Heat’n Up: The Benefits Of Heat Exposure
Heat exposure therapy has been used by a multitude of different cultures all across the globe. Ancient Egyptian physicians used to prescribe amounts of sun exposure, while the Finnish, English, and Japanese all used warm springs. Native Americans tribes across the continent had sweat lodges. There are countless other examples across many different cultures all pulling benefits from heat. The Greek physician Hippocrates famously said “Give me the power to produce a fever, and I will cure all disease.” All of that being said, there are many different benefits from using heat exposure.
First, a wise word. Whenever you are starting something new, always keep safety in the forefront of your mind. There are certain people and populations that heat therapy is not good for and should be actively avoided. You must be responsible for your own health and body. You are the sole master of your body and must respect it. Always consider safety above all else.
Heat exposure causes stress to the body which results in a specific series of beneficial responses, this is known as hormesis.
On physical endurance, heat stress has been shown to cause an increase in time to exhaustion in running. This means that the effects of heat can actually increase your overall physical endurance. It also increases plasma volume and red blood cells which increases the amount of oxygen that can be carried to your muscles during activity.
Heat exposure therapy can also increase the body’s ability to tolerate heat, aka heat acclimation. During physical exertion like exercises, the body temperature slowly rises producing a decrease in endurance, physical strength and power. Repeated heat exposure therapy has demonstrated the ability of the body to regulate heat better. This is seen as a decrease in heart rate and skin temperature. These effects are even felt by the individuals as a decrease in the amount of strain that activity produces. Heat acclimation also increases blood flow to muscles during activity. This blood flow is rich in both nutrients and oxygen. Better fuel partition is a hallmark of a healthy metabolism, and increased oxygen at muscle helps higher workloads be sustained longer. Heat exposure also helps the body adjust the sweat threshold. This means in a more heat acclimatized individual, the body will start sweating sooner and will sweat longer. This helps individuals, especially athletes who have to perform in hot environments.
Maintaining and growing muscle mass requires a positive net protein synthesis, meaning the balance between protein synthesis and protein degradation needs to be tipped in a positive direction. Heat therapy can do this. Specific proteins that are released in response to heat therapy help repair misfolded and damaged proteins thus ensuring proper structure and function from the proteins and maintenance of muscle mass even in the face of injury related immobilization.
Growth hormone is a naturally occurring hormone in the body. It is responsible for helping to maintain healthy bone, and muscle structure and even plays a role in metabolism and blood sugar regulation. Higher levels of growth hormone, within natural levels, are correlated with increases in muscle mass, improved muscle healing and increases in physical performance. Heat exposure therapy has been shown to have a 2 to 16 fold increase in growth hormone over baseline levels. Since this is a natural increase, it does not come with many of the adverse effects of taking exogenous growth hormone.
While there are a multitude of positive effects from heat exposure therapy, these are just some of the ones that pertain to the body. We will be going over all the effects on the mind next.
