Hot Sauna + Cold Showers = Cardiovascular Health?
The Iceman cometh ... to heal you. But don't forget to B R E A T H E
Catherine Austin Fitts is someone I greatly admire. Her company Solari Report [solari.com] recently featured Wim Hof for his approach to finding healing and health, especially during these hard times of late.
Wim, 62, was born in the Netherlands as one of nine children. At 17, he was walking through a local park with a canal one winter and had what he describes as “an attraction to the thin layer of ice on the water, and I just undressed and got in”.
He says the endorphins he felt after being in the freezing water made him feel so good that he carried on doing it. He developed the Wim Hof Method, a breathing technique that he says allows him to withstand the cold: “I soon learned that if I breathed deeply, I no longer felt the instinctive urge to gasp each time I immersed myself. The deep breathing made my body tingle and it felt amazing. I was only 17 but I felt so alive and excited and I’ve kept doing it ever since, each day, for the past 46 years!” - BBC One
Researchers evaluated the effects of the Wim Hof training program on the autonomic nervous system and innate immune response in 24 healthy volunteers who were randomized to either the intervention or control group. The intervention was a 10 day training in meditation, breathing techniques (cyclic hyperventilation followed by breath retention), and immersions in cold water. Those practicing these techniques experienced intermittent respiratory alkalosis and hypoxia resulting in spikes in plasma epinephrine. All subjects then were subjected to intravenous administration of 2 ng/kg Escherichia coli endotoxin to elicit a fever response. After this endotoxin administration, the intervention group plasma levels of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 were higher, and flu symptoms lower. Their levels of pro-inflammatory mediators TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-8 were lower and inversely correlated with their IL-10 levels.
Sauna Soothes… so use prior to that cold splash.
Scandinavian saunas, Turkish baths, Japanese baths, Korean spas, Native American Sweat Lodges — all feature heat as healing. The Finnish and Korean spas further urge users to plunge into cold after baking, claiming it maintains a youthful body.
The Finns sauna in 80C-100C for short durations, for relaxation. Now evidence support its use for health benefits, which include a reduction in high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and neurocognitive diseases; and treatment of common flu, skin conditions, rheumatic diseases and headache. Physiologically, the body responds to sauna as if it were a high intensity workout. The beneficial effects include reduction in blood pressure, improvement in endothelial function/ arterial compliance, reduced oxidative stress / inflammation, and improved lipids.
Emerging evidence suggests beneficial effects of sauna bathing on the cardiovascular system. However, the effects of sauna bathing on parameters of cardiovascular function and blood-based biomarkers are uncertain. We aimed to investigate whether sauna bathing induces changes in arterial stiffness, blood pressure (BP), and several blood-based biomarkers. We conducted an experimental study including 102 participants (mean age (SD): 51.9 (9.2) years, 56% male) who had at least one cardiovascular risk factor. Participants were exposed to a single sauna session (duration: 30 min; temperature: 73 °C; humidity: 10–20%). Cardiovascular as well as blood-based parameters were collected before, immediately after, and after 30-min recovery. Mean carotid–femoral pulse wave velocity was 9.8 (2.4) m/s before sauna and decreased to 8.6 (1.6) m/s immediately after sauna (p < 0.0001). Mean systolic BP decreased after sauna exposure from 137 (16) to 130 (14) mmHg (p < 0.0001) and diastolic BP from 82 (10) to 75 (9) mmHg (p < 0.0001). Systolic BP after 30 min recovery remained lower compared to pre-sauna levels. There were significant changes in hematological variables during sauna bathing. Plasma creatinine levels increased slightly from sauna until recovery period, whereas sodium and potassium levels remained constant. This study demonstrates that sauna bathing for 30 min has beneficial effects on arterial stiffness, BP, and some blood-based biomarkers. These findings may provide new insights underlying the emerging associations between sauna bathing and reduced risk of cardiovascular outcomes. - T Laukkanen, et al.
And another supportive trial:
Background: Heat therapy has been suggested to improve cardiovascular function. However, the effects of hot sauna exposure on arterial compliance and the dynamics of blood flow and pressure have not been well documented. Thus, we investigated the short-term effects of sauna bathing on arterial stiffness and haemodynamics.
Design: The design was an experimental non-randomised study.
Methods: There were 102 asymptomatic participants (mean age, 51.9 years) who had at least one cardiovascular risk factor. Participants were exposed to a single sauna session (duration: 30 min; temperature: 73C; humidity: 10–20%). Pulse wave velocity, augmentation index, heart rate, blood pressure, mean arterial pressure, pulse pressure, augmented pressure and left ventricular ejection time were assessed before, immediately after, and 30 min after a single sauna session.
Results: Sauna bathing led to reductions in pulse wave velocity, blood pressure, mean arterial pressure and left ventricular ejection time. Mean pulse wave velocity value before sauna was 9.8 m/s and decreased to 8.6 m/s immediately after sauna bathing (p < 0.001 for difference), and was 9.0 m/s after the 30-minute recovery period (p< 0.001 for analysis of variance). Systolic blood pressure was 137 mm Hg before sauna bathing, decreasing to 130 mm Hg after sauna (p < 0.001), which remained sustained during the 30-minute recovery phase (p < 0.001 for analysis of variance). After a single sauna session, diastolic blood pressure decreased from 82 to 75 mm Hg, mean arterial pressure from 99.4 to 93.6 mm Hg and left ventricular ejection time from 307 to 278 m/s (p < 0.001 for all differences). Pulse pressure was 42.7 mm Hg before the sauna, 44.9 mm Hg immediately after the sauna, and reduced to 39.3 mm Hg after 30-minutes recovery (p < 0.001 for analysis of variance). Heart rate increased from 65 to 81 beats/min post-sauna (p < 0.001); there were no significant changes for augmented pressure and pulse pressure amplification.
Conclusion: This study shows that pulse wave velocity, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, mean arterial pressure, left ventricular ejection time and diastolic time decreased immediately after a 30-minute sauna session. Decreases in systolic blood pressure and left ventricular ejection time were sustained during the 30-minute recovery phase.
- E Lee et al.
Seems that all homes should tuck a sauna into a closet or shed for the household’s health maintenance. Winter provides the opportunity for cold shocks, especially if a lake is nearby, but showers are a good standby.
Fire and Ice … embrace these extremes!
REFERENCES
Freeze the Fear with Wim Hof https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0bwtn6q
Wim Hof - Solari Hero of the Year 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs4HAj3xw_Y
Lindsay Bottoms. Cold showers: a scientist explains if they are as good for you as Wim Hof (the ‘Iceman’) suggests. April 22, 2022. https://theconversation.com/cold-showers-a-scientist-explains-if-they-are-as-good-for-you-as-wim-hof-the-iceman-suggests-181678
MKox, et al. Voluntary activation of the sympathetic nervous system and attenuation of the innate immune response in humans. PNAS | May 20, 2014 | vol. 111 | no. 20 | 7379–7384. www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1322174111
GA Buijze, et al. The Effect of Cold Showering on Health and Work: A Randomized Controlled Trial. PLoS One. 2016 Sep 15;11(9):e0161749. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0161749.
JA Laukkanen et al. Cardiovascular and Other Health Benefits of Sauna Bathing: A Review of the Evidence. Mayo Clin Proc Vol 93, issue 8, P1111-1121, August 01, 2018 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2018.04.008. https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/s0025-6196(18)30275-1/fulltext
T Laukkanen, et al. Acute effects of sauna bathing on cardiovascular function. J Hum Hypertens 32, 129–138 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41371-017-0008-z
E Lee et al. Sauna exposure leads to improved arterial compliance: Findings from a non-randomised experimental study. European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, Volume 25, Issue 2, 1 January 2018, Pages 130–138, https://doi.org/10.1177/2047487317737629
Thank you for introducing me to the Wim Hof method. This is why I love substack.
MRI scans reveal changes in brains wiring after cold water shock
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-02-mri-scans-reveal-brains-wiring.html