Infrared Sauna VS Traditional Finnish Sauna Sweat Smarter Sauna Insights Ep 1
00:00What's going on? Welcome back. Today we are talking all things sauna and we're going to be comparing specifically infrared saunas to the traditional finished sauna. So, I'm sure you've seen the infrared sauna popping up all over the country in wellness spas and celebrity homes. And you may be wondering, what's the difference between an infrared sauna and a finished sauna? And do the infrared saunas really give me those robust changes to longevity, metabolic health, cardiovascular health that a finished sauna does? Well, before you run out and jump into a fitness membership that includes infrared sauna and before you spend thousands of dollars on putting one in your home, let's dive into the differences between the two of them to make sure that you're actually getting the benefit that you're looking for when it comes to your health goals. So, let's just talk about some blanket across the board physiological responses that start to happen when you go through deliberate heat exposure. And this is not specific for the high heat saunas. It's not specific for the infrared sauna. This is just your body's adaptation to heat kind of across the board. So, the first thing that's going to happen is we're going to get that increase in our body temperature and
01:00this is going to create a heat stress response within the body. We're going to start to create adaptations that are designed to cool that body temperature back down. The biggest things we're going to start to see are an increase in our heart rate and an increase in skin vasoddilation so that we can start to shuttle blood around and ex get that heat out of the body. The other thing we're going to start to see is a short-term increase in reactive oxygen species. Now react reactive oxy oxygen species do create a lot of oxidative stress on the body which we would typically associate with being bad. However, low levels of acute or short short-term reactive oxygen species are actually good at helping to signal that hormetic response within the body. This is going to start to signal a couple of pathways and cascades that happen within the body that help create these adaptations over time. We're going to get an increase in heat shock proteins. Those heat shock proteins are amazing at helping to kind of deal with protein misfolding and clearing excess proteins out of the body. We're going to get an increase in NRF2, which is an
02:00antioxidant kind of detox switch that has a lot of really good health benefits within the body as well. We're going to see an increase in EMPK and PGC1 alpha, which both help increase mitochondrial activity and metabolism. So, these health increases are all happening under the surface as we start to go through that deliberate heat exposure. And all of these happen regardless of whether we're using an infrared sauna or a high heat sauna. It's just how quickly are they happening and which ones are more robust for the specific type of sauna that we're using. What this is going to react in is an result in in the body is an increase in cardiovascular support and stability. we're going to see an decrease in inflammation and an increase in detoxification activity within the body. Now, we don't want to just say that sauna increased detox across the board because they're not exactly doing that. There's two different phases that we have when it comes to detox and sauna is going to help support both of those phases, but it's not to say it's just creating a blanket detox response is not
03:00actually correct. So, the first phase is we've got to mobilize. We've got to pull the toxins out of the tissues that they're stored in. And then we've got to excrete those toxins through either the urine, the stool, or through sweat. So, increasing blood flow to the surface tissues and the muscles is going to start to help mobilize some of those toxins throughout the body. And then increasing sweating is going to help with eliminating the toxins from the body as well. So, we are going to get some detox response that's happening there. But there's two different types of detox that are kind of happening and those vary slightly between infrared saunas and the high heat saunas, right? Um, so it's important to understand if detox is the goal, which type of sauna do we want to use? So let's lay the foundation for what the traditional Finnish sauna is. This is the type of sauna that we've had for thousands of years. It's what they use over in Finland, Iceland, Sweden, all those really cold places over in Europe. And what this is is a very high heat sauna. So this is going to be anywhere between 100 or 80 to 100° C converts about 172
04:00to 212° F. Now this really high heat is going to create a large robust short-term heat stress response within the body. We're going to use this for about 15 to 30 minutes. Now with the finished sauna, the research really supports great cardiovascular risk benefits. It shows a decrease in cardiovascular morbidity by about 65% when we're using that sauna 40 four to seven days a week. And it's going to show a really robust decrease in Alzheimer's and dementia risk as well. So that cardiovascular decrease or the allcost cardiovascular mortality risk is going to decrease by 50 to 70%. Um, and then we're going to see a 65% decrease in Alzheimer's and dementia again when we're using that high heat finish sauna over about 4 to 7 days a week on average. And there is a dose response with this as well. So, we do want to make sure that we are using it on a repetitive basis. Now, this fast rise is going to create a stronger cardiovascular benefit um and it's going
05:00to cause more of those heat shock proteins to be respond or released. When we compare this to an infrared sauna, infrared saunas work a little bit differently. So, they're not going to have that really high heat getting up into the 170 and 180 200s. The heat in an infrared sauna is typically going to be somewhere between 130 to 150 degrees. So, because of that, you are going to have to stay in the sauna for significantly longer and there is going to be a slower ramp up in heart rate and a slower ramp up in those heat shock proteins being released. However, we can still create that heat shock protein release. it's just not going to be as robust as if we were using a finished sauna. Now, where infrared saunas have a cool edge is that they do have that near mid and far infrared light that's being excreted at the same time. That near mid and far infrared light is going to actually penetrate within the skin an inch to two inches deep. And this is going to have a big impact on mitochondrial function. It's going to support fat mobilization and toxin mobilization from the fat tissue. It's going to kind of heat us up from the
06:00inside out. So, while it is not going to be as hot, it's going to take longer to sweat, we are getting that deep penetrating heat from those near, mid, and far infrared wavelengths of light. Um, this is going to be more tolerable. So, a lot of people who have less tolerability to heat are going to benefit from this. It's going to be really good for people with chronic illnesses, a lot of pain, um, athletes and working for recovery specifically. Um, and then it is going to help with the stress response as well. When we look at comparing the finished sauna to the infrared sauna, specifically with that stress response, because of how hot that finished sauna is, because of how fast your heart rate's going to elevate, this is going to put you into more of that fight orflight stress response. The infrared sauna being at a lower heat that you're in for a longer period of time is going to stimulate more of that rest and digest parasympathetic response. So if we're trying to support the parasympathetic response come out of that fight or-flight response, something like an infrared sauna is going to really help to support that stress
07:00response more so than something like a high heat finish sauna. The other big differences here is the utilization. So like I said, they do have a lot of similar benefits, some more robust than others. The utilization is going to be a big difference here as well. So, this can play a role kind of in when it comes to your health goals, which we're going to talk about in just a second, of which sauna you may want to choose. So, the temperature, obviously, a finished sauna is much hotter than an infrared sauna, about 172 to 212 degrees compared to 130 to 150°. The duration of time that you have to be in them because of the heat difference is different as well. So, a finished sauna, you're going to want to be in that for about 15 to 30 minutes to unlock those maximum benefits. Whereas an infrared sauna, you're going to need to be in that for about 30 minutes to 45 minutes. The benefits are going to change slightly. So an infrared sauna is going to be much better for metabolic health, for impacting the mitochondria, and for recovery, chronic illnesses, pain, things like that. Whereas that high heat
08:00finish on it is going to be much better if you're trying to increase cardiovascular output or decrease cardiovascular mobility or morbidity, increase longevity um and in decrease your risk of dementia or Alzheimer's. So again, both of them have really cool benefits, but they're going to be slightly different. And then of course the mechanism is a little bit different as well and more so just with the robustness of those heat shock protein responses, the changes in heart rate, cardiovascular output, vasoddilation, things like that. Um, so how do we use these? If you want to do the finish sauna, that high heat sauna, typically what we're going to want to see is about four to seven times per week. One of the best times to do this is going to be immediately following exercise. The heart rate goal here is we want to get that heart rate up into the 150 beats per minute area. That's how we're going to know we're getting that cardiovascular benefit from it. A lot of the heat shock proteins start to really be released once that core body temperature gets up to 101.3. Um, so we want to see that increase in blood pressure or in uh that increase in
09:00core body temperature. And then you don't have to do this, but what a lot of people will do, especially over in Finland, Sweden, all those places, is they'll do kind of in and out sort of a thing. So, they'll go into the sauna for 15 minutes. They'll come out, they'll do a cold rinse, and then they'll go back into the sauna again. And as heating and cooling does have a little bit of an increase in the adaptation that we're going to start to see with that finished sauna. Next week, we're going to talk all about different ways that you can kind of program your sauna usage and talk about the difference between hot and cold exposure and contrast therapy, when to use infrared or finish saunas around exercise, that type of stuff. So, stay tuned for next week's video. But we're going to talk a lot more about that. And then for doing infrared sauna, infrared sauna is going to be more of the three times a week to start with and then we're going to ramp that up to six to seven times a week. So you can use the infrared sauna a little bit more frequently. Um but because you're in it for a lot longer, you've got to make sure that you're really hydrating, taking in your electrolytes. And there is going to be a time constraint. Not everybody has 45 minutes every single
10:00day to sit in the sauna. And so if time is a factor, the finished sauna may be something that's a little bit better for you. Um, we're going to want to, like I said, drink plenty of electrolytes. And then within that infrared sauna, we're going to want to make sure that we're looking for um the sweat response to start happening. We're going to be looking for that elevated heart rate. And then you may start to get a little bit fatigued, which tells you that your time is coming to the end. We don't want to really push too far past that fatigue setting in within that infrared sauna environment. Um, so contraindications here, there's not a whole lot of contraindications when it comes to either type of sauna. Obviously, if you have some sort of significant heat exposure issue, we would want to be very, very careful with the saunas and probably lean more towards that infrared sauna at a lower heat threshold. If you've got uncontrolled blood pressure issues, there is a huge cardiovascular response that happens within that sauna. So, you've got to be very careful with that. And then, of course, if you are pregnant, you've got to be careful with the sauna as well. Um, or if you're breastfeeding, because of that, sweating is going to decrease fluid volume. it
11:00may impact breast supply or breast milk supply as well. Um, and the other thing is if you have an active infection, you want to make sure you're being careful with that heat exposure as well. Um, so let's just talk about kind of a brief summary here of which ones are best to use based on kind of what your health goal is. So, if your main health goal is decrease cardiovascular risk and morbidity over time, improvements with Alzheimer's or dementia risk, the finished sauna is really going to be the primary thing that you're going to want to look for there. Um, doesn't mean that the infrared sauna isn't going to have those benefits, but the finished sauna does have the most robust research supporting those benefits. Again, that 50 to 70% decrease in cardiovascular death and the 65% decrease in dementia or al Alzheimer's risk with that finished sonic exposure four to seven times a week. If you're looking for more chronic illness support, pain management support, athletic recovery, this is more where that infrared sauna is going to play in. So again, both have very good
12:00benefits, but it's just utilizing the one that's going to help you support the goals that you're looking for the most. Uh, so I hope this video was helpful. I'd love to hear what you guys have more questions with, specifically when it comes to saunas. You can drop any of those questions below and I'll make sure to get those answered on a future video. Again, next week's video is going to cover more about when to use each type of sauna, specifically around exercise and programming. Uh, and then some of the some of the things that we can start to see improvements with when we're using contrast sensitivity. So, going from heat to cold exposure. So, we look forward to seeing you guys. If you like this, if you felt like you got value from this, like the channel, subscribe to me, and I look forward to seeing you guys next time. [Music]