announced this morning that Goldman Sachs cheif equity trader in Moscow, Peter Kizenko, quit today. He plans to return to New Jersey and open a traditional Russian sauna, known as a banya.

According to the Bloomberg story, the banya will open next month in the New Jersey suburbs of New York City. No details were given on the name or location of the banya. We’ll keep digging and update this post when we find more details.

He is entering a crowded market. According to our database, there are currently 13 Russian Sauna establishments in and around New York City. Mr. Kizenko told Bloomberg, “There are a few in Brooklyn and Manhattan, but the aesthetics are not up to scratch. We are going for a mixture of the contemporary and the classical of Sanduny in Moscow.” The Bloomberg article says he had considered building his banya in London, but was stunned by the high price of real estate there.

Mr. Kizenko, if you are reading this, we wish you luck and would love to hear why you left the world of high finance behind for high temperature.

Update: The establishment will be called “Bear and Birch.” They have a website with just a landing page at the moment. More details are on their Facebook page, including this comment from Mr. Kizenko:

Whack, whack. Steam. Ice.

Over 1000 years of the Russian banya experience has finally been brought to New Jersey. Assembled and flown in from Moscow, Russia, the Bear and Birch is proud to present the East Coast with its first authentic Russian banya.

Invigorate, detoxify and revitalize yourself in a spacious setting with three types of steam to choose from. Follow up with a plunge into the cool downed pool and then saunter on over to the lounge area to chilllllll.

Enjoy a wide variety of teas while wrapped up in a Bear and Birch robe and decide on a Jacuzzi, shiatsu water massage or another round of steam as your next move. Complimentary recommended treatment cycles are offered by our in-house banya consultant to help you along the way to rejuvenation.

A full banya menu prepared especially by our renowned chef, Dmitry, in our mezzanine level dining area rounds out a superb day. BYOB and plasma screens means you don’t miss the latest sports action and two VIP rooms allow you to host a full range of social functions. Bear and Birch. Get Whacked.

We’ve added Bear and Birch to our database.

Bloomberg announced this morning that Goldman Sachs cheif equity trader in Moscow, Peter Kizenko, quit today. He plans to return to New Jersey and open a traditional Russian sauna, known as...