How to Increase Athletic Endurance and Muscle Mass through Sauna Use with Dr. Rh
00:00Dr Ronda Patrick here in my last video and accompanying article I discussed growth hormone and igf-1 and their performance longevity trade-off on the one hand as a downstream mediator of growth hormone igf-1 has many positive effects associated with youth such as decreasing fat while increasing lean muscle mass increasing verbal memory and increasing neurogenesis the growth of new brain cells and also promoting muscle repair on the other hand mice worms and flies that are genetically engineer to have high levels of growth hormone or igf-1 have substantially shortened lifespans hence the trade-off heat acclamation through sauna use a term that I call hypothermic conditioning can help achieve and give you many of those positive effects associated with igf-1 without the risk of high levels of growth hormone or Supra physiological levels of growth hormone that's associated with growth hormone therapy today I'm going to discuss how acclimating your body to
01:00heat through using something like the sauna either in conjunction with or independent of exercise can induce physiological adaptations that can help improve your endurance performance and the acquisition of muscle mass in addition I'm going to discuss how heat acclimation actually has very interesting and positive effects on the hypothalamus and neuroendocrine system many of these impacting brain function including neurogenesis lastly I will discuss how heat acclamation or modulating your core body temperature may also be responsible for the term known as the runner's high so let's begin with the endurance enhancements first heat acclamation increases the blood flow to your skeletal muscles this increases glucose esterified fatty acids and oxygen to your skeletal muscles often times during
02:00endurance training your skeletal muscles will deplete these nutrients and then they have to rely on local glycogen stores anecdotally endurance athletes often talk about hitting a wall while this in biological terms is referring to when your muscles have depleted local glycogen stores in fact it's been shown that heat acclamation reduces the need to to rely on glycogen stores between 40 and 50% as compared to not being heat acclimated second heat acclamation increases blood flow to the heart this lowers cardiovascular strain and lowers the heart rate for the same given exercise workload these things allow physical activity to be maintained for a longer period of time as compared to not being heat acclimated third is heat acclimation increases blood flow to the skin and it activates the sympathetic nervous system which allows sweating to occur at a lower core body temperature and to be maintained for a longer period
03:00therefore lowering your core body temperature it also releases nor epinephrine which is a vasodilator among other things and allows for heat to be dissipated more efficent efficiently also lowering the core body temperature so let's take a step back from these nuts and bolts and talk about what kind of endurance gains you can expect from heat acclamation through sauna use in one study male Runners engaged in a 30 minute sauna session two times a week after their workout these Runners were able to increase their running until exhaustion by 32% and they experienced an accompanied 7% increase in plasma volume and 3.55% increase in red blood cell count it's thought that the increase in red blood cell count was due to a compensatory mechanism for the increased plasma volume and possibly through arotin heat acclamation through SAA use can also have positive effects on muscle hypertrophy tropy that is gaining muscle
04:00mass muscle hypertrophy mostly relies on the increasing the size of muscle cells which depends on increasing protein synthesis exercise is a well-known inducer of muscle hypertrophy because it increases net protein synthesis but unfortunately it also has to combat the effects of oxidative stress which increases protein degradation at the same time so anything that can combat oxidative stress during exercise will result in a net increase in protein synthesis and thus muscle hypertrophy there are three ways that being heat acclimated can increase muscle hypertrophy first is through the induction of heat chock proteins second is by boosting growth hormone levels and third is by improving insulin sensitivity heat shock proteins as their name implies are induced by heat this robust induction of heat chog proteins upon Heat exposure is a prime example of
05:00hormesis heat shock proteins are able to repair damaged proteins and prevent protein oxidation by Scavenging free radicals and by increasing endogenous antioxidants in our body such as glutathione and this is how they are able to cause a net increase in protein synthesis acclimating your body to heat can also result in higher basil expression of heat shock proteins as well as a more robust induction during later elevations in Core Body temperatur such as during physical exercise in one study in rats hypothermic conditioning resulted in a robust induction of heat chock proteins and this correlated with 30% more muscle regrowth compared to controls after 7 Days of immobilization the second way heat acclimation affects muscle hypertrophy is through the release of growth hormone the anabolic effects of growth hormone are well known for example Le growth
06:00hormone Administration to endurance athletes for 4 weeks resulted in 50% less protein oxidation and degradation thereby increasing muscle hypertrophy but what's not well known is that the sauna also affects growth hormone levels these effects depend on the temperature time spent and the frequency of sauna use for example two 20 minute sauna sessions a day at 80° C can result in a two-fold increase in growth hormone levels over Baseline but perhaps what's more surprising is the profound effects that frequency of SAA use can have on growth hormone levels and this really highlights the physiological adaptations that occur as a consequence to hypothermically conditioning your body to heat two 1H hour a day sauna sessions at 80° C for 7 days in a row resulted in a 16-fold increase in growth hormone levels over Baseline in men that's pretty huge
07:00the third way in which heat acclamation can promote muscle growth is by improving insulin sensitivity insulin is anabolic because it decreases protein degradation much like heat shock proteins and growth hormone whole body hypothermia has been shown to reduce insulin resistance and improve insulin sensitivity and an OB diabetic Mouse model what's also interesting is that heat stress which is known to boost growth hormone levels in humans has been shown in flies and worms to cause about a 15% increase in lifespan now this is countered to what you might expect if you watched my last video on the performance longevity tradeoff the reason for this is that heat stress induces hormesis and that causes the increase in expression in genes and protein proteins such as heat chock
08:00proteins that are known to improve longevity intermittent heat exposure and heat acclamation also have positive benefits on the brain these positive benefits include increased neurogenesis improved learning in memory and improved Focus SAA induced hypothermia also has a profound effect on noro epinephrine and prolactin levels in one study individuals that stayed in the sauna until exhaustion had a 310% increase in norepinephrine and a 10-fold increase in prolactin levels norepinephrine helps with focus and attention and prolactin is important for myelin growth milin increases the efficiency of the electrical activity in your brain and is also important for repairing nerve cell damage in addition to increasing norepinephrine heat acclamation also increases the biological capacity to store neuro epinephrine for later release this is very relevant for disorders such as ADHD which is is often treated with nor epinephine reuptake
09:00Inhibitors and is associated with decreased nor epinephine release during exercise heat stress also increases neurogenesis hypothermia in conjunction with exercise increases the expression of brain derived neurotrophic Factor bdnf even more so than exercise alone bdnf is often referred to as a Miracle Grow for brain cells because it increases the grow grow of new brain cells and it promotes the survival of already existing neurons bdnf also increases neuronal plasticity which is important to learn new information as well as to remember and retain that new information BNF has also been shown to decrease depression and anxiety associated with early life stressful events and if that weren't enough bdnf can also be released from your muscle cells where it promotes muscle repair and the growth of new muscle Tiss tissue
10:00all I can say is wow a couple of other interesting facts about physiological effects of heat stress ever wonder what's responsible for the runner's high or the post exercise high in general you may think it's due to the release of endorphins but that's not the whole story endorphins also known as beta endorphins are part of the body's natural mu opioid painkiller system this is the same system that potent narcotics like morphine interact with what you may not be familiar is the counterpart to this the Kappa opioid system dorphin is responsible for that feeling of dysphoria it is the opposite of endorphin the discomfort experienced from intense exercise heat stress or even eating spicy foods is due to the release of that dysphoric opioid dorphin it is the release of dorphin that caus causes your mu opioid receptors to
11:00become sensitized to that feel-good opioid endorphin hypothermia from sauna use increases dorphin levels and subsequently endorphin levels even more than exercise alone did you retain all that awesomeness I just threw at you okay let's have a quick recap heat acclamation through Sona use a term I call hypothermic conditioning has been shown to improve endurance by increasing nutrient delivery to your muscles and thereby reducing the need for glycogen stores by improving cardiovascular mechanisms and reducing heart rate and also by improving therm regulatory mechanisms and lowering core body temperature it's been shown to improve muscle hypertrophy by the by preventing protein degradation and thereby causing a net increase in protein synthesis from the following three mechanisms one by inducing the expression of heat chock proteins which also are induced from a
12:00hormetic response that has been shown to improve longevity in lower organisms secondly by increasing the release of growth hormone and thirdly by improving insulin sensitivity hypmic conditioning through SAA use also has important positive effects on the brain it increases the release and the storage of norepinephrine which is important for focus and attention it increases prolactin which helps your brain function faster through myelination which is Al important for repairing uh damaged nerve cells in addition increases bdnf which increases the growth of new brain cells it is important for learning in memory and also helps decrease depression and anxiety that's associated with early stressful events lastly it also increases the expression of dorphin which sensitizes your body to the Feelgood endorphin I believe that hypmic conditioning in general is worth a closer look as a tool in the tool bit of athletes Beyond its more traditional
13:00role as a means of relaxation because hypothermic conditioning works by inducing stress in order to build stress tolerance it should definitely be used with some level of caution and Common Sense particularly with regards to your own unique body chemistry here's one more thing for you CrossFit people out there heat stress has been shown to increase the expression of heem oxygenase one which as it turns out is also known as heat shock protein 32 and has been shown to protect against the toxic effects of rabdomiolisis and rodents I'm Dr Ronda Patrick and I'll catch you next time