{"id":322,"date":"2021-11-03T18:40:52","date_gmt":"2021-11-03T18:40:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hannonchiropractic.com\/blog\/?p=322"},"modified":"2021-11-03T18:42:59","modified_gmt":"2021-11-03T18:42:59","slug":"sweat-your-way-to-better-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hannonchiropractic.com\/blog\/sweat-your-way-to-better-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Sweat your way to better health"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Years ago it occurred to me that many of my patients rarely sweat.  Think about it, most people wake up and take a shower, get ready for work, commute to work, work indoors, drive home, watch TV, go to bed, and repeat this routine 5+ days per week.  The majority of the day is spent in a temperature controlled setting with little to no activity.  Even if someone was a weekend warrior, and had a more active and sweaty weekend, this wouldn’t negate the negatives of 5 days of the typical American lifestyle.  Did you know the average American sits for an estimated 6.5 hours per day?  Did you know that the average American spends an estimated 4 hours per day watching TV?  Let’s be honest, for most Americans, those hours watching TV are not while on the stationary bike or treadmill.  Do you know how the body rids itself of toxins and waste?  If you guessed through sweat, urine, bowel movements, and breathing then you guessed right.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One way the average American\ncan increase their daily sweat is to incorporate sauna therapy into their daily\nroutine.  Sauna therapy dates back\nthousands of years over multiple cultures all over the globe; recognized in\nplaces like Russia, Finland, Native Americans, Central America, and Japan to\nincrease lifespan and improve overall health. \nSauna therapy can be defined as short term, roughly 20-40 minutes, of\npassive exposure to extreme heat in an enclosed space causing mild\nhyperthermia, increasing the body’s core temperature, resulting in\nperspiration, or sweating.  Saunas are\nmost often made of wood, but early forms of saunas were in pits and caves as\nwell.  In more modern designed saunas, we\nfind new fabrics being utilized to offer more sauna design options; such as\nsmall collapsible single person options. \nNot only can saunas differ in building materials, but saunas differ in\ntheir heat source and humidity.  Saunas\ncan sometimes be heated by wood fires, but more often are heated by electric\nheaters, producing 158F to 212F, or infrared heaters, using incandescent bulbs,\nwith temperatures generally ranging 113 to 140F.  Electric heaters warm the air to a higher\ntemperature, while infrared heaters emit thermal radiation heating the body\ndirectly with less air temperature increase. \nSauna humidity is often controlled by splashing water on hot rocks.  The high temps and humidity inside saunas\nwill cause our millions of sweat glands to secrete mostly water, some salt,\nsome oil, and toxins. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Kuopio Ischemic Heart\nDisease Risk Factor Study has been tracking over 2,000 Finish men since the\n80’s, which is showing a correlation between using the sauna, a minimum of 2-3\ntimes per week, and a reduced risk of death and disease; however the results\nseem to be better with more weekly sauna usage. Other studies have shown that\nwith regular sauna usage you are less likely to develop cardiovascular disease,\ndementia, Alzheimer’s, and psychotic disorders, while physiologically we see an\nincrease in heat shock proteins, increase in mitochondrial function, activation\nof Nrf2, increased heart rate, blood pressure reduction, increased cardiac\noutput, increased immune system cells, reduction in inflammation, and improved exercise\nrecovery.  Additional studies showed\nsaunas helped people with congestive heart failure, ischemic heart disease,\nperipheral artery disease, dyslipidemia, hypertension, blood vessel health,\nreduced the blood marker CRP, promote growth of new nerves, less cognitive\ndecline, less depression, possible help with mental focus, promotes growth\nhormone release, improved blood sugar regulation, improved physical fitness and\nathletic performance, reduced muscle loss, reduced pain in those with\nfibromyalgia, reduced fatigue, reduced anxiety, improved relaxation, lung\nfunction improvement and promotes detoxification through sweating (such as heavy\nmetals, BPA, PCBs, and phthalate compounds). \nSome people even report saunas have helped them with skin issues and\ncellulite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like anything there are some\nprecautions to be considered when considering sauna therapy.  One study showed temporarily reduced sperm\ncount and motility in men.  Sauna therapy\nmay pose risks with pregnancy, children under 2 years old are not advised to\nuse a sauna, while children over 2 need to be under adult supervision.  People with a current infection with a fever\nshould avoid sauna usage, and people taking medications should consult with\ntheir doctor or pharmacist prior to sauna usage.  Cardiovascular disease patients should\nconsult with their cardiologist prior to sauna usage.  One final warning, do not drink alcohol prior,\nor during, sauna usage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those of us living in a\ndesert, that hits temperatures over 100F multiple times per year, it is hard to\nthink about getting into a sauna.  In my\nopinion, the benefits of sweating, and sauna therapy, for our health are\nundervalued in our American culture.  It\nis interesting that a lot of what we see as the benefits of sauna therapy are\nquite similar to that of exercise, not that sauna therapy should replace a\nhealthy lifestyle of clean whole food eating, daily exercise, and good sleep\nquality and quantity, but sauna therapy could certainly have a synergistic\neffect with the healthy lifestyle. \nRemember after a sauna therapy session replenish with water, salt, and\nother minerals.  Until next time, yours\nin health. Dr. B<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References <\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.foundmyfitness.com\/topics\/sauna<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.uef.fi\/en\/web\/nutritionepidemiologists\/kuopio-ischaemic-heart-disease-risk-factor-study-kihd-1984-<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.health.harvard.edu\/staying-healthy\/saunas-and-your-health<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Years ago it occurred to me that many of my patients rarely sweat.  Think about it, most people wake up…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[100,47,14,86,112,110,111,80],"class_list":["post-322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cardiovascular-disease","tag-health","tag-healthy","tag-healthy-lifestyle","tag-sauna","tag-sweat","tag-sweating","tag-toxins"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hannonchiropractic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hannonchiropractic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hannonchiropractic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hannonchiropractic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hannonchiropractic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.hannonchiropractic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":443,"href":"https:\/\/www.hannonchiropractic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322\/revisions\/443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hannonchiropractic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hannonchiropractic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hannonchiropractic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}