Nowhere has the Korean longing to lie on a heated floor (a feature of traditional houses) and eat one’s fill found fuller expression than in the jjimjilbang, the 24-hours-a-day public bathhouse.

But calling the jjimjilbang a bathhouse hardly begins to describe its attractions.

The jjimjilbang is modeled on the public bathhouses that were popularized early last century by the country’s Japanese occupiers but eventually fell out of favor when showers became a standard feature of Korean homes. In their modern incarnation, the bathhouses are a reflection of South Korea’s relatively newfound wealth, but also a way to satisfy nostalgia.

Koreans often say they are drawn to a jjimjilbang because they miss the ondol, the heated floor most families slept on until they began moving to high-rise apartments and Western-style beds. The floor is enough of a draw that some families occasionally spend the night in the bathhouse’s common rooms.

The communal nature of the jjimjilbang also suits many South Koreans; until recent decades, most people lived with their extended families.

The first public bathhouse was built here in 1925, mostly to cater to Japanese colonialists, but the institution quickly became part of Korean social life. Most urban neighborhoods had a bathhouse, as did small towns. Inside, patrons sat in or around large, sex-segregated baths filled with extremely hot water, gossiping and scooping water on themselves with gourds. Scrubbing other bathers’ backs, even strangers’, was common practice.

Many Korean adults share a childhood memory of being taken to public baths for no-nonsense, sometimes tears-inducing scrubs by their mothers. The bathhouses began adding amenities in recent decades as more people bathed at home. Those included steam rooms and professional body scrubbers, barbershops and hair salons, and communal sleeping rooms, where harried business people — often expected to work long hours and stay out late drinking with colleagues — could come during the day for a nap on a heated floor.

By the late 1990s, many bathhouses had turned into true recreation complexes, and going to one became as much a part of Korean social life as going to the movies. In 2006, there were more than 13,000 in the country, more than 2,500 of them in Seoul. Some can accommodate thousands of people.

Because they are open around the clock and are relatively inexpensive, the complexes have attracted budget-minded travelers, who stay in the communal sleeping room. Recently the government banned minors without adult escorts from jjimjilbang from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., after reports that the sites were becoming havens for runaways.

At the front counter, customers pay about 8,000 won, or $7, pick up their top and shorts and a towel and enter the sex-segregated bath halls. There, for an extra fee, they can be scrubbed by a professional using exfoliating mitts.

A jjimjilbang’s reputation owes much to its saunas.

Some feature heated huts suffused with the aroma of mugwort (important in traditional medicine). Sometimes the walls are studded with jade and amethyst, which many Koreans believe emit healing rays when heated.

Chun Byung-soo, who opened World Cup Spaland five years ago at Seoul’s World Cup soccer stadium, said the pioneers of jjimjilbang were inspired by the ancient Korean custom of sitting in giant charcoal or pottery kilns for heat therapy. Many Koreans believe heat can help cure some illnesses.

For more information,visit topics.nytimes.com.

Numbers are not just statistics. Sometimes they are human lives. In a decade, like so many in the preceding century when lives became daily body counts in televised wars, there have been uncounted lives saved.

Narconon is certainly not the only organization whose staff have worked 24/7 year in, year out, to save lives. We congratulate the selfless staffs of all humanitarian groups and those individual human beings who have struggled to raise the standard of civilization where other forces pull it down. Allow us a few moments to celebrate our own.

Narconon drug rehabilitation and education staff have grown to over 1,200 in the last ten years. Many are graduates of the Narconon program, which has never given up and never will on the concept that a recovering alcoholic or other drug addict can achieve a stably drug-free and ethical life. Some others also believe this, not enough. Another hypothesis circulates that addiction is a chronic relapsing disease. This is only a theory, not a law.

The Narconon drug rehab program’s 13,373 lives saved just this last decade are a testimony that recovery is possible. Stable, life-enriching, full recovery – it’s over, drugs are behind you, you don’t have to wake up or fall asleep anymore worried to the bone that drugs will drag you down tomorrow. Why? Because the drugs aren’t talking to you anymore. Their voice has been stilled, and your own self has found its own voice.

The Narconon sauna detoxification program through a regimen of exercise, nutrition, and repeated sweating in low-heat, ventilated dry saunas vaporizes the ‘drug voice.’ Once the residual metabolites are gone, their silent whisper in the back of the head loses the power of its effect. Then the rest of the Narconon life skills program kicks in, and the recovering addict turns himself inside out to become a new person once and for forever.

To save 13,000 lives since 2000 Narconon needed many new centers, and our staff plus volunteers, some being graduates or their parents, have opened 38 new drug rehab centers, 4 of them out-patient, comprising 1,200 new beds since 1999. Fourteen of our new centers were in the USA, including Narconon Arrowhead, our international training center. The others span from Siberia to South Africa, from Nepal to Egypt.

There are more than drug rehab graduate stories to tell. There are the stories of those persons who did not give up on the addict, who convinced him or her to keep on, keep trying… because it’s worth it, you can do it. And they did. Congratulations to the heroes who helped them do so.

Of course, there’s more to this ongoing saga.

For more information, visit narconon.org.

There are many health benefits to be gained from using a sauna, but infrared sauna health is even more remarkable.

If you’ve ever spent time in a sauna, you know that it is a great way to feel invigorated. But did you know that the health benefits of sauna use have been proven? Research has shown that these benefits, everything from healthier skin to better blood circulation, are significant.

The major benefits of sauna use include an increased heart rate, increased circulation, and stimulation of the immune system. The increased heart rate yields the same benefits as an invigorating walk. The increased circulation helps nutrients reach their destinations. And the immune stimulus creates a body that is better able to fight disease.

With all of these benefits, it is easy to see why so many people use saunas on a regular basis. But there is even better news for health-conscious sauna users. Infrared saunas, which provide the same health benefits as traditional saunas, provide further benefits including softer, more tolerable heat and can spur even deeper detoxification of the body.

A traditional steam sauna operates by pouring water over a heating element, which heats the room. The heated room then heats the user’s body. An infrared sauna uses radiant energy (the same kind of energy produced by the sun) to heat only the user’s body, not the room. And the infrared technology does not include potentially harmful UV rays.

The heating element in a traditional sauna operates at a temperature of 150 – 200 degrees Fahrenheit. In an infrared sauna, the temperature is approximately 110 – 140 degrees Fahrenheit. That 40-90 degree difference can make all the difference in your sauna experience. Because the heat in an infrared sauna is lower, and because its radiant energy heats only the user’s body, people often say they are able to stay in an infrared sauna longer than a traditional sauna. This is significant because the longer they stay in the sauna, the more health benefits they gain.

The other significant benefit that is only provided by an infrared sauna is deeper detoxification. Infrared energy penetrates deep into the muscle tissue. This penetration forces the cells to react by eliminating waste. Infrared sauna users often say they begin to sweat sooner and sweat more than with traditional saunas. And more sweat means better cleansing.

If you are interested in gaining all of these health benefits, look into an infrared sauna. The difference between traditional and infrared sauna health will impress you.

For more information, visit yourinfraredsauna.com.

Saunas have been around for a long time. Most of us are familiar with saunas: we see the little wood-paneled rooms in hotels and other public pool areas. People in bathing suits or towels sit on wooden benches inside the sauna and sweat it out for basically as long as they can stand. But many of us don’t know that there are actually two types of saunas: traditional saunas and far infrared saunas.

Traditional saunas contain some type of furnace with rocks or coals inside it. By heating the coals, the air is kept hot. Through convection the hot air warms our skin. That means that in a traditional sauna the coals heat the air, and the air heats us.

With infrared saunas, the middleman is eliminated. The infrared energy produced heats us, not the air. If you understand that the sun also produces far infrared radiation, you can better understand this concept. On a cool day, you may be perfectly comfortable outside in the sunshine. But it can be quite cold in the shade because the clouds are blocking you from the suns infrared radiation.

Because of the direct heating methods it uses, an infrared sauna is a great choice. It conserves energy (meaning a substantial savings over the long run if you’re looking to buy your own personal sauna) and creates a heat that actually penetrates deeper into our skin.

By now, you’re probably wondering whether using far infrared radiation in a sauna is safe. Infrared radiation conjures up images of covert military operations or dangerous chemicals that could harm our bodies.
But infrared is completely safe. We are exposed to it every day of our lives due to the sun.

However, the type of infrared used in far infrared saunas is much safer than the suns light. The suns rays also carry potentially harmful UV rays, which can damage skin, but in an infrared sauna these aren’t present.

Infrared saunas are one of the best things you can do to boost your own health!

It helps us sweat off extra calories and gives our bodies a way to release built-up toxins through perspiration. It also speeds up our body’s natural healing functions.

Hopefully this article has illustrated the difference between traditional saunas and the far infrared sauna. This completely safe, natural method of purifying our bodies is now available to you. So throw on a towel and jump in!

For more information, visit yourinfraredsauna.com