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The Neuroscience of Saunas and the Incredible Benefits For Your Brain and Longevity · Do You F*cking Mind?

0:10
Speaker 1: Hello, my beautiful beans around the world, and welcome to
0:12
Speaker 1: the podcast episode of Today. Just a little heads up,
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Speaker 1: this episode today is an Encore episode. I was intending
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Speaker 1: to release my episode the Neuroscience of Making and Breaking
0:22
Speaker 1: a Habit or whatever the full title of that episode
0:24
Speaker 1: is going to be. But I was intending to do
0:27
Speaker 1: that over the weekend, and it's just been a little
0:30
Speaker 1: bit FORU long with the Twins over the weekend, and
0:31
Speaker 1: I didn't actually get an adequate pocket of time to
0:34
Speaker 1: properly record that episode, and the times the little pockets
0:36
Speaker 1: that I did have, it was just a little bit
0:39
Speaker 1: too rushed. And I don't like recording an episode when
0:42
Speaker 1: I'm flustered and rushed because the flow state isn't there.
0:45
Speaker 1: It's just not their dolls, and I just really, if possible,
0:48
Speaker 1: don't want to do that. So my aim is to
0:49
Speaker 1: record that episode today, so well Monday, as you're listening
0:53
Speaker 1: to this episode, so that way you will have the
0:56
Speaker 1: Neuroscience of how to Make a Habit and how to
0:59
Speaker 1: Break a Habit tomorrow on Tuesday. Okay, so you're actually
1:01
Speaker 1: going to get three episodes today, And I think it's
1:04
Speaker 1: really cool because I did mention last week and I
1:07
Speaker 1: think a couple of weeks prior that I am leaning
1:09
Speaker 1: back into and kind of doing more of a return
1:11
Speaker 1: into more science y things. I kind of I just
1:16
Speaker 1: felt like my podcast was heading more in like a
1:17
Speaker 1: slightly less sciencey direction, and I'm kind of bringing it
1:20
Speaker 1: back a little bit more old school of my original style,
1:23
Speaker 1: like more science. Still a lot of social psychology because
1:25
Speaker 1: I love that, and that is literally fifty percent of
1:29
Speaker 1: what I do is that social psychology side of things.
1:32
Speaker 1: But the science, I feel like was fading a little bit.
1:35
Speaker 1: So we're back into the science things. So I thought,
1:37
Speaker 1: why not do an Encore really sciencey episode, and then
1:40
Speaker 1: tomorrow you get another neuroscience off episode, and then we're
1:44
Speaker 1: doing more of these. Also, if you do have any
1:47
Speaker 1: requests that you would like me to cover, like the
1:49
Speaker 1: neuroscience of something, or the science off hit training, or
1:53
Speaker 1: whatever it is that you're really interested in a particular
1:55
Speaker 1: style of therapy or food group or a vibe, you
2:00
Speaker 1: let me know, and I would love to just get
2:02
Speaker 1: all your feedback and be able to put that in
2:04
Speaker 1: at least a brain fact, if not fill up an
2:07
Speaker 1: entire episode on that. I also want to do a
2:09
Speaker 1: whole episode on like the neuroscience of like sleep and
2:12
Speaker 1: sleep hygien and all of that, and one about you know,
2:15
Speaker 1: vitamins and other shit. So yeap, send send all your
2:18
Speaker 1: things my way. If you are listening to this on Spotify,
2:20
Speaker 1: you can leave a comment and so in the comments,
2:22
Speaker 1: just just bombard me. Bombard me with ideas, because we're
2:28
Speaker 1: here for the science, we're here for the for the
2:30
Speaker 1: OG format. Anyway, let's get straight into it. So this
2:33
Speaker 1: is an older episode. This is a couple of years old.
2:35
Speaker 1: So if I do make any weird references that you're like,
2:37
Speaker 1: oh my god, but I thought she's got kids or
2:39
Speaker 1: I thought, like, I don't even know if I'd even
2:41
Speaker 1: met Tyrone with this episode or no, I would have.
2:43
Speaker 1: I definitely would have met Tyrone. But anyway, if there's
2:45
Speaker 1: some weird reference here or there, just bear in mind
2:47
Speaker 1: this is from like at least four years ago. So Coolbans,
2:52
Speaker 1: and I hope you enjoy. Today. I'm going to be
2:57
Speaker 1: doing more of like a kind of a brain fact,
3:00
Speaker 1: more of a deep dive about the benefits of heat
3:05
Speaker 1: kind of extreme heat treatment, and in particular saunas and
3:09
Speaker 1: the saunas that I'm talking about specifically, most of the
3:12
Speaker 1: studies that I'm going to be referring to and all
3:14
Speaker 1: the information that's come out of it, are the steam
3:17
Speaker 1: saunas where you've got the hot rocks and you pour
3:19
Speaker 1: the water on it and you get that kind of
3:21
Speaker 1: dry steam. However, a lot of there is a lot
3:26
Speaker 1: of new studies also going on with infrared saunas where
3:29
Speaker 1: they're seeing a lot of benefits as well. But I'm
3:32
Speaker 1: referring in particular to kind of that more old school
3:34
Speaker 1: kind of sauna style, which is really typical in kind
3:38
Speaker 1: of Nordic countries, and a lot of the studies were
3:40
Speaker 1: done in Finland and things like that. So really exciting episode,
3:44
Speaker 1: it's not. It's probably not going to be. I mean,
3:46
Speaker 1: you guys will fucking see when you're playing the episode
3:48
Speaker 1: might not be as long as the other ones are,
3:50
Speaker 1: just because it's more like the facts, So you're probably
3:53
Speaker 1: going to have less of me rambling on about what
3:54
Speaker 1: to tell some dud in your life and how to
3:57
Speaker 1: tell people to get fucked. But anyway, now having said
4:00
Speaker 1: all of this, a lot of the benefits that you
4:03
Speaker 1: get from saunas you also get from the ice bath
4:07
Speaker 1: treatments as well. But I thought I'd leave the ice
4:10
Speaker 1: bats for another episode so I can kind of delve
4:12
Speaker 1: into that and talk about that at another time. If
4:14
Speaker 1: you guys have watched things like whim Hoff, this guy
4:16
Speaker 1: who he's been on many podcasts and many interviews around
4:20
Speaker 1: the world, and he does a lot with that, like
4:22
Speaker 1: ice therapy, ice baths, that kind of thing, and the
4:25
Speaker 1: health benefits for your body, for degeneration for your brain
4:29
Speaker 1: are just like absolutely incredible. But today I want to
4:33
Speaker 1: be focusing in particular on saunas. Honestly, you are going
4:37
Speaker 1: to be so excited by the end of this episode,
4:39
Speaker 1: like you're going to be so pumped. You're going to think,
4:41
Speaker 1: what the fuck this sauna? Getting into saunas is going
4:44
Speaker 1: to change my life. You're gonna the benefits are going
4:48
Speaker 1: to be just out of control in every area of
4:51
Speaker 1: your life, not just health, but with happiness, with reduced anxiety,
4:54
Speaker 1: with increased attention, better focus, you can stay in the
4:57
Speaker 1: zone for long. I'm going to break down why that
4:59
Speaker 1: is the case. Everything is just better. Your life is
5:02
Speaker 1: just infinitely improved by doing saunas multiple times a week.
5:05
Speaker 1: So I really encourage you to look for a place
5:08
Speaker 1: where you can do a sauna and it doesn't even
5:10
Speaker 1: have to be that expensive, Like there are some really
5:12
Speaker 1: gorgeous lux places you can go to, or you can
5:15
Speaker 1: really like steam up your shower as much as possible,
5:17
Speaker 1: Like my gym costs twenty five bucks a week. You
5:19
Speaker 1: can find a gym that has a sauna in it,
5:21
Speaker 1: you know, so you choose how lucks you want to go.
5:23
Speaker 1: But if you do have access to it, I could
5:26
Speaker 1: not recommend it higher. Anyway. Let's get into it. So
5:29
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start talking about a study that was conducted
5:31
Speaker 1: in Finland because it's probably one if look, this is
5:35
Speaker 1: a bit of a guess, but a lot of the
5:37
Speaker 1: articles and journal articles and things that I've read up
5:40
Speaker 1: on do refer to this particular study. It's a massive
5:42
Speaker 1: study that was done. They followed over two three hundred
5:47
Speaker 1: middle aged men in Finland for like a span of
5:50
Speaker 1: over twenty years, so that's a massive study. The data
5:53
Speaker 1: that they were able to collect is incredible, and what
5:55
Speaker 1: they found was that men who went to the sauna
6:01
Speaker 1: four to seven times per week were sixty six percent
6:06
Speaker 1: less likely to get dementia and sixty five percent less
6:11
Speaker 1: likely to develop Alzheimer's than those who did once per
6:15
Speaker 1: week and then of course I didn't really find the
6:17
Speaker 1: data for those who didn't do any a week at all,
6:20
Speaker 1: but of course it would be even more than people
6:22
Speaker 1: that don't do any saunas at all. Now, there are
6:26
Speaker 1: other studies that have also done this on women as well,
6:29
Speaker 1: and the results are pretty much the same, so very
6:32
Speaker 1: very similar. But this particular one, I believe that this
6:36
Speaker 1: was mainly done on men because I think in Finland
6:38
Speaker 1: it's a very cultural thing for men to do. I
6:40
Speaker 1: believe someone fucking send me a message and tell me
6:42
Speaker 1: if that's the case, but I know that it is
6:44
Speaker 1: very culturally common for men to do it, maybe also
6:48
Speaker 1: for women, but for whatever reason, this study was focused
6:50
Speaker 1: on men. Okay, this is very much dose depend a
6:54
Speaker 1: dose dependent effect, so the more you do it, the
6:57
Speaker 1: better the results. So from four to seven times to say,
7:00
Speaker 1: much greater results than one, but of course one is
7:03
Speaker 1: so much better than nothing. And like anything like training,
7:06
Speaker 1: it's kind of exposure and you increase you increase the
7:11
Speaker 1: amount of it based on how you go with exposure,
7:13
Speaker 1: just like when you exercise, you can't like go hard
7:15
Speaker 1: out seven days a week when you start off you
7:18
Speaker 1: definitely and also with exercise, you do need rest days
7:21
Speaker 1: in between, whereas with the sauna, you can be doing
7:23
Speaker 1: it every day. But for some people it is intense.
7:26
Speaker 1: If they're not used to it, they might last three
7:28
Speaker 1: minutes in a sauna. But a lot of the data
7:30
Speaker 1: that was done, you're seeing the best results when you're
7:33
Speaker 1: going like around the twenty minute mark. Twenty and over
7:37
Speaker 1: twenty to thirty minutes roughly is where you're going to
7:39
Speaker 1: see the best results in you know what, This is
7:42
Speaker 1: what was said in all the studies. So additionally, all
7:46
Speaker 1: these studies that were done did adjust for things for
7:51
Speaker 1: other lifestyle factors, so they all this information that you're getting,
7:55
Speaker 1: they adjusted for things like socioeconomic situations that people were in,
8:01
Speaker 1: They adjusted for blood pressure, they adjusted for different lifestyle factors,
8:05
Speaker 1: and different physical states of fitness. All of that was adjusted,
8:09
Speaker 1: so the data that you're getting is pretty close to
8:13
Speaker 1: you know, reality and fact they're not grabbing a bunch
8:16
Speaker 1: of really really fit people and comparing them to a
8:18
Speaker 1: bunch of people that are not fit at all. They
8:21
Speaker 1: adjusted for all those factors. Now, one of the reasons
8:25
Speaker 1: why it could be so good to prevent Neurer degeneration
8:29
Speaker 1: and you know, degenerative diseases such as dementia, Alzheimer's. All
8:32
Speaker 1: of that is because of the effects that saunas have
8:36
Speaker 1: on your heart health. Blood pressure is one of the
8:40
Speaker 1: things that was really really reduced, especially straight after the sauna.
8:44
Speaker 1: They found that your blood pressure immediately after the sauna
8:49
Speaker 1: drops below baseline, but then overall stays lower the more
8:54
Speaker 1: saunas you do. Blood pressure, high pertension, any kind of
8:59
Speaker 1: heart disease, and heart health or poor heart health is
9:02
Speaker 1: a really big predictor of neurodegeneration. And that's because anything
9:07
Speaker 1: that leads to poor blood circulation, especially well blood circulation
9:12
Speaker 1: within the body, but then of course within the brain,
9:15
Speaker 1: is going to lead to poor activity, shrinking in certain
9:18
Speaker 1: regions of the brain, shrinking in certain structures of the brain.
9:21
Speaker 1: You're getting less oxygen to certain regions. When you look
9:24
Speaker 1: at things like neuroplasticity, when you look at connectivity between cells,
9:28
Speaker 1: when you look at nutrients being delivered to the cells
9:31
Speaker 1: and different brain regions, that is very, very very heavily
9:35
Speaker 1: linked to how the blood supply is to the brain,
9:39
Speaker 1: and when you have a heart condition, it's very closely
9:42
Speaker 1: linked to neurodegeneration. You look at a lot of people
9:44
Speaker 1: that the stats are there that people that have a
9:47
Speaker 1: heart condition are a lot more likely to get a
9:50
Speaker 1: neurodegenerative disease. So if you do have a heart condition
9:53
Speaker 1: something like blood pressure hypertension, that's something that you really
9:58
Speaker 1: want to look at and try and target it in
10:01
Speaker 1: as many areas as possible. Yes, there's medication, but of
10:04
Speaker 1: course there's things like exercise and what I'm talking about
10:06
Speaker 1: today saunas that's really going to help reduce that and
10:09
Speaker 1: improve your heart health to then ultimately improve your brain health.
10:13
Speaker 1: So these studies found that saunas can reduce high blood
10:17
Speaker 1: like high blood pressure by fifty percent even after one session.
10:24
Speaker 1: A study found that even after one session, blood pressure
10:28
Speaker 1: was reduced after a thirty minute session. So blood vessels improve,
10:32
Speaker 1: they get better at expanding and contracting after being in
10:35
Speaker 1: a sauna. And of course the more you do it,
10:37
Speaker 1: the better it is, and the risk of stroke reduces.
10:43
Speaker 1: Like if you're doing it four to seven times a week,
10:44
Speaker 1: the risk of stroke is reduced to around like a
10:47
Speaker 1: sixty percent reduction. Now, what else happens. Let's talk about
10:52
Speaker 1: other things that are going on other than heart health.
10:54
Speaker 1: So we've covered heart health. We know it's fucking fantastic
10:57
Speaker 1: to reduce your blood pressure. Another thing is you get
11:01
Speaker 1: a higher release of a neurotrophen called brain derived neurotrophic factor.
11:08
Speaker 1: I'm going to refer to it as bd NF. So
11:10
Speaker 1: this is a kind of neurotrophin. It's a protein within
11:14
Speaker 1: the brain, and this protein helps protect the health of
11:18
Speaker 1: active brain cells, so brain cells that we need. It's
11:20
Speaker 1: going to help protect the health of that. It helps
11:22
Speaker 1: protect the synapses as well, the connectivity between those brain cells.
11:27
Speaker 1: It increases the growth of new neurons in certain regions
11:31
Speaker 1: of the brain, in particular the hippocampus, So the hippocampus
11:36
Speaker 1: is associated with learning and memory retention, and it also
11:40
Speaker 1: helps BDNF also helps motor and sensory neurons within the
11:45
Speaker 1: central nervous system. So central nervous system is brain and
11:47
Speaker 1: spinal cord, but also the peripheral nervous system, so all
11:50
Speaker 1: the nerves that extend out past the brain and spinal cord,
11:53
Speaker 1: you know, to your limbs, to everything all parts of
11:55
Speaker 1: your body. It's also involved in energy metabolism. It helps
11:59
Speaker 1: regulate your energy take People with higher natural levels of
12:03
Speaker 1: brain derive neurotrophic factor find it easier to also lose
12:07
Speaker 1: fat as well. Additionally to all of that, BDNF helps
12:12
Speaker 1: prevent and even reverse muscle atrophy. It increases neuroplasticity, and
12:18
Speaker 1: the reason it increases neuroplasticity is because it's so good
12:21
Speaker 1: at promoting more synapses, the neurogenesis synaptogenesis, which is the
12:29
Speaker 1: creation of more neurons and more connections and neuroplasticity. It's
12:35
Speaker 1: really important to have a strengthened ability to have neuroplasticity
12:39
Speaker 1: because when you have trauma to the brain and injury
12:43
Speaker 1: or just aging in general, you want to have as
12:45
Speaker 1: many things that are going to help increase more connectivity,
12:49
Speaker 1: more neurons in certain regions of the brain, and that's
12:51
Speaker 1: going to give you kind of that cognitive reserve. I've
12:54
Speaker 1: spoken about cognitive reserve before, but basically, if you haven't
12:59
Speaker 1: heard me talk about it, cognitive reserve is where you're
13:01
Speaker 1: trying to increase as many things going on in the
13:04
Speaker 1: brain as possible, so as your brain starts to degenerate
13:08
Speaker 1: as you get older, you have a better backup that
13:10
Speaker 1: someone that's got less cognitive reserve. So an analogy that
13:14
Speaker 1: I've used is imagine that you've got a tree, right,
13:18
Speaker 1: and it's got like a few leaves on it. If
13:20
Speaker 1: you give that tree a big shake, over time, those
13:22
Speaker 1: leaves are going to start to fall off, and then
13:24
Speaker 1: you have whatever's there, which is just you know, not much.
13:27
Speaker 1: But if you've got a tree that's been growing all
13:29
Speaker 1: these leaves growing excessivelys excessive leaves, you can shake it,
13:32
Speaker 1: and you can shake it quite a bit, but there's
13:34
Speaker 1: still going to be leaves on that tree. Okay, you
13:37
Speaker 1: know you want to look at it as So for example,
13:40
Speaker 1: they did this study and when I say they, I
13:42
Speaker 1: wish I could refer to it, but I'm not quite
13:44
Speaker 1: sure who exactly did it. But there's many studies that
13:46
Speaker 1: are like this where they looked at brains of people
13:50
Speaker 1: after they had passed away. And they had two groups.
13:53
Speaker 1: One all of them had passed away after having dementia, right,
13:58
Speaker 1: so they had degenerate within the brain. However, one group,
14:02
Speaker 1: the symptoms of the dementia, the onset of dementia happened
14:06
Speaker 1: kind of twenty to fifteen years before they died, so
14:09
Speaker 1: there were all these like symptoms that they had. There
14:11
Speaker 1: were it was this slow degeneration where it was years
14:14
Speaker 1: of starting to forget names. You know, they ended up
14:17
Speaker 1: in nursing homes and they had like a kind of
14:18
Speaker 1: a very very sad, slow degeneration until they died. The
14:23
Speaker 1: other group presented with the same symptoms, but those symptoms
14:27
Speaker 1: only occurred about two to three years before they died,
14:30
Speaker 1: So the onset happened and then in way less time
14:34
Speaker 1: We're talking like five times shorter timeframe, they passed away.
14:38
Speaker 1: So they were like, what's going on here, Why are
14:39
Speaker 1: some people degenerating, you know, at the very end of
14:42
Speaker 1: their life, while some people that are starting to degenerate
14:46
Speaker 1: fifteen years prior. Now keep in mind that these people
14:49
Speaker 1: were all passing away roughly at the same age. Let's
14:51
Speaker 1: say it was around seventy five eighty was the age group.
14:54
Speaker 1: So it's not like the people that got the onset
14:56
Speaker 1: for the last three ys of their life had a
14:58
Speaker 1: shorter life. They didn't. They had kind of the same lifespan,
15:02
Speaker 1: but they only got the symptoms in the final three years.
15:04
Speaker 1: And what they found is the people that only got
15:06
Speaker 1: the onset of the symptoms way later, it's not that
15:10
Speaker 1: they never had dementia prior to that. They did have dementia,
15:14
Speaker 1: but they had so much cognitive reserve. That as their
15:17
Speaker 1: brain was deteriorating, as they were getting you know, atrophy
15:20
Speaker 1: in certain regions, they had so much reserve in their
15:24
Speaker 1: brain that it wasn't noticeable. They had all these backup connections,
15:28
Speaker 1: backup neurons, back up, you know, more brain mass, so
15:34
Speaker 1: as the degeneration is happening, it's not affecting them the
15:36
Speaker 1: way someone who doesn't have cognitive reserve. Okay, and plasticity
15:41
Speaker 1: is huge for cognitive reserve. It can be done through
15:44
Speaker 1: all sorts of things, but trying to learn something new
15:46
Speaker 1: all the time is really good. Of course, exercises, massive,
15:49
Speaker 1: eating well, having a social lifestyle is huge for that.
15:55
Speaker 1: Languages is massive and you don't even have to be
15:57
Speaker 1: borne bilingual for that to help. You can be learning
16:01
Speaker 1: a language and you can start learning at sixty, at seventy.
16:04
Speaker 1: It's this idea of always testing your brain, always, you know,
16:08
Speaker 1: putting yourself under a situation where you're like really working
16:12
Speaker 1: hard to learn something. If it's if it becomes second nature,
16:14
Speaker 1: then you're not really getting the benefits. So always trying
16:17
Speaker 1: to learn a new skill is really going to help
16:19
Speaker 1: with that cognitive reserve. Okay, So b DNF is really
16:24
Speaker 1: good to increase that neuroplasticity, the synaptic connections and your
16:28
Speaker 1: synaptic health. And that's also really really good for long
16:31
Speaker 1: term memory as well, because you've got that kind of
16:33
Speaker 1: cognitive reserve. There's also a link between people that have
16:37
Speaker 1: naturally low levels of brain derived neurotrophic factor. There's a
16:40
Speaker 1: link between that and mood disorders. So if you have
16:44
Speaker 1: low levels of BDNF, you're going to have you're more
16:47
Speaker 1: likely to have depression, anxiety, chronic stress, as well as
16:52
Speaker 1: Alzheimer's disease, dementia and all of that. And additionally to
16:56
Speaker 1: all of that, it's also very helpful for people with
16:59
Speaker 1: chronic fatigue syndrome. And when you sauna, you get more
17:05
Speaker 1: release of brain derived neurotrophic factor. The same happens when
17:09
Speaker 1: you exercise. Exercise helps release a moderate to high intensity,
17:13
Speaker 1: you're releasing more brain derive neurotrophic factor. So that's why
17:16
Speaker 1: exercise and sauna, especially combined, if you train and then
17:20
Speaker 1: go into a sauna, you're getting double the benefits. It's
17:24
Speaker 1: phenomenal the release of this neurotrophy that occurs within the
17:28
Speaker 1: brain and within the body. Guys, if you haven't already
17:31
Speaker 1: I know a bang on about it, but it is
17:32
Speaker 1: a crucial episode to listen to. If you haven't listened
17:35
Speaker 1: to my episode of stress and the effects on the brain,
17:38
Speaker 1: go back and listen to it, and you're going to
17:40
Speaker 1: see that there's a big link between the effects of
17:45
Speaker 1: chronic stress and what it's doing to regions like the
17:47
Speaker 1: hippocampus and how it's making the hippo campus shrink and
17:50
Speaker 1: make it smaller, and then how brain derived neurotrophic factor
17:54
Speaker 1: can actually combat those effects off chronic stress on the
17:58
Speaker 1: hippo campus and other regions in the brain. It's absolutely phenomenal.
18:02
Speaker 1: Now what else is going on. You're actually going to
18:04
Speaker 1: get a reduced level of cortisol overall, like the stress
18:08
Speaker 1: hormone cortisol. When you get into a sauna, initially it's
18:12
Speaker 1: a sauna, you get a heat shock response. Your body
18:16
Speaker 1: is under stress, So when you get into the sauna,
18:19
Speaker 1: cortisol goes down a little bit, and then it goes up,
18:22
Speaker 1: so you get kind of like a bigger spike in
18:24
Speaker 1: cortisol because you're under this heat shock response. But then
18:29
Speaker 1: when you leave the sauna and then in general, your
18:32
Speaker 1: cortisol levels drop substantially. Okay, Again, this is frequency and
18:37
Speaker 1: time dependent. The more you do it, the lower overall
18:40
Speaker 1: your cortisol levels are going to be when you're not
18:42
Speaker 1: in the sauna. So there's no problem having a spike
18:45
Speaker 1: of cortisol when you are under stress. That's natural, that's
18:48
Speaker 1: how your body works. Okay, so when you're in the sauna,
18:51
Speaker 1: when you're exercising, when your body is under stress emotional
18:54
Speaker 1: or physical, you're going to have a release of cortisol.
18:57
Speaker 1: But what it's this really in just kind of ebb
19:01
Speaker 1: and flow where you actually start to improve how your
19:05
Speaker 1: body regulates cortisol. You want it to be released when
19:07
Speaker 1: you're under stress, and you don't want it to be
19:09
Speaker 1: released in big amounts just in general and that and
19:13
Speaker 1: the sauna is really good at kind of regulating that
19:15
Speaker 1: and lowering your overall levels of cortisol. You also another thing,
19:20
Speaker 1: you also get a release of something called a heat
19:23
Speaker 1: shock protein. So these are proteins that are released in
19:27
Speaker 1: the body when you're exposed to high temperatures. And again
19:31
Speaker 1: this also gets released when you're exposed to really cold temperatures,
19:34
Speaker 1: so ice barts as well, but it's called it's still
19:37
Speaker 1: called heat shock protein. And this gene gets expressed. It's
19:40
Speaker 1: called the heat shock factor one gene, which leads to
19:43
Speaker 1: heat shock protein being expressed. And basically this heat shock
19:47
Speaker 1: protein helps prevent damage and kind of works as a
19:51
Speaker 1: protective factor within the body and also the brain, so
19:54
Speaker 1: for your muscles, your brain, other parts of your body.
19:57
Speaker 1: It helps eliminate free radicals and toxins. It'll also helps
20:00
Speaker 1: maintain the integrity of protein structures, so it can help
20:04
Speaker 1: repair proteins that have been misfolded. Proteins have folded in
20:08
Speaker 1: a particular way, and that's what you know. Then the
20:11
Speaker 1: protein does its job and does what it's supposed to do.
20:13
Speaker 1: When a protein has misfolding, then you can get a
20:16
Speaker 1: whole array of problems and you can even get like
20:19
Speaker 1: it can lead to disease as well. So it's really
20:21
Speaker 1: important if you know for this heat shock protein, it's
20:24
Speaker 1: it's very quite amazing that it can help repair a
20:28
Speaker 1: misfolded protein. Saunas also help increase the release of a
20:35
Speaker 1: neurochemical called nourepinephrine. Nouropernephrine is a It basically helps with
20:42
Speaker 1: focus and attention and staying on task and helping you
20:46
Speaker 1: stay in the zone. This is the target nouropreneferin is
20:50
Speaker 1: actually the target for some drugs to help increase the
20:53
Speaker 1: amounts of neuroprenefron that are available at the sign apps
20:56
Speaker 1: between cells to treat attentional disorders such as ADHD, because yeah,
21:02
Speaker 1: it's an attention it helps you stay focused, it helps
21:05
Speaker 1: you pay attention, and saunas increase the release of this neurochemical.
21:12
Speaker 1: It also increases the release of growth hormones. So growth
21:17
Speaker 1: hormones are fantastic in repair and like repairing damage within
21:22
Speaker 1: the body, so muscles and also other regions in the
21:25
Speaker 1: body as well. Growth hormone is also really good to
21:29
Speaker 1: treat people that have maybe gone through some sort of
21:32
Speaker 1: a trauma or recovering from cancer or something like that.
21:36
Speaker 1: Growth hormones do like a whole range of amazing things
21:39
Speaker 1: for the body, and the release gets increased by heat
21:43
Speaker 1: stress and the hotter the sauna, and the more often
21:45
Speaker 1: you do it, the higher the relate of this growth
21:47
Speaker 1: hormone release. It's also got a lot of anti aging
21:50
Speaker 1: effects as well, So when you get that growth hormone,
21:52
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people a lot of people
21:55
Speaker 1: try and get access to growth hormones just for anti
21:58
Speaker 1: aging properties. Necessarily if you're trying to build muscle. While
22:01
Speaker 1: it definitely helps you build and retain muscle, a lot
22:05
Speaker 1: of people try and get growth hormone for yeah, for
22:09
Speaker 1: anti aging properties as clinics that I don't know if
22:12
Speaker 1: it's legal, but they sell it and it works, So
22:16
Speaker 1: go and do more saunas and you're going to have
22:18
Speaker 1: those results. It's also great for myelin. I don't know
22:22
Speaker 1: if I've ever covered myelin before. Mylin is basically so okay, well,
22:27
Speaker 1: heat Basically heat stress increases prolactin, which is a hormone
22:31
Speaker 1: that helps in the production of myelin. And what mylin
22:34
Speaker 1: does is a couple of things. Number One, it helps
22:36
Speaker 1: repair nerve cell damage, but it also helps carry impulses
22:41
Speaker 1: and electrical signals or currents down the axon. So basically,
22:45
Speaker 1: an axon is kind of like a connection from one
22:49
Speaker 1: cell that reaches across to another cell. Like imagine it
22:52
Speaker 1: like a like a cord or a cable. Okay, that's
22:54
Speaker 1: kind of the image that you want to have in
22:55
Speaker 1: your head. And mylin there's these cells. If it's within
22:59
Speaker 1: the central a system, the cells are called oligodendrocytes. If
23:02
Speaker 1: it's out of the central nervous system in the peripheral
23:04
Speaker 1: nervous system, they're called Schwan cells. Basically, these cells create
23:08
Speaker 1: something called myelin and they it's made out of fat
23:12
Speaker 1: and they wrap around the axon. The more myelin, the
23:16
Speaker 1: more of this fat that you have wrapped around in
23:19
Speaker 1: kind of in sections. It doesn't wrap the whole axon.
23:21
Speaker 1: It's like in sections. The more myelin that you have
23:25
Speaker 1: surrounding these axons, the better the propagation of these action
23:30
Speaker 1: potentials down the axon. So any information that needs to
23:34
Speaker 1: be sent from one cell to the other, if you
23:36
Speaker 1: have more of this fat surrounding that axon, that information
23:40
Speaker 1: is getting pumped down that axon really really quickly, really efficiently.
23:44
Speaker 1: There's more to it. It's quite technical, but it's that's
23:48
Speaker 1: what it does. When you don't have myelin, there's a
23:51
Speaker 1: lot of problems. So MS multiple chlorosis is a disease
23:54
Speaker 1: that attacks this. So you're in in MS. The immune
23:58
Speaker 1: system attacks the cells that produce and maintain mylin within
24:03
Speaker 1: the central nervous system, so it attacks the oligodendrocytes, and
24:07
Speaker 1: when they're attacked, they flare up, they get inflammation, they
24:10
Speaker 1: don't function properly, and that then they don't do the
24:13
Speaker 1: task of wrapping the mylin around the axon properly. And
24:16
Speaker 1: when the axon is not coded in mylin, it can't
24:20
Speaker 1: propagate that information that signal the action potential down the
24:24
Speaker 1: axon to the next cell. So there you have a
24:26
Speaker 1: breakdown in communication. So you could have all sorts of
24:28
Speaker 1: things that go wrong. It could be you're hearing, it
24:30
Speaker 1: could be motor, it could be it could be anything
24:33
Speaker 1: depending on where the mylin has been attacked at that time. However,
24:37
Speaker 1: cells that are that are producing mylin, they're always producing
24:40
Speaker 1: mylin mylin, and in MS, it might attack a certain
24:44
Speaker 1: region then and then not and then attack another region.
24:47
Speaker 1: It kind of goes up and down, So people that
24:50
Speaker 1: have MS might notice that the symptoms are really bad
24:53
Speaker 1: in certain regions, and then it gets better, then it
24:55
Speaker 1: gets bad, and then it goes to a different function,
24:58
Speaker 1: and it kind of you know, it's it's just constantly
25:00
Speaker 1: under attack, but it's not even the whole time. It
25:04
Speaker 1: kind of ebbs and flows, and of course it's very
25:07
Speaker 1: much case dependent on the person that has MS. So
25:11
Speaker 1: when you do get a bigger release of prolactin, then
25:14
Speaker 1: you are getting a healthier production of myelin. And lastly,
25:19
Speaker 1: as if that's not enough to convince you, it also
25:21
Speaker 1: makes you feel great. It's like the runners high. So
25:25
Speaker 1: you get a spike in cortisol when you're there, so
25:29
Speaker 1: it goes up and then it drops down, and this
25:33
Speaker 1: high heat, this heat shock also helps increase the release
25:37
Speaker 1: of endorphins, which endorphins contribute to It's kind of like
25:41
Speaker 1: your body's natural painkiller, but it also contributes to that
25:44
Speaker 1: feeling of like that kind of high where you feel
25:47
Speaker 1: elated but relaxed, but also quite energetic and in the
25:51
Speaker 1: zone like you're ready to do shit, You're ready to
25:53
Speaker 1: start the day. It's not like it's not kind of
25:56
Speaker 1: gene you up and exciting you, but it's kind of
25:58
Speaker 1: like that calm readiness and you feel really great. So
26:03
Speaker 1: runners always bang on about this run is high, and
26:05
Speaker 1: it's a thing. Every time I run, about fifteen minutes
26:08
Speaker 1: later I get this amazing euphoric feeling. And saunas have
26:12
Speaker 1: that same effect because of that spike and cortisol, then
26:14
Speaker 1: the drop and then the release of endorphins. So saunas
26:19
Speaker 1: in a nutshell are going to increase your life span,
26:23
Speaker 1: They're going to increase the quality of your life. It
26:25
Speaker 1: increases your heart health, It improves your brain health. It
26:30
Speaker 1: puts off any degeneration, it increases settled regeneration within the brain,
26:35
Speaker 1: reduces hypertension, it reduces stroke risk. It improves your memory.
26:40
Speaker 1: It improves your long term memory. It improves your memory, retention, focus, attention.
26:45
Speaker 1: It makes you happier. It reduces anxiety and depression and
26:49
Speaker 1: symptoms of other mood disorders as well and attentional disorders.
26:53
Speaker 1: And it helps with your myelin to make your nerves
26:56
Speaker 1: and your cells communicate more efficiently. Like what more do
26:59
Speaker 1: you want? This is like a fucking game changer. So,
27:01
Speaker 1: like I said at the start of the episode, guys,
27:04
Speaker 1: if you do have access to a sauna or if
27:07
Speaker 1: there is a gym, like if you can't afford you know,
27:10
Speaker 1: those those really beautiful, luck stunning places that you can
27:14
Speaker 1: go to that are really gorgeous and relaxed. If you
27:16
Speaker 1: can't afford that, shop around for gyms. There's a lot
27:19
Speaker 1: of gyms that have like these old school saunas that
27:22
Speaker 1: have been there for a long time, and you might
27:23
Speaker 1: not even know that there's a sauna there. Shop around. Ideally,
27:27
Speaker 1: if you can have a gym with a sauna, then
27:30
Speaker 1: it's just the benefits are twofold. You can exercise and
27:33
Speaker 1: then go into the sauna, and then you're getting double
27:36
Speaker 1: the effect because a lot of the benefits that you
27:38
Speaker 1: get in a sauna you also get while exercising, but
27:41
Speaker 1: a sauna you can do it more often, and it's
27:44
Speaker 1: also helping with your repair of muscles, so it's kind
27:46
Speaker 1: of like that repair phase as well, Whereas sometimes with
27:49
Speaker 1: training there's depending on the training that you do, you
27:51
Speaker 1: might need those rest days, or you might be someone
27:53
Speaker 1: that is at a stage where you're only training twice
27:56
Speaker 1: a week or something like that, Whereas with the sauna
27:58
Speaker 1: you can then bump it up. It's always going to
28:01
Speaker 1: be beneficial. But the more you do it the better,
28:03
Speaker 1: and you want to be aiming for around like, try
28:05
Speaker 1: and get it to the twenty minute mark. If you're
28:08
Speaker 1: already there, fantastic, Just try and do it more often.
28:10
Speaker 1: I could not recommend this higher. If there's someone in
28:13
Speaker 1: your family that you are concerned about with their memory,
28:18
Speaker 1: that neurodegeneration, do you think they're their heart health, send
28:22
Speaker 1: them this episode. It is. The benefits are endless. The
28:25
Speaker 1: benefits are fucking endless. It's so good for your health,
28:28
Speaker 1: so please get onto it. At doesn't matter what age
28:31
Speaker 1: you are, but the sooner the better. Okay, So to
28:34
Speaker 1: wrap up this episode, I actually want to go through
28:38
Speaker 1: a couple of My card Game for you guys, just
28:41
Speaker 1: so you can ask yourselves these questions and answer them,
28:45
Speaker 1: and you can even pause in between each question. But
28:47
Speaker 1: it's a good thing to kind of ask yourself these
28:49
Speaker 1: things to notice where growth needs to happen and also
28:54
Speaker 1: where growth has occurred, so you can feel like you've
28:56
Speaker 1: accomplished something as well. So every couple of episodes, I'll
28:59
Speaker 1: do like a couple of My Cards for you guys
29:02
Speaker 1: to kind of There's two decks in the card game.
29:05
Speaker 1: One is for partners, so you kind of ask each
29:08
Speaker 1: other a question about your relationship. And that can be romantic.
29:12
Speaker 1: It can be a friend, it can be a relative,
29:14
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter, but ideally someone that you know and
29:17
Speaker 1: that you have a relationship with. And the other deck
29:19
Speaker 1: is the self card. You can either play that alone
29:22
Speaker 1: just to kind of have more of an insight into
29:24
Speaker 1: your own growth and when growth needs to happen, but
29:27
Speaker 1: you can also play it with somebody else and so
29:29
Speaker 1: you can share more about yourself and open up about
29:32
Speaker 1: your life to someone that you care about. So let's go.
29:35
Speaker 1: I'm going to give you three, maybe four. Number one,
29:39
Speaker 1: who are the people that are always there for me?
29:44
Speaker 1: Number two? I need to stop punishing myself? Four And
29:52
Speaker 1: number three, what are two expectations I have of myself
29:55
Speaker 1: that I struggle to let go of? So maybe write
30:01
Speaker 1: them down and write the answers to it, and then
30:03
Speaker 1: maybe revisit these questions later on. I find that the
30:07
Speaker 1: one that it's like, who are the people that are
30:08
Speaker 1: always there for me? That one really helps to if
30:12
Speaker 1: you're ever in a time and you're like, oh, I'm
30:13
Speaker 1: not feeling connected, I'm not feeling this. They're the people
30:16
Speaker 1: that you want to reach out to. They're the people
30:17
Speaker 1: that you want to thank. And also, I think it's
30:20
Speaker 1: really good to be aware of the expectations you have
30:22
Speaker 1: of yourself so you can a lot of the time
30:25
Speaker 1: we think about expectations about ourselves when we're stressed, when
30:28
Speaker 1: we feel like we're not doing enough. Sometimes when you're
30:31
Speaker 1: in a calmer state, it's good to write down what
30:34
Speaker 1: those expectations are so you can approach it with a
30:36
Speaker 1: more logical perspective and think wait a minute, Am I
30:39
Speaker 1: being too hard on myself? Is my timeline too short?
30:42
Speaker 1: Could I still have this expectation, but push that timeline
30:45
Speaker 1: a bit and just be a bit more patient with myself.
30:46
Speaker 1: It kind of helps you be a bit more calmer
30:49
Speaker 1: around the things that you demand from yourself, and you
30:52
Speaker 1: might ask yourself, why am I demanding these things for myself?
30:54
Speaker 1: Is it because I want it? Or is it because
30:56
Speaker 1: other people expect it from me? And things like that.
30:58
Speaker 1: So hopefully you can work through those questions, hopefully you
31:02
Speaker 1: start going to a SNA and hopefully you enjoyed that episode. Guys,
31:07
Speaker 1: thank you so much as always for sharing my podcast,
31:12
Speaker 1: for sharing these episodes with your family, with your friends online.
31:16
Speaker 1: You guys are doing absolute wonders for the growth of
31:19
Speaker 1: this podcast and from like, it's going from strength to strength,
31:22
Speaker 1: and it's all thanks to you beans. I love you
31:25
Speaker 1: guys so much. Also, shout out to Steven, who I
31:27
Speaker 1: met in I was at this epic cake fucking restaurant
31:32
Speaker 1: last night and Steven came in and he was like,
31:35
Speaker 1: oh my god, I love your podcast, I love your book,
31:37
Speaker 1: and he was just an absolute vibe. So shout out
31:40
Speaker 1: to you, Steven. Thank you for supporting me, the book,
31:43
Speaker 1: the podcast. I get so excited when I meet people
31:47
Speaker 1: that listen to my podcast. You have no idea literally
31:49
Speaker 1: makes my day. So if you ever do recognize me,
31:52
Speaker 1: please come up to me it. I just love it
31:55
Speaker 1: so much. Thank you as always for tuning into today's episode.
32:00
Speaker 1: Keep sharing the podcast, keep doing your firm, keep living
32:03
Speaker 1: your fucking best life. Ideally in a sauna, ideally a
32:07
Speaker 1: couple of times a week. I love you all so much.
32:10
Speaker 1: Remember be kind to yourselves, be kind to your brains,
32:12
Speaker 1: don't take shit from anyone, and especially don't take shit
32:15
Speaker 1: from yourself. Dunker