A sauna apparatus is usually furnished with an electric heater and a vapor generator in the sauna room, thereby keeping the room atmosphere wet at about 100° C. This type of sauna apparatus is effective for healthy people, in that it promotes perspiration and helps provide mind and body with a relaxation effect and recovery from fatigue. However, it is not proper for patients with heart failure, hypertension, or arrhythmia or aged people because this method puts an excessive burden on their hearts and vascular systems, thereby endangering their lives.
In order to attain an adequate thermotherapic effect, it seems to be desirable to make sauna bathing follow a predetermined bathing pattern with predetermined temperature and time. In other words, it is desirable to increase deep body temperature by maintaining a warming temperature for a given period that does not put an excessive burden on the body, followed by keeping a rise of body temperature to some degree by maintaining a heat-retention temperature for a given period that is slightly lower than the warming temperature.
Traditional thermotherapic sauna apparatus, however, can only provide a thermal effect for the sauna room. An apparatus has not been developed that can allow people to receive adequate thermotherapy in the sauna room according to the abovementioned predetermined bathing pattern.
Moreover, it is essential to guarantee safety for patients with heart failure, hypertension, or arrhythmia or aged people in using a thermotherapic sauna apparatus. However, no thermotherapic sauna apparatus has been developed that has taken such safety into consideration.
We came up with the present invention to solve the abovementioned problems. The purpose of the invention is to provide a thermotherapic sauna apparatus taking into consideration adequate safety that makes it possible to enjoy sauna bathing according to a predetermined thermotherapic bathing pattern without leaving the sauna room, whereby an adequate thermotherapic effect can be attained without forcing any extra burden on patients and aged people.