If you do \u201cthis\u201d, this is what can happen\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And that\u2019s not all. It makes you a better athlete, a better learner, it improves insulin sensitivity (aka prevention and management of diabetes) and could just maybe possibly lengthen your life by 15%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What is this voodoo? Where are you going to get the hemlock, dragon\u2019s blood, eye of a newt and wool of bat for this magical concoction? What kind of Faustian deal do you have to make and with who for all this goodness?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nope. No soul deals, no scary Shakespearian encounter with the Wayward Sisters and no need for any doctors, prescriptions, drugs nor pills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You just have to get HOT.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n Today we\u2019re getting into saunas<\/strong> so that you will start getting into the sauna. That\u2019s right, those wooden hot rooms you probably walk past at the gym or the spa are one of the most successful health habits out there<\/strong>. And yes, whilst they aren\u2019t uber accessible if your gym or complex or a friend is nice enough to offer theirs it\u2019s time to strip down and get your sweat on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Originating from Finland, the practice of sauna is over 2,000 years old. Once again, as is happening everywhere in the health and wellness space one of the trendiest topics has nothing to do with biohacking your body with the marvels of modern science. Rather, all too many of the cures to modern ills exist in looking back to the intuitive wisdom and practices of the past<\/strong>. Sauna is yet another one. Neither fancy nor futuristic, to benefit from sauna one need only sit and sweat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s just set the basics quick. All the information relayed here relates only to the classic Finnish aka hot stone aka dry sauna<\/strong>. Not infrared saunas, nor hot tubs and Jacuzzis nor steam rooms or Turkish baths. Which isn\u2019t to disparage either of those or claim they have no health benefits. The reason is simply that the scientific studies shared here have been conducted on sauna (study 1<\/a>, study 2<\/a>). Otherwise, whilst I have read positive literature on infrared saunas, I believe that new and techy isn\u2019t always better and that ancient technologies have endured for good reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But people, this is going to require effort and discomfort<\/strong>. When sauna is actually working its magic, when you’re in the throes of that final 5 minute push, be ready to embrace the struggle, embrace the suck, embrace the sweat<\/strong>. You can\u2019t just pop into the sauna for a few minutes once in a while and think all good, no dementia for me. Besides the fact this practice is not a guarantee<\/em>, of which life offers none, the benefits are a linear result of persistence and consistency<\/strong>. Aka, the foundational sauna study from which the cardiovascular disease, all-cause mortality (including cancer), Alzheimer\u2019s disease and dementia data originates dictates a regiment of 4 to 7 times per week<\/strong> for a minimum time of 20 minutes<\/strong> at a minimum temperate of 79 degrees Celsius<\/strong> per session over multiple decades<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Basically, to take maximum advantage of the medicine of sauna you have to integrate it into your daily life<\/strong>. Which isn\u2019t to say doing less does nothing. Using that 20 minute at 79 regime if you can squeeze in 2 or 3 times per week<\/strong> [still however consistently for decades] you\u2019re still reducing risk factors<\/strong> for cardiovascular disease by 27% (vs 50% if 4-7 times weekly), all-cause mortality by 24% (vs 40%), dementia by 22% (vs 66%) and Alzeimer\u2019s by 20% (vs 65%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Plus, there are plenty of immediate and short-term benefits<\/strong> (as cited in this study<\/a>). Any single session in the sauna ignites a host of bodily responses \u2013 increased metabolism<\/strong>, improved blood circulation<\/strong>, soothing and relaxation of muscles<\/strong>, increased energy<\/strong>, improved athletic performance<\/strong>, lower stress<\/strong>, better sleep<\/strong>, relieve sinus congestion<\/strong>, a cardiovascular workout<\/strong> akin to a light aerobic session (therefore burn calories<\/strong>), temporary pain relief <\/strong>due to release of the natural opioids beta endorphins and norepinephrine and expulsion of toxins and impurities<\/strong> (including viruses which is why regular sauna users are 30% less likely to catch the flu). Nevertheless, you still need to hit that 20 minute threshold as time is required to heat up the body\u2019s core and trigger these processes. Going in for a few minutes and feeling hot doesn\u2019t mean anything is happening as that heat has barely penetrated the outer skin layer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, if that\u2019s enough sauna for you and you’re already planning your first sweat sesh you can stop here. The above is all the WHY why sauna is good for you.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n But, if you want to geek out a bit, below I\u2019m going to get into the HOW of sauna<\/strong>. We will go through the specifics of the physiological mechanisms featuring neato stuff like heat shock proteins, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, FOXO3 and mTOR pathways.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Getting nice and hot in the sauna is an example of hormesis<\/strong>, the fancy term for a protective stress response. One of the most common and beneficial forms of hormesis occurs during exercise. In this case, the heat stress cultivates an internal bodily environment that activates genes to produce heat shock proteins (HSPs)<\/strong>. These HSPs then play a kind of search and rescue role in the body by going around and repairing damaged proteins<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0Which is super beneficial given that your body is effectively composed of proteins. The reality is that we are constantly degrading whilst being alive as the body produces waste type byproducts like free radicals from oxidative stress. The proteins within the body are also damaged by things such as sunlight and the harmful chemicals people consume everyday via pollution, industrially produced food and products like makeup or household cleaning items.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now the rub is that not only do you logically ramp up the HSPs during a sauna sweat, but by becoming a habitual sauna user you accustom your body to produce elevated HSPs (this is known as hyperthermic conditioning<\/strong>) compared to non-users in your base state. Additionally, because your body has \u201clearnt\u201d to pump out HSPs under stress whenever your body finds itself in other hormetic stress situations, like the micro-tissue damage done during exercise, those extra HSPs mitigate the consequences of a stress event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the rationale for claims HSPs are correlated to longer-life spans<\/strong>. This occurs through the FOXO3 pathway, which is a gene that turns on and off (or expresses) multiple other genes associated with stress resilience. And as you get older, normally the genes FOXO3 works with decrease, so by activating FOXO3 during heat exposure it boosts the potency of the remaining genes. FOXO3 also protects DNA against damage and mutation and is involved in autophagy (which I spoke about concerning fasting<\/a>). So, long story short, FOXO3 is good shit.\u00a0\u00a0Sure, right now the most direct evidence is based on studies done on worms and flies, but there has been scientific work done correlating above average FOXO3 expression to those that live over 100.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is furthermore the rationale for improved aerobic performance and endurance<\/strong>. When you exercise, your core gets hotter, so by training it to heat in the sauna, when you are on your next run your blood flow, particularly red blood cells (remember Lance Armstrong and EPO, heat conditioning triggers natural EPO), to the heart and skeletal muscle is stronger, your heart rate is lower as your core temp is lower because you sweat more effectively, better blood flow means better oxygen flow, better energy delivery and decreased glycogen depletion (aka the rate glucose (or energy packets) is consumed by the muscles) of between 40% and 50% (which is massive).\u00a0Put that all together, studies have demonstrated that 2 to 3 time a week sauna users will perform 32% (by delaying exhaustion) better<\/strong> than non-users.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sauna will also make your stronger<\/strong>. As mentioned above, just being alive means your muscles are constantly degrading. But your cells are also constantly working to make new proteins. Therefore, to get stronger\/bigger, you need to be making (or saving) more proteins than you are losing. Boom, those elevated HSPs are now circulating in the blood stream and both synthesizing<\/strong> more proteins (via the IGF-1 to mTOR pathway) and repairing<\/strong> proteins thereby tipping the scale towards a net positive protein position (demonstrated in studies to do so by between 30% and 50%). Becoming a regular sauna user will additionally result in you producing more human growth hormone (HGH)<\/strong> than average, and if you have been paying any attention to sports over the past decade, HGH is something you want more of. By how much? Two 20 minutes sauna sweats, sandwiched by a 30 minute cool down, at 80 degrees doubles HGH. Two 15 minute sweats at 100, again between rest, times it by five. The harder and longer you push it, and\/or combine sauna post-workout, the more HGH you can naturally produce (up to 16 times normal). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, none of the above much surprised me. Okay, obviously the intricacies of the science and the huge percentages totally did, but I\u2019ve always known that athletes used saunas, so I figured it was helpful. But the effect of hyperthermic conditioning on insulin sensitivity<\/strong> caught my attention seeing that diabetes<\/strong> is one of the top chronic health dis-eases people are suffering from. Studies in mice treated with thrice weekly hyperthermic conditions for 3 months dropped insulin levels by 31%. Biomechanically, this is happening because insulin is promoting both a better absorption of protein into the skeletal muscles and inhibiting protein damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, if you still aren\u2019t convinced, sauna is good for your brain<\/strong>. As mentioned quite a while ago, a standard 20 minute sauna sit creates more norepinephrine (between 86% and 310%). This complicated to spell neurotransmitter is understood to improve focus and attention<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0A hyperthermic conditioned person also more effectively saves norepinephrine for later. Interestingly, a norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor is a common prescription for ADHD. Perhaps, just getting hot on the natch could be a non-pharmaceutical option for another one of modernity\u2019s newest epidemics. [Though regarding ADHD I doubt how much of a \u201cdisease\u201d it really is]. Heat stress furthermore creates more prolactin, which repairs nerve damage and enables the brain to process faster<\/strong>, and heat triggers increased expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which generates neurogenesis<\/strong> aka new brain cell growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Congrats if you made it to the end! Just like the long FOXO3 story short, the long story short of sauna is that sauna is good stuff. The hyperthermic or heat resilience is conditions is basically healing your body and protecting it from damage and decay<\/strong>, also known as inflammation<\/strong>, also known as the health\u2019s arch nemesis. Genuinely, if you become a regular reader here, which I know you will :), inflammation is your enemy. Whatever you can do to fight it, do it. Plus, sauna feels good. All those sweet sweet endorphins it floods your blood with leaves you feeling energetic and relaxed afterwards. And when that high wears off, your body feels tired and is primed for a good night rest. And that\u2019s where I\u2019ll leave it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Up to you now to get hot and embrace the sauna sweat!<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Peeps, don’t be silly, I’m not doing all the science to prove any of this. All<\/strong> information above comes from the amazing Dr. Rhonda Patrick, a biomedical scientist with a PhD in micronutrients, inflammation, DNA damage and ageing and basically one of the most badass people in the health space. She has taught and inspired me tremendously. Dr. Patrick is all over the podcast and Youtube waves, and her health tips are far and wide so do yourself a favour and just search her on Youtube or check out her website FoundMyFitness<\/a>. Here are a few sauna related videos to get your started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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