When thinking of a sauna, many think about comfort as its primary benefit. But, numerous studies have discovered other health advantages of traditional and infrared saunas. Discover how bathing in a sauna can boost your health.
Saunas Assists In Muscle Recovery
Infrared saunas are highly recommended for people who perform challenging exercise routines like professional athletes because they relieve muscle tension. They could also provide short-term relief from arthritic discomforts. At hot temperatures, the body creates endorphins, which are the body's natural pain killers.
Saunas give a natural method for offering comfort to those struggling with muscle pains. Also, hot temperatures will cause a rise in blood circulation, which also aids in comforting muscular aches and pains.
Saunas Can Help You With Stress & Depression
The science behind the sauna's success at fighting anxiety and depression is that when our bodies are subjected to intense heat, we ignite multiple responses to protect ourselves. Our endocrine system launches opioids as part of the pain-killing response to match our discomfort. That response can initiate relaxation and improve mood.
It is not lost on us that the sauna use response is similar to the physiological response we experience with mild to moderate exercise. Those who exercise regularly can always attest to its ability to boost mood and improve mental health. However, sauna use can be readily available to those unable to exercise or those wishing to prolong the benefits of exercise and increase performance.
Whether your mood is altered because of a worldwide pandemic or other life stressors and circumstances, saunas can be a natural tool to fight the onset of depression. Its wide range of health benefits can bless you physically and mentally now and into the future.
Saunas Are Great For Decreasing Elevated Blood Pressure Levels
The veins inside your body enlarge if you spend some time under high temperatures. As a result, your body will have an improved blood flow. Hence, after taking both infrared and steam sauna, blood pressure levels decrease for many. This effect is only short-term, but there is medical proof that utilizing a sauna regularly (about once every week) helps keep your blood pressure controlled.
Bathing Allows You To Have Better Sleep
Raising your body temperature in the sauna just before going to bed is an excellent tool to get a wide variety of health benefits and a good night's sleep - but how does it work?
Heat encourages the production of serotonin. Serotonin is a natural mood stabilizer that is also in charge of sleeping, eating, and digesting. Your body will reach its relaxation climax when your body's temperature drops throughout the evening and serotonin hormones begin to dissolve. As a result, sauna bathers can get a better night's sleep.
Serotonin can also reduce depression, regulate anxiety, heal wounds, and maintain bone health!
Weight Loss Advantages
You can lose up to 300 calories using a sauna because of the elevated heart rate caused by heat exposure. Apart from the regular weight loss recommendation like dieting and exercising, having regular sauna sessions can be a tool to burn some extra calories.
Saunas Are Great For Skin Cleansing
Perspiring in hot temperatures opens your pores and helps you eliminate harmful toxins like lead, copper, zinc, nickel, mercury, and other terrible chemicals for your body. Also, the sauna cleanses your skin and provides it with a glowing look and a healthy feel.
Saunas Can Help Slow Down Alzheimer's Disease
When the cells in the body are regularly exposed to high temperatures, a protein is activated, which in studies on worms and flies has shown to play a crucial role in the aging process. Considerably increased temperatures activate a specific gene, FOX03, which is strongly connected to life span and protects the cells against aging.
Sauna bathing, for this reason, can have a very favorable effect on the regenerating processes of the cell.
Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease Study:
The effects of sauna bathing on the risk of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia were studied in the Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study (KIHD), involving more than 2,000 middle-aged men living in the eastern part of Finland. Based on their sauna bathing habits, the study participants were divided into three groups:
Group 1: Participants who bathed once a week.
Group 2: Participants who bathed 2-3 times a week.
Group 3: Participants who bathed 4-7 times a week.
The results showed that the more frequently sauna sessions were taken by the participants, the lower the risk of dementia. Among those taking a sauna 4-7 times a week, the risk of any form of dementia was 66% lower and the risk of Alzheimer's disease 65% lower than among those taking a sauna just once a week.
Saunas Can Work For Acne
The thought of sitting in a hot, sweaty room might not sound like a good remedy for your acne, yet it might be what you need to give your skin a workout and sweat the pimples away.
Often acne is caused by androgen. This hormone causes the oil glands in your skin to swell and produce excess sebum – that liquid that comes out of spots and builds upon greasy skin types. The sebum builds, swelling in your pores, capturing dirt and becoming a playground for bacteria.
Using steam or heat (e.g., washing your face with hot water) is a known way to get your sebum flowing and let the clogged glands function as normal.
Adding heat to your spots causes them to open. The pores on your face, which are usually tightly shut, will open, and the dirt, bacteria, toxins, or just sebum will be exposed. As your face heats up, this sebum becomes soft and more liquid-like. Along with sweat, it pours from your pores and unclogs them. Any dirt or bacteria lingering in there that's creating a spot (usually a blackhead) will be pushed out.
As for whiteheads, the added heat from the sauna and expansion of sebum can cause them to pop – or make them easier to pop. If that does happen, following the steps below to care for your skin and keep your pores clean is especially important to prevent further infection.
Saunas Can Improve Your Immune System
This may be one of the most impressive responses to sauna use. Dry saunas run at a temperature upwards of 174° F. Under such conditions, your body releases heat shock proteins (HSP). HSP are regularly found in your cells. Their primary focus is to repair damaged cells. Damaged cells are a common feature in multiple illnesses and cause cellular dysfunction. While under environmental stress in a sauna, your body releases additional HSPs to stabilize existing cells and repair damaged ones. Studies have shown improvement in cellular function in those who regularly utilized heat therapy—a strong cells=stronger ability to fight infection.
Note:
For a healthy individual modest utilization of the sauna presents no health problems. However, individuals with hypertension, heart disorders, asthma, and some skin problems need to consult a doctor before using a sauna.