Editorial policy
The citation ladder
Claims are sourced in this order, and the source appears on the page:
- Heritage and culture: UNESCO’s 2020 listing of Finnish sauna culture (Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity), then the Finnish Sauna Society (Suomen Saunaseura), then Finland’s official cultural publications.
- Health: peer-reviewed literature only — never vendor blogs. Every health claim names the study design and its limits. Observational findings are labeled associations, not proof.
- Building practice: Finnish design principles translated to North American materials and codes, cross-checked against manufacturer documentation and the experience of people who build saunas.
Evidence honesty
- Effect sizes, study types, and hedges travel together. No cherry-picked numbers.
- Where evidence is thin, the page says so in the opening — not in a footnote.
- Debunk pages criticize the claim and the marketing, never the reader who encountered them.
- Sauna complements exercise and medical care; we never present it as a replacement.
Independence
There is no store on this site. If any page ever carries a commercial relationship, it is disclosed on that page, plainly, before the recommendation.
The byline
Articles are signed Saima Honkanen, a disclosed editorial pen name — the full arrangement is public. The byline never carries invented credentials, biography, or testimonials.
Review and corrections
Every guide shows a first-published date and a last-reviewed date, and the reviewed date is honest — it changes when the page is actually re-checked. Errors reported via the contact page are corrected on the page, with the reviewed date updated.