Dr. Patrick’s Expertise on Sauna Use and Its Benefits
Introduction
Dr. Patrick is a world expert in the potential benefits of sauna use, including better cardiovascular fitness, a lower risk of dementia, better mood, mental health, and immunity. She is also an expert on the specific ways to use saunas or hot baths to maximize these benefits.
Dr. Patrick’s Credentials
Dr. Patrick holds a Ph.D. in biomedical science and has published several articles in reputable journals, including an excellent publication on saunas that was very comprehensive. She is also the co-founder of a popular website and YouTube channel called Found My Fitness.
Summary of Sauna Health Benefits
Saunas can lower the risk of dementia, cardiovascular disease, sudden cardiac death, coronary heart disease, and stroke. The health benefits of sauna use occur in a dose-dependent manner, meaning the more frequent the sauna bathing, the more robust the health benefits are. Sauna use mimics moderate aerobic cardiovascular exercise, and it also has a relaxation and meditation-like quality to it.
Benefits of Sauna Use
- Cardiovascular Health: Sauna use lowers the risk of death from cardiovascular disease, sudden cardiac death, and coronary heart disease.
- Brain Function: Sauna use has profound effects on the brain, lowers the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, and improves brain function by increasing blood flow.
- All-Cause Mortality: Sauna use is associated with a 40% lower risk of dying from all causes of death.
- Mimics Exercise: Sauna use mimics moderate intense cardiovascular exercise, resulting in similar physiological responses such as elevated heart rate, core body temperature, and sweating.
Can Sauna Use Lower Hypertension Risk?
Observational studies have shown that regular sauna use can significantly lower hypertension risk. People who use the sauna two to three times a week have a 24% lower risk of hypertension compared to those who use it four to seven times a week, who have a 46% lower risk of hypertension. Single sauna use can also lower both systolic and diastolic blood pressure after the sauna bathing, similar to what exercise does.
Does Sauna Use Improve Fitness and Endurance?
The evidence seems to suggest that sauna use may improve endurance exercise. Several studies have looked at runners who use the sauna and found they are able to improve their time and running distance. There have also been studies on people wearing a sauna suit, which helps improve endurance. When getting into the sauna, there are physiological changes that start to occur where your body starts to adapt. As time goes on and people become more acclimated, people start to sweat at a lower core body temperature, which helps facilitate cooling down. This makes it easier for people to tolerate the heat.
Can Sauna Use Lower Alzheimer’s and Dementia Risk?
Observational data has shown that sauna use is associated with a 60% to 66% lower risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia. The reason for this is still not entirely clear. However, it is likely that sauna use helps maintain better cardiovascular health, which, in turn, leads to increased blood flow to the brain, known to help protect against dementia. Additionally, heat shock proteins, which are activated by heat stress, are robustly activated by sauna use. Heat shock proteins help to reduce oxidative stress and inflammation, which are believed to contribute to the development of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia.
How Rhonda Patrick Got Interested in Saunas: Molecular Aspects and Brain Function
Rhonda Patrick got interested in saunas when she was in graduate school, living across the street from a YMCA where she used the sauna almost every day before going into the lab to do her experiments. She noticed that using the sauna before going into the lab helped her handle stress better and lowered her anxiety. This made her curious about the effects of saunas on the brain, so she started to dive into the literature in 2009.
Rhonda explains that when you’re in the sauna, you’re dumping a bunch of endorphins much like exercise. Endorphins are those feel-good opioids that your brain produces, and the counter to that feel-good endorphin is the chemical called dinorphin, which is responsible for making you feel dysphoric. It is produced during that period of elevated core body temperature, and it is involved in cooling the body. Although it’s responsible for the dysphoric feeling, it binds to a receptor in our brain called the kappa opioid receptor, and when it binds to that receptor, it changes the mu opioid receptor. This makes them more sensitive to endorphins for a longer period of time. Rhonda has a hypothesis that when you get in the sauna and push past the dysphoric feeling, you make endorphins a day later or two days later from laughing at a joke or forgiving your loved one, and you feel them better because they’re more sensitive.
There is empirical evidence that has come out since that time, looking at the effects of sauna use on mental health, specifically depression. Dr. Ashley Mason, with whom Rhonda collaborates, is looking at sauna use and people with depression who have not been able to manage it with different types of standard of care treatments. She is going off the work of her former mentor, Dr. Charles Raison, who found that elevating a person’s core body temperature about one to two degrees was able to give people an antidepressant effect that lasted up to six weeks with a single use. This was compared to a sham control, which used a device that made people feel like they were getting a little bit hot but wasn’t hot enough, so it was a great placebo control because people thought they were actually getting the treatment. Placebo controls are very important, particularly with depression studies, because a placebo response is a very real response.
Interleukin 6 (IL-6) and Sauna Use: A Potential Anti-inflammatory Response
IL-6 is a cytokine released from the muscle that can cause inflammation, but it can also lead to a powerful anti-inflammatory response. This cytokine has a hermetic aspect to it, which makes it an intriguing topic of study.
The Effect of Sauna Use on Depression: A Possible Connection to the Internal Opioid System
Studies suggest that sauna use could potentially benefit patients suffering from depression for up to six weeks. One hypothesis suggests that this could be due to the sensitization of our internal opioid system, causing our own opioids to work better. However, measuring opioid receptors and sensitivity in humans is difficult. Research is ongoing to find ways to test this theory.
Other Factors Measured in Sauna Use Research
Currently, a whole host of inflammatory panels are being done in sauna use research, including measuring endorphins and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which plays a role in protecting against brain aging and neuroplasticity.
Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain’s connections to rewire themselves with a changing environment. This is regulated by BDNF, which plays a crucial role in depression as well.
Other Factors That Sauna Use Can Potentially Unlock in the Body
Aside from heat shock proteins, sauna use has also been shown to activate the NRF2 pathway, which is a significant regulator of antioxidant genes, anti-inflammatory processes, and detoxification from environmental exposures.
Possible Mechanisms for Anti-Aging and Cellular Repair
Telomeres and senescence are also being studied in sauna use research, hoping to uncover novel mechanisms that contribute to anti-aging and cellular repair.
Excretion of Heavy Metals and Toxins through Sweat
Heavy metals and other compounds like phthalates or BPA can be excreted through sweat or urine.
Sauna use can help excrete heavy metals like cadmium and aluminum, with a 122-fold increase in sweating out cadmium.
Sauna use can also help excrete other compounds, but the major pathway for eliminating BPA is through urine.
Sauna use can potentially benefit by excreting heavy metals and toxins, particularly aluminum and cadmium.
Heart Rate Variability and Sauna Use
Heart rate variability is a marker of how well your heart can handle stress, and exercise can improve it.
Sauna use can also increase heart rate variability by activating the parasympathetic nervous system.
The sauna mimics moderate-intensity aerobic exercise, and almost everything that exercise does, you can see in the sauna.
Sauna Use as an Exercise Replacement
Exercise is the best possible thing you could do for your overall health, and cardiorespiratory fitness is a good biomarker for biological age.
Sauna use alone does not replace exercise, but it can be used as an adjunct to aerobic exercise.
A study analyzing cardiorespiratory fitness in people who do aerobic exercise and comparing it to those who do sauna showed that those who did both had better cardiorespiratory fitness than those who did either alone.
There seems to be a synergy between sauna use and aerobic exercise, where those who do both have better cardiorespiratory fitness.
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