Health Benefits Of Using A Sauna

TIP - SAUNA EXERCISE FOR QUICK STRESS RELEASE: To increase a blood flow and to help adrenals and kidneys to become more open and receptive, try torso twists: Stand up in your sauna (you may also remain sitting) and set your hands comfortably at your waist. Then turn to left on inhale, then turn to right on exhale. AN INHALE begins as soon as you start turning to your left and finishes as soon as you complete the left turn. AN EXHALE begins as soon as you begin your right turn and finishes as soon as you complete it. Repeat (full/complete inhale to the left and full/complete exhale to the right). Make sure to breathe deeply and drink plenty of water.

Stress, Anxiety, Depression and Cognitive Impairment Relief

Everyone experiences stress, anxiety and most of us are familiar with some forms of depression which we may have encountered personally or know someone who did. Considering that depression is the most commonly diagnosed condition in the United States, it is a real problem in our society.

Some of us are also in danger of cognitive impairment conditions in later life such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and dementia. Considering the emotional and monetary costs of these conditions on individuals and their families, it is no wonder most of us fear this more than cancer or dying from a heart condition. 

Considering the scientific findings, saunas including those that use infra-red therapy could be effective in helping us staying cognitively sound and mentally strong

Heat treatment though sauna use could alleviate numerous symptoms associated with stress, anxiety and even depression.

Sauna use itself has been linked with avoiding or postponing cognitive decline and even increasing longevity.

Continue reading to find our more about mental health issues and how sauna use helps against them.

Stress Relief and Far Infrared Sauna Therapy Stress seems to be so ingrained in our culture today. It is everywhere we turn; cell phones, deadlines, emotions, traffic and overbearing bosses - the list goes on and on. Stress has been linked to a heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, lowered immune function, depression, obesity, sleep disorders, increased Alzheimer's and premature death, just to name a few. When we are stressed, our body/mind takes a defensive "fight-or-flight" position. This is a natural response of the Autonomic Nervous System designed to take us away from dangerous situations when we are roaring the savannah, like a big Lion! However, we are NOT designed to stay in this “fight-or-flight" for very long. Unfortunately, most of us live like this day-to-day! And when this happens, a road to a “danger zone" begins…

When we remain in the stress response, the body wears down and our adrenal glands (responsible for our “fight-or-flight") start to malfunction. During stress (fight-or-flight) response, your body rushes all of its vital energy into the muscles to “protect" itself. The nervous system, the brain and organs are automatically depleted of this life force energy which helps them to heal and to sustain in optimal health. As a result, many highly and chronically stressed people often suffer with neurological, gastrointestinal, cardiovascular diseases, which then often result in heart attack or a stroke. Continuous output of dangerous stress hormones such as cortisol and epinephrine have also very damaging effect on the body over time. These hormones disrupt normal metabolism and function and are the main factors that causes the physiology cascade leading to the conditions listed above.

he remedy is to get into para-sympathetic (the other side of the autonomic) nervous system. This is the “rest and digest", or the “relaxation response". When you get into our infrared saunas the body is surrounded by our technologically advanced heaters. The infrared penetrates up to two inches into the body, causing vasodilation, muscle relaxation, pain relief and a feeling of well-being. Endorphins are released and the entire body relaxes. Repeated and regular infrared sauna use over several weeks will significantly reduce stress levels even when out of the sauna. Many people report improved sleep and a greater peace. When the body is stressed, chemical changes occur that result in unbalanced hormone levels.

Far infrared sauna therapy has been shown to normalize these levels thereby returning the body to a healthy state that rebalances both the mind and body. As stress is now recognized as one of the leading causes of disease, a far infrared sauna can be a perfect addition to any stress relief/stress management program. Far infrared saunas are the perfect way to relax and let life's pressures melt away in the soothing warmth, thus allowing the healing energy re-entering all sore and depleted areas of the body.

Using a sauna such as infrared could help relieve anxiety. There are psychological and physiological reasons for it.

Anxiety can be defined as a feeling of worry, often about something one has no control over, it can also mean restlessness and unease. Generally anxiety is caused by an individual's response to uncertainty over something. Anxiety may interfere with an individual's life and can lead to further stress.

This feeling of anxiety is familiar to almost everyone but there are conditions where this feeling is constant. Some people experience anxiety daily, others barely know the meaning of it at all. In any case, saunas may be a suitable intervention to the feeling of anxiety for several reasons:

• A trip to the sauna is a getaway. For ten minutes or half an hour you get to escape from your troubles, fortunately the heat is the only thing you can really think about in the sauna. It is a worthy distraction from everything else in life for the time you spend there.

• This distraction is an opportunity for the brain to work on something other than the things causing anxiety. Often the time spent in the sauna is enough to escape the thought loop that causes anxiety in the first place.

• You have absolute control over the time you spend in the sauna, you can leave at any time, this degree of control over the immediate heat stress is liberating.

• After leaving the sauna you may be able to look at the things troubling you in a new light, from a new angle and therefore more objectively, perhaps leading to a better resolution.

• The increased air intake due to heat will make you feel happier, similar to the feeling you get after exercise.

• Increased heart rate and increased blood circulation will allow for more resources to the brain, which may help you make a better decision.

Overall, anxiety is a reasonable reaction to something troubling, but it may get out of hand. A trip to the sauna may be the intervention you need. As an opportunity to escape from the thought loop that causes worry.  Therefore sauna can relieve some anxiety.

Stress is similar to anxiety in the way that it is also a feeling of emotional strain, the feeling of anxiety and stress obviously overlap. However, stress is also a state of mental and physical strain from demanding or exhausting circumstances.

Common physiological symptoms of stress: chronic fatigue, headaches, digestion problems, frequent colds and infections, decrease in sexual performance and eating disorders. 

Common psychological symptoms of stress: lack of concentration, mood swings, irritability, memory problems, lack of sexual desire, anxiety, depression and insomnia. 

There are a lot of symptoms of stress, some physiological some psychological, they tend to be vague.

As it was mentioned above, sauna helps overcome anxiety, at least in the short term. Some studies suggest that sauna visits may help alleviate some of the symptoms of stress as well, in particular insomnia, it also helps against frequent colds and infections and through increased blood flow to the brain it can also help tackle headaches.

When it comes to psychological symptoms they are more difficult to take on. However, having a similar benefit to that of exercise, through increased blood flow and through the release of stress countering hormones such as serotonin (4) a sauna can help even against chronic depression which has similar symptoms.

Depression is one of the most common diagnosed conditions in North America and it is no wonder that people are looking for unconventional treatments for it. However, unlike the widely prescribed medicine in form of pills, heat therapy is more natural. Moreover, in regions where sauna use is widespread such as Nordic countries, depression as a condition is far less common.

Since the sauna appears to be a leisurely activity that is available to almost everyone now, scientists have started looking at hyperthermia (heat) therapy for body and mind.

Charles Raison, from the lead researcher in the University of Wisconsin-Madison thinks that heat makes the brain feel happy. He joined forces with other researchers to investigate the effect of heat on the human body in a recent study. The study looked at the effects of whole body hyperthermia (heat stress) on the patients with chronic depression.

In a double-blind study, some of the patients, the control group were exposed to a placebo-like machine that simulated the look and feel of a gadget that would make people feel heated. Another group was subjected to a real increase in whole body temperature through the use of a similar gadget.

Researchers were astonished by the results scientists evaluated depressed volunteers on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and found that 60 percent of them had a response and 40 percent met the criteria for remission of depression during at least one assessment after having received the treatment.

Researchers concluded the following:

"Results from the current study suggest that WBH holds promise as a safe, rapid-acting, antidepressant modality with a prolonged therapeutic benefit. Future studies will be required to identify both the optimal temperature and number and timing of treatments likely to produce the largest and longest-lasting clinical response in most patients." (5)

Considering other benefits offered by sauna-like therapy, it is possible to establish therapy and sauna interventions as a first line of defense in prevention and treatment of depression.

Dementia and Alzheimer's are becoming more widespread in aging populations and medical professionals are looking at what causes these conditions to occur. Scientists are also researching what prevents development of Alzheimer's in potential patients and they try to pinpoint the exact genes and exact lifestyle that is associated with cognitive impairment.

Lifestyle has been heavily associated with dementia, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, recent studies have found that aging soccer players in the United Kingdom, were three and a half times more likely to suffer and die from dementia than the general population (6). Whilst trauma to the head from heading footballs is rare in the general population there is clearly a whole range of environmental factors that can be associated with dementia and similar cognitive impairment.

Likewise, external heat such as sauna use is also an environmental factor but it has been found to be beneficial.

To find patterns that may pinpoint what causes or prevents mental illness researchers resort to longitudinal studies. One study published in 2016 at the University of Eastern Finland found that sauna may act as a preventative treatment against dementia. This study oversaw an evaluation of 2315 men's lifestyles and found that men who frequented sauna were at lower risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease. This was a first-of-its-kind study and more will follow. Furthermore, moderate to high frequency sauna experience was the most likely to correlate inversely with risk of developing cognitive impairment disease. (7)

It isn't clear what causes saunas to be beneficial but further research is ongoing.

Injuries and Far Infrared Sauna Therapy: