Is The Sauna Good For You? The Health Benefits of a Sauna:

Saunas have been proved to give you some of the health benefits of exercise (without the exercise part) - pretty cool right?

Sauna can improve:

• Your heart disease risk
• Your blood lipids and cholesterol (specifically, lowering your bad cholesterol)
• Your blood pressure
• Your mood and depressive symptoms
• Outcomes of chronic pain syndrome
• Your levels of inflammation if you have an inflammatory condition
• Athletic performance and recovery
• Detoxification process

By just relaxing in a hot environment.

Yep, that's right.

Repeated heat exposure in a sauna, can do all of the above for you.

Some quick Q&As:

How long should I sauna for and at what temperature? 

The jury is currently still out on this as all studies are done with varying temperatures and exposure times but somewhere between 15-30m in an 80-90 degree sauna. (Note, this is not medical or personalised advice and you should seek guidance from your relevant health professionals).

What kind of sauna should I use?

There is insufficient evidence to distinguish any particular health differences between repeat Finnish-style and repeat infrared sauna bathing.

How does the Sauna provide health benefits?

Physical: While there are likely many mechanisms of action, it has been suggested that sauna bathing may induce a general stress-adaptation response that leads to “hormetic adaptation” and the establishment of “sauna fitness,” possibly analogous to the hormetic adaptation responses of exercise.

The psychological impact of sauna bathing may be due to a combination of factors that include release of endorphins and other opioid-like peptides, forced mindfulness, psychological stress reduction, relaxation, improved sleep, time out from busy life schedules, placebo effects, and other aspects of individual psychological and social interactions that likely occur around frequent sauna activity.

My hot take

It's not the be-all-end-all, but if it can improve so many of your physical and psychological factors with minimal risk, then I personally think it's worth implementing a few times a week if you have the ability to do so!

Food for thought.

Check out the full review here if you're interested: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5941775/