Daily Tip #11 Sweat: The Longevity Mechanism Unveiled
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VARSHA: [00:00:00] Does this sound familiar? You rush from your air conditioned car into your climate controlled office, then back to your perfectly regulated home, just to avoid the heat. . But this avoidance of heat and sweat might actually be stealing one of your body's most powerful protective mechanism for longevity.
In an observational studies. Finnish researchers followed over 2300 men for 20 years, and found that those who used saunas four to seven times per week had a 50% lower risk of dying from heart disease
but here's what's even more interesting. It wasn't just about the heat. It was about what happens to your body when you sweat and are exposed to heat on a regular basis. Most people think sweating is just about cooling you off, but temperature regulation is only the beginning. So let's break it down. What does heat really do for you? First your heart, heat and sweating is like cardio without pounding the payment because your heart rate goes [00:01:00] up by 50 to 75%, which is about the same on a brisk walk.
Your blood vessels dilate, circulation improves, and over time, your cardiovascular system actually gets stronger and more flexible, and even improved heart rate variability.
Heart rate variability is basically the duration of time between heartbeats, . If your pulse is 60 beats per minute, it's not exactly one beat every second. Sometimes it's 0.9, sometimes it's 1.1, but that variation in that duration of time is what we call heart rate variability, and the higher your heart rate variability, the better your longevity is
heat and sweating also has impact on your cells. Your body makes heat shock proteins when it's exposed to heat, and these are wonderful proteins because they find the damaged protein in your muscles, brain, liver, and other cells. They either repair it or they tag them for removal. They may even help prevent the accumulation of toxins.
So these. Proteins [00:02:00] also increase the number of mitochondria in your cells. And your mitochondria are your energy producers of your cells. So the more you have mitochondria, the more energy you're gonna have.
These heat shock proteins may even slow down aging at the cellular level, extending lifespan and health span.
, your brain also loves the heat too. Heat increases something called BDNF. This helps you grow new neurons, believe it or not. It also can help protect the ones that you have. Higher levels of BDNF have been linked to better memory.
And a lowered risk of neurodegenerative diseases.
Your hormones also get a boost with heat because it can increase growth hormone. Now, although as we get older, this spike does not happen like when you're young, unfortunately, as far as we know. But growth hormone
supports your muscle bone strength, and metabolic health.
So let's address a very common question. Let's address the elephant in the room. Does sweating really help detox? Well, a lot of people think we're [00:03:00] sweating a lot of toxins out of our body. But in reality, sweating is not the main way your body detoxes. 95% of your detoxification occurs through your liver and your kidneys.
Now, sweating and heat, it activates circulation, as I mentioned, and that improves blood flow. And when you improve blood flow to your kidney and liver, you're also improving the ability for these toxins to get cleared through your liver and kidney. The actual sweat does not contain a lot of toxins.
They've done some studies and they've found some trace amounts of toxins in your sweat, but the majority is filtered out through your liver and kidneys.
Sweating and heat though has many other benefits that I mentioned, so it's still very important and it does indirectly help your detoxification.
This leads me to our daily Habit Challenge. Now, I do want you to make sure that you get. Clearance from your healthcare provider that you can do this habit challenge for today. So that you're [00:04:00] not doing anything that's causing you more stress to your body before you engage in any of these habit challenges that I'm about to go over.
If you have access to a sauna.
You can start using that about 15 minutes and work up to 20 minutes.
The finished studies showed those dramatic health benefits typically involve 15 to 20 minute sessions about, at minimum four times a week.
And the average temperature was about 160 to 180 degrees Fahrenheit with low humidity.
And those are your traditional saunas. There's also infrared heat saunas, uh, which operate at a lower temperature, and they range around 120 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit and they may penetrate into deeper tissues,
I realize not everybody has a sauna . Uh, so other things you can do is a warm bath be careful not to make it too hot so you don't burn yourself. But you can add some Epsom salts, which have magnesium in it, and that has some benefits for you. Could do this for about 10 to [00:05:00] 15 minutes.
And then of course, the best way is to do exercise induced sweating. Exercise has so many benefits, especially moderate exercise, and doing it for 20 to 30 minutes really is so beneficial for your heart, your brain, everything. So you want to work up to sweat where you can sustain that sweating for at least 10 to 15 minutes.
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