Chris Harper
Multicultural Studies of Healing
Mehdrona
Science of the Sweat Lodge
Here at Johnson State we are lucky to have a program such
as Wellness and Alternative Medicine. In fact, the health of the
country in the future could be vastly affected by programs like this
that are on the rise. As more and more accredited schools take on the
promise of traditional, natural, or “alternative” medicines, more
doctors will be able to suggest personal use of these ways of
healing. Doctors will not, however, refer people to someone who is
not official, or without a degree. These new degree programs will
open the door for alternatives to get a foot into mainstream
medicine. In order for these alternatives to be fully accepted into
the culture, we must prove what we know with science. Science’s
essences lies in measuring objective outcomes, which poses a problem
for many alternative therapies including energy work, body work,
meditation, sweats, and others. With the expansive technology we are
just beginning to measure the effects of such treatments.
Its been difficult for me to explain our sweats to
people. It is one of those things one must “see” for themselves.
When I describe the physical elements of what happens with the heat,
smoke, dark, prayers I get an array of reactions. The most
frustrating reaction of all is “that doesn’t seem healthy” or “that’s
crazy” with a strangers look in their eye. I can explain what happens
to me spiritually, but that can receive some even stranger feedback.
We cannot measure what happens spiritually so spiritual experiences
quickly removed from the sweat lodges means for proof in the western
culture. I would really like to be able to explain the physiological
scientific benefits of sweat lodging that lie withing the physical
realm, the realm that this culture has so lovingly embraced.
The process of sweating is as essential to our health as
eating and breathing. The three main functions of sweating is ridding
the body of wastes, regulation of body temperature, and maintenance of
skin health and pliancy. Our culture, most of all, has a way of
living that inhibits regular and healthy flow of sweat. We use
antiperspirants, create artificial environments, produce smog, wear
synthetic clothing, and can sometimes live a mostly sedentary
lifestyle. These effects of our lifestyle can be reversed with
regular exercise or sweating activities such as lodges or saunas.
Here is where anatomy comes into play.
There are two types of sweat glands in the body. They are
called the apocrine sweat glands and the eccrine sweat glands. The
apocrine sweat glands only get activated under emotional stimuli and
carry a faint scent that is thought to be used to attract a mate. The
eccrine sweat glands is what is activated when the body is introduced
to a heat stimulus. There are a couple eccrine glands that do respond
to emotional stimuli, mostly in fight or flight environments where
extra grip is need on places such as palms and bottoms of feet.
Eccrine glands sweat is clear and odorless unless bacteria is
present. These glands serve mostly to cool the body through the
process of evaporation. There are a couple eccrine glands that do
respond to emotional stimuli, mostly in fight or flight environments
where extra grip is need on places such as palms and bottoms of feet.
There is an array of physiological changes that occur when one
participates in a sweat lodge or even relaxes in a sauna. As heat
rises, capillaries dilate and there is increased blood flow to the
skins surface to try to draw heat from the surface and disperse it
inside the body. This increased demand for blood causes the heart to
work faster and impurities in the other organs (brain,
muscles,stomach, kidneys, liver) are flushed out by the faster flow of
juices. The skin and kidneys then filter the waste, excreting them in
sweat and urine. The rise of inner heat also contributes to a state of
temporary fever, which effectively battles off bacteria and viral
agents. It is also known that fever increases ones metabolic rate and
damaged cells repair and regenerate faster due to this, making
recovery from illness quicker and easier. Sweating is also very
effective in flushing heavy metals such as copper, lead, zinc, and
mercury which our body absorbs from our polluted environments. In the
first 15 minutes of a sweat, sweating can do a heavy metal excretion
that would take the kidneys themselves a 24 hour working period.
Another waste, urea, a metabolic by product, causes headaches, nausea,
and sometimes vomiting and death due to excess buildup and is easily
removed by sweating. Excessive salt is also removed, as benefit for
those suffering from hypertension. Sweating can be utilized as a
preventative measure or a means for fighting illness. The splashing of
water on heated rocks in the lodges has also been shown to produce and
abundance of negative ions into the air. When there are too many
positive ions in the air, we become anxious, fatigued, and tense.
Positive ionization is a result of A/C systems, smog, long distanced
driving, and weather disturbances. They are also linked to heart
attacks, asthma, migraines, insomnia, and most allergies.
The oldest known medical document in India, the system of Ayurveda,
appeared 568 BC and considered sweating so important to health that it
prescribed the sweat bath and thirteen other methods of inducing
sweat. Hippocrates once said “ give me a fever and I can cure any
disease.” Regular practice of sweating can greatly increase your
health and serve as a preventative barrier against disease. These are
the physiological benefits of sweating without regard to the spiritual
realm, which I believe can account for just as much if not more
benefits of the practice of physical sweating. When asked at the
Sundance Festival, a Sioux leader was asked what he thought about
sweatlodges in suburbia as a means of enjoyment. He responded that
there are many benefits to the sweat, but without a medicine man
present a sweat is not an Indian sweat and will therefore lack in the
spiritual realm of healing.
References
- Anatomy and Physiology textbook
- www.rustlers.co
- www.sweatlodges.info
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