For anyone who hasn’t taken a sauna before, the benefits of taking one isn’t immediately obvious. How is going into a hot environment to sweat going to help the body? There are actually many unexpected health benefits to taking a saunas on a regular basis.
Here are 5 of the unexpected health benefits of using a sauna on a regular basis:
1. Reduces Stress Levels
Are you feeling stressed out after a busy day? Do you have too many troubles in your life at the moment and life feels like one long ordeal? Well medical studies have shown that this stress can affect our immune system and cause more illness over time.
A sauna is a quiet place to relax where the heat opens the pores on the skin, relaxes the muscle groups, stimulates the endorphins, and helps with blood circulation. The endorphins are a chemical that gets released during a sauna and provides a pleasing feeling when the sauna is over.
2. Removes Aches and Pains in Joints & Muscles
Getting older is a fact of life. What one doesn’t realize when we’re younger is that getting older often means experiencing more aches and pains as a regular part of everyday life.
Taking a sauna releases those endorphins that provide some pain relief for sufferers of arthritis and can also help lessen the discomfort from tired muscles after a strenuous workout. The body’s internal temperature also increases inside the sauna which gets the blood moving faster which helps it reach parts of the body it doesn’t normally get to and promotes faster healing too.
3. Helps with Deeper REM Sleep
A sauna can be a great idea for "night owls" and insomniacs who find it difficult to get to sleep at night. The heat acts as a relaxant to aid in sleep once the sauna is over. It is also more likely that sleep after a spell in a sauna will last longer and reach the REM sleep stage which is where the body feels most rested and begins to repair itself.
4. Improves Cardiovascular Performance
Saunas cause the skin to dilate and the heart rate typically rises from a regular 60-70 beats per minute up to 110-120 beats per minute. Once out of the sauna and cooled down, the heart rate can dip below the regular pattern until it comes back up and normalizes again.
The use of a sauna regularly can train the body to reduce its resting heart rate and reduce the active heart rate during periods of intense activity. The process of going from a cool swim to a hot sauna and back again can change your heart rate by up to 60 percent. Repeated cycling through this heat up/cool down process can improve body conditioning in a similar way to how circuit sprints work.
5. Frequent Saunas Can Improve Happiness
Taking a sauna releases happy chemicals in your brain that help to make you feel more at peace. The more of these chemicals that you can release, the better you will feel. Ideally, having a home sauna like one from Saunanova provides immediate access to a healthy sauna, without needing to leave the home, which can deliver wellness to the whole family.
