Who is not allowed to go to the bathhouse? There are a few exceptions

physician, cardiovascular surgeon, member of the Russian Society of Angiologists and Vascular Surgeons

Are there contraindications to the bath? Who and when should not go there?

Finns have a saying: “Anyone who can reach the bathhouse can steam”. Russian banya is a treasure trove of health, a place where you can gain physical and spiritual strength, but also get the worst health problems if you treat it lightly.

On this topic we, bath lovers, will still talk, write and argue a lot. To a lesser extent, this dispute will concern healthy people who do not have chronic diseases. And what about those who have not saved their health? Are these people deprived of the opportunity to touch such a marvelous invention of our ancestors?

Yes and no! Yes – because there are conditions in which going to the bath is contraindicated categorically. Fortunately for us, they are not so many. No – because the bathhouse, especially Russian, is a place where health is not only strengthened, but also restored.

But we should start with cautions. Let’s talk about the conditions in which going to the bath may not be useful or, even worse, will be harmful.

Who and why can not go to the bath?

I will not curve my soul and, as my bath mentor says, “pile on the fluff”. Attempts to analyze contraindications to visiting the bath led me to the book of a famous doctor, supporter of health-improving methods, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor Ivan Pavlovich Neumyvakin “Bath. Therapeutic effect. Myths and reality”. He provides a detailed list of contraindications to visiting the steam room.

General contraindications (mainly concern beginners of the bathing process, professionals with a particularly careful approach can be steamed and at them):

• hypertension;
• mental or severe neurotic diseases;
• chronic inflammatory diseases;
• oncologic diseases.

Special contraindications:

• Heart failure;
• thyroid hyperfunction;
• ulcer;
• acute myocardial infarction;
• hypertension stage III according to WHO classification.

Relative contraindications (professionals with a particularly careful approach can steam and at them):

• Chronic inflammation with the danger of exacerbation and frequent relapses;
• hypertension with pressure above 220/120 mm Hg. without organic changes in the heart;
• urolithiasis.

With special caution should visit the bathhouse people with heart rhythm disorders, after intoxication (water-electrolyte metabolism is disturbed). Also very responsibly need to approach the steam room to people of advanced age, especially if such procedures are new to them.

In addition, do not turn the bath into a place for gluttony. Visiting the bath as after a long fasting, and immediately after a heavy meal is undesirable. I would like to emphasize that alcohol and baths are categorically incompatible.