High-school junior Ethan Abramovitz, founder of the nonprofit Sauna For Seniors, in the traditional Finnish sauna he helped build in his backyard.
Ethan Abramovitz, founder of Sauna For Seniors, will host an educational event at Parkers Bend Retirement Community in Moorestown on Monday, June 30.
“Being able to apply science in the community and really help people has just been so interesting to me, and I truly love doing that,” he said.
The Eastern Regional High School junior launched Sauna For Seniors to increase access to and awareness of the potential health and wellness benefits provided by heat therapy for senior citizens in the greater Philadelphia area, according to the nonprofit’s website.
With two great-grandparents who suffered from dementia, and as a volunteer at a local assisted living facility, Abramovitz has seen first hand the burden of neurodegenerative diseases on older adults and their families, as well as the high cost of ongoing care. That all played a role in the development of the nonprofit, as did something else.
“One of the first things that really inspired this initiative was building a sauna with my dad,” Abramovitz explained. “When I first stepped into that sauna, I was so surprised about the feeling I had, how relaxed I was. It really made me feel healthy and I was amazed by sitting in a warm room and the benefits that (that) can have.
“Like a lot of people, I was very skeptical at first, but the second that I stepped in, I really understood the benefits of it.”
Between an interest in the life sciences and the experience of building that traditional Finnish sauna in his family’s backyard, Abramovitz became interested in the emerging scientific and medical research on the benefits of heat therapy for preventing neurodegenerative and cardiovascular disease as well as other medical conditions.
“Saunas really have a link to neurological and neurodegenerative diseases,” he noted, “and (that) really ties into my interest in health care and community health. I also started to realize that there was really a need for more saunas – particularly with senior citizens – and that’s how Sauna For Seniors was born.”
Increasing access to heat therapy for senior citizens as a complement to other wellness and medical interventions, represents a potential opportunity to improve health outcomes at low cost and with a high return on investment.
“If a person has access to a sauna and they use it on a regular basis, they can potentially delay memory care for even just one year,” Abramovitz pointed out. “Putting two facts together – the cost of memory care and the benefits of saunas – begged the question of, ‘Why aren’t more people using saunas?’”
