The Powerful Benefits of Infrared Sauna Use
It feels really good to sit in a sauna. Working up a sweat and the nice enveloping heat is comforting, like having a nap on the beach on a warm summer day. But here’s the real science behind why sauna feels so good and what working up a sweat can do for your health, recovery, and sports performance. Let’s break it down into the different categories of benefits so that you can pick and choose only what is most interesting to you.
Infrared saunas versus traditional saunas
At Flow Spa, we have a 2-person far infrared sauna with ceramic heaters primarily due to the smaller footprint able to be offered by an infrared Sauna compared to a traditional sauna.
There are a lot of infrared saunas on the market today that fall under two categories: near-infrared and far-infrared. Many biohackers and lifestyle gurus are claiming near-infrared saunas are superior for a wide range of reasons from detoxifying effects to stimulating the metabolism through activating the mitochondria in a way that normal saunas cannot. All of the claims towards near-infrared saunas, which use red light bulbs and do not heat up much, are unfounded.
Compared to traditional saunas, which use wood stoves or heaters to warm the air to very high temperatures (above 185 F), infrared saunas sometimes more specifically referred to as far-infrared saunas, aka FIRS use light and ceramic heaters to warm sauna users directly, providing a deeply penetrating heat at a lower, more comfortable temperature (closer to 140 degrees F).
Far-infrared saunas stimulate blood circulation in your skin, which may help to boost your skin's ability to produce collagen for greater skin health and elasticity.
The great thing about far-infrared saunas, like the one at Flow Spa is that the benefits are supported by the research into saunas on health because all of those findings are attributable to hyperthermia, or the effect of heat on the body.
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Detoxification
I’m not a fan of the word “detoxification” because it has become jumbled with all kinds of unvalidated concoctions and fad diets. We do know that sweating, whether induced by the heat of sauna or from hard exercise, is partially caused by fat cells burning up fuel for energy and resultantly anything stored in the fat cells will be carried through the circulatory system or exuded with sweat. Naturopathic doctors often include sauna as part of the treatment protocol for anyone dealing with an excess of heavy metals in their body or a buildup of toxins like pesticides from conventionally grown produce. Because a lot of this bad stuff is released with sweating it’s always important to shower off after sauna use.
Regular sauna sweating can help detoxify the body as it releases heavy metals (lead, mercury, nickel, and cadmium) as well as alcohol, nicotine, sulfuric acid, and other organic and inorganic compounds. The more regular that you can use the sauna during your detox protocol, the better the results you’ll see.
This is one of the most evidence-based methods to detoxify the body of heavy metals and other fat-soluble toxins including persistent organic pollutants.
Sports Performance
There are many incredible benefits to sauna use as it relates to sports performance that almost sound too good to be true. The mechanisms of sauna on enhancing performance are similar to that of exercise itself in that sauna use and heat acclimation increases blood flow to the skin and skeletal muscles. This increase in blood flow to the muscles allows for greater transport of glucose and fatty acids to the muscles to be used for energy, thus reducing the need to rely on glycogen stores for energy. By increasing blood flow to the skin and consequently activating the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), heat acclimation allows sweating to occur sooner and therefore lowering core body temperature. Furthermore, this increase in blood flow also leads to an increase in plasma volume and red blood cell count.
Altogether these effects have been shown to increase run to exhaustion time by 32% when a 30-minute sauna session was done 2 times per week after workouts.
Muscle Hypertrophy
Another sports performance benefit of sauna use is that it can lead to an increase in muscle hypertrophy (muscle growth). Exposure to heat has been shown to mitigate oxidative stress, which will lead to less breakdown of muscle tissue through several actions:
The Signalling of Heat Shock Proteins
Boost Growth Hormone Levels
Improve Insulin Sensitivity
Heat shock proteins repair damaged proteins in the body (i.e. everything we're made of, but especially our muscles) and scavenge free radicals which cause oxidative damage. Part of the mechanism of action is the activation of powerful endogenous antioxidants like glutathione. Adaptation to heat increases the robustness of the heat shock protein release.
Several heat-shock proteins can even help with increasing muscle mass, even without weight training.
Heat shock proteins repair damaged proteins in the body (i.e. everything we’re made of, but especially our muscles) and scavenge free radicals which cause oxidative damage. Part of the mechanism of action is the activation of powerful endogenous antioxidants like glutathione. Adaptation to heat increases the robustness of the heat shock protein release.
Boosting growth hormone levels further allows muscles to repair and grow. Growth hormone is the proverbial fountain of youth when it comes to hormones that our bodies release. When exposed to hot saunas (80ºC) two times per day, there was a 2-fold increase in growth hormone release in research subjects. Any sauna exposure after training has also been shown to further increase the growth hormone release over exercise alone.
Improved insulin sensitivity is a result of the reduction of insulin resistance that comes from sauna use. Part of this may be due to the metabolic similarities between exercise and saunas. Insulin sensitivity means that your cells are better able to use glucose for energy, instead of storing it as fat, and is an important marker for increasing longevity.
Lifespan and Sauna and Cardiovascular Health
Heat stress was shown to produce a 15% increase in lifespan in fruit flies. This increased lifespan is a part of the hormetic induction also seen in humans. Hormesis is the concept that a little bit of stress makes you resistant and more tolerant of greater stressors - like how a vaccine builds immunity. All of the factors in this article are components of the hormetic response to heat stress in the body.
As blood is drawn closer to the skin's surface, your blood vessels expand to accommodate increased blood flow.
This can help to improve endothelial function and blood flow, lower blood pressure, lower oxidative stress (which can lead to heart issues like atherosclerosis), and reduce cardiac events.
Another important factor that can lead to increased longevity is an improvement in cardiovascular health with sauna use. Blood flow to the heart lowers heart rate and cardiovascular strain.
Sauna use has been a part of the Scandinavian culture for a very long time and research has started to link the previous correlation in lower heart disease rates with sauna use.
Individuals using sauna three times per week have lower rates of cardiovascular disease and a reduction in the incidence of heart attacks. Important factors to consider when seeking to improve lifespan.
Infrared sauna treatments cause reactions in the body, including increased sweating, increased heart rate, and the same type of clarity-of-mind feelings as moderate exercise relaxation responses triggered by the body's parasympathetic nervous system.
Immune System
Because while you're in an infrared sauna it raises your core body temperature, the use of sauna may kill off potential pathogens. Through the penetrating infrared wavelengths from infrared saunas, the subsequent rise in core body temperature can induce an artificial fever giving your immune system a boost.
Brain Health, Mood, and Mental Health
It’s not just everything below the teetering tower of intelligence that is our brain that can benefit from sauna use though. Sauna use increases neurogenesis, learning and memory, and improves focus, while also improving mood. How do you like them apples?
Here’s what happens when you heat things up:
Norepinephrine and prolactin release.
Increases in BDNF.
Dynorphin release.
Norepinephrine is a potent neurotransmitter involved in focus and attention. It gets released in large amounts during fight or flight situations but also provides further benefits for focus and attention when not in life-threatening situations.
Prolactin is involved in myelin growth - the protective sheath around nerve cells. Prolactin helps with nerve cell damage repair and maintaining electrical activity in the brain, which is necessary for robust learning and memory.
BDNF is an incredible compound in the body. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is like miracle grow for brain cells. It increases the growth of new brain cells and preserves existing neurons. It further increases neuroplasticity allowing for enhancements in learning and memory. BDNF has also been shown to decrease symptoms of depression and anxiety. Another bonus of BDNF is that as it circulates through the body it also repairs muscles.
Finally, modulating core temperature may lead to the same feeling as runner’s high. Beta-endorphin - the feel-good hormone released with long-distance running and other exercise is increased due to heat stress. The pathway that leads to this effect is convoluted as it first causes feelings of discomfort.
Hyperthermia increases something called dynorphin - it’s involved in that dysphoric feeling of discomfort that you get from being hot and sweaty in the sauna as well as during exercise. Dynorphin counters endorphin and helps to cool the body from the heat stress. Subsequently, this leads to an increase in endorphins more than exercise alone so even though you feel a little squirmy from the discomfort of the heat at first, you leave it feeling amazing as the endorphin release counteracts that dynorphin.
So not only does sauna increase blood flow, sweating, and cardiovascular fitness, but it also leads to the same feeling of a post-exercise euphoria where you feel relaxed, happy, and experience less pain.
Sleep
A drop in body temperature at night is one of the circadian cues that the body uses to signal that it is time to sleep. In Why We Sleep, Dr. Matthew Walker suggests taking a warm bath in the evening as a way to help with insomnia or to induce a deeper sleep. Infrared sauna use can also be used to trigger a similar drop in body temperature after coming out of the sauna. If you’re having trouble sleeping or looking for ways to improve your sleep quality, try this method of warming up your core temperature first.
Bask In The Heat
Whatever results you’re looking for it’s undeniable that there are many great benefits to sauna use. Now that the weather is getting cooler our sauna at Flow Spa is becoming more popular as a regular service to make use of and treat yourself. For anyone who can tolerate the heat or has been cleared by their physician, it’s a relaxing and enjoyable experience that works great when you don’t have as much time available to get in for a longer float session or for any of the other benefits listed above that are unique to sauna use.