Herbal sauna where people battling lifestyle diseases seek solace

Eldoret residents at Balneotherapy Herbal Sauna and Steam Bath at Pioneer Estate in Uasin Gishu County. July 16, 2024. [Peter Ochieng, Standard]

It is mid-morning at a former garage off Eldoret-Kisumu road in the Pioneer area, and a wide path leads you to a registration desk.

The parking is ample, and people, the majority visibly overweight, ostentatiously strolled in.

The ushers here are nurses with soothing voices. A white smoke billows on one side. Men and women are ushered respectively to different rooms.

Inside, visitors start with a hot shower in a bathroom next to a changing area before heading straight to a sauna.

In the sauna, their warm bodies are greeted with more heat as chatter among the visitors and the making of new friendships gets underway.

They all have a common goal - battling lifestyle-related conditions. After spending at least 15 minutes inside the sauna, one by one, they shift to a room where a mesmerizing steam awaits. Here, the temperatures are a bit lower.

It is at the Eldoret’s Balneotherapy Clinic Herbal Sauna and Steam Bath, where an elderly traditional herbalist and her son, who has toured 22 countries, joined forces to set it up to help individuals with lifestyle conditions such as obesity and high blood pressure to alleviate pain and regain fitness through herbal medicine inhaled as steam.

At the sauna, traditional herbal medicine meets technology.

Numbers at the facility have grown after several clients discovered their blood pressure has been normalizing after weeks of therapy.

A combination of 17 herbs is boiled and released to the steam room for inhalation in the form of vapour.

Margaret Yego, from Lessos in Nandi County, says she has been seeking therapy at the facility since November last year due to lower back pains.

After tests, medics said she had a borne problem that affected her nerves and blood circulation.

From the tests, it was found that her blood pressure was high.

“I could barely walk for ten metres. I was later introduced to the herbal sauna, and since November, I have managed to normalize my blood pressure and lower back pains. I can now walk for at least a kilometre,” she says.

According to Yego, the sauna helped her reduce the number of visits to doctors and sped up her recovery.
 
“I attended the sauna for four consecutive sessions during my first week and then followed it with three sessions and a massage,” she says.

She adds: “My sister could bring me during the initial days, but I can now come to the sauna alone.”

Another client, Ernest Mungenei from Merewet, Uasin Gishu, says he resorted to the herbal sauna to alleviate recurring episodes of pneumonia.

“I would seek medication to treat pneumonia every month. I have not felt any difficulty in breathing and chest pains in recent months,” says Mungenei.

Esther Birege, 74, a traditional herbalist who co-founded the sauna with her son, 51-year-old Richard Koskei, says the 17 herbs used in the therapy sessions were approved by Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) after tests.

Medical doctors, senior county officials, professionals and prominent farmers from the maize-producing North Rift region have been attending sessions at the herbal facility.

Birege is quick to warn that her herbal medicine cannot alleviate pain from cancer.

“I did not go to school, but professionals come to the herbal sauna because it has been certified by government agencies. The therapy has helped diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma, back pains, typhoid and malaria and helped men and women with libido challenges,” she says.
She gets the herbal medicines from her Kabartonjo village in Baringo County.

At the age of 54, she recalls her parents saying she was still a girl and not mature enough to dispense traditional herbal medications.

“I started when I was 54 years old, but my parents said I was too young to venture into traditional herbal medication. I had to wait until I turned 60, and they gave the green light,” says Birege.

She says she dispensed herbal medicine at home (Baringo) for ten years before shifting to Eldoret, where she decided to supply herbal for the sauna.

“The steam is herbal medicine turned into vapour for inhalation. It helps clients to eliminate chest and lung problems, enabling them to breathe better and enjoy a sound sleep,” she says.

She continues: “I was taught by medics from Kenyatta University before getting certification.”

Her son, Koskei, says he set up the herbal sauna after touring 22 countries.

Koskei says he discovered that people prefer herbal medicine in several countries such as Turkey, India and Finland.

“When I was in Turkey, I attended a sauna and became curious after discovering they used steam. I took time to learn about the leaves, but their herbs are different from ours,” says Koskei.

Koskei says he also learned about the sauna technology when he returned, he contracted engineers to set up a modern sauna that uses steam from herbal medicine to offer therapy and collaborated with his mother.
 
“Our objective is to see people healthy and recovering from non-communicable diseases,” he says. The sauna has 18 workers, most of them are nurses.

We hired trained nurses because they are trained to handle patients.

“Your blood pressure, sugar level and body weight are recorded to enable nurses to know the condition one has and monitor the client. They are measured also after you have attended the sauna, and progress is recorded,” Koskei says.

As a consumer of the sauna services, the co-founder says: “I was weighing 126 kilogrammes and have managed, through the sauna, to reduce to 108kgs in the last four years.”

His fear is: “Several people using herbal medicines that have not been certified by KEMRI.”

Sheila Chepkurui, a registered nurse at the facility, says her role is to monitor clients with different conditions.

Chepkurui says some of the clients came with high blood pressure and diabetes, and because of the heat, they have to be monitored.

“We check on them after every five minutes. So far, we have had good responses from those battling health conditions. We also give them health education so that they continue taking their medication, improve their diet and help them change their lifestyles,” she explains.