If a sauna improves mood in a statistically significant way, wouldn’t that classify it as an anti-depressant? There are many people who say yes. After all, anti-depressants don’t always work. Arguably, a sauna may be just as effective at treating depression and depression-related symptoms as anti-depressants. Here’s a little more about the ways in which saunas act on depression.
Depression is linked to many things, including an elevated core body temperature. There’s actually research showing a link between hyperthermia and depression. Normally, one may see ‘elevated core body temperature’ and think the cure is to cool it down. As science shows us, it actually is the opposite approach. When the body gets a spike in body temperature, bringing it higher, this can lead to an improvement in depression. There are 4 main ways in which a sauna helps with depression.
A sauna temporarily spikes inflammation which increases heat-shock proteins (HSPs). This lowers the baseline inflammation levels in the body, normalizing the inflammatory and immune pathways through hormesis.
The aforementioned heat hormesis experienced in a sauna is theorized to promote autophagy in the brain. Autophagy makes the brain cells more resilient and resistant to depression stressors.
Saunas cause a massive release of beta-endorphins in the brain akin to intense exercise would. This leads to a better mood and fewer negative effects relating to stress, although this is only temporary.
Heat acclimation experienced in a sauna can also make you more sensitive to endorphins. This occurs when the body begins releasing dynorphin, which produces discomfort and dysphoria. As this happens, the body counters by producing more endorphins, more endorphin receptors, and increases the sensitivity of the receptors operating. This means you enjoy more pleasure from activities.
Sauna isn’t just limited to these heat therapy anti-depressant benefits. One study found that submerging cancer patients in whole-body heat therapy results in significant improvements in depression lasting as long as 72 hours. Another study analyzing people with major depressive disorders found a single treatment in a sauna resulted in a large reduction in depression. Comparatively, multiple studies have argued that based off this data an infrared sauna’s anti-depressant benefits exceed the power of SSRI antidepressant drugs.
As convenient as it is to simply swallow a pill and wish away our depression, it doesn’t always work. What too often happens is a patient is put on an anti-depressant and despite no improvement, they’re kept on it indefinitely. This doesn’t make any sense. There are risks to any medication. If benefits aren’t there, take it away! A sauna presents no benefits and if these studies are to be believed, are way more effective in the vast majority of people than any pharmaceutical is.
Like it or not, an infrared sauna is an anti-depressant. At least, this is how we feel it. There are few depression treatments that come anywhere close to the powerful effects of a sauna on depression. If you have treatment-resistant depression, you want to try something new, or you want to switch away from pharmaceuticals, 4-7 sessions in a sauna per week is an excellent start.
Though the effects are still being studied, more than a few scientists have concluded that submersion in a sauna heat therapy environment is a safe, rapid-acting antidepressant with a prolonged effect.