Saunas have been used for over 2,000 years for a number of health benefits including relaxation and detoxification. But is sauna good for cancer patients? This article explores the rich history of sauna, the ways it’s been used to improve health and the research that’s been done on the benefits for people with cancer.
The History of Sauna
The earliest known saunas date back over 2000 years. These were caves dug into the ground and lined with stone. Traditionally, stones are heated in a fire, and then water is poured onto the stones to create steam and heat.
While Finland is considered the birthplace of the sauna, similar structures using steam, smoke or heat have been used in many cultures around the world for both spiritual and health purposes. There is some evidence that the ancient Mayas used sauna type structures about 3000 years ago.
In Africa, pits were dug in which a fire was built. Once the fire turned to coals, poles were laid over the opening to create a bed of sorts. If someone was suffering from an infectious disease they laid on the bed above the hot coals and stayed there until they sweated profusely. This helped rid their body of disease through sweating.
Sauna's Health Benefits
Picture a typical sauna session: you sit or lie in a wood-paneled room, where temperatures soar between 150°F and 195°F (65°C and 90°C), while humidity levels climb due to water thrown onto heated rocks or heating elements. This practice generates steam, which further intensifies the heat sensation.
A sauna’s high temperatures causes your core body temperature to rise. In turn, your skin temperature increases, and pores open to release perspiration, or sweat.
Indeed, sweating is one of the most visible side effects of using saunas. The sweating induced during a sauna session is considered to be crucial in helping to eliminate toxins, including heavy metals from one’s system.
It’s estimated that you can lose around a pint of sweat during a sauna session.
During a sauna session, the increase in heat leads your blood vessels to dilate and your heart rate to increase, just as it would during moderate exercise. This increased heart rate could be especially helpful if you have poor circulation, as it improves blood flow throughout your body.
Increased blood circulation can also be helpful in relieving pain, including muscle and joint soreness and stiffness.
The heat exposure is also thought to boost your immune system by increasing the production of white blood cells. White blood cells play an important role in your body’s ability to protect itself against illnesses and infections.
In theory, your good cells could be improved by the increased immune system response, and thus better able to fight tumor cells in your body.
For many, sauna sessions aren’t just about purification, but also relaxation. You can sit back and relax, breathing the steamy air and letting your muscles loosen. For many, this is why saunas are a must-have end to a workout, to ease muscles that have gotten tight or sore from working out.
Sauna therapy is also known to improve mental well-being. The heat is therapeutic, encouraging your brain to release endorphins, which are your natural happy hormones. Some even say that their focus and attention is improved after a sauna session.
Another one of the potential benefits of sauna use is nervous system regulation.
Saunas and the relaxation effects calm our ‘fight or flight’ response of the sympathetic nervous system. At the same time, the ‘rest and digest’ response of our parasympathetic nervous system is activated.
Other regular sauna users claim to experience improved blood pressure and weight loss from using saunas, though these benefits have not been studied to know if those results are a direct result of sauna use.
Types of Saunas
There are different types of saunas, and you can decide which feels right for you.
Some swear by a humid steam room that’s full of moist heat. Others prefer wood burning sauna rooms or electrically heated saunas that have less humidity.
I feel like it’s harder for me to breathe while in the thick humid air, so I personally prefer and use dry saunas or a far-infrared sauna, neither of which have the steam component.
Newer to the scene is infrared saunas. These use light from special lamps to create heat. An infrared sauna heats your body, without warming the air around you, like traditional saunas do.
Light comes in different wavelengths, and each of these are said to have different benefits for the body.
Near-infrared light has the shortest wavelength, and is absorbed just below the surface of the skin.
Mid-infrared is a longer wavelength that penetrates deeper into the body’s soft tissue. These infrared waves are the ones that increase circulation.
Far infrared is the longest wavelength that goes deepest into your body.
Many infrared therapy options blend the different wavelengths for heat therapy.
In 1893 at the World Fair in Chicago, John Harvey Kellogg first displayed his ‘Incandescent Light Baths’. This was a small cabinet-like box that was heated with exposed electrical light bulbs.
His goal was to improve the traditional sauna therapy experience by increasing the amount of sweating and thus, detoxification by adding the light exposure.
These incandescent light bulbs were found to mostly emit infrared light that penetrated deeply into the skin. Kellogg’s light baths eventually led to the infrared saunas used today.
Until the late 1970’s, Japanese doctors were the only known medical practitioners to use far infrared sauna treatment for patients. In the U.S., the first infrared saunas became publicly available in 1979.
Since then, technology has improved to increase the optimal type of infrared wavelengths to generate the most sweating while remaining safe for the user.
Infrared saunas can be found as standalone structures in the home or spa and even sleeping bag-type blankets you can lay in to sweat and detox.
Evaluating Claims: Saunas and Cancer Risk
While some may fear that using a sauna can increase the risk of developing or spreading cancer, this has not been shown to be true.
A 2019 study found that sauna bathing does not increase nor decrease the risk of cancer in men. More research needs to be done to determine if sauna bathing can increase the cancer risk for women or other populations/age groups that were not studies previously.
What IS being studied is the concept of hyperthermia therapy.
Hyper=high.
Thermia=generation of heat.
So hyperthermia is the generation of higher temperatures for treatment purposes. Whole body hyperthermia uses specific temperatures to heat the body for a certain amount of time.
Having controlled heating for specific amounts of time makes it easier to study the results, since the amount of time you or I chose to sit in a sauna may vary, just like the temperature we can stand could be very different.
Hyperthermia has been shown to increase the immune systems’ response to killing off cancer cells.
Additional clinical trials are needed to determine just how much heat is required to damage malignant cells and how long that heat needs to be applied. But this is an exciting area of potential treatment options for people with cancer.
One study found that whole-body hyperthermia along with far infrared radiation dramatically slowed the growth of breast cancer tumors in mice without demonstrating any negative side effects, so this is being studied as a possible non-invasive breast cancer treatment option.
Can Saunas Be A Complement to Cancer Treatment?
Could adding sauna sessions to your cancer care benefit you and/or improve treatment results?
Saunas elevate your body’s temperature, and this induced hyperthermia has been shown to possibly improve the effectiveness of certain therapies, such as radiation, by making cancer cells more susceptible to treatment while leaving normal cells unharmed.
The improved blood and oxygen circulation throughout your body and improved immune system could help in your fight against cancer. Most conventional cancer treatments damage the immune system, so anything that could possibly help strengthen and rebuild the immune system could be considered as a complementary treatment option.
The relaxation and pain relief benefits could also improve your quality of life.
The ability to improve detoxification and the removal of chemical toxins from chemotherapy and radiation treatment can also help reduce side effects of these traditional treatments and help you feel better faster.
Guidelines for Sauna Use by Cancer Patients
Talk to your doctor about thermal therapy if it sounds like something you’d like to try. Your healthcare provider may recommend one type of sauna over another, based on the treatment you’re receiving and the side effects you’re experiencing, along with any other health conditions you may have.
If you are given the go-ahead to start sauna sessions, start slowly. Your first session should be short, around 5 minutes so that you can gauge your body’s reaction to the heat.
Even if you’ve done sauna bathing before your cancer diagnosis, note that your body may react differently to the intense heat once you’ve started treatment.
One of the biggest side effects of sauna bathing is dehydration. It’s really important that you stay hydrated, as your body will lose fluids through sweating during and after your sauna session. Drink a lot of water before and during your sauna session.
After you’re done with the sauna, drink another 3-4 glasses of water.
During the session, pay attention to how your body is responding. If you feel dizzy, light-headed, uncomfortable, or confused, you should exit the sauna right away.
Know the signs of dehydration that you could experience while in the sauna, including a dry or sticky mouth, thirst, headache, muscle cramps and dry, cool skin – not the sweating you’d expect to experience in the sauna.
If you find the dry or wet heat of a traditional sauna room is too much for you, consider finding a location that offers infrared sauna therapy. Infrared saunas use lower temperatures which may be more comfortable.
After the session, take it easy for the rest of the day. Drink plenty of water and avoid strenuous exercise. Do not skip meals.
The use of sauna therapy will make you sweat, and sweat a lot. Through this sweating, you’ll lose essential nutrients and water, so be sure to eat well-balanced, healthy meals the rest of the day.
The frequency of sauna bathing should be limited to a maximum of 2-3 times a week on a regular basis.
Build up to these maximums, and slowly increase the amount of time spent in the sauna until you see what works best for you. You shouldn’t stay in the sauna for more than 20 minutes.
Who Should Not Use a Sauna?
The use of saunas do have some potential risks. Do not participate in sauna bathing if you have any of the following:
- uncontrolled low blood pressure, especially if your blood pressure drops when you stand up
- uncontrolled high blood pressure
- unstable heart issues, including a recent heart attack, angina-related heart pain or severe aortic stenosis, which is a narrowing of a major artery of the heart. Those with heart issues that are stable and past heart attacks can typically use a sauna without problems.
- had a recent stroke
- are under the influence of drugs or alcohol
- a fever
- seizures
- are pregnant
- are a male trying to get your partner pregnant. Saunas can temporarily lower sperm count from the heat
Talk to your doctor first if you:
- have certain skin conditions. Atopic dermatitis may worsen when using a sauna, but sauna use has been shown to improve psoriasis.
- have kidney disease, as you may have a higher risk of dehydration when using a sauna.
- are over the age of 65. People in this age group need to be aware of the signs of heatstroke, as this could be a potential complication of using a sauna, especially young children or older adults, since their internal temperature regulation systems don’t work as well.
Conclusion
We know that saunas elevate body temperature, improving blood circulation and aiding in the elimination of heavy metals. Sauna sessions may even cause a beneficial shift in your immune system, which can help damage cancerous cells while leaving healthy cells alone.
There isn’t definitive proof that saunas can be used for cancer prevention, nor have saunas been shown to be a cure for certain types of cancer, so much more research is needed on the field of hyperthermia along with whether standard and infrared sauna sessions can demonstrate more cancer-specific benefits.
However, the positive effects sauna bathing has been shown to have on the body’s overall health and mental health make regular sauna use a promising option to add to your treatment routine. Ask your doctor for their medical advice on your particular situation, and see if they recommend this type of therapy as a supplement to whichever treatment program you’ve selected.
Your turn: Do you like using the sauna? What benefits have you experienced as a result? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
