This old story – nearly thirty years old - story has two parts. This is Part One:
My first visit ever to America, was with a boyfriend, in the very early eighties. He took me to friends in the Haight Ashbury area of San Francisco. They were a nice couple, with two little girls.
While we were politely chatting in the living room, over a tea, they asked the usual questions of a newcomer: How was your trip? How do you like America? How do you like San Francisco?
Then the husband asked: Do you want to try a hot tub?
Now, I didn’t even know what a hot tub was. I looked to my friend. He nodded. Sure, I said.
That very moment, the three of them got up and started stripping – right there in the living room. If in Rome, do as the Romans! So I undressed, too. We went out on the porch where I got to see my first hot tub, and got to sit in one, continuing our polite coversation.
As a European, of course, I was no stranger to public nakedness. But in the living room of people I had just met half an hour ago??
Part Two: About two years later, I visited Boston for the first time, interviewing for a job. Tired after a stressful day of traversing the city and encountering hospitals and Chiefs of Medicine, I wanted to take a sauna in the evening. At that time, I was boarding with a friend, but she was away for the weekend. So I tried on my own to find a reviving sauna. First thing I learned that there were no public saunas in Boston. I was desperate – in Germany, it was so much of the culture to go once a week and relax in dry heat. Nada here.
I called around. On a Saturday evening nearly nobody answered. Somebody suggested going to a women’s spa. I found one that had a sauna, but I needed to be a member. After a lot of cajoling and explaining my visiting status, I finally succeeded in convincing them to let me use their sauna once, for a fee.
On that Saturday night, the women’s health club was deserted (I learned later that on Saturday nights EVERYBODY here has a date). I had the whirlpool all for myself. By now, I had experience with hot tubs, of course, and happily dunked there first. A lone woman came by, looked down at me and said: My, are you white!
Now I am a redhead with very white skin, that’s true – but to comment on that I don’t tan like other people? I said nothing, not sure I really had heard what I had heard.
I retired into the empty sauna, feeling right a home – in spite that American saunas are not as hot as ours. But at least I had arrived where I wanted to be this Saturday evening.
The door opened and a very bulky woman moved in. I wiggled to the side and made room for her. Her breathing made funny noises and she gave me some sideward glances. Then she spoke up: I am not offended by your sight.
Number one, I found it a strange English sentence. Number two: What was so remarkable about me that everybody had to comment on me? I said nothing – especially did I say nothing about what she looked like to me.
Again she said: I am not offended by your sight. This time I looked her full in the face, asking what she meant??
She must have gotten that I was utterly baffled, and that I had an accent. Delicately, she pointed out that, in America, you wear a bathing suit in the sauna.
Yes, the huge woman was wearing a tiny-teeny bikini. And here I was, embarrassed and white-skinned, sitting naked in a public sauna! The little guest towel I had brought from my friend’s house, did not even wrap around me.
And wait a second, I wanted to scream. If there’s no nudity allowed in America - what was that in San Francisco then?? Read More
Blog: On Health. On Writing. On Life. On Everything.
Sweating It
July 31, 2010
Awful, this summer heat, isn’t it? One sits, barely wants to move, and sweat runs out of every pore.
Actually, no! Sweating takes out toxins from our bodies; the skin is one of four elimination organs (the other three are kidneys, bowels, lungs). Sweating is beneficial. Enjoy your wet armpits – without them, you would age faster and might get cancer earlier. Sorry that I am so graphic. But the advantages of sweating are widely underrated.
People sit in air-conditioned houses, and at the same time they are shelling out big dollars for “colon cleansing.” Colon cleansing is a health scam. Eating better and drinking water or herbal teas will do the trick; colon cleansing will not make you purer - just poorer.
In the winter, a sauna does the trick. Not by accident was sauna in vented in Finland and Russia - cold, northern states that do not allow for sweat naturally. - Exercise can make you sweat. But don’t try too hard: Individual people start sweating at different points, and one should not exercise for the sake of sweating. Move for fun and purpose!
In the summer, let nature work for you: Sweat it out!
Heavy metals like nickel, copper, zinc, lead have been found in sweat in higher numbers than in the blood – but I wish, we had better studies available! For instance, I am only aware of a single study that saw mercury levels falling during a sauna protocol. Most medical studies are funded by pharmaceutical firms (and I don’t see any wrong in there, as long as they adhere to scientific ethics). But this situation leaves out studies on water, sauna, yoga, healthy food, to name a few – because not much money can be made of them. The only way to improve the situation is to demand such studies.
Medications may be released into the sweat, notably anti-epileptic drugs, amphetamines, methadone (but don’t get your hopes too high that sauna will get you through a drug test easily - it won’t!).
Sauna also prevents frequent colds and promotes better sleep. In Europe, people use saunas widely. Mostly, of course, for relaxation and fun.
Except for the very elderly and frail who are in danger of severe dehydration in the summer, an air conditioner is unnecessary. In our house, we have a built-in central air-conditioning system. We never – never! – use it (but we also live in Boston, not in the Deep South - perhaps I would feel different in New Orleans...). If it gets really sweltering at night, we run a simple fan in the bedroom. Summer is for sweating – and winter is for cold exposure; both have their health merits.
If you sweat, you lose salt and water. So drink enough! And put a pinch more salt than usually in your food to replenish – unless you tend to high blood pressure. - And before I forget it: Warm drinks are healthy; cold drinks - especially ice-cold - hurt you.
Instead of suffering through the summer months, take them as what they are: A free-for-all detox program – every year! Eat fruit and salads and enjoy the heat with a peppermint tea ... lukewarm. In the shade. Read More
Poison Ivy Story
July 1, 2010
When we first moved to Boston, we went on a walk into the woods. I found a little vine with reddish stems and three leaves. I never had seen anything so beautiful and modest. Therefore I unearthed it, roots and all, and planted it in a pot on our roof.
A few days later, my husband developed a palm-sized inflamed red patch on his right buttock. Then I got some bizarre formations with blisters on my arms – and from there, the rash went everywhere.
First we thought we had bedbugs. We pulled the bed apart and sprayed everything. We cleaned and vacuumed our place (was about time!). But the lesions became more.
At work, I showed my arms to colleagues, and drew a blank (!). Finally, an ER doc took one look and said (you guessed it): “Poison ivy.” Of course, I had never encountered poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) - there is none in all of Europe.
But despite all out efforts, our rashes and itches did not go away. Weeks later, I consulted the ER doc again. He quizzed me – but we seemed to have done all the right moves. Only, the lesions were still there. He looked at me hard and asked: “You are not eating cashews every day, are you?”
That was exactly what we were doing – every morning in our muesli. Cashews and poison ivy (and mangoes) are in the same botanical family, Anacardiaceae (I talked about that devious family already in connection with back pain), and eating cashews daily kept the poison ivy rash blooming. The rash-producing ingredient is urushiol. Most people are sensitive to urushiol.
Here is what one can do against poison ivy (and poison oak, poison sumac):
• Don’t touch your face and eyes!
• Stop eating cashews and mangoes until all lesions are well healed.
• Wash with soap or a commercial anti-poison-ivy product (they are petroleum-based) all exposed and affected areas twice daily initially, later once a day until no new lesions crop up anymore.
• One prescription suggested using only cold water because warm water might disperse the poisonous oil even more. As much as I am a fan of cold water, there are no studies about this, and I would think that the bodily warmth will spread the oil anyway. But cold water won’t hurt, and it will relieve the itch.
• For more itch relief try the inside jelly of an aloe plant (any aloe will do), or Calamine lotion. I use tea tree oil for about everything (ask my husband!), and I would probably dab it on the rash for itch relief – but I have no scientific proof that it works. Another unproven remedy is jewelweed – but if I were out in the woods and it grew nearby, I would break a stem and apply its juice. Can’t hurt.
• Wash all your clothing and, if you already slept in your bed, your sheets.
• If the rash spreads into your face or, worse, near your eyes, see a physician. You need cortisone immediately because poison ivy in the eyes can lead to blindness.
• Don’t ever burn poison ivy – it can lead to fatal lung reactions. Pull poison ivy with gloved hands and dispose of it in plastic bags. Wash gloves and tools. Often shoes and pets carry the sticky resin.
Poison ivy plants look very variable - it took me years to comfortably identify them. Better stay away from anything reddish and three-leaved! Read More
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