Enter Dr Rhonda Patrick
A frequent guest on Joe Rogan and Tim Ferriss podcasts, Dr. Rhonda Patrick's degrees including a Ph.D. in biomedical science from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, along with a biochemistry/chemistry degree from the University of California. Known for her research in anti-aging, cancer and nutrition, Patrick believes in the benefits of longterm sauna use.
Patrick started using the sauna in grad school, where she noticed a decrease in her anxiety, along with uplift in mood. In addition to these initial observations, she started to conduct studies in endurance athletes, where she found out saunas visits 2-3 times per week helped runners and cyclers with recovery time.
Sauna Benefits & Athletic Recovery
Specifically, using the sauna helped individuals with additional blood flow to the heart (meaning less work per beat) while allowing fatty acids and glucose to move to the muscles. In addition, these studies revealed that sweat could occur at lower body temperatures, which means the body could actually cool down faster.
Cardiovascular Diseases Decreasing
Individuals who use the sauna 3-4 times per week have noticed 24-50 percent lower risk of cardiovascular disease and 60 percent less likely to experience Alzheimer’s Disease. Patrick has since been using the saunas 3 times per week for 20-30 minute intervals at 175 to 190 degrees F (infrared saunas require more time).
Patrick also noticed that cold showers after a visit to the sauna helped her mood, but there’s no direct science behind this hypothesis. However, additional benefits like sauna mimick exercise and creating endocrine changes like these increase of growth hormone and increase heat shock proteins (HSPs).
Here's a great videos where she is going in depth on the scientific studies conducted on sauna use and it's effects on longevity :
In the next video, Dr Patrick touches on Hyperthermic Conditioning for Hypertrophy, Endurance, and Neurogenesis and how regular sauna use can have a great impact on those processes :
For more awesome content from Dr Rhonda Patrick please visit : www.foundmyfitness.com
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Sweat Safely !
Gabriel from Northern Saunas