SAUNA IN STYLE: How to get soothed and lose calories with panache

For a very, very special Valentine’s Day gift, think beyond the typical spa. Forget the body massage certificates, mud baths, bubble-tea recipes and foot soaks. Instead, take the spa experience home and get soothed in style!

Sunlight Saunas (www.sunlightsaunas.com) uses Solocarbon® technology, which emits beneficial heat waves that completely surround you. This technology produces far-infrared heat that has shown to benefit pain management while promoting skin purification and detoxification.

Medical studies* have indicated that an infrared sauna treatment significantly lowers blood pressure, lowers cholesterol and stimulates weight loss. In other words, sitting in this sauna burns calories (gym-rats: take note)!

There are perks to ordering these beautiful wooden saunas: you enter through beveled glass doors, enjoy the fruits of technological innovation such as a CD player with Blaupunct speakers, a flat screen television and an MP3 circuit for iPod enjoyment (these are featured in the new “Armana” line). To boot, these saunas are free-standing (you don’t have to marry them into your home’s plumbing and electrical systems), and the new line of wooden saunas have conjoining walls that use a magnetized locking system.

The trick is to find space in your home to fit this jewel in, but the saunas can also be used outdoors. Orders can be placed online at the Web site and prices range from $1,500 – $6,500.

*Wright, Jonathan V. “Nutrition & Healing”; “SweatYour Way to a healthier heart–and a better sex life–in four weeks or less”; Vol. 10 Issue 12, December 2003 (PDF attached)

Chi, Tsu-Tsair Oliver, August 1981, Journal of the American Medical Association.