While saunas have some impact on your circulation, pain, and mental health, there's no evidence to suggest that they have a significant effect on the detoxification of drugs and their withdrawal symptoms. In other words, you can't sweat out drugs faster than your liver is able to process them.
Therefore, sweat is not made up of toxins from your body, and the belief that sweat can cleanse the body is a myth. “You cannot sweat toxins out of the body,” Dr. Smith says. “Toxins such as mercury, alcohol and most drugs are eliminated by your liver, intestines or kidneys.”
Sweating it out in a sauna can help you detox and remove a variety of toxins from your body including: Drugs and alcohol (and the toxins that illegal drugs are often cut with) Heavy metals like arsenic, lead, mercury, and cadmium which. Harmful chemicals, pesticides, mycotoxins, and BPA.
Both steam rooms and saunas benefit detoxification, although how long you should stay in each may vary. Steam rooms tend to be more intense than saunas, as the temperature is usually higher, and the humidity levels are higher, too.
While the optimal duration may vary depending on individual factors and sauna types, a general guideline of 15-30 minutes per session, 2-4 times per week, is a good starting point.
The detoxifying effect of saunas, particularly through enhanced sweating, may indirectly benefit lung health by reducing toxins in the body. Additionally, weight management is a critical aspect of respiratory health, as excess weight can exacerbate respiratory issues.
The heat from the sauna enhances the circulation of oxygen- and nutrient-rich blood throughout your body. This, in turn, helps muscles damaged by exercise repair, so you can get back on the saddle faster.
Time to turn up the heat! The best temperature for infrared sauna sessions for regular users is around 50°C to 55°C (122°F to 131°F). This range helps you sweat out toxins, relax those muscles, and feel oh-so-good.
While spot reduction is not possible through exercise alone, saunas can play a supportive role in reducing overall body fat percentage, including belly fat. The increased metabolic rate and calorie burn induced by sauna therapy can contribute to a calorie deficit, which is essential for fat loss.
How It Works - Heat causes blood vessels to dilate, increasing blood flow to the skin and extremities. This increased circulation can stimulate the kidneys to filter more blood, leading to higher urine output.
Among smokers of greater than or equal to 25 g/day, takers of frequent saunas (more than once a week) displayed some excess risk (RR 1.7). In smokers an increased risk was also found among those exposed to dust (RR 1.3), and those who had migrated to urban areas (RR 1.8, when compared to native urban population).
But, if you're reading online about using an infrared sauna for liver detox, you're probably reading a quite misleading explanation of what is truly happening. A sauna doesn't detox the liver directly - instead, it helps detoxification processes become more optimal by removing toxins from the equation!
The sweat glands excrete many drugs and toxic substances: it is proved for barbiturates (9), broom and Jodi (6, 10), selen, talium, arsen (7) cocaine (1), alcohol, acetone, phenol, chalogenic carbohydrates (7).
Drug detection times
Barbiturates: 2-4 days in urine and 1-2 days in blood. Benzodiazepines: 3-6 weeks in urine and 2-3 days in blood. Cannabis: 7-30 days in urine and up to 2 weeks in blood. Cocaine: 3-4 days in urine and 1-2 days in blood.
Exercise reduces the blood flow in the liver and deactivation of drugs with flow-limited (high clearance) hepatic metabolism such as nitrates and lidocaine. Metabolism of capacity-limited (low clearance) drugs, e.g. antipyrine, diazepam and amobarbital, is not influenced by exercise.
In summary, numerous clinical studies have shown that utilizing an infrared/steam sauna is able to remove many toxins through sweat; these include but are not limited to, heavy metals, phthalates, flame retardants, Bisphenol A, pesticides and PCBs.
If you're experienced using saunas, the American College of Sports Medicine recommends going no longer than 15 minutes although some go to 20-30 minutes. We all have to start somewhere. Don't go in for longer than you need to.
After the end of the sauna session, you should not clean yourself with shower gel or soap, just apply some lotion.
Sauna relaxes muscles and soothes aches in both muscles and joints. Under the high-heat of a sauna, the body releases endorphins, body temperature rises, blood vessels dilate allowing for increased blood circulation.
The effects of the sauna on cortisol and thyroid hormones are mixed, and the sauna does not seem to affect testosterone levels. However, animal research shows the sauna does improve insulin sensitivity, which is essential for body composition as well as muscle growth.
A sauna may help open airways, loosen phlegm, and reduce stress.
Heat causes the blood vessels to expand (dilate), so body fluid moves into the legs by gravity, which causes low blood pressure and may result in fainting. Symptoms that could lead to heat syncope (fainting) include: Feeling faint or light-headed.
The body's response to a sauna mimics that of exercise – an increase in heart rate followed by a drop in blood pressure. The current evidence suggests that a sauna is safe and likely beneficial for most individuals with heart disease except when there is an unstable condition as described above.