Sauna - The Not-So-Secret Weapon For Good Health
In response to my talks of naturally detoxing (you can read it here if you missed it), I got a lot of replies back on Saunas.. so let's chat on it! We're all looking for ways to improve and optimize our health, right?
Eating healthier food, cooking more at home, and making sure you're exercising are the basics. Add in getting quality sleep, and minimizing your stress and you're a step ahead of most people.
But what if there was an easy lifestyle hack that you could add in that has decades of evidence of its benefits?
There is - it's using a sauna!
Sauna therapy has been around for thousands of years and is practiced by many cultures around the world. Although there are variations, it generally consists of spending short bursts of time (roughly 20 minutes or less) in a sauna that is heated to 140-200 degrees Fahrenheit, depending on whether it's a dry sauna (also called a Finnish sauna), or an infrared sauna (these don't get as hot as a dry sauna).
The Benefits Of Sauna Therapy:
Regular use of sauna therapy has been found to have an incredible list of benefits, including:
Lowering stress levels
Improving sleep
Improving circulation
Lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease & stroke
Lowering the risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease
Lowering inflammation (a major factor in most chronic illnesses)
Lowering blood pressure
Supporting immune function
And get this:
One of the largest studies looking at the benefits of regular sauna use followed over 2300 men in Finland over 20 years and tracked a number of health outcomes, including heart disease. They found that regular sauna use significantly lowered all-cause mortality (that's death from any cause)!
Sauna May Also Help You Detox
As you likely know, we're swimming in environmental chemicals! While certainly not all chemicals are harmful, mountains of research over the past few decades have found that many chemicals, including ones we're exposed to daily, can be harmful.
Because of the sheer number of harmful chemicals that we encounter in our daily lives, taking action to reduce exposure is important.
But, we definitely can't avoid all of them.
Here's the great news: your body has a complex and pretty incredible built-in detoxification system that works 24/7 to asses and address these toxins. Our primary organs of detoxification include the liver, kidneys, colon, lungs, and lymphatic system.
It turns out that there's research showing that some toxic compounds, like heavy metals, BPA, flame retardants, and others may exit the body through sweating (although more research is needed to substantiate these findings).
What does this mean?
Sweating in a sauna may also support detoxification!
One of the benefits of sauna therapy is increased circulation. This happens when heat from the sauna causes blood vessels to dilate and increases blood flow, and this helps transport toxins to your liver and kidneys, where they can be processed and eliminated more effectively!
So whether directly or indirectly, sauna therapy can help support healthy detoxification, AND improve our overall health!
Do you sauna regularly? If not, does this inspire you to get started?
