00:00Can sauna use really help prevent colds? You know, that's something that I've been told for decades really. And the thing is, I used to get sick a lot. And it was never fun because getting sick for me means I cannot do what I want to do, you know, and that means either working or working out or, you know, doing all of the things that I like to do. I can't because I'm on the couch and I feel terrible. And I used to get simple colds a lot, especially during the colder months of the year. And at some point I realized that well what if I changed my lifestyle? What if I focused more on wellness and get sick less often. And I did this and as part of that and by changing my lifestyle, you know, that included a number of things including changing my diet, focusing more on on sleep quality, etc. But also making sauna bathing a regular part of my wellness routine, especially during the colder months of the year. And as soon as I did that, I stopped getting colds. I stopped getting sick period, you know, and even on days when I felt like my body is fighting something, I would maybe have only 80%
01:00instead of 100% energy, but I could still continue with my life. And so I'm like, wow, this is a powerful tool. And so I decided let's look into the science and try to figure out what is it about sauna bathing that can reduce the incidence of common colds and you know disease or illness overall because sauna bathing has been practiced for a long long time especially in the Scandinavian culture and they barely seem to be getting sick and I've been using now finish and infrared saunas for many many years while tracking my recovery and blood markers and immune health and sick days and all of those things. And in fact, I did a whole video on on comparing infrared versus traditional if you're interested to see what the differences are. But for this video, I just want to talk about sauna bathing in general, and we're going to talk a little bit about the nuance between infrared and traditional to see if it makes a difference, and if so, how when it comes to preventing the likely or reducing the likelihood of getting cold. So, in the next couple of minutes, I'll share with you how sauna bathing primes your immune system, what studies really
02:00say about prevention versus treatment. So, what happens if you're already sick? Does it make sense to jump into the sauna? I'm going to share a practical sauna protocol with you that you can use today. That's the one that that I typically use. You know, if you want to want more sciencebacked health strategies like this one, you know, just hit subscribe and maybe share this video with someone, you know, who could use it. But let's talk about one factor in particular that plays a major role in boosting your immune system on making your immune system more robust so that if you get exposed to a pathogen, you're less likely to get sick. Right? And that is heat shock proteins. You know what is that? Well, heat shock proteins, they're like the bodyguards of your cells and they get released when you're exposed to heat stress. So, when your core temperature increases, maybe because you're in a sauna and you heat up, you're you're under heat shock, you're under heat stress, then your body releases heat shock proteins. And what they do is they repair damage. They maintain proteins to, you know, remove
03:00damaged proteins, clean them up and and and help them do their thing because proteins are one of the key micronutrients or components in the body that do a lot of things in the sense of immune system and really anything else. Proteins are incredibly important not just for muscle growth and they also activate the immune defenses. They make the immune system respond stronger and faster. And if you regularly release those heat shock proteins by using a sauna uh frequently then your immune system gets trained you know to be faster and stronger and more effective after all. So that those are the heat shock proteins and funny enough there is a counterpart to the heat shock proteins. Those are the cold shock proteins and guess when they get released when you expose yourself to very cold temperatures like in a cold plunge. And that's one of the reasons why combining sauna with cold plunge is so effective. And in fact, in most of the Scandinavian countries that practice sauna bathing, they have a sauna culture. They always include the cold plunge as well. So it's not just a sauna. It's very often the combination that gives you the most benefits. And
04:00we'll talk about this in a separate video. But heat shock proteins incredibly important as part of your body's immune response. And if you're thinking now, well, so what does the science say as far as prevention is concerned? And there are a couple of clinical trials out there that actually show that if you use saunas regularly over the course of a couple of months. So it's not just you use the sauna one time and then you know you're not going to get a cold. But if you use the sauna regularly then you can cut the risk of getting a cold in half. So a reduction of 50% after just a couple of months of regular sauna use. That is quite impressive because that's only due to sauna bathing. Nothing else. I mean, if you pile on then, you know, better diet, better sleep, exercise, and some of the other things that are important to maintain a an optimally functioning immune system, you can imagine that can reduce the risk of getting a cold or another common viral infection, you can reduce that risk significantly. And since I've been doing this for a long time and I've not gotten sick, even
05:00though I have been exposed to people, I was in close contact very often with people who were sick. So it's not that oh I live in an environment I live in a bubble wherein nobody else is sick and that's why I never got sick. No I got exposed to a lot of pathogens and yet I never got knocked out by any of them. Another larger fairly large Finnish study actually they looked at sauna bthers and they determined that regular frequent sauna users had a lower risk of developing respiratory diseases like pneumonia. And that's a key thing especially if you're already older where pneumonia can be potentially a death sentence you know. And so again, sauna use upregulates heat shock proteins, upregulates, boosts your immune system, makes your immune system more robust, respond quicker and more forcefully. And that can be an excellent tool, an excellent prevention tool, you know. Now, what is the deal with if you're already sick? Should you jump into the sauna? Does it help, you know, to speed up the progression of the disease or anything? Well, based on the studies that I've seen, using a sauna while you're already sick did not improve the
06:00symptoms compared to the control groups. But here's the thing, you know, with studies, there is obviously there are confounding factors. There is a lot of nuance depending on how the study was set up. You know, the individual persons involved in the studies, etc. But one thing that I want you to think about is, you know, if you get really sick, what your body typically does is it responds with a fever. It increases your core temperature. So the higher temperature can kill off the pathogens. That's a natural response. Well, guess what sauna bathing does? It increases your core temperature. So I would argue and that's what I do. Now this is not medical advice, but that's what I do. Whenever I feel like my body might be fighting something, whenever our kids say, you know, I don't feel well today, what we do is we go into the sauna. Now with the kids typically we tell them okay you go in as in as at as as much temperature as you feel comfortable. You know there's typically a way to control it so they they feel hot they come out sweaty but they are not under an extreme stress.
07:00When I go into the when I'm sick and I go into the sauna I turn it on you know to the highest level depending on if it's a finished sauna it's at 230° you know I really ramp up my core temperature and basically support my body in what it wants to do naturally anyway. you know, increase my core temperature to fight off any pathogens. And I have had great success. Now, again, I usually don't get sick very often. I do not remember the last time I had a fever. But nonetheless, I've not noticed with in our family setting that sauna bathing while we were under the weather, so to say, had any negative implic. If anything, I would argue it has helped. So again not medical advice but just from a to me it makes sense you know increase the body temperature the core temperature and help you know fight off the pathogens has been working for us studies have not shown that this is actually helpful but again depends on the study setup etc whether or not the study was good or not. Now another aspect to sauna bathing is that also plays a role in immunity and helping your body to be more robust and
08:00resilient overall is the fact that sauna bathing mimics a light cardiovascular workout at least if you have the temperature you know high enough so that your heart rate increases your circulation improves and that typically also triggers an increase a temporary increase in white blood cells and those are you know the antibodies that your immune system releases in response to a problem be it a pathogen or something else. And so each sauna session is really a workout not only for your cardiovascular system, but also for your immune system. And you don't even have to put on sneakers, you know. And so that's another nuance to this and and why sauna bathing is working. Now, if you think now, well, that's all great, but saunas are incredibly expensive. It is true, especially traditional saunas, you know, if you want to have like a walk-in type of cabin, you can spend thousands of dollars. cuz I know that because we have several saunas in our home spa and they're all $5,000 plus. But there is one exception I want to point out and this is actually the sponsor of this video and that is sweat tent because that sweat tent comes with
09:00a wood stove. It has room for at least four adults. It heats up incredibly quickly in 20 minutes. The thing is hot and it taps out at about 230° Fahrenheit. You know, that's how hot I've gotten sweat tent and it's only 1,500 bucks give or take. You know, I'm going to show the exact pricing here in the B-roll, but it's a fairly inexpensive way if you have the space to get all of the benefits of a traditional finish sauna, including the wood stove. So, even from an ambiance perspective, you get exactly what you would get in a in a traditional sauna for a very reasonable price. And I have a separate review on Swat, so I encourage you to check that out to learn all about the product, the pros and cons. But I love it. It's a super inexpensive way to make sauna bathing a regular part of your routine. and reduce your chances of getting sick. It's a win-win at the end of the day, and I absolutely love it. So, what is a good sauna protocol? Well, you know, ideally, you use the sauna for at least, I want to say 60 to 70 minutes per week. If you can get in two to four
10:00sauna sessions a week, I think that's ideal. Typically, in winter, that's what we do over here. And then we jump in for about 15 minutes, you know, into the sauna at very high heat, like 230° Fahrenheit. I mean, you can make it as hot or as, you know, as you want to. Typically, you want to be above 170° Fahrenheit, which is what -30 / 2, so about 70° C to get all of the benefits. And after 15 minutes, we jump into a cold plunge and then go back into the sauna. And we do this typically for two rounds, sometimes three rounds, depending on how much time you have. You can do it more often as well. I mean, in Norway when we did the sauna and cold plunge in the Arctic Ocean, I think we did like four rounds. So you can do it as often as you want to, but at least two sessions I would recommend or two of those back and forth. That's ideal contrast therapy. You get the benefits of the heat shock proteins, the cold shock protein. So you get the double benefit to support your immune system. And you know, you do this hopefully if it's like high summer like right now as of this recording where it's like 90
11:00100° outside. Going into the sauna, I'm like, you know, I don't really want to do this every day because I'm already sweating just stepping outside. But in winter or in fall leading up to the cold season, we start using the sauna and we don't get sick during winter. And we do this until the weather warms up again and we can then expose ourselves to the high temperatures on the outside without having to use a sauna. It's such a no-brainer. It's good for you. There are so many health benefits. And if you don't get sick, if you win one, two, or 3 weeks during winter that you're not sick, that you can remain productive and do the things that you like. I mean, that's such a that's a no-brainer at the end of the day and totally worth the 1500 bucks that, you know, sweat tent costs. Now, with that, we're going to wrap it up. Let me know if you like this video. Let me know in the comments below. You know, have you been using Sauners for prevention? Have you used it while you're already sick? If so, did it work for you? Did it not? Let me know. I'd love to hear from you. And until next time. [Music]