Saunas are currently being studied for their role in possibly preventing, reversing, and assisting in the treatment of cancer. Saunas for cancer prevention are continuing to gain attention by doctors and the medical community. The ways in which saunas can remove chemical toxins and heavy metals, increase oxygenation, and enhance the immune system are all positives in opposition of cancer development. Any time you enter a sauna, you receive the following cancer-fighting benefits.
Immune system.
Cancer treatments suppress the immune system, hence the risk of chemotherapy. Saunas do the opposite, shocking the proteins on the surface of cancer cells and thereby making them more prone to an immune system attack. A sauna lets your immune system do more to protect your body.
Weight loss.
Obesity is a huge risk factor when it comes to cancer death. Cancer-promoting hormones and carcinogens reside in fatty tissue, and the more fatty tissue one has, the worse off they are. In months, a person can cut significant weight by using an infrared sauna. This is excellent news, especially for those who are sedentary due to a medical condition such as a cardiovascular or respiratory disease. Infrared rays penetrate deep into the body, burning as much as 500 calories per 30-minute session.
Improved circulation.
As a sauna increases circulation, this helps to spread essential nutrients, oxygen, and other substances throughout the body. Cancer will typically grow in areas with poor circulation and cancer cells do not thrive in a high oxygen environment. For these reasons, some argue high circulation can be a positive towards cancer development. The average person in a sauna sees their pulse rate increase by 30 percent or more. Blood is sent to the skin, internal organs, lungs, and elsewhere – all things which can protect a body against cancer.
Sauna detoxification.
Purge the body of toxins, like heavy metals, chemicals, and pesticides. Removing things like lead, copper, mercury, arsenic, and cyanide, helping to re-balance the body’s pH, neutralizing the acids inside. If internal organs are being overloaded with toxins, such as the liver and kidneys, that’s a problem. As toxicity sits in our bodies and our organs are not able to successfully filter everything out, everything becomes congested. In cancer prevention, what you want is circulation and to keep the body’s systems functioning well.
Cancer cell death.
Cancer cells are much more sensitive to and intolerant towards excessive heat compared to normal cells. For example, tumors are impaired in adapting their blood circulation around high temperatures. As cancer cells are weaker than normal cells, damage from heat – and we’re talking high temperatures, in particular – can actually kill cancer cells without damaging non-cancer cells. This is the basis around hyperthermia, otherwise referred to as thermotherapy, which is where the body tissue is exposed to high temperatures to treat cancer. Hyperthermia is what happens in a sauna. This method is still being studied as a possible future method of treating certain types of cancer.
Reducing stress.
Saunas reduce the activity of the sympathetic nerve system, a system which when the activity is excessive can contribute to cancer development. The sympathetic nerve system activates the brain, our muscles, and the thyroid and adrenal glands in a fight-or-flight stress response. By entering a sauna, you’re relaxing this system and moving it away from fight-or-flight.
To see the cancer-fighting benefits for yourself, check out steam rooms, traditional saunas, infrared saunas, and more at Steam Sauna today.