Health Benefits Associated With Sauna Use

Dry Heat Exposure

You can reduce your risk of age related impairments, including cardio vascular disease, neurodegenerative disease, and metabolic disfunction.

Cardiovascular Health

Heat exposure induces protective responses against the deleterious biological processes that drive cardiovascular disease and related disability.

Cardiovascular disease

The World Health Organization estimates that nearly 18 million people die each year from cardiovascular diseases, roughly one-third of all deaths worldwide. Cardiovascular disease is largely preventable with lifestyle behaviors such as sauna use.

Heat Acclimation

Repeated sauna use acclimates the body to heat and optimizes the body's response to future exposures, likely due to a biological phenomenon known as hormesis, a compensatory defense response following exposure to a mild stressor that is disproportionate to the magnitude of the stressor. Hormesis triggers a vast array of protective mechanisms that not only repair cell damage but also provide protection from subsequent exposures to more devastating stressors.

As you experience high temperatures during sauna (roughly 165+ degrees), there’s an increase in plasma volume which provides a reserve source in fluid for sweating, cools the body to prevent rapid increase in core body temp, and promotes heat tolerance to outside summer temperatures. This sweating also facilitates higher excretions of some toxic heavy metals like aluminum, cadmium, and lead.

During exercise, core body temperature increases, attenuating endurance and accelerating exhaustion. Heat acclimatization and acclimation, however, induce complex physiological adaptations that improve thermoregulation, attenuate physiological strain, and enhance athletic performance in hot environments. These adaptations are mediated via improved cardiovascular and thermoregulatory mechanisms that reduce the deleterious effects associated with elevated core body temperature, optimizing the body for subsequent increases in core body temperature during future exercise.

Heat stress from using the sauna may modulate improvements in physical fitness and athletic performance by increasing endurance and maintaining or promoting gains in muscle mass.

Cognitive & Mental Health

Cognitive Decline

Studies also show sauna can lower your odds of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s by 65%, as well as a reduction of developing a psychotic disorder by 77%.

Normal cognitive function relies on sufficient blood flow to the brain and peripheral nervous system, so cardiovascular diseases and cognitive decline often go hand-in-hand. Findings from a large observational study of middle-aged men living in Finland demonstrated that men who used the sauna four to seven times per week had a 65 percent reduced risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.

Depression

Elevated biomarkers of inflammation are commonly observed in people who have depression. Chronic activation of the body's inflammatory response system promotes the development of depressive symptoms and induces changes in brain and neuroendocrine function. Sauna use has been shown to reduce symptoms of depression.

In a randomized, double-blind study of 30 healthy adults diagnosed with depression, participants who were exposed to a single session of whole-body hyperthermia in which core body temperature was elevated to 101.3°F experienced an acute antidepressant effect that was persisted for six weeks after treatment.

Mental focus and attention span

Two key players in cognitive and mental function are norepinephrine, a hormone and neurotransmitter produced in the brain, and prolactin, a hormone released by the pituitary gland. Norepinephrine enhances focus and attention, while prolactin promotes myelin growth, which makes the brain function faster, a critical feature in repairing nerve cell damage.

When young men stayed in a sauna that was heated to 80°C (176°F) until subjective exhaustion, their norepinephrine levels increased by 310 percent and their prolactin levels increased by 900 percent. Levels of cortisol, a hormone commonly associated with the stress response, were slightly decreased. Similarly, in a study involving women who participated in 20-minute sessions in a dry sauna twice a week experienced a 86 percent increase in norepinephrine and a 510 percent increase in prolactin after the session. 

These findings suggest that since the norepinephrine response to exercise is blunted in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors are frequently prescribed to treat ADHD, use of heat stress and its acclimation may one day be a useful alternative therapeutic approach employed by clinicians.

Reduce your Odds of Developing Many Debilitating Health Conditions

“Increased frequency of sauna bathing is associated with a reduced risk of Sudden Cardiac Death (SCD), Coronary Heart Disease (CHD), Cardiovascular Disease (CVD), and all-cause mortality.

Sauna mimics moderate intense aerobic exercise, this especially helps individuals who are unable to exercise normally because of some sort of restriction.

Growth Hormone

Sauna use promotes growth hormone release, which varies according to time, temperature, and frequency. Two 20-minute sauna sessions at 176°F separated by a 30-minute cooling period elevated growth hormone levels two-fold over baseline, but two 15-minute sauna sessions at 212°F dry heat separated by a 30-minute cooling period resulted in a five-fold increase in growth hormone.

Insulin and Glucose Balance

Insulin regulates glucose homeostasis, primarily by promoting the uptake of glucose into muscle and adipose tissue. Repeated treatment with a far-infrared sauna has been shown to significantly lower fasting blood glucose levels. When insulin resistant diabetic mice were subjected to 30 minutes of heat treatment three times a week for 12 weeks, they experienced a 31 percent decrease in plasma insulin levels and a significant reduction in blood glucose levels, suggesting re-sensitization to insulin.

Heavy Metals

Heavy metals are naturally-occurring metallic elements that are toxic or poisonous at low concentrations. Exposures to heavy metals in everyday products such as arsenic in agricultural products, cadmium in cigarette smoke and automobile exhaust, lead in toys, and mercury in dental amalgam and certain types of fish, are common occurrences. Some heavy metals are excreted in sweat, and sauna use may facilitate their excretion.