What are more than 10 benefits of heat exposure?

In this podcast, Dr. Rodney and Karen talk about the benefits of heat exposure. It is very helpful to slow down aging because when the body experiences heat stress it releases heat shock proteins that support your antioxidant capacity and repair damaged proteins so they return to proper structure and function.

Sauna use releases the ‘feel good’ endorphins (such as serotonin) and widens the blood vessels to improve circulation and blood flow.

10  Benefits of Heat Exposure

Fire up  your immune system.
Heat exposure from sauna use stimulates your body's natural immune system by releasing cytokines, increasing heat shock proteins and stimulating antigen-presenting cells.

Increase your cell power.
Heat has been proven to positively impact your mitochondria, the ‘batteries’ powering your cells, helping your body naturally produce more energy and stay fit.

Slow down Father Time (aka: aging!).
Cell regeneration means you slow the aging process. And if you’re not quite convinced, check out the 20 year study of Finnish men that links two to three sauna sessions per week with a 23% decreased risk of death from cardiovascular disease.

Detoxify heavy metals and chemicals.
Everyday exposure to potentially toxic heavy metals through a variety of sources means even the most health conscious people still have toxins in the body. Regular sauna bathing helps excrete toxins such as arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury.

Reduce blood pressure.
Sauna heat helps widen blood vessels and improve circulation, which reduces blood pressure.

Make your heart happy and healthy.
A 2018 study found that sauna bathing four to seven times per week reduces the risk of death from cardiovascular disease by as much as 58%.

Optimize athletic performance.
Blood flow improvements from hyperthermic conditioning (heat conditioning) sends more blood to the heart, leading to an increase in plasma and red blood cell volume. That process delivers more oxygen throughout the body, fueling athletic performance.
Improve muscle function and recovery. As more blood flow and oxygen is delivered throughout the body, muscles increase in size and muscle breakdown is diminished. One study showed that two, one-hour sauna sessions for seven days straight increases production of the human growth hormone (HGH) by two to five times.

Fuel weight loss.
Regular sauna use is shown to regulate the appetite, increase metabolism, and improve oxygen utilization, helping to fuel weight loss along with a reduction in body fat.

Boost brain function.
The brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF increases with regular sauna use, activating the growth of new brain cells, better maintaining existing cells, and improving neuroplasticity, the brain’s process for forming new neural connections.

BONUS BENEFIT: improve emotional health and mood.
When your body and brain are healthy, detoxified, and de-stressed, and you’ve boosted endorphins, your overall mood and emotional health improves.

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Transcript

[00:07] Announcer: Welcome to Stance for Health Podcast with Dr. Rod and Karen Worth. Where becoming healthy is not complicated, control your health by focusing on six areas of life that we teach you so you finally have the energy you have to do what you want instead of being a victim of your age. I have over 20 years experience working as a chiropractor, and Karen is an author, speaker, and longevity coach. We've seen how a tiny change in your habits today can open up your life to a powerful future. Start today and take your stance for help.

[00:52] Dr. Rodney: Hello, and welcome to Stance for Health podcast. I'm Dr. Rodney, seated next to Karen the Hope lady, Sebastian Worth.

[00:59] Karen: It's a pleasure to be here. And we just had the best experience last weekend. We got to go into a sauna.

[01:07] Dr. Rodney: Yes, and not a bad view from the sauna, either.

[01:11] Karen: We were in a lake house, and it has a sauna, and so I pulled out some research on it, and now we want to buy a sauna for our house. It's amazing. We already are doing the cold exposure, and you can go back to our podcast. We're going to blend the two together. But last November, we did 110 reasons why you should chill. And so at the end, we're going to bring those two together because the heat and cold exposure have such good health benefits. But today, since we've already done the one on cold exposure, let's talk about what happens in the sauna.

[01:55] Dr. Rodney: Well, for one, you think about excess toxins in the body.

[02:00] Karen: Yeah, that's what it's known for. People go to sweat out the bad stuff.

[02:06] Dr. Rodney: That's what we commonly think of. And different types of glands are more apt to do that than others that are actually when you sweat glands, different types of sweat glands and different types of cells that just get a break from the toxins. Because one of the primary ways that your body actually evacuates toxins is through breath. That's the primary means, which is why a lot of us have bad breath.

[02:33] Karen: Oh, boy.

[02:36] Dr. Rodney: But the beauty of that, though, is while you're sitting there, this passive thing happens where your heart rate starts to go up in order.

[02:45] Karen: It's like a workout.

[02:46] Dr. Rodney: It is.

[02:47] Karen: Many workouts. Exactly right there.

[02:50] Dr. Rodney: Okay, so if your heart rate goes up, guess what else has to go up? You have to actually breathe more, and you start to send your nose hairs, which is what it feels like if you start to breathe in through your nose. Right?

[03:02] Karen: Yeah.

[03:05] Dr. Rodney: Those are the commonly known things. What are some things that you dug up that you thought were interesting that you'd like to discuss?

[03:12] Karen: What I'd like to discuss is the fact that it's antiaging rejuvenation lifestyle is one of the other emphasis. One of the other directions that we go along with general health. And so what happens is when you get out of your comfort zone, that biological molecular function called hormesis. When you have stressors such as heat or cold, it actually helps your body and your liver gives off shock proteins that then help take care of the zombie cells. And so those are all things that just happen by sitting in the heat. And people seem to like that more than the cold exposure.

[04:06] Dr. Rodney: Yes, it seems like it's easier to reach the extreme of the heat than it is, and it's more comfortable to reach that than it is to reach the cold shock protein levels where it's most beneficial. However, you've mentioned this before in some of our other podcasts, that the challenge that we've issued to a lot of you out there is just the last, let's say when you're taking a shower, the last 20 or 30 seconds just turned all the way to cold.

[04:33] Karen: And it doesn't have to be 30 degrees as long as it's under 70 and it'll do this. So at the end, we're going to talk about some specific things you can do for this. Well, we want to talk now. It's just like what research is saying are the ten benefits for using a Sauna or heat therapy.

[04:55] Dr. Rodney: Great. Well, anybody that's if you've been alive in the last three years, you have wanted to find ways to ignite or to stimulate your immune system. Heat exposure from the Sauna is actually because of that heat shock protein stimulates antigen presenting cells. In other words. Hey, guys, look what we found.

[05:23] Karen: Wow. I love it.

[05:25] Dr. Rodney: Along with releasing cytokines, thus stimulating your body's natural immune system.

[05:32] Karen: Love it.

[05:32] Dr. Rodney: You don't have the cytokine storm necessarily because your body's already doing it and it's already out there with antigens stimulating your natural immunity.

[05:45] Karen: That's pretty cool.

[05:46] Dr. Rodney: I love it too.

[05:47] Karen: That's really cool.

[05:48] Dr. Rodney: Yeah.

[05:49] Karen: And then the second one we have down here is that it helps your mitochondria. So we've talked a lot about the laser, but this is another way to have impact on that powerhouse of every cell, which is the mitochondria. And that's how you can produce more energy and have better health. Who doesn't want to make their mitochondria feel better and more energetic?

[06:15] Dr. Rodney: Mainly because why? Because you're only as healthy as your mitochondria.

[06:20] Karen: That's right. And we have other ways of doing that as well with the laser, the cold laser. I love this. And we already talked about the antiaging. So this is what's interesting, that most of us, if you think about Asana, you're thinking and cold exposure, both Norwegian countries, right? That's where they go out and they do a circle in the ice, get in it and then get out and go into those little barrel looking Saunas. And what they found is a 23% decrease in death from cardiovascular disease from the people that did it consistently. That's pretty impressive. Of course, they probably had ate a lot of fish and things like that too, so it wasn't the only thing. But here's something that you can do that's going to decrease the reasons for dying. You already talked about the next one.

[07:20] Dr. Rodney: I did. Just remember detox. That's what we talked about.

[07:25] Karen: And boy, we are exposed to more and more stuff all the time. We've recently had the privilege of having someone come in. First time in my life, ever, someone to professionally clean the house. And what we love so much about her is that all of her cleaning products are toxin free. I don't think people realize just how many toxins are in their cleaning supplies and in their, basically laundry soap and things like that.

[07:59] Dr. Rodney: Good point. So how about the next one? How do you reduce blood pressure by heat exposure?

[08:05] Karen: What do you think?

[08:06] Dr. Rodney: Well, heat expands, right. Heat expands our bodies. So the blood vessels do what? They contract or they expand that. That's right.

[08:17] Karen: So while you're in there, though, you said your heart rate goes up.

[08:22] Dr. Rodney: Yes, but the key feature is that it's trying to actually push away the heat from the superficial capillaries, so it's widening that open. The reality is that heat is then actually taken into these enlargement, these gorged blood vessels. So your blood pressure goes up incrementally with your heart rate. That's why you can only do it for a certain period of time. It's because you're creating this got it. This spiral that could spin out of control if you stay in there too long.

[08:57] Karen: Well, and then the research that we're seeing is that that goes obviously reduced blood pressure without medication goes into making your heart healthy. And basically, the research that this was showing that people were in the Sauna seven times a week.

[09:16] Dr. Rodney: Seven times. Wow. That one that you mentioned earlier was only three times a week for a 23 23% decrease in cardiovascular related.

[09:26] Karen: This particular study said that it reduced in 2018, a study that said it reduced it by 58%.

[09:35] Dr. Rodney: Okay.

[09:35] Karen: The other one was death by 23 by as much.

[09:38] Dr. Rodney: Okay. So all-cause mortality.

[09:41] Karen: Yeah.

[09:41] Dr. Rodney: Got it.

[09:42] Karen: Yeah. So this is basically the heart related things.

[09:46] Dr. Rodney: Wow. Think about starting to add up all these different things.

[09:50] Karen: I know you want to get a sauna. We're not selling saunas. We're certainly looking at the ones that you can install in your house. Like I said, it was a fun thing to do. We did several times over the weekend, so that is amazing. And we actually do have access to Asana in our health club that we go to. So maybe that means we need to increase our visits there at least to three times a week swim and then get in there at least for 20 minutes each time. But the next one is it'll help you perform better in exercising.

[10:36] Dr. Rodney: Yeah. Anytime you take your body to an extreme, it widens the gap of available resources at the time that you need it for performance and hyperthermia too much. In other words, excess heat is one of the ways to widen that gap and along with expanding your capillaries and your capillary beds and larger blood vessels in the process, that's actually what happens when you exercise.

[11:04] Karen: So it's a passive way of doing something.

[11:08] Dr. Rodney: And isn't that what people are really looking for?

[11:10] Karen: Exactly.

[11:10] Dr. Rodney: Sure, you're going out of your way to get into a sauna, but how convenient can you make getting there so that something that you're doing that's passive actually is increasing your body's capacity for performance. Right, I love it.

[11:26] Karen: Well, one of the main things that we found with cold exposure, and we will soon be cashing in on a Christmas present from our son and his family, is to get into a cold chamber. Some of that is showing that extreme is doing what this next one we're going to talk about, it reduces inflammation and so it improves muscle function and recovery from exercise. So how does that work?

[11:56] Dr. Rodney: Well, I'm hearing that really the same way if you're optimizing your athletic performance, in essence, you're speeding up the recovery process, but it's happening after you've done the full exertion the performance level event. And so you're actually making it easier to recover from that athletic performance.

[12:18] Karen: I get it. So what we're saying is not just do the passive go into the sauna, but like we do, we're going and swimming and exerting those muscles, and then we go into the sauna from that and it actually can increase human growth hormone, which is interesting that that is needed if you're going to be working out.

[12:44] Dr. Rodney: Yeah, absolutely.

[12:46] Karen: The heat and the cold really share this one. They help with weight loss, not actually.

[12:53] Dr. Rodney: Burning calories, but in essence, bottom line is you're burning fat.

[12:57] Karen: Yeah.

[12:58] Dr. Rodney: Because it's actually bypassing that whole pathway that involves the use of calories in the form of glucose.

[13:08] Karen: So it reduces the body fat. And what we love about the cold exposure and I have a laser that will focus specifically we call it the fat zapper, affectionately called the fat zapper, but it's a Serona z six that will actually target the fat cells and make a little pore in the fat cell. And the excess goes into the interstitial between the cells and then that goes out through the lymphatic system. But one of the main things that we found with that is that if you add the cold to that, you increase the bat.

[13:48] Dr. Rodney: Yes.

[13:48] Karen: Brown adipose tissue. Explain that a little bit more, Doc.

[13:52] Dr. Rodney: Well, it's something that we were all born with, so it's really the ideal fat. It has a higher metabolic rate than the white fat that often accumulates over time as a result of excess carbohydrate intake or the hypercarbs I like to call the white sugar starches. Those types of things. Yeah. If you're not going to have an athletic performance, then maybe that's not the thing to consume.

[14:23] Karen: Exactly.

[14:23] Dr. Rodney: Yet it's a favorite because it stimulates dopamine. So those are the things that we're taking in more fat, ideally we're taking in mother's milk and brown fat can actually persist as long as you live.

[14:38] Karen: Wow.

[14:39] Dr. Rodney: And when you have that, in essence, you're insulating yourself. You're doing what fat was designed for, insulating as well as cushioning the blow and stuff like that. If you're tackled or whatever, you are.

[14:51] Karen: Improving your metabolism by doing both of these, the heat exposure and the cold exposure.

[14:57] Dr. Rodney: I thought you were going to say booing dose at the second there.

[15:01] Karen: We do that sometimes, so we can really as your head gets ahead of your mind, your brain does.

[15:10] Dr. Rodney: But speaking of brain, can you imagine that anytime you do exercise of any kind that you're actually doing your brain a favor?

[15:18] Karen: I love that.

[15:19] Dr. Rodney: Isn't that great?

[15:19] Karen: Even just movement, we've got to get away from this notion that exercise is running a marathon or a five K. Come on. It's movement. And Blue zones are proofing that these individuals don't necessarily belong to a health fitness.

[15:35] Dr. Rodney: But they're still moving, they're gardening.

[15:38] Karen: The one lady in Sardinia is chasing her goats so she can milk them and make the cheese.

[15:45] Dr. Rodney: Obviously she catches the goat.

[15:49] Karen: Cheese that night with her vegetables from her garden. But that basically having the motivation and boosting the brain function is so important for neuroplasticity, especially as we get older.

[16:05] Dr. Rodney: Absolutely. Neuroplasticity is part of what we do here with our stance tribe as well.

[16:13] Karen: Yes. Eye exercises, using the laser, all of.

[16:17] Dr. Rodney: These things that you can do, many of these things you can do at low cost to you. And it's one of those things that you look at and you go, well, if you keep telling us that you can live not just live longer, but live better, then you might have my attention, hopefully, that's you as you listen to this, you're thinking about, well, all these different things that add up to lower mortality or increased health. In essence, what we're talking about is less disability, less and less and less disability, managing disability so that that age doesn't catch up with you and your brain and your body both go the distance. You want them both to go the distance. So bonus benefit when you start talking about this, most of us love the way we feel after exercise and after.

[17:11] Karen: Asana and after cold exposure. All of these help our bodies and our mood.

[17:20] Dr. Rodney: Yes. Talk about the good, happy hormones.

[17:25] Karen: Yeah. And that's so important. We so appreciate this opportunity to bring these things to you that you might not think about the benefits that come from the cold exposure, the ten reasons why you should chill. And I guess I'll call this the ten reasons why you should get hot. No. What title shall I give this one? Well, I'm wondering, for those of us who live in this heat belt, if I stop thinking so negatively about the summer and when I get in that hot car. I think, oh, there's ten plus benefits to this while I'm waiting for that AC in the car to cool down. But I think that I've been pretty harsh on the heat and not thought of my car as my own personal sauna.

[18:22] Dr. Rodney: That's a really good point. I just think about this side story of Herod when she worked in Fort Worth and she had this car where the window actually exploded from the inside out because of the heat. And no, we're not talking about staying in that heat, but isn't it tantamount to the last, say, 30 seconds where cold exposure is concerned? Isn't it? Actually, it's embracing that 30 seconds or so of heat when you hop into the car in the summer. Why not?

[19:00] Karen: I appreciate that so much because that is something that your mood is dependent on what you tell yourself about your circumstances. Our words are so powerful, and so I'm going to be looking forward to this summer for the first time since I've lived in Texas. Good for you, because I don't have a sauna yet. I do want to get one, but I am going to be looking for these benefits, and maybe I need to go take a cold shower by the time I get home if I've had too many heavy metals and chemicals come out of my body through my perspiration. But I think that what we talk about is what we want to make for you, is to make your possibility for health within your reach without going to extremes, not spending a lot of money, basically changing small changes that will have a great impact on your health.

[20:06] Dr. Rodney: Well, I look forward to bringing another idea like this next time we get together. And this has been an absolute joy again, to sit with you and talk about these healthy things that we've come to enjoy to help people take their stance for health.

[20:27] Karen: See you next time.

[20:29] Dr. Rodney: Bye bye.

[20:31] Announcer: Thank you for joining us at Stance for Health podcast, where getting healthy and staying that way are not as complicated as you might think. Subscribe now and discover steps and small changes that can increase your energy and open the door to vibrant health and longevity. This podcast has been helpful.

[20:52] Dr. Rodney: Please write a review. We'll see you next time.