Infrared saunas provide many health benefits. One of these is the creation of heat shock proteins: specialized molecules that assist the other proteins in your body in numerous ways. Not sure what exactly heat shock proteins are or how your infrared sauna affects them? Let’s break down what these unique molecules are, what they do, and the role they play in the benefits you experience with every infrared sauna session.
Clearlight® Infrared Saunas are the best infrared saunas on the market today. Explore the many fantastic models available for sale here at The Sauna Life, and contact us today to request a quote.
Heat Shock Proteins Explained
Heat shock proteins (HSPs) come in a variety of types. They are proteins that effectively chaperone other types of molecules. These molecular chaperones can re-stabilize, rejuvenate, or reorganize the intercellular systems or tissues in the body.
Normally, your body produces HSPs whenever it experiences physiological stress, including:
- Dangerous situations
- Rapid exercise
- Heat stress, which occurs when your body is warmed, such as through a sauna session
In other words, HSPs help your body to maintain homeostasis. They can also assist with the formation of new proteins and kickstart malformed proteins that may have stopped functioning. You can think of heat shock proteins as maintenance proteins that check on other proteins and ensure that they survive or function properly.
It’s easy to imagine why these proteins are so beneficial to the body, but let’s take a look at their exact physiological advantages in more detail.
The Health Benefits of Heat Shock Proteins
Specifically, HSPs can assist with:
- Reducing free radical molecular damage throughout the body. Free radicals are unattached molecules that can damage the cells in your body’s tissues, leading to long-term inflammation and degradation or even cancer
- Repair misfolded or damaged proteins, which allows them to continue functioning and helps your body conserve resources
- Faster muscle recovery, which enables you to work out more intensely and to feel better after an important gym session
- Boost immune system response, which plays a key role in reducing your risk of viral infections or bacterial illnesses
- Possibly prevent the formation of neurological degenerative diseases
As you can see, HSPs are vital to our bodily health and holistic wellness. More importantly, their benefits match very well with the physiological benefits you can get from infrared sauna sessions.
How Do Infrared Saunas Affect HSP’s in Your Body?
So, what’s the connection between HSPs and infrared saunas? Technically, an infrared sauna session is self-induced hyperthermia. By exposing your body to intense heat under controlled circumstances, you can cause the creation of more heat shock proteins than your body would normally make.
Through utilizing infrared wavelengths of light and inducing a detoxifying sweat in your body for between 15 and 30 minutes, infrared saunas can significantly increase your body’s temperature without risking any damage or side effects.
In doing so, the body creates HSPs in response. These proteins then seek out damaged or malfunctioning proteins and other cells to enact repairs and to induce the other physiological benefits described above.
In a way, using an infrared sauna is a lot like hacking your body’s beneficial biological processes. Normally, the body would only create enough HSPs needed when actual damage is sustained or in times of real physiological stress. By using an infrared sauna, however, you can make HSPs work for you on your schedule.
Making the Most of Your Infrared Sauna
For the best results, you should try to use an infrared sauna that provides full-spectrum radiation. Full-spectrum infrared saunas emit infrared light across the entire infrared spectrum. This creates a more varied warming effect and more of your body’s tissues are heated in the process.
You should use your infrared sauna regularly and do so after an intense exercise session or at the end of a long day at work. When using your infrared sauna, try to leave any electronic gadgets outside so your body can fully relax and regenerate.
You should also try to avoid staying in the sauna for too long, such as for over 30 minutes. Drink plenty of water before your sauna session to ensure that you remain hydrated.
Final Thoughts
Ultimately, your infrared sauna can radically increase how many HSPs your body creates and lead to even more health boosts in the process. If you’ve already been using an infrared sauna, you’ve already been benefiting from HSPs. But now you know why your sauna sessions are so effective!
Clearlight® Infrared Saunas are the best infrared saunas on the market today. Explore the many fantastic models available for sale here at The Sauna Life, and contact us today to request a quote.