Today we are going to talk about saunas and using dry heat therapy to improve your overall health. A lot of these benefits are realized over time and there are no "quick fixes" saunas and dry heat have for everybody.
The are many benefits of using a dry sauna and many of the positive affects are on your health quite extensive. Let's start with number one, increasing circulation. The sympathetic nervous system is located in the adrenals and also through your back and in your brain, basically open up the sweat glands. And as a survival mechanism, you're sweating to cause evaporation to cool down the body. But when you are in the sauna, that's not going to happen, but that's why you would sweat, because your body's reacting to the heat to cool it down, and this is called homeostasis. So, you have this blood flow vasodilation, you're moving a lot of blood through the body, which is really good for circulation and lymph flow.
So then, we have detox. You can do a search on called "Clear Body Clear Mind" to learn more about detoxing.
We have the next benefit with your sleep. The amount of relaxation that can occur after a sauna is huge. You're going to feel really relaxed. Your stress is going to go down. Your sleep is going to improve.
Sauna treatment will decrease oxidative stress because it increases your own body's antioxidant levels. That's pretty cool. It can decrease muscle tension, decrease inflammation and pain, elevate your mood, and on top of that, I found that it can even increase your growth hormone. There was a study in 1976 that shows that you can increase growth hormone by 140%.
Now, if you're just starting to do sauna sesssions, we recommend that you go between five and 20 minutes in length, between a temperature of 176 Fahrenheit to 212 Fahrenheit. And you can do periodic steam with a traditional sauna heater. There's usually going to be rocks in there. You're going to add some water and create this steam burst. And also realize that when you sweat, you're losing not all the electrolytes you're losing sodium chloride mainly but not potassium or magnesium. So, if you feel a little dizzy coming out of the sauna, add a little salt and some water and that will just pull you right out of it.
Always remember to stay hydrated and make the most of this ancient wellness practice used all over the world today!