Sweet sweat: Corridor saunas offer health benefits and relaxation

IOWA CITY — When Emily Wofford Hurlin steps out of the wooden barrel sauna in her Iowa City backyard, she feels relaxed, focused and in tune with her body.

She’s also sweaty.

“I put it (sauna use) in the same category as exercise or body work, like massage,” said Wofford Hurlin, 33. “It really helps me with my mental health.”

Wofford Hurlin, a licensed psychotherapist, and her husband, David Hurlin, earlier this month opened the Backyard Sauna Club, which lets customers rent the four-person sauna for an hour or buy a monthly pass to use it every day. The venture allows the couple to defray the cost of the sauna and share the mental and physical health benefits of sauna bathing with Iowa City.

The tradition of sauna bathing started thousands of years ago in Finland, which is estimated to have more than 3 million saunas for 5.5 million people. Finns may sauna alone, but it’s usually a community-building experience among friends and family. The steam cloud that rises when sauna bathers pour water on the hot rocks even has a Finnish name — loyly.

Many sauna users will follow a session with a brisk dip in an icy lake or a flop in the snow.

“It’s euphoria, a euphoric feeling, a natural high,” a Finnish man says in a 2020 video published by UNESCO.

There is wide-ranging research on sauna use and health — everything from heart attack and stroke to inflammation and skin conditions — although researchers note many studies have small sample sizes and correlations may need more extensive research.

One of the largest studies, which followed 2,300 male Finnish sauna bathers for 20 years, found those who visited the sauna more frequently (four to seven times a week) had lower death rates from heart disease and stroke than those who visited less often. Researchers found the increased heart rate during sauna bathing was similar to that found in low- to moderate-intensity exercise, according to the study published in 2015 in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Studying that same group of Finnish men, researchers showed frequent sauna users had a reduced risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, which may be related to lowering systemic blood pressure, according to an evidence review published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings in 2018.

“Whether sauna exposure exerts its neurocognitive protective effects via mediation in the pathways contributing to these diseases or it is just an enjoyable activity that prevents or delays the development of these memory diseases is not clearly understood,” the review noted.

A study of 37 people with chronic tension headaches showed those who received sauna sessions, in addition to education, has less pain intensity, according to a 2015 article in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. Sauna bathing also may help people with psoriasis, another study showed.

Different types of saunas

Patrick Krier named his Iowa City sauna and float therapy business the Iowa Recovery Room because he sees these services as restorative, whether that’s “recovering from athletic endeavors or just everyday life.”

The Iowa Recovery Room, which opened six years ago, has a traditional dry sauna where sauna rocks are heated to 175 degrees. The rocks warm the air around the sauna user. The business also offers an infrared sauna, where a user’s body is heated directly with infrared lamps set at about 135 degrees.

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The dry sauna room also has a cold bath guests can book if they want to have the hot-cold experience. Repeated exposure to cold has been shown to improve insulin sensitivity, which helps manage blood sugar, according to a 2022 review of related studies.

Cold also can also make hopping back in the sauna that much more enjoyable.

Mobile sauna can come to you

Jessica and Nate Moore, of rural Johnson County, practice thermalism — or the use of heat and cold — to improve their physical and mental health. For them, it involves a few minutes of cold and 20 minutes of heat three times a week.

Nate Moore, who wrestled at the University of Iowa and now coaches wrestling at Iowa City West, used saunas as therapy after intense workouts, his wife said. Then he experienced true sauna culture when traveling abroad for competitions.

“He met people from different countries and was able to experience sauna with them,” she said.

Last year, the Moores decided to build a mobile sauna they rent out for a new business called Cedar Sauna Cloud. They will bring the custom-made sauna to a location of the customer’s choice in Johnson or Washington counties. They also teach customers how to use the wood-burning sauna stove and supply a bundle of firewood.

“They are pretty popular pretty much everywhere besides Iowa,” Jessica Moore said of mobile saunas.

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Community connection

Backyard Sauna Club owners Wofford Hurlin and Hurlin got the idea after Hurlin had a residency in Norway last summer.

“Across the street, there was this Nordic woman who had these three wood-burning stove saunas on the ocean,” Wofford Hurlin said. They rented a sauna for $20 an hour, bouncing between the warm wooden booth and dips in the sea. The couple also enjoyed meeting other customers on the patio.

“It was the sweetest experience I ever had,” Wofford Hurlin said. “We thought ‘Why don't we bring this to the states?’”

At the Backyard Sauna Club, guests can take a break during their hourlong sauna session to sit outside on a chilly patio, Wofford Hurlin said. The couple is researching ways to add a cold plunge tub to the experience.

“I hope it’s accessible and brings sauna culture to the area,” she said. “That’s our goal with it.”

Comments: (319) 339-3157; erin.jordan@thegazette.com