Saunas and ice baths are popping up all over Perth.
Does the trend really deliver on promises for improved sleep, anti-aging effects, stress reduction, weight loss and detoxification?
Perth is feeling the heat as saunas and ice baths become the hottest new trend in the ever changing wellness scene. Helix House, Alchemy Saunas, The Neighbourhood Sauna, Ember Bathhouse, Clear Mind Studio and Beyond Rest are just a few from the ever-growing list of sauna houses that have opened in Perth over the past four years.
These activities often associated only with the most luxurious retreats and resorts, have now blasted into the mainstream, and it seems people can’t get enough of them. Just try to get a booking into these saunas, and you’ll see what I mean. The majority of them are booked up weeks in advance, with lengthy waitlists for membership. Yet, in a time when trends come and go quicker than steam on your mirror, a question burns through the crisp West Australian air. Are saunas and ice baths just a passing fad, or are they something that is here to stay for the long haul?
Walking into Alchemy Sauna, I felt like a penguin dropped into the desert, disorientated and totally out of my element. Noticing the individuals lazily lounging out the back in their bathers I became hyperaware of my attire.
“Oi! What are you doing out here?” I hear a voice playfully call as I cautiously turn back to be greeted by Alchemy Saunas, co-founder, Anthony Goyder.
He welcomes me into his office, and his eyes light up as he asks, “Did you bring your bathers for a sauna after?” I tell him I think I might be a little saunaed out this week, after having done two already… Which is probably one too many for me. “Nah, you can never have too many saunas!” he says with a laugh before adding, “you’ll have to come back another time to try it”.
Throughout our conversation, I got a sense of just how big this wellness movement is becoming. Alchemy Sauna now has three locations scattered around Perth and has ambitious plans for expanding in the future.
“There's a lot of a younger crew now who sauna, only because of the podcasting that's been done and social media in general,” Goyder says.
With countless influencers and celebrities such as Harry Styles and Hailey Bieber posting on their social media platforms about saunas, it is no surprise that many young people have decided to jump on the bandwagon.
Although, Goyder is quick to confidently assert “I don't think it's a trend. I think it’s a growing shift in people’s habits”.
He goes on to explain how people are exercising differently to the ways they were 20 years ago and while saunas have been around for generations the research and sense of community in an increasingly disconnected world is what is making this seem more permanent.
Goyder’s eyes drift over to the freshly baked and “healthy” banana bread sitting on the table across from us. He stares for almost too long which leads him to explain, “I live a pretty healthy life… except for banana cake” he says with a smile forming on his face.
Despite, having saunas daily, he hasn’t personally experienced any dramatic health benefits like his customers have. He just loves the feeling of total relaxation that he gets after a sauna session.
“I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard customers say that having regular saunas has changed their lives,” he says drawing his eyes away from the cake and back to our conversation.
It could be that the allure of saunas and ice baths stems from the fact that humans tend to have addictive personalities.
Trudy Rosser, a regular sauna and ice bath user that I met, reinforced this sentiment, when she says, “we love having a sauna because our whole family sits together, all five of us, and sometimes even our dog!”.
Rosser admitted that she has become obsessed with the cold because “when you're in there, when the water is really cold, you can only think about surviving in that moment. It's sort of like meditation”.
Biomedical scientist Doctor Rhonda Patrick, who shares accessible wellness information on her website Found My Fitness, explains that when an individual undergoes cold water therapy norepinephrine, a neurotransmitter that regulates mood, attention and focus is released into the bloodstream.
The more norepinephrine that gets released, the more these factors increase which is what makes us feel great after having an ice bath or cold dip. It is so powerful, it has even been shown to successfully treat people with both ADHD and depression
Dr. Patrick’s extensive research has demonstrated that the more a person has regular saunas the less likely they are to die from all-cause mortality. Which essentially means the more saunas you have the less likely you are to die a premature death from all causes compared to someone that doesn’t sauna. Sounds like a pretty good deal, hey?
Well, this is where it gets interesting with the possible side effects of saunas and ice baths. The Neighbourhood Sauna owner, Brigid Marciano, shares some eye-opening insights which highlight the downside risks.
Marciano was one of the first sauna houses to begin operating in Perth. She says, “when I opened people didn't even know what it was, so I had to teach them how to do it”.
She explains how we have this “plethora of information at our fingertips and although that is wonderful, what it does is that it creates a feeling of disbelief, because how can all of it be correct?”.
For Marciano and many others, there is so much conflicting information that it can begin to get confusing. This is what caused her to conduct her own investigation into what saunas and ice baths actually impact. With every person that came to her at The Neighbourhood Sauna she would record information including the temperature of the sauna, how long they saunaed for, and the ways they felt before, during and after. This turned out to be hundreds of people that Marciano studied just so that she could see the results with her own eyes.
She says at the Neigbourhood Sauna they have people come who are suffering from “breast cancer, liver cancer, blood cancer, bowel cancer. We have people with arthritis, fibromyalgia, heavy metal toxicity, chronic fatigue, depression and anxiety.” The list seems to be endless and the number of life changing positive results she’s seen are almost unbelievable… Although, she is very real about how saunas and ice baths are not something that are for everyone.
“We had one gentleman have an epileptic fit in a sauna due to being so dehydrated, and just pushing it
“We've had massive toxic reactions of people vomiting, pulling themselves out and just lying on the ground
“We've had people go into a nervous system response where they can't function. We've had people go blind, not permanently but short term,” she says.
The majority of the risks associated with these saunas and ice baths can become quite dangerous when done in an unsupervised and unprofessional setting. For many young people who are jumping into this wellness activity without proper research it can be really terrifying, she states.
With all of that said Marciano truly loves saunas and thinks majority of the time and for most people they are awesome. She says, “you just have to make sure you are doing them for the right reasons”.
She especially loves how saunas and ice baths allow you to reconnect with your body and can be done by people of all ages.
“My eight-year-old saunas three times a week,” she says.
For some this will only be a trend but for many this wellness activity has become something ingrained into their lives. With the transformational differences it’s making to peoples mental and physical health, you might have to try it to see if it has the same effect on you or maybe we should just stick to the banana cake.
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