The Life-Changing Benefits of Sauna Therapy

Lauren Lehmkuhl
The Life-Changing Benefits of Sauna Therapy

Heat therapies have been used for thousands of years to promote healing and wellness in many cultures around the world. From the ancient Greeks to the Mayans and in between - saunas have been a long-standing tradition and means of self-care! Today, many cultures love to incorporate saunas into their weekly routine, from Japanese sento's to Finnish outdoor saunas. 

Scientists have discovered why so many ancient cultures prioritized them - they do appear to have many incredible health effects! 

A sauna is simply a heated room designed to make you sweat. You may have experienced one at a local spa, gym, or community center. There are a few different types of saunas, including: 

  • Dry saunas - these are heated with fire, gas, electricity, or hot stones
  • Steam saunas - these are heated similarly, but water is applied over the heating element to generate steam
  • Infrared saunas - these use infrared heaters to emit light that’s absorbed on your skin

Let’s take a look at some of the many ways that saunas can positively impact your health! 

Sauna Therapy Benefits

Keep Your Youth

Who doesn’t want to hold on to their youth for longer? Did you know that regular sauna visits may slow the aging process?

Saunas can help promote healthy cellular regeneration and appear to reduce mortality and promote lifespan in many observational studies. This may be due to many reasons, as regular sauna use appears to promote cardiovascular health, support cognitive health, elevate human growth hormone and more! When all the organs in your system are kept functioning well despite age, the risk for many chronic illnesses and mortality from them can be greatly reduced! 

Protect Your Heart

One of the most incredible and well-researched benefits of saunas is their protective effect on the heart. A study conducted over 20 years on Finnish men found that including a few sauna sessions in your week could decrease your risk of death from cardiovascular diseases by 23%! 

This amazing benefit may be due to the fact that saunas have a vasodilatory effect. This means they cause your blood vessels to widen and improve circulation. This reduces blood pressure, which is one of the major factors in cardiovascular disease. 

When it comes to cardiovascular benefits, it appears that frequency and duration are important. Another study found that increased frequency and duration of sauna visits had a stronger inverse relationship with fatal cardiovascular-related events.

So if you’re looking for ways to reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease, try to make the sauna a biweekly or more habit for 30+ minutes per session! 

Keep Sickness at Bay

It’s winter, and we could all use an immune boost! Did you know that heat exposure can increase your immune response? 

Heat therapy does this by increasing the heat shock protein in your body that stimulates immune cells to produce cytokines to drive your body’s immune response to a virus or a bacteria. This means that you may have a more active and quick response! 

Some ancient cultures used saunas as a means of “sweating out” infections and illnesses. Although there isn’t evidence to support the concept that sweating actually helps you get over an illness quicker, many people claim to feel better after sweating when sick. So, next time you start to feel run down with something, it may be worth a try, even if it’s merely for the placebo effect. Just make sure you aren’t doing so in a public sauna! 

Get That Brain Boost 

A significant part of aging is losing cognitive ability - and saunas may be able to help prevent this!

Studies have shown that saunas can increase brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which improves neurogenesis, the process by which your brain forms new cells and neural connections for things like learning and memory. 

Maintaining neural growth is a huge component of preventing cognitive decline, and research suggests that saunas may in fact reduce the risk of dementia! 

Many people report feeling more mentally clear after a sauna session, so if improved brain function is something you’re striving for, a sauna might be just the thing for you. 

Power Your Day

Remember the mitochondria - the powerhouse of your cells? Well, regular sauna visits can benefit the processes of the mitochondria and result in the biogenesis of more cellular mitochondria - meaning that your cells may work more efficiently and may feel more energized

Additionally, since saunas increase the blood flow in your body, more oxygen and nutrients can get to your body’s cells to produce energy. More blood flow in the brain also keeps your brain more active - say goodbye to that afternoon slump!

Increase Endurance and Recovery 

More blood flow also means an increased ability to endure workouts since more blood is pumped through the heart and out to your muscles. This means a greater nutrient and oxygen supply for all your energy needs and more stamina. Also, the more blood and oxygen you have flowing through your body, the less muscle breakdown occurs during exercise. 

Even more, studies have shown that having regular sauna sessions can increase the production of human growth hormone, which influences muscle growth and performance. 

Taking time to relax and care for your body is a vital part of powerful performance - don’t skip this step and take a visit to the sauna for greater endurance!

Benefit Body Goals

One of the lesser-known benefits of saunas is that they may increase metabolism. Which is good because increased metabolism can lead to a healthy appetite and weight management! 

If keeping a balanced weight or regulating your hunger hormones is a goal for you, regular sauna sessions might help. 

Not to mention, Vessel Health has many other nutrition and lifestyle recommendations to help you reach your body goals! Check out Vessel now to get started towards your goals!

Get Rid of Toxins

One of the main reasons people love to go to the sauna is to sweat. While the liver is the main site of detoxification, sweating can clean out your pores that get blocked. Our pores can get blocked with oil, dirt, and topical toxins - the sauna aids in leaving your skin healthier.

We are exposed to many potentially toxic chemicals and metals everyday, our liver works hard to detoxify these. However, research has shown that saunas do appear to improve the detoxification of harmful compounds and mitigate their negative effects.

Scientists have detected that there are measurable levels of chemical pollutants and heavy metals excreted in sweat, meaning that sweating regularly may aid in the removal of these toxins from your body. 

Take some time to go to a sauna and sweat it out!

Mood Enhancement

Many of the physical benefits of saunas can lead to an enhanced mood. Blood flow sharpens brain perfromance, removes toxins and likely causes you to feel better.

Saunas definitely appear to benefit mood and psychological factors, in fact, stress reduction could be one of the ways in which saunas benefit cardiovascular health. 

Anytime we take quiet moments to care for ourselves, we benefit our body’s stress response and invite a better mood. 

Sauna Conclusion

Do you have access to a sauna near you?

Many gyms have them these days, and you can also set up your OWN personal Portable Sauna  using one of these awesome home kits!

Humans have utilized saunas for their health benefits for thousands of years. Skip to today and there’s still plenty of reason to include them in your routine, including relaxation.