2: Happiness for Tourists (Thomas)

From my Personal Experience, I believe the sauna is good if performed for its proven benefits: providing an acute sensation and momentary distraction. While there are many claims of sauna's benefits, anywhere from “it’s good to sweat” to pseudoscience of the highest order, I believe that sauna on its own is harmless. The danger of sauna arises from those who see it as the ultimate solution rather than a therapeutic tool to accompany modern medicine when treating illnesses. Once, when I was shadowing an oncologist, there was a sweet man accompanied by a not-so-sweet spouse who both believed wholeheartedly that traditional medicine was out to get them and would only receive medical advice if it was considered “alternative medicine”. One of these alternative therapies presented by the couple was the sauna. That man had stage 2 colorectal cancer. This is very treatable if a treatment plan is started early, but with the promise of “alternative” therapies that had lofty claims behind them, not supported by research or any medical personnel on the planet, but rather sung by sauna enthusiasts, that man would choose only these miracle waters until it was too late. This is the problem when therapeutics and practices get too big for their britches. Nothing is inherently wrong with astrology, chiropractors, or saunas. The problems begin when people declare that astrology will determine your future, chiropractors can cure heart disease, and saunas can cure cancer. No clinically supported treatment will ever be able to compete with the assurance of resolution that these pseudosciences peddle. 

Additionally, the practice of sauna, with sudden changes in surface body temperature, swift dehydration, and increased cardiac output, should be monitored by healthcare professionals. I was amazed how a local swimming pool has lifeguards, but the human furnace is relatively unsupervised. I have no qualms with sauna if done properly, but the potential heart fatigue, kidney strain, and blood osmolarity changes seem to be to likely, given the environment, to not require monitoring personnel or even a hydration blood test at the door. 

I found the New York Times article very sad. The author traveled across the globe in the search for happiness, to then bring home to be practiced in New York. This is almost the hero's journey, except she didn’t find the boon. As she experienced the Finnish cold plunges and talked with trees, I’m sure she had a great relaxing vacation, but upon returning to the US, she rooted her purpose in replicating this foreign lifestyle. I do not think happiness is found in practices such as these. Similar to her cold plunge experience, I think true happiness is found in doing something hard and prevailing. I believe that true happiness is found in taking on responsibilities and fulfilling them. This is why people weightlift, run, take a hard major, help others, start families, take on new jobs, and strive for excellence. The happiness is in the challenge, not in the trees. 

She acquired tools to substitute valuable things in the human experience, such as relationships, which is fine if there are no platonic relationships to be had, but instead of substituting them, I feel the focus should be on acquiring them. With the conclusion and key to happiness being “Quiet the mind, and find pleasure in small acts and observations”, this is only a shell of a revelation. You cannot persist in a zen state all the time. To be truly happy, you need to learn to love the chaos just as much as the still of the storm. To be truly happy, we need to humble ourselves and recognize our total powerlessness in the world, and yet trudge forward anyway. If happiness is all that we seek, we will never achieve the most valuable experiences found in sacrifice, hard work, and grief. 

The article, class, and my own experiences connect as they all point to the danger of harmless practices when people entrust them with their ultimate healing. The article walks us through the thoughts of the author as she attempts to use sauna culture, independently innocuous, to rid off all her sadness and bring about ultimate joy. Our class has walked us through the harmlessness of sauna unless performed in unsafe conditions: dehydrated, inebriated, or exhausted. And my own experience has shown me that sauna is great if used as intended, but can be adverse to patient health if perceived as a cure-all. 

In Conclusion, sauna and sauna culture pose a grave danger if perceived by an individual as the steam baths of ultimate healing. Only sour disappointment awaits those who attempt to sweat away their autoimmune disease or cold plunge away their cancers. If, however, one perceives sauna as an accompanying therapy to traditional medicine, it can be used responsibly, providing relaxation at a minimum with no major adverse effects. Finally, from a philosophical point of view, as it relates to the New York Times article, I do not think that sauna culture can ever replace growth as a human through responsibility and challenge.