The effect of sauna on depression and mood | Rhonda Patrick
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Sauna use elicits a multitude of beneficial health effects, including improved sleep and mood-boosting benefits. Researchers treated patients with major depressive disorder with heat so that their core body temperature reached temperatures equivalent to those experienced with sauna use. Following just one treatment session, subjects experienced elevations in mood that lasted for several weeks. In this clip, Dr. Rhonda Patrick describes the effects of heat on mood, particularly in those experiencing depression.
It's also great for sleep too, you know, doing it just before. Yeah, it's phenomenal. It totally helps me. It helps with my sleep. It's repeatable, hands down for sure. And in my mood, it helps mood. And that, you know, it's interesting, there's been a sham-controlled study where people with major depressive disorder were treated with— they basically had their core body temperature was elevated similar to what would happen in a sauna. And it improved just one treatment actually to Improved depressive symptoms and this thing lasted— the improvement lasted for like 6 weeks or something crazy like that. Crazy. There's another study that's being done to kind of repeat that and try to generalize it and do it with the sauna. So I'm pretty excited about that. But my mood is totally affected. Like I do the sauna, exercise also is one thing I do for my mood, exercise and sauna. Like— Yeah. I need it for my brain, period. Yeah, same.
A mood disorder characterized by profound sadness, fatigue, altered sleep and appetite, as well as feelings of guilt or low self-worth. Depression is often accompanied by perturbations in metabolic, hormonal, and immune function. A critical element in the pathophysiology of depression is inflammation. As a result, elevated biomarkers of inflammation, including the proinflammatory cytokines interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha, are commonly observed in depressed people. Although selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and cognitive behavioral therapy typically form the first line of treatment for people who have depression, several non-pharmacological adjunct therapies have demonstrated effectiveness in modulating depressive symptoms, including exercise, dietary modification (especially interventions that capitalize on circadian rhythms), meditation, sauna use, and light therapy, among others.
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