The question of how long you should stay in a sauna is a seemingly simple one. And yet, despite all the hype around saunas, there isn’t a universal, one-size-schvitz-all answer.
At this point, we have a ton of peer-reviewed research to back up the benefits of sauna use. Human studies have consistently produced clear evidence of everything from improved cardiovascular fitness to increased production of growth hormone. So, you’d think, the logical thing would be to simply reproduce those study conditions: same duration, same temperature, same result. However, while that may work in the lab, where the goal is to test a specific hypothesis, experts tell GQ it’s not that simple.
“People love to be told exactly what protocol to follow,” says Jason Sonners, DC, PhD, a longevity-and-recovery expert leading research at the University of Miami’s department of molecular biology. “They think, in order to get [a specific study’s] result, that’s the exact protocol that they need to follow. I’m not discounting that—I think that’s important for us to better understand the benefits—but at the same time, I’m far more nuanced when it comes to what I recommend to people.”
Here’s why you shouldn’t try to replicate studies that you read about online, and how long experts say you should actually aim to spend in the sauna.
Aim for the middle
There’s a lot of impressive research that demonstrates just how effective a sauna can potentially be at spurring certain health benefits. Take growth hormone, for example. One Finnish study famously saw growth hormone levels surge an average of 16-fold among participants in just one day. That’s a huge finding, considering growth hormone can, among other things, boost your metabolism and supercharge muscle growth—and we produce less of it as we age.
But here’s the thing: Those study participants had to spend an entire hour in the sauna—and not just once, but twice in a single day. “That’s a lot of sauna, and definitely too much for any beginner or probably even intermediate, for that matter,” says Ben Yamuder, MS, CSCS, USAW-1, an exercise physiologist at HSS.
The researchers actually put their subjects through that hellish ordeal for seven straight days, which is how they also learned that the effect was diminished with each consecutive exposure. Ultimately, the study authors concluded that, in order to maximize growth hormone production to this extent, a person would have to repeat the two-hour protocol once a week, while also abstaining from sauna use between sessions.
But growth hormone isn’t the only reason to use a sauna, and to limit exposure to just once every couple of days would be to miss out on a whole spectrum of equally useful benefits. In fact, a 2017 study published in the European Journal of Epidemiology found an inverse relationship between frequent sauna use and inflammation, with subjects who reported four-to-seven exposures per week exhibiting the lowest blood levels of C-reactive protein—a common marker of systemic inflammation. Moreover, a 2019 study found sauna use to have the same effect on cardiovascular fitness as moderate exercise.
The point being, with so many potential benefits to gain from sauna use, it doesn’t make sense to chase one at the expense of others, especially when experts agree that landing somewhere in the middle will likely get you a bit of everything.
Listen to your body
One of the reasons why Dr. Sonners cautions against re-creating specific sauna protocols is that everybody has a different heat tolerance, and, when it comes to spending time in the sauna, more is not always better.
Source:
www.gq.com
