Are saunas good for you?
6 Minute English
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 2 April 2026
⏱️ 7 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How do you feel about being in a small room heated to a temperature of 80°C? Believe it or not, some people love it! There might be some health benefits to this hot habit too! Georgie and Neil hear from a BBC reporter and a professor from BBC Radio 4 programme Inside Health. You'll also learn some useful language!
Read along with this podcast with the free transcript, and practise the vocabulary using the quiz and worksheet: https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/6-minute-english_2026/ep-260402
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:06.0 | Have you practised your listening with the listing room yet? |
| 0:10.1 | Listen to real BBC news reports and answer the questions to practice your listening skills. |
| 0:16.5 | From Lionel Messi to guerrilla friendships, you'll find lots to interest you. |
| 0:27.9 | Go to the skills section of our website now, BBClearningEnglish.com, and improve your listening today. |
| 0:34.4 | Six Minute English from BBC LearningEnglish.com Hello, this is Six Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Neil. |
| 0:41.3 | And I'm Georgie. In winter, people find different ways of keeping warm, like wearing extra clothes |
| 0:46.9 | or staying indoors. But in some countries, there's another way of keeping the cold out, |
| 0:51.9 | going for a sauna. Yes, Nordic countries like Sweden and Finland have a long history of taking saunas, |
| 0:59.0 | but now they're popping up in Britain too. |
| 1:01.7 | Have you ever been for a sauna, Georgie? |
| 1:03.7 | I have, yes, and if I'm honest, I'm not a huge fan. |
| 1:07.3 | I don't really like being too hot. It's uncomfortable. |
| 1:10.1 | What about you, Neil? |
| 1:15.1 | Oh, really? I quite like a sauna. You feel really refreshed afterwards. |
| 1:21.6 | So, what is a sauna? Well, a typical sauna is a small wooden room heated with steam to around 80 degrees Celsius. It's hot enough to make anyone sweat. But are saunas good for your health as well? |
| 1:27.8 | That's what James Gallagher wanted to find out for BBC Radio 4 programme Inside Health. |
| 1:33.1 | We're seeing what saunas do to the human body. |
| 1:35.9 | They're popping up all over the country with claims that high temperatures boost your health and well-being. |
| 1:41.9 | But are they all they're cracked up to be? James wants to find out if saunas they all they're cracked up to be? |
| 1:44.6 | James wants to find out if saunas are all they're cracked up to be. He means are they as good as people say? |
| 1:51.5 | And that's exactly what we'll be finding out in this episode, along with some useful new words and phrases. |
... |
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