Chronic fatigue symptoms are debilitating, preventing those with severe cases from working or leading productive lives. In some cases, a person with CFS/ME may experience mental health difficulties such as anxiety or depression. There are a variety of chronic fatigue symptoms which an infrared sauna may be able to help with.
A study looking at two patients with chronic fatigue syndrome put them through infrared sauna therapy once a day for 35 straight days. This was followed with a program where they partook in further sessions once or twice a week. This program continued for a year afterwards. This study monitored patients over the course of this entire period and found statistically significant improvements in symptoms like physical and mental complaints, fatigue, depression, confusion, and with insomnia. Both patients experienced the same intensity of relief, suggesting the helpfulness a sauna has on chronic fatigue.
These symptoms weren’t the only thing that was helped using an infrared sauna for chronic fatigue. Energy levels actually rose slowly but surely. The hours of non-sedentary activity also increased. In fact, at the time that therapy began, both patients were not working. By the six-month period, both patients were able to return to work. Although research on the topic of a sauna improving chronic fatigue, there’s enough anecdotes out there and smaller studies as mentioned that have us very excited for the future. Surely, there is something to a sauna that potentially can help chronic fatigue sufferers who have run out of options.
There are other studies on saunas for chronic fatigue supporting the hypothesis. For example, a study analyzing 11 patients with chronic fatigue found that infrared sauna use improved brain function and cerebral blood flow in each of them. This was correlated with improvements in chronic fatigue symptoms. Then, there is another study that found after 4 weeks of sauna use, patients with chronic fatigue experienced an improvement in fatigue, anxiety, depression, and overall performance.
If you haven’t tried a series of infrared sauna sessions to treat your chronic fatigue, this may be one treatment to try. It does not present a cure but as anyone with a chronic condition already knows, it’s not necessarily about the cure but is about improving symptoms, improving quality of life, and making it easier to function day to day regardless of the limitations a condition gives. Chronic fatigue syndrome might not seem serious to most but for those who have it, they know the severity of it. If an infrared sauna therapy can help – even by 15%, 20%, or 30% - that’s something. For a lot of people they experience relief up to 80% as evidenced.
Don’t give it another thought. A sauna may be your answer. Chronic fatigue or not, infrared saunas engage the brain, nervous system, the skin, various internal systems, and the body as a whole. Regular sauna sessions can help the average person live a healthier, more comfortable life and it can do the same for individuals with chronic conditions. If you don’t know where to begin, try it the next time you go to the spa, gym, fitness facility, or a hotel.
Steam Sauna is a top supplier of saunas and steam rooms in North America. See the difference an infrared sauna can make on your chronic fatigue by installing one in your home today.