Most people know what it means to participate in sauna. Many people even know that regularly being in one anywhere between fifteen to thirty minutes can bring a ton of health benefits along with it, but not many people know just how much of a positive impact sauna can have on your overall immediate and long-term health.
Let’s bridge this knowledge gap starting now.
FAQs:
- What is Sauna?
Typically, saunas are employed when participating in heat exposure therapy in order to take advantage of the enormous benefits it offers. When participating in sauna, one will enter an uncomfortably warm room. Traditional or Finnish saunas, also known as dry hot rock saunas, are one of the best and safest ways to do this.
Participating in a Finnish Sauna consists of sitting in a heated room, typically ranging from 175-220°F for about 15-20 minutes. Finnish saunas are the only saunas capable of reaching these temperatures for ideal results. This forces the body to begin adapting which helps detoxify by flushing out impurities through the skin. This effective cleansing process promotes glowing skin and improves overall health. Other benefits include dramatically improved cardiovascular health, increased blood flow and circulation, skin repair and rejuvenation, weight loss, improved metabolism, improved sleep, reduced stress and much more.
- What are the Benefits of Sauna?
Traditional Finnish saunas produce the most dramatic and lasting health benefits of all saunas. The heat of the sauna enhances circulation, easing muscle tension and joint pain. Additionally, saunas stimulate the release of endorphins, fostering a deep sense of relaxation and reduced stress levels even long after a sauna session concludes.
Regularly spending time in the sauna at the correct temperatures has been repeatedly shown in reputable scientific studies to dramatically improve cardiovascular health, boost metabolism, lower blood pressure and resting heart rate, improve immune function and even lower all-cause mortality levels by nearly 50%.
Other proven benefits include decreased probability of strokes, accelerated recovery, increased growth hormone release and function, makes individual cells healthier and more robust, reduces cortisol, cleanses pores and increases overall health and beauty of skin, improves sleep, triggers the body’s release of heat shock proteins and more.
What are the Benefits Sauna and Exposure Therapy from a Molecular Biology Viewpoint?
Getting into the molecular biology level of things in regard to exposure and contrast therapy can be daunting, but a shallow dive into it all helps us understand why the benefits we’re all after come about and how.
We’ll dive into what each of these things are more in depth in the coming paragraphs, but for the sake of clarification, heat exposure therapy increases and improves the creation, usage, synthesis (insert correct verb for whichever molecule we’re currently discussing here) in the most advantageous ways of Heat Shock Proteins, FOXO3, BDNF, Nitric Oxide, Endorphins and Dynorphins and mTOR. And that’s just what science currently knows. Let’s get into it.
- What are Heat Shock Proteins?
Heat Shock Proteins (HSPs), also known as stress proteins, are the body’s cellular response to uncomfortably hot temperatures. These are proteins produced and released by individual cells in response to stressful physical conditions like increases in temperature, toxins in the body or other challenges the body hasn’t yet adapted to.
These incredible and unique proteins’ functions include: helping other proteins (new or stress damaged) in folding correctly into their required, functional shapes, prevent misfolding of proteins, refolding damaged proteins, helping to target and dispose of irreparably damaged proteins, protecting the cells from damage directly by minimizing stress-induced harm and can activate immune pathways to protect cells from viral infections.
In short and less technical terms, Heat Shock Proteins: enhance cellular repair mechanisms, reduce inflammation on a cellular level, reduce free radicals, boost stress tolerance and improve recovery and resilience.
The long-term health benefits these proteins provide are incredible!
- What is FOXO3?
FOXO3 is a protein in the FOXO (Forkhead Box) family. The functions of the FOXO family of proteins vary from brain function and memory consolidation all the way to significant factors in longevity.
While all of the proteins in the FOXO family are released during heat exposure therapy (especially when carried out in a Finnish sauna), FOXO3 is released in bulk and is the FOXO protein that is heavily associated with an increase in lifespan due to its protective effects on the body’s individual cells and its ability to reduce inflammation, increase resistance to stress (especially cellular oxidative stress) and support metabolic health.
FOXO3 is also involved in DNA repair and detoxing which is pretty incredible all by itself.
Research has made it obvious that people with more FOXO3 have much higher chances of not only living longer but also living better and healthier in their more “elderly” years.
- What is BDNF?
Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) is another protein crucial to optimal health. This protein is very influential on the brain and contributes heavily in the creation and maturing of new neurons, keeping neurons healthy and safe from degeneration, increasing synaptic plasticity (absolutely necessary for memory and learning), high-order cognitive function and even helps in regulating mood by which it reduces the risk of depression and anxiety.
- What is Nitric Oxide?
Nitric Oxide is a signaling molecule in our bodies whose primary function is to relax and increase the size of blood vessels in order to improve circulation which is also known as vasodilation (hence Nitric Oxide being a vasodilator.)
Dilating the blood vessels leads to many different health benefits. The most obvious being greater circulation and blood flow throughout the body.
Some of the resulting benefits of nitric oxide and these dilated blood vessels are improved circulation, enhanced athletic performance, increased cardiovascular health, improved immune function and increased cognitive function.
- What are Endorphins and Dynorphins?
Endorphins act as natural pain killers while Dynorphins increase sensitivity to Beta Endorphins which improves mood post heat exposure session.
- What is mTOR?
Mammalian Target of Rapamycin (mTOR) is a protein complex in the body. This protein plays essential roles in the processes of cell growth, synthesizing of new proteins, recovery, muscle building, fat metabolism and cellular metabolism. All of that (plus a little more) makes mTOR very valuable if your goals have anything to do with muscle recovery, recovery in general or improved metabolic function.
- Conclusion:
Now that you know what it is, why it’s beneficial and how to do it, what are you waiting for? Many people see benefits on their first session with more and compounding benefits continuing the more they participate consistently. Get after it! Beat the heat! Your improved immediate and long-term health with be thanks enough for us.