Hot sauna time done 4-7 times a week has been shown to improve symptoms in some autoimmune conditions in some patients. For tough-to-treat physical conditions like Type 1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis, a sauna may be able to offer significant benefit. Here’s the thing. The benefits of a sauna on autoimmune disorders has been shown to work in ‘some conditions’ and in ‘some patients’. The research is still building here but it’s been so far very promising.
Why saunas help autoimmune conditions is believed to be because of the increase in production of heat shock proteins (HSPs). These help to regulate the immune system while suppressing the overactive responses common in autoimmune disorders. Although a sauna is not going to cure an autoimmune condition, it can bring down the prominence of symptoms which can improve quality of life. As someone with Type 1 diabetes or rheumatoid arthritis will tell you, when the condition can’t be cured, the focus turns to how to treat individual symptoms and how to maximize quality of life. Hence, this is also where a sauna comes into play.
One study published on this point examined a woman with Sjogren’s syndrome, an autoimmune condition, who underwent 20 infrared sauna sessions. These sessions happened over the course of four weeks, approximately five times a week. At the end of this 4 week period, this woman experienced statistically significant improvements in dry mouth, arthritis pain, and her antigen levels dropped into the normal range. Though this is only one case, it shows the power of what a sauna can do. If it can do it for her, potentially, the same treatment will work similarly for others though to what percentage of people with these types of conditions is not known.
Another study examined 200 patients with rheumatoid arthritis, which is one of the more common autoimmune disorders. What this study found was that 40-70% of individuals with rheumatoid arthritis found their pain to be completely alleviated and joint mobility improve with ongoing sauna use. Please note that approximately 50% of the patients in this study temporarily experienced worse pain a day after before seeing a gradual improvement in symptoms. To combat this increase in pain, it was found a cold shower post-sauna helped. Thereby, more research is needed to determine precisely why saunas for rheumatoid arthritis are effective.
So all this study on saunas and autoimmune disorders suggests that there’s something to this. Unfortunately, not further study has been done. We don’t know precisely how it works but symptoms like arthritis pain, joint mobility, and muscle fatigue can be improved in some patients. Surprisingly, a sauna is just as effective – and sometimes more – than traditional medicine at treating rheumatoid arthritis, Type 1 diabetes, and other conditions in this category. If you’re suffering from an autoimmune disorder, before you go trying a sauna, be sure to discuss it with your primary physician. This is only because there are risk factors involved including among pregnant women, elderly people, and in individuals with certain other conditions relating to the skin or heart.
Steam Sauna is the top North American sauna supplier, providing high quality infrared saunas to gyms, hotels, spas, and homeowners. Believe it can help the symptoms of your autoimmune disorder? Tap into the potential of a sauna today and connect with a model that works for you.