#073 Sauna Benefits Deep Dive and Optimal Use with Dr. Rhonda Patrick & MedCram

Frequent sauna use is associated with a lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease, a lower risk of sudden cardiac death, a lower risk of coronary heart disease, a lower risk of stroke, a lower risk of dementia, of Alzheimer's disease ... The more frequent the sauna bathing, the more robust the health benefits are.

Sauna use is essentially mimicking moderate aerobic cardiovascular exercise. And so, a lot of the same physiological responses that happen when you're exercising—for example, your heart rate elevates while you're exercising, you elevate your core body temperature, you get hot, you start to sweat—these are the same things that are occurring while someone is in the sauna.

People that use the sauna 2-3 times a week, they have some somewhere like a 20% lower dementia risk, 20% lower Alzheimer's risk, more or less. But using the sauna 4-7 times a week, it's associated with between a 60-66% reduction in dementia and Alzheimer's disease compared to people that use the sauna 1 time a week.

The biggest difference between the infrared saunas and the traditional saunas is that the infrared saunas are using thermal radiation to heat you up directly, basically. So, those types of saunas only get to around 140 or so degrees Fahrenheit, whereas the traditional saunas... can go up to almost... 200 degrees Fahrenheit.

People that use the sauna 4-7x a week were 50% less likely to to die from cardiovascular disease-related death. Well, that number was referring to people that stayed in the sauna greater than 19 minutes ... People that sat in the sauna for 11 minutes on average, their reduction in cardiovascular disease-related death from cardiovascular disease was, like, 8%. 8% vs. 50%, big difference there.

Alcohol should never be used in the sauna or before going in the sauna ... That can be deadly. It can be be very, very dangerous. So, alcohol is a big no-no.

People that use the sauna 4-7 times a week have a 40% lower risk of dying from all causes of death than people that use the sauna 1 time a week.

Stroke risk is also significantly lowered, something in the realm of like 40% lower, for people that use the sauna 4-7 times a week versus once a week.

There's been some studies looking at people that have sat in about a 163 °F sauna for 30 minutes, they're able to activate their heat shock proteins about 50% over their baseline levels.

Long-term sauna use is associated with improved fasting glucose and improved insulin sensitivity.