Juniper broom has a pleasant aroma of pine needles and essential oils. It is especially useful to steam with a juniper broom for people who have problems with the skin, respiratory or nervous system, and joint mobility. It is good for use in removing toxins from the body, relieving headaches and treating migraines.
Proper steaming of a bath broom is of great importance in the effectiveness of disease prevention and the therapeutic effects of the substances contained in juniper.
The benefits of juniper
Juniper is a plant from the cypress family, growing from the Arctic to the subtropics and is a shrub with branches strewn with green needles. In common people, juniper is called veres, and its Turkic name is juniper. Since ancient times, juniper has been used in folk medicine for diseases of the kidneys and bladder, for colds, inflammatory processes, and also as an excellent remedy for various kinds of skin diseases - eczema, dermatitis. The healing effects of heather on the respiratory system are known. The healing substances contained in the roots of juniper help treat bronchitis and tuberculosis. Juniper oil helps with joint diseases and is used in the treatment of arthritis, polyarthritis, radiculitis, and neuralgia. In villages, juniper has long been used for steaming tubs before harvesting mushrooms, fruits and vegetables. Phytancides contained in juniper wood and needles are able to cope with most known harmful microorganisms.
According to popular beliefs, juniper is capable of expelling various evil spirits from the house. Therefore, they always tried to plant heather near the house in order to protect their home from evil spirits, and those living in it from damage and the evil eye.
The benefits and harms of juniper broom
Juniper is a shrub from the cypress family, a distant relative of our conifers. Mention of its medicinal properties was already in ancient Egyptian scrolls. Ancestors believed that if you fumigate a house with this plant during an epidemic, the disease would go away. The Indians of North America even brought people with sore joints or skin infections to him, and, importantly, they actually recovered.
The juniper broom is the first healer. The needles of this plant contain healing essential oils, tannins, antiseptics, vitamins and microelements, which:
- Remove phlegm.
- Relieves swelling in the respiratory tract - especially useful for smokers and those with lung problems.
- Relieves hangover syndrome.
- Heals skin ulcers.
- They have an invigorating effect - relieve fatigue and stress.
- Stimulates sexual desire.
This is an ideal option for people suffering from bronchitis and tuberculosis and having joint problems. Use it if you have a sore spine or suffer from radiculitis.
But for those who are not confident in their vascular and cardiac systems, such a broom is contraindicated. However, like the bathhouse itself. Also, you should not use it during the active phase of skin diseases, or if there are recent wounds and abrasions on the body.
This is interesting
This life hack for women is an excellent tool in the fight against cellulite and stretch marks. If you want to get in shape, choose a juniper broom. It contributes to the normalization of the subcutaneous integument and brings tissue back to normal.
The advantage of such a broom is that it can be used repeatedly. It is quite resistant to wear. In addition, juniper can be frozen and the medicinal properties will not be lost, which allows the broom to be stored for a very long time.
You can purchase this item at a specialized bath goods store or knit it yourself.
When are juniper brooms harvested?
Juniper is an evergreen plant and, unlike deciduous trees, it can be harvested almost all year round. But the highest concentration of nutrients in the branches of the plant is observed during the warm period of the year in early and mid-summer. To prevent the needles from falling off so quickly, it is better to collect twigs for a broom in cool weather.
How to steam a juniper broom
Going to the bathhouse is a special art, a certain charm, an undying Slavic tradition. A real Russian bathhouse is the spirit of that time, a sacred place where people gained strength, improved their health, and cleansed their body and soul.
We will talk about how to steam a juniper broom for a bath, follow all the rules and get maximum pleasure.
The smell of wet wood, a good bath broom and great company will help you get the most out of your steam room experience. Brooms for this procedure are very diverse: juniper, oak, linden, etc. An important component is not only to choose a broom, to make broom blanks for good steaming, but also to steam correctly. How to steam a juniper broom for the best results. This is an important component, since an improperly steamed broom can even cause harm to health and leave wounds and abrasions on the body.
Juniper broom is an excellent remedy for treating colds; it has antiseptic and wound-healing properties. Helps remove mucus and cleanse the upper respiratory tract. It does an excellent job of cleansing the body, eliminating waste and toxins. Juniper phytoncides have tonic properties; the vapor penetrates deeply into the skin and helps remove harmful substances from the body. When vaping, the pores expand and sweating increases, which leads to better cleansing and renewal.
How to use a broom correctly?
Let's figure out how to properly steam a juniper broom? In fact, there is nothing complicated in this procedure, but all points must be observed.
First of all, you need to rinse the broom thoroughly, it will be cleaned of dust and debris and soaked a little. Next, you need to soak it in water for 20-30 minutes. It should be boiling water so that it softens thoroughly and does not cause injury to the skin. When you can use it, you will feel that the room will be filled with a bright juniper aroma. This pleasant pine scent has a beneficial effect on the nervous system, relaxes and gives a feeling of calm. It is similar to cypress.
Various containers are used to steam a broom, but it is best to use balls. They are made from cedar, pine, etc. wood.
The healing properties of juniper broom are endless. Skin diseases, kidney and urinary tract diseases, rheumatism and tuberculosis are treated with preparations made from juniper cones, or using juniper tinctures and oils. That is why juniper shoots are added to bath brooms. In addition, it perfectly purifies the air, disinfects, and has anti-inflammatory properties.
You can prepare such brooms all year round, but it is best to do this in late spring or early summer. Shoots can be taken either very young or not. To ensure that the broom is not too hard, juniper can be combined with other plants. It should be dried in a cool, dark place, but care must be taken that it is not overdried. Old brooms quickly fall off when steamed, so you shouldn’t store them for a long time either.
A properly prepared and steamed broom will bring you the most pleasant sensations in the bathhouse. It will help improve the health of the skin and the whole body, improve your mood and relieve negative thoughts. In Rus', people went to the bathhouse to get rid of all the negativity, to get rid of evil. And now there is an expression: “Go to the bathhouse!” It came from our ancestors and carried special power. Take a steam bath with a juniper broom and you will feel a surge of strength and emotional uplift.
How to knit a juniper broom correctly?
In order for the broom to have a certain strength and not immediately become disheveled when the steamers are wooing, it is advisable to make its base from stronger branches, which are placed in the middle. Thinner branches are placed around strong branches, trying to lay them so that there are no twigs or individual branches sticking out in different directions. They should all fit as closely as possible to each other. The broom should not puff up in different directions. Its structure should be quite dense. The branches are laid crosswise, after which they are tied tightly with linen rope or bast, after which the thick ends are combined and wrapped around them, forming a handle. Below you can watch a video on how to knit a juniper broom:
The benefits of juniper broom
Like any coniferous plant, juniper is a real antibiotic. The needles are extremely rich in essential oil. Therefore, this broom is a real antiseptic and anti-inflammatory agent. You can breathe in juniper needles to prevent the flu. This simple procedure will fight off colds and lung diseases. Juniper is great for any allergies. Rashes, skin redness, itching - this bath broom amazingly treats.
When I talk to anyone about a juniper broom, I immediately remember how my back hurt. Almost nothing helped, neither injections, nor pills. And my mother-in-law gave me a Kuznetsov applicator. Of course, it was scary to lie on these needles, but the pain overpowered the fear. And it was he who helped me. Therefore, I know for sure, 100%, that the juniper healer also treats radiculitis and rheumatism with its super needles.
How to store juniper brooms?
Since heather is a coniferous plant, it tends to crumble after drying. As you yourself understand, if such a broom is simply placed in a dry, dark place, like an ordinary birch or oak broom, then soon the needles will fall off and only bare branches will remain. To prevent this from happening, it is recommended to store the broom in the cold, or even better - in the cold. Therefore, it is best to store heather brooms prepared in the fall in the snow next to the house (sauna) or on the balcony in the apartment.
When we talk about the benefits of bath procedures, we mean not only special cleaning of the skin and pores from impurities, but also overcoming problems with the respiratory system. Juniper brooms are very helpful in this matter, as the wood contains a high content of pine oils, which has a beneficial effect on the treatment of colds and removes toxins from the respiratory tract.
With proper care during steaming and after bath procedures, a juniper broom can last 10-15 bath sessions. To comply with hygiene standards, it is advisable for each steam room client to have his own personal accessory.
How to preserve juniper brooms?
There are quite a lot of recommendations for solving this type of issue, but the main one is to get rid of the moisture in the broom as much as possible after the steam room. To do this, it is enough to shake it out after the procedures, but do not apply much force. Also, as an additional process, wrapping in natural fabric, such as cotton or chintz, is used for a few minutes. Then the broom is hung by the stem on the wall of the steam room, allowing it to dry as much as possible and become saturated with oxygen.
It is strictly forbidden to store a broom in a horizontal position on any surface, since in this position pockets of mold and microbes are actively provoked.
In order to steam a juniper broom, before using it for the first time, you must rinse it under warm running water, but you should not use any soap products, including solutions. The fact is that surfactants, which are contained in soap and shower gels, are difficult to remove from the surface, and juniper needles quickly absorb them, and they penetrate into the structure of the broom. But experimenting with natural products like honey or salt is quite possible, but the main thing here is to correctly calculate the consistency
The juniper broom steams very quickly, so you shouldn’t keep it in a bucket for more than 10-15 minutes, otherwise it will simply fall apart in your hands while performing its direct functions.
To preserve juniper brooms , it is enough to dry and steam them correctly - and there is no higher mathematics in this process. After bath procedures and after the broom has dried, it will give your steam room a pleasant pine aroma. Always add water during the steaming process, since pine oils are gradually released into the air.
