The incredible benefits of using a sauna for healthspan, mood and more!

I’ve always enjoyed using a sauna if I’m in a hotel or a gym with a spa.

But it was reading the book Young Forever by the physician and functional medicine specialist Dr Mark Hyman, that persuaded me to incorporate sauna therapy into my routine on a regular basis as a health tool.

He highlighted Finland as the country that leads the way with sauna use, with most Fins using a sauna at least once a week.

And he flagged a study which monitored mortality and heart health in more than 2000 male Finish sauna users over a 20-year period..

It found those who used a sauna two to three times a week had a 24% lower risk of death. Those who used it four to seven times had a 40% lower risk of dying over the period of the study than those who went for one session a week.

Spending 20 minutes in the sauna compared with 10 minutes also significantly reduced the risk of heart failure.

Sauna therapy four to seven times a week was also found to reduce the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s by 66 per cent compared to those who used the sauna once a week.

The question is how does heat therapy improve our health?

How sauna therapy works

Now there’s always been talk of sweating out toxins when we’re in a very hot bath or sauna, but that idea isn’t hugely well supported by science.

But in a scientific review paper published in 2018 by scientists in Melbourne, Australia, which explored forty clinical studies with nearly 4000 participants, the conclusion was that whole-body heat therapy through sauna bathing can induce what they described as ‘profound physiological effects’.

By raising our core temperature we activate our thermoregulating pathways through the hypothalamus in the brain which controls our hormone system.

This leads to an increase in our heart rate, causes our blood vessels to dilate and sends our sweat glands into action.

And it has multiple physical effects similar to exercise including improving cardiovascular fitness and function, lowering blood pressure and also helping us regulate blood sugar levels by increasing insulin sensitivity.

The heat warms up our muscles and joints helping reduce inflammation and aiding muscle recovery because, according to the Arthritis Foundation, when you warm up a sore joint or tired muscle, your blood vessels get bigger allowing more blood, oxygen, and nutrients to be delivered to the injured tissues.

Heat shock proteins, the star players!

Sauna therapy also does something really clever in that it causes us to release heat shock proteins.

Now we know that damaged proteins speed up the aging process and so we want to do as much as we can to repair them and help make replacements.

Heat shock proteins can help the body do exactly that and prevent a build-up of damaged proteins that accelerate aging symptoms and instead activate repair to slow down the aging process.

It also increases the production of endorphins which improve our mood and support better sleep.

And it can help support the immune system too.

How I use sauna therapy

I use the sauna at my gym twice a week now, but I also have a HigherDose infrared sauna blanket at home which I use at least once a week in addition to traditional sauna bathing.

As well as being helpful for muscle recovery after working out, I also find it has a really positive effect on my mood.

But sauna blankets are a significant investment. For UK customers, the HigherDose blanket is priced at £839, in the US it’s $699.

A cheaper alternative is the MiHigh sauna blanket which was ranked second favorite to HigherDose in a review by The Independent.

The sauna blankets themselves are made of high-grade and water-resistant polyurethane on both the interior and exterior.

It has a temperature range of 68 to 158 degrees Fahrenheit and you can alter the heat using a controller. It’s automatically programmed to shut off after an hour but you can switch it off manually at any point.

The idea is you let it heat up for around 10 minutes before stepping in. With 8 temperature settings, I usually heat it up to around 7 to get in and then I switch it up to 8 for just five minutes or so until I break into a sweat and then turn it down again to 7.

I lay like that for around 15 minutes before switching the blanket off and then resting for another 5.

Infrared sauna v traditional sauna

As far as the experience of using an infrared sauna blanket goes, it’s basically like climbing into a big waterproof sleeping bag that’s very warm.

Unlike a traditional sauna where you strip down before getting into it, for an infrared sauna blanket you want to be clothed. The blanket can get hot so clothing protects your skin but it also helps you to get a sweat-on faster!

I got the towelling blanket to go inside which keeps me covered and is really handy for cleaning but I still go in clothed too.

And once you’ve climbed in you just zip up and relax and use the controller to adjust the heat depending on how you feel.

Something like a steam sauna could heat up to 180 degrees Fahrenheit, but infrared blankets use lower temperatures because they’re using electromagnetic radiation to directly warm your body.

So traditional saunas heat the air first which then heats you, while infrared light penetrates and heats the body and that does mean you can lie there for longer periods of time because it feels more comfortable than a hot sauna.

Weighing up the pros and cons between them, I love the deep heat of a traditional sauna and it will take you to sweating point much faster and is the greatest mood booster. On the downside, traditional saunas really go for my face and I have to apply Vaseline to my cheeks before I go in to minimise dryness and irritation. That’s not a problem with an infrared blanket where your face is uncovered.

Safety

Saunas are not recommended for people who are pregnant and you should take medical advice before using them if you have a health condition including heart problems.

It’s not usually recommended for children either who can’t yet regulate their heat as well as adults so are in more danger of overheating.

In terms of safety and frequency of use with an infrared sauna, at the moment I’m just using my blanket once or twice weekly for 20 minutes.

As with so much of the new health and cosmetic tech available there isn’t much long-term research around frequency and duration with infrared therapy to guarantee safety considering we’re talking about electromagnetic radiation – although it is very low-level non-ionizing radiation generally thought to be safe to humans.

HigherDose say their blankets use very low electromagnetic fields (known as EMFs).

Higher-frequency EMFs, which include x-rays and gamma rays are in the ionizing radiation part of the electromagnetic spectrum and could damage DNA or cells directly.

But that is not believed to be the case with low EMF. So a sauna blanket like the HigherDose one would be considered safe by most experts.

Now real biohackers recommend taking a cold shower or cold pool plunge immediately after using the sauna because, just as heat brings benefits so does subjecting your body to cold.

I have not been able to go there just yet. A Scottish winter is cryotherapy enough.