Simply picking your phone up and looking at the top news stories can elicit a strong hormonal stress response. Coupling this with a processed food based diet, personal life challenges, little exercise, air pollutants, and suddenly a perfect recipe has been created for the development of cardiometabolic disease. This disease takes the lives of 1 in 4 Americans making it the single leading cause of death in America. (1)
Pour on any additional factors such as high stress occupations, or tragic life occurrences and a person may find themselves deep inside the rapid whole of high oxidative stress, insulin resistance, high blood pressure, chronic inflammation, and eventually cardiometabolic diseases.
Taking a step back and examining the various factors that contribute to the development of cardiometabolic disease there will likely be many that fall outside of one’s control, while others fall squarely within an individual’s direct control, and while still others may be a mixture of controllable and uncontrollable factors. The key to weeding through the deep waters of cardiometabolic diseases is to find out what you really can control and take action on those aspects of life while minimizing the uncontrollable factors.
While it may not be possible to change occupations, live without a cell phone or internet, move neighborhoods, or eliminate all financial stress, it is possible to make specific lifestyle changes that will reduce the likelihood of developing cardiometabolic disease. Some of these lifestyle changes may include getting more sleep, increasing exercise sessions, improving nutrition, staying well hydrated, and perhaps even incorporating sauna bathing into your daily or weekly routine.
Sauna bathing has many cardiometabolic health benefits and the data on these statistics have been well measured and researched. Through rigorous scientific research, sauna bathing has been shown to improve many cardiometabolic markers in its subjects. As you begin to frame your life to reduce elements that may lead to cardiometabolic disease, consider including regular sauna bathing into your lifestyle.
Find out what cardiometabolic disease is, and how sauna bathing can help reduce risk factors that may lead to its expression in your body. It may seem fun and relaxing to take a sauna, but ultimately this action may save your life.
What is Cardiometabolic Disease and What are its causes?
- Air Pollution
- Oxidative Stress
- Poor Diet
- Lack of Exercise
- High Stress Factors (occupation & life circumstances)
- High Blood Pressure
- Insulin Resistance
Cardiometabolic disease (CMD) is a grouping of interrelated disorders of the physical body. They include both metabolic challenges such as insulin resistance, obesity, chronic inflammation, oxidative stress with related cardiac illnesses such as high blood pressure, chronic heart failure, and ischemic heart disease. CMD is caused by a combination of lifestyle factors such as diet, environmental factors such as pollution, as well as circumstantial variables such as occupation or life circumstances. Individuals living higher stress lives will be more likely to accumulate more health factors that lead to CMD.
In short, CMD is literally an organization of illnesses of both the metabolic variety married to cardiovascular diseases and these interconnected maladies of the body comprise cardiometabolic disease.
Currently CMD is the leading cause of death in America, and ought to be taken seriously by everyone. According to a publication from the National Library of Medicine entitled ‘The evolving landscape of cardiometabolic diseases’ (1) the authors describe CMD here.
“Cardiometabolic diseases (CMDs), a group of interconnected disorders including metabolic diseases, like obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) coupled with cardiovascular complications such as ischemic heart disease (IHD) and heart failure (HF), are now recognized as the leading cause of death globally with almost 18 million cardiovascular deaths reported in 2019.” (1)
The authors describe many causes that lead to CMD, and highlight the importance of not dismissing environmental factors that have changed drastically in recent years:
“Beyond these traditional risk factors, emerging environmental, and lifestyle related threats demand attention. Pollution, including air pollution and particularly fine particulate matter (PM2.5), has been shown to contribute to systemic inflammation and endothelial dysfunction through immune cells activation and production of pro-inflammatory cytokines.This is accompanied by oxidative stress.” (1)
In addition to lifestyle factors, we, as humans, have never before faced such a high level of pollution affecting our health and our lifespan. When looking at ways to combat risk factors for developing CMD, it is important to consider detoxification as a top priority for virtually all humans as few, if any, can escape the high quantity of air and water borne toxins in our environment.
Finally, the authors of this paper do urge individuals to take matters into their own hands and make as many positive lifestyle changes as possible to reduce risk factors for CMD.
“Despite growing recognition of these risk factors, the critical importance of prevention through lifestyle interventions remains underappreciated.” (1)
When looking for ways to combat CMD, consider sauna bathing as a powerful step toward reducing all risk factors for the development of CMD.
How Can Saunas Mechanistically Reduce Cardiometabolic Disease?
- Improve insulin sensitivity
- Reduce overall body mass
- Convert white fat to brown fat
- Mimic moderate exercise
- Limit stress related hormones
- Reduce inflammation
- Reduce oxidative Stress
- Increase Quality of Seep
Sauna bathing relies on eliciting a cascade of biochemical reactions in the body to begin a return to homeostasis and health. The body responds to heat stress through a hormetic effect. Hormesis is simply the use of dose appropriate stress for short periods of time to initiate the body’s own natural healing mechanism. An example of this is the use of ice to reduce swelling from an injury. In the case of sauna use, the periodic heat stress on the body initiates the temperature regulatory functions of the body and in so doing calls forth many beneficial bio-chemical effects.
In responding to risk factors to cardiometabolic disease it is important to consider both the metabolic issues as well as those affecting the cardiovascular system. Below you will discover how exposure to dose appropriate heat from a sauna can address both metabolic and cardiovascular risk factors.
A study published by the National Library of Medicine entitled ‘The Cardiometabolic Health Benefits of Sauna Exposure in Individuals with High-Stress Occupations. A Mechanistic Review’ (2) illuminates the reasons why heat stress from a sauna can be so impactful to health from a mechanistic perspective.
The authors of this lengthy research paper declare the health benefits of sauna use for those living with cardiometabolic health disorders when they write this.
“Mechanistically, a single session of sauna bathing challenges several enzymes, proteins, and pathways which synergistically work to improve the overall cardiometabolic health…sauna bathing has emerged in the literature as a potential intervention for improving multiple markers of CMD” (2)
Saunas are a noninvasive means of creating great change for the body. Even if individuals are suffering from joint related injuries or are unable to exercise for any reason, saunas can provide an opportunity to receive many of the same benefits without any impact.
“Collectively, these responses are described as an exercise mimetic, producing physiological changes similar to those of a moderate-to-vigorous-intensity workout [and have led to the implementation of sauna bathing as an alternative therapy to exercise for individuals too impaired to regularly move” (2,3)
Saunas have been demonstrated to reduce blood pressure, a common indicator for cardiometabolic disease. The authors of the paper describe how blood pressure can be decreased with even a single sauna session.
“Following a single session, sauna bathing has been shown to acutely decrease blood pressure compared to pre-sauna measures (p < 0.05) and improve markers of cardiovascular function, such as arterial stiffness.” (2,4)
Saunas can also regulate the production of heat shock proteins (HSPs), of which there are over a 1000 different variants in the human body. Exposure to a single sauna session can help improve heat shock protein production which directly affects insulin sensitivity via HSP 70. Improving insulin sensitivity is a key factor in the treatment of cardiometabolic syndrome.
Having more available heat shock proteins can also help to improve overall cellular health as well as reduce oxidative stress. Here is what the authors of the paper write about HSPs.
“Heat exposure upregulates heat shock proteins (HSP; ~50%)that maintain the cellular environment by protecting against protein denaturation and excessive OS. HSP also prevents improper protein folding and mitigates premature apoptosis, thereby promoting the maintenance of cell survival.” (2,5)
*OS = Oxidative Stress
Exposure to regular saunas can also help to reduce chronic inflammation through the release of anti-inflammatory cytokines. Furthermore, regular sauna use particularly at the end of the day can help reduce hormones associated with high stress living such as cortisol, while upregulating positive hormones such as serotonin and endorphins. Finally, elevating internal temperatures before bedtime can help improve the quality of sleep. A significant portion of the ‘falling’ asleep process is the cooling down of the body and the lowering of cortisol levels. This means that scheduling your sauna in the evening will help to facilitate high quality sleep.
The authors of the research paper make these concluding remarks.
“Although brief exposure to sauna bathing can result in short-lasting (<1 h) benefits such as reduction of blood pressure and improvement of arterial stiffness, chronic (≥3 weeks) and repeated heat exposure can upregulate several beneficial enzymes and pathways, resulting in greater stress tolerance, a more robust cellular environment, and increased health.” (2)
So if many of the positive benefits of sauna use are short-lasting, how can an individual ensure that the results will be maintained over the course of time or a lifetime?
The answer to this question is simple. Choosing a sauna to treat cardiometabolic illness is a lifestyle choice that must be ongoing to ensure accumulative positive effects.
How to Sauna to Reduce Risk Factors, or in the Actual Treatment of Cardiometabolic Disease?
If you feel that you may be at risk for developing cardiometabolic disorder or any associated risk factors it is strongly recommended by experts in the field to incorporate sauna use regularly. If you choose to sauna for this reason, either a traditional Finnish sauna or an infrared sauna will do the trick. You will want to start off at a lower temperature and slowly work your way up to a higher temperature sauna.
It may take several weeks to reach your ideal temperature in your sauna, but it is important to give your body plenty of time to adjust to this. Ensuring that you maintain excellent hydration throughout the day is critical as sauna use will induce intensive sweating.
In order to maintain the health benefits from sauna use it is best to use a sauna no less than three times per week and as many as seven sessions a week. Incorporating a sauna into your daily routine is important to reduce risk factors of cardiometabolic illness.
In addition to sauna use, ensure that you are eating healthy meals that replenish any potential lost nutrients or minerals. Consult with your medical practitioner if you have any questions about sauna use and your health.
Remember that to continue to benefit from a sauna it is important to incorporate this activity into your lifestyle several times per week.
Sources Cited:
- ttps://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11570325/
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7908414/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31126559/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29269746/
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3418130/