Sauna to improve fitness and reduce your risk of heart disease, BP, stroke and Alzheimer’s
Hi everyone
Today’s blog focuses on heat stress and the positive effects it has been proven to have on a wide range of age related conditions.
This podcast by Dr Rhonda Patrick talks through the research that backs up using a sauna just 3 times per week for 20mins can reduce overall risk of cardiac arrest, stroke, cancer, Alzheimer’s by between 40-60%. This was looking at a large Finish study that has been monitoring patients since the 1980s.
Heat stress can mimic exercise by increasing your heart rate to around 150 beats per minute. It improves your blood vessels ability to respond to stress by allowing them to constrict and relax more efficiently and also has been proven to lower blood pressure in an number of high quality randomised controlled trials. This is particularly relevant to people who are unable to exercise due to injury or illness.
Exercise benefits.... Increasing your cor body temperature helps you become more heat adapted. This basically means that your body can cool your body more efficiently so you can then increase your ability to deal with heat of exercise having benefit to your endurance.
Also for those who have just suffered an injury sauna has been shown in studies to prevent muscle atrophy. 30 min exposure to heat 3 x per week can prevent not only muscle wasting but also enabled 20-30% increase in muscle regrowth after disuse from injury or illness.
Please remember the information in this bog is not medical advice it is for information only. If you have health issues always check with your GP before trying anything new.
check out the full podcast here
until next time
take care
Matt from the P-Lab
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