Lose Weight Through Sweating Baths

by John Kellogg

Sweating baths may be employed advantageously for the purpose of reducing the weight, remove serous deposits in the tissues, as in anasarca, or in the abdominal or pleural cavities, and also as a hygienic or prophylactic measure for the purpose of atoning, to some degree, for the neglect of active muscular exercise. It is perhaps most valuable as a hydriatic means in the rational treatment of obesity. It must be remembered, however, that the sweating produced by beat is by no means so efficient in reducing flesh as that induced by exercise. It is by a combination of the two means that the most pronounced effects obtainable may be realized. 

In cases of obesity there is great danger of overheating the blood in consequence of the obstacle to heat elimination presented by the thick layer of non-conducting fat. Therefore, hot applications for the reduction of flesh should never be too greatly prolonged, and the bath should always be finished off by a vigorous cold application. 

The sudden removal from the blood of a large quantity of serum has to some degree the same effect as bleeding from a vein, weakening the heart's action by lessening the volume of the blood, and thus exposing the patient to risk from cardiac failure, a tendency to which is not infrequently present in cases of extreme obesity, either from actual fatty degeneration or from accumulation of fat about the heart or be-neath the serous lining of the chest and the mediastinum. 

A short general cold application following an application of heat for the purpose of producing perspiration to reduce weight in obesity has the effect to restore and increase the disposition for muscular effort, in addition to the tonic effect upon the general nervous system, thus enabling the patient to add to the spoliative effects of the hot bath the still more positive effects of prolonged muscular exercise. 

In administering a sweating bath for the purpose of reducing flesh, it is an excellent plan to interrupt the hot application at intervals by a cold application, a cold shower bath,a cold horizontal douche, or an affusion being best employed for this purpose. The temperature should be from 50°F (10°c) to 60° F. (15.5°C) , and the application continued not only long enough to remove from the skin the surplus heat which has been absorbed, but from five to twenty seconds longer, so as to produce a strong reaction. The atonic reaction of the hot bath, whereby heat production and tissue activity in general are reduced, will thus be antagonized, oxidation will be encouraged, and effete matters and surplus tissue broken down and prepared for the ehmination which will be effected by the succeeding application of heat. By the adoption of this plan the hot bath may be prolonged to two or three times the period otherwise admissible.