Regent Seven Seas Cruises (RSSC) announced recently that world famous Canyon Ranch(R), the leading operator of destination health resorts, will soon operate the spa, beauty salon, wellness and fitness facilities on board the line’s fleet of all-suite ultra-luxury ships.

Aboard Seven Seas Voyager, Seven Seas Mariner and Seven Seas Navigator, the Canyon Ranch SpaClub(R), from the Canyon Ranch at Sea division, will feature a state-of-the-art spa, wellness and fitness facility, plus a luxurious, full-service beauty salon. SpaClub will offer the most desirable spa amenities available: massage, body and skin-care treatment rooms, a gym and weight room with cardio and weight training equipment, a juice bar, men’s and women’s locker rooms, thalassotherapy, sauna and steam rooms.

Canyon Ranch SpaClub will be installed on each ship in December 2009, with the first cruises featuring this luxurious facility being Dec. 18 for Seven Seas Voyager, Dec. 20 for Seven Seas Mariner, and Dec. 28 for Seven Seas Navigator.

Regent Seven Seas Cruises will also feature a full range of culinary offerings from Canyon Ranch’s incomparable Spa Cuisine, which is both nutritious and created with the highest gourmet standards. This array of healthy cuisine will be available starting in the spring of 2010 at breakfast, lunch and dinner in each of the ships’ main dining room, Compass Rose; for breakfast and lunch in the more casual dining venue La Veranda; at the Pool Grill, and on the 24-hour Room Service menu for in-suite dining.

For more information, visit rssc.com.

For an indoor sauna, the most common locations are the bathroom and basement. Owners of bathroom saunas often make use of the existing plumbing, drainage and privacy a bathroom provides. And it makes perfect sense that so many people choose to install their saunas within just a few steps of their showers and bathtubs, given that sauna baths are revered by countless enthusiasts for their cleansing and rejuvenating qualities.

Outdoor saunas are most commonly located in homeowners’ backyards. Many people agree that the ideal arrangement is when a new backyard sauna complements an existing outdoor swimming pool. The presence of the pool encourages adherence to the much-prescribed heating-cooling cycle advised by health professionals and practiced, weather permitting, by responsible sauna bathers. With both a swimming pool and backyard sauna on your property, you may find yourself playing host to your friends and neighbors far more frequently than you ever did before. The combination of an outdoor sauna and pool may simply be too tempting and pleasurable for them to resist.

Once you have bought your sauna, you can expect to spend some very memorable time in it whether you have it inside, outside, or with you wherever you go.

For more information, visit greatsaunas.com

“August marks our daughter’s fifth year since conquering meth at Narconon California,” comments Susan, mother of five and teacher who recalls living with a meth addict. “One day she’d be very nice and the next you’d have thought Satan walked through the door.”

A middle-class family, active in their church with no history of drug or alcohol abuse in the family. . . until their daughter’s. An honor student active in sports, Edee earned a collage scholarship. But three weeks after high school graduation, a close friend died of an overdose. Susan recalls, “Edee shared with me years later she wanted to experience what her friend had. So began two years of hell-raising. She tried ecstasy, heroin, cocaine, alcohol & smoking. Meth hooked her.”

“For a while we didn’t know what was wrong. She was short-tempered, couldn’t hold a job. Out all night, sleep all day; stopped going to church. Finally we realized: drugs! You worry all the time. Will she kill herself, or someone else? Edee tried a 28-day program. It replaced illegal drugs with legal drugs. She reverted,” added Susan.

Edee’s grandmother continued searching the internet and found Narconon California, a drug-free life skills program. “What impressed us,” Susan says, “was the sauna part; drugs are sweated out of the body. Edee told me she could see sticky tar coming out in her sweat. This helped eliminate physical cravings.”

“Soon after arriving, Edee wanted to go to church, the staff was happy to take her. With the local Bishop and congregation helping, Edee rediscovered her faith. Today she enjoys full fellowship with her church,” says her proud mother. “She’s been working ever since, paying us back and now happily married.” Susan makes time for drug education and answers questions from parents of addicts. “Narconon saved my daughters’ life!”

Daughter Edee adds, “Before school starts I hope parents will talk to their kids about the dangers of drugs to health and goals. And Mom – thank you, for going through all you had to with my addiction, for believing in me, and getting me help. Our relationship is better than ever. You are my best friend!”

For more information, visit narcononcalifornia.com.

A sauna is a small room designed to be heated to very high temperatures, with well-controlled humidity. Saunas are used both for recreational and therapeutic purposes, with most people utilizing them as a relaxation tool that provides additional health benefits. The majority of saunas are built of wood, often aromatic, that release pleasing aromas as they heat.

There are two main types of saunas: dry and wet. Which type you prefer is just a matter of taste. Wet saunas are sometimes called steam rooms, and are kept at lower temperatures than their dry counterparts–usually between 100-115 Fahrenheit (37-46 Celsius). This, to prevent the superheated water from scalding the skin on contact. Dry saunas may be kept at much higher temperatures of up to 250 Fahrenheit (121 Celsius), by keeping the ambient moisture down to nearly zero.

Many saunas, even those using electric heaters, have some form of hot fragrant rocks which may be splashed with water to release both a short burst of steam, (temporarily creating the impression of a higher temperature), and a pleasing aroma. Some wood-burning saunas choose their fuels very carefully to help stimulate the participants through scent.

Many cultures have independently created their own form of sauna. The Finnish sauna, which is by far the most popular globally, originated as a hole in the ground with a fire in the middle and an insulating roof. Many First Nations people of North America use a traditional sweat lodge sauna. These may be as simple as a hole dug in the ground, or as complex as an entire wooden long-house style structure. In most First Nations’ saunas there is no internal fire; instead, stones are heated in a fire outside of the building and transported into the sweat lodge. Even many desert peoples have their own variants of the sauna, usually with full humidity and lower temperatures.

For more information, visit crystalsauna.com.