Sauna Can Treat WHAT ! Dr Rhonda Patrick Reveals SHOCKING Benefits
00:00stay free see it first on Rumble is it true that in every single conceivable measurable metric if you have like saunas it's good for you like heart disease it's good for Respiratory conditions it's good for cancer is that true or am I is that fake news it's almost true uh with this with the exception of cancer that hasn't been shown yet but uh as you mentioned you know thermal stress the sauna is a type of thermal stress you're elevating your core body temperature much like exercise when you exercise you elevate your core body temperature you sweat to try to cool yourself down well saunas you know they're a type of stress they're called intermittent stress and this is the same type of stress that exercise is it's a good type of stress where you're stressing your body but your body has evolved these stress responses that are beneficial to that stress I mean humans were you know throughout Evolution we were exposed to intermittent stress we were you know hunting Gathering we're running fast to get prey
01:00um you know that we went through periods of food scarcity right like we these are these are types of intermittent stress and our our bodies have evolved Pathways genes that are turned on that sort of respond to that that are not only beneficial in that moment but the they have a net beneficial effect anti-inflammatory responses antioxidant responses that are active much longer than the intermittent type of you know stress period that we sort of engaged in and so yes sauna use has been in it's you know it's a a modality another modality I I argue another modality of basically helpful types of behaviors like exercise like meditation like good sleep all these things that good diet you know the these These are lifestyle factors that are known to improve health and I think sauna should be one of those factors because there is just mounting evidence that the sauna is associated with a 50 lower cardiovascular related
02:00mortality It's associated with a 40 lower what's called all-cause mortality basically dying from all non-accidental causes as you mentioned respiratory disease as well it affects the lungs Alzheimer's disease the 66 lower chance of getting Alzheimer's disease so many different benefits that have been sort of over the years now we're getting more evidence that the sauna is beneficial is extraordinary it seems to me doctor that by replicating the conditions by which we long lived deep in our forgotten history we can engage dormant forces and that one of the Hallmarks of our time appears to be this disemboding way of life that we increasingly stare sedentary at screens glazed and lost and not connected to our bodies unable to have healthy sexy healthy food move
03:00nimbly through trees it's like we've forgotten who we are do you believe that that's part of what it is that it replicates the conditions for which we are evolved and indeed is that why it even like exercise sauna and and can I ask cold therapy is that why they affect your mental health positively too I do think so I think that because we have been able to measure you know genetic Pathways molecular Pathways molecules that are increasing in our body in response to sauna use in response to exercise in response to cold exposure we're able to to measure those molecules and genes and go look these are beneficial molecules they're anti-inflammatory molecules they're things that are blunting chronic inflammation which is a byproduct of being sedentary of being overweight obese of eating a refined you know carbohydrate processed food Rich diet
04:00and we're able to then also look at these genes these are these are genes that are you know heat shock proteins for one they they respond to heat but they also respond to just stress in general so you can actually activate heat shock proteins obviously from sauna which would increase you know your core body temperature and exercise but cold exposure also increases those and they're basically they have a beneficial effect in your in your in your brain also in muscle mass they're preserving muscle mass preventing atrophy and and so yes I do think that actually the intermittent type of stress you have to kind of be uncomfortable for a little bit and that that uncomfortable feeling um is essential for the response which is beneficial and This this term is somewhat um sometimes it's called referred to as what's called hormesis so essentially you expose your body to a little bit of stress and sometimes that stress could be in the form of physical activity or or temperature stress or it can be plant polyphenols you can you
05:00know turmeric for one um you know these are bioactive compounds that are found in plants that they're a little bit toxic um but but only when they're like in a really really really really high dose like for example they're toxic to insects or fungus and that's kind of how why plants evolve these these compounds is to sort of Ward them off but when humans ingest them it has the same a similar response it activates these benefits official anti-inflammatory antioxidant Pathways and in in our brain and in our body that are that are improving the way we age and improving the way we feel the way we think and and it's interesting because um I actually became so interested in the sauna when I was a graduate student getting my PhD I was in the lab failed experiment after failed experiment I mean let me tell you there's like 10 more failed experiments than successful ones as a scientist I was very stressed out I mean it was very overwhelming and I started using the sauna every morning before I went into the lab to do my experiments and it was like night and day difference I knew
06:00something was happening in my brain I was able to handle stress better I was able to handle the anxiety of you know graduate school better and so I started looking into this research and like there's something going on in the brain like people usually think about sauna they think about sweating out toxins which is true but um I was very interested on in the profound effects that it was having on on my mental health and that was sort of the start of my interest in saunas this was back in like 20 2010 and since then there has been um quite a bit of literature showing that Asana is beneficial in the brain so um work by Dr Charles razon you know this was back in um about 2016 he published a paper with people that have major depressive disorder and they were sort of um resistant to to typical treatment so like SSRI serotonin reuptake Inhibitors is a very common one and so he took these these individuals and separated them into two groups one group got uh what's called whole body hyperthermia which is kind of like a sauna so there
07:00there's a machine it's an infrared type of sauna where you basically you know are warming the person up by via infrared radiation and um so they were they were getting that active treatment and then there was a placebo group that was getting just a little bit warmer like enough to think they were getting the treatment but it wasn't and the people that were getting the actual treatment they actually were in a feverish state so their their core body temperature they I mean they were at about 101.3 degrees Fahrenheit which is a little a little bit feverish so they were really getting hot and after just one treatment they had an antidepressant effect that was not found in the placebo group that lasted six weeks and this was sort of the the the instigation of now what is a you know a field of research um that I've I'm involved in um Dr Ashley Mason at UCSF is now taking that she's taken that study and she said okay well that was one session what if we take depressed people and give them
08:00like four or eight sessions what kind of effect will that have and so um the data is very promising it's not published yet I can't talk too many details about it but it's extremely promising and it's so exciting because what we have here is a potential modality for you know mood disorders anxiety much more work needs to be done but the reality is is that you know sauna does mimic in many ways moderate cardiovascular intensity a lot of the physiological response is similar and and you know it takes a certain amount of commitment to go for a run to get on a bike you know get on your Peloton you know whatever whatever it is that's going to get your heart rate you know up and your your sweating you know um and a lot of times people that are depressed it is it is challenging for them to try to take that initial step but when you tell them to get into a sauna it kind of feels like you know
09:00well I just have to step into this yes it's uncomfortable it gets uncomfortable when you get hot and you do have to sort of bear through that on Comfort but it's easier to step into Asana than to start going for a jog if especially if you've never done that you're you've been sedentary and so um not to mention people that are disabled there are a variety of people that can't go for a run they can't get on a bike and and and you know cycle and so um you know this is this is a potential new way to improve not only improve you know mood and and and basically mental health but the side effects are reduced cardiovascular disease they're you know reduce respiratory disease reduce Alzheimer's disease risk I mean it's beneficial side effects so I'm so excited about this area of research and we have known for a while that exercise is also a potential treatment not just I wouldn't I don't want to say potential I mean it really is it could be a treatment for depression study after study has come out in fact a new one just came out comparing head-to-head
10:00comparison people getting antidepressants versus people getting getting running therapy and it you know the running therapy is is basically working just as good as the antidepressants