The Fit Lady

The battle with depression leads us to grasp at any and all claims for relief and recovery. There is an enormous amount of advice for those of us who have the task of sifting through it all to gain some control over our fight against the invisible giant of depression. All the advice I’ve read makes sense to my sane mind but why it can’t help me overcome the insanity is where feelings of defeat can set in.

On my quest to conquer the depression demon I came across something no doctor, therapist or friend ever told me. Use the sauna to treat your depression. Honestly, if someone had told me I don’t know if I would have believed them, but in desperation to take action towards healing I learned about using the sauna for depression and jumped in with hope and finally started to see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Heat Stress

The sauna acts like aerobic exercise on the body. The heart rate increases and your body gets warm just as it does when you are working out. Stressing our body for these short bursts of time causes a positive reaction. Our body kicks into gear to protect itself against stress so the next time it is under stress it is stronger and more capable of enduring it.

• For example: Weight Lifting. As you curl your biceps with heavy weight you are causing stress to that muscle. Your body works hard to repair and make that muscle bigger and stronger to be prepared for the stress next time. These short bursts of stress make our bodies stronger in order to protect us from future stress.

Being stress 24 hours a day, however, is too much stress on the body. Instead of building resilience our brain goes into fight or flight mode. Our brain wants to protect us from constant stress and will tell you to get out of whatever situation you are in that is causing so much stress.

Illness is one way our body may be trying to get us out of your overly stressful life. If you are thinking that the last thing you want to do is have to give your presentation at work, you body will say: “OK! I’ve given you the flu. Now you don’t have to go to work.”

Why would I use the sauna to treat depression?

If you’re struggling with depression you know how bad it sucks. I got to a point that I knew I had to take action in any way I could to begin to heal. I truly believed there had to be a way to end depression! Antidepressants and therapist are tremendously important and helpful but seemed like temporary bandaids to my situation.

Without those treatments the benefits disappear. The lasting effect can be non existent, when the antidepressant is taken away relapse is likely in the majority of cases. I needed a stronger tool that could transform my brain in order to protect me from depression.

In my research I came to learn about scientific evidence proving whole body hyperthermia, or sauna use, to have a positive affect on the treatment of depression. This helps sufferers become more resilient and transform.

What happens to your brain in the sauna?

There are scientific studies proving positive effects on the brain and mood imbalance with sauna use. Without getting too scientific the sauna does not have the same as taking an antidepressant. The sauna sensitized the brain to endorphin by increasing dynorphins which cause you to be uncomfortable which then makes you to be more sensitive to the feel good endorphin.

What is Hyperthermic conditioning?

Hyperthermic conditioning is used by athletes to increase endurance and performance. They use the heat from saunas to help their body adapt making it easier for their body to function under the stress of their sport as well as conditioning their body to perform easier when their body temperature rises.

This is similar to how the sauna effects mood. The brain becomes conditioned to work better under stress. One way this happens is through increased Heat shock proteins.

What are Heat Shock Proteins? (HSP)

HSP are proteins that are created under stress, like when your body is stressed by the heat in the sauna. These proteins limit the amount of damage and help repair damage in your body by helping other proteins do their job.

The benefits to having a lot of heat shock proteins in your body go far beyond mental health benefits. However, having a less damaged body that recovers easier because of these HSP will naturally benefit your mental state. You want a lot of HSP in your body.

How long will the benefit last?

You will notice you feel great right after you use the sauna. For me I don’t feel too great until my heart rate comes down, shower off and cool down. Also, science is showing lasting effects on the brain lasting six weeks after a single session. That’s exciting!

How Long should a sessions last?

The best results come from a 20 minute session at least 3 times per week. An extreme amount of time spent at one time in the sauna does not give more benefit. The benefits do increase, however, when adding more days of the week. A minimum of three days a week will produce great benefits but going every day will produce more.

How hot should the sauna be?

The temperature for these benefits described need to be around 180 degrees Fahrenheit. This temperature is typically how hot the sauna at your local gym would be. Infrared saunas don’t get as hot so would require longer session times to see the same types of benefits.

Doctors and Scientists you should know about:

Dr. Rhonda Patrick at foundmyfitness.com. She has an extreme wealth of scientific knowledge but also has a gift of being able to explain these things and a desire to share her findings with the world. She has some amazing interviews with other scientists explaining their studies and findings. I warn you that at times the scientific terminology is above my average mind but she does a good job of breaking things down for us laymen.

Helping someone with depression

Offer to go to the sauna with your loved one struggling with depression. It can be hard for someone struggling with depression to even step foot into a gym let alone sit in small hot room with a bunch of strangers. Once he or she begins to feel the positive effects they will be the one encouraging you to go!

Read my post here about all the things you need to stop doing in order to help someone with depression.

Get some Bluetooth headphones like these and set your phone or outside the sauna to avoid damage to your phone. Having headphones on can help the time go by but also help someone who has anxiety about talking to people. Nothing says please don’t talk to me like a pair of headphones.

Everyone I’ve come across in the sauna is very friendly, some like to chat, others like to be left alone. I really had to force myself to go in the beginning just because it was hard for me to be around people but now the other people there seem to be a bonus that I never would have expected.

My personal experience

Besides getting having to force myself to be around strangers I had to work my way up to be able to sit for 20 minutes. At first 10 minutes is all I could handle but I felt great afterwards. That good feeling encouraged me to use the sauna for depression and made it easy to continue.

Since I was going to the gym for the sauna I always fit in a workout before I sit. Exercise has so many benefits to our mental health so if you are going to a gym to use the sauna try for a 30 minute workout before. It gets easier to do with time.

Working out before the sauna is great because your body is already warmed up and your heart rate already increased. The sauna keeps this going benefiting you like more aerobic exercise.

Try it!

It may sound strange that sitting in a hot room can help anything but I have seen so much benefit to my depression from this super simple thing. Now I can’t wait to get to use the sauna, the time goes by quickly, I have the time to quiet my mind and practice meditating!

Read my post here about techniques I use to quiet my anxious mind.