The Reason This Birthday Is Special
At the time of writing this, I’ll be 51 tomorrow…and this is worth celebrating for SO many reasons, but this year, it’s extra personal.
You may have heard me mention it before, but several of my family members never made it to 51. They died untimely deaths due to terrible lifestyle choices that resulted in cardiac events that took them away from us.
You want to know why I’m so passionate about helping you age well? Well, there it is. This is a travesty no one should have a story about.
So happy birthday to me! I hope watching me celebrate the past several years has inspired you to celebrate your own birthday. YOU are worth celebrating and every single year is a gift!
You are a unique and special gift that God has placed here on this earth and it is worship to Him when you are celebrating the life He’s given you.
It makes me think of James 1:17: Every good and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
On to today’s topic!
Why Sauna Matters
If you’ve been watching my stories for the past year, you know I began incorporating infrared sauna into my life. I started with a sauna blanket, but just recently upgraded to a small “tent-looking” sauna that fits in the corner of your room, allows your head to be out and arms and hands free for reading or scrolling, and provides an incredible sweat in no time…and it has red light therapy panels!
Today I want to bring you all the benefits of an infrared sauna, how it can transform your health and begin to age you backwards from cells to skin!
Studies show that with just 4 nineteen minute sauna sessions a week, you can reduce your risk of all-cause mortality by up to 63%!
Not only that, but a sauna session can basically replace an exercise session. I’m NOT saying do saunas instead of exercise, but to combine the two, you are increasing the impact they both have on your health exponentially!
If you heard my recent podcast about Zone 2 cardio and its benefits on helping you reverse your rate of aging, sauna can get your heart rate into the Zone 2 range meaning it’s equivalent to doing a Zone 2 workout!
Let’s take a high level look at the science behind infrared sauna, then I’ll get into the benefits and share with you the one I bought for my birthday that has a small footprint and is super affordable! Use code: LISALOU for a discount.
Heat Shock Proteins
Heat shock proteins, or HSPs, are the unsung heroes of our cellular world. They’re like the repair crew for your cells, rushing to the scene when the body encounters stressors like heat, toxins, or oxidative stress.
When you step into an infrared sauna, you’ll feel warmth penetrate your body immediately, elevating your core temperature. This rise in temperature activates a cellular response: the production of heat shock proteins. In the context of your sauna session, they act as molecular chaperones, maintaining cellular integrity even when you’re breaking a sweat.
So how does this translate into practical, real-world benefits that you can feel and experience for yourself? Here’s just a few reasons to use it frequently:
Enhanced Immune Function: Heat shock proteins are known to play a role in immune function. An improved immune system could help your body ward off illnesses more effectively.
Stress Reduction: As your body experiences the relaxing heat of the sauna, the release of endorphins contributes to stress reduction and an increased sense of well-being.
Pain Relief and Muscle Recovery: The heat from the sauna can help relax muscles and improve blood circulation, potentially relieving muscle and joint pain. It can also support muscle recovery after exercise.
Weight Loss and Metabolic Health: Infrared saunas can increase heart rate and calorie expenditure, potentially aiding in weight loss and supporting metabolic health.
Reduced Inflammation – Infrared sauna has been proven to reduce inflammation due to anything from arthritis, injuries, bloating, and more.
Improved Sleep – This has been one of my favorite “side effects.” Since infrared sauna has been proven to hasten recovery from workouts and all forms of inflammation, it’s no surprise that physical recovery will improve the amount and quality of your sleep each night.
Here’s the one that I’ve recently purchased after hearing friends and colleagues talk about it for the past several months.
Not only does it hold all the benefits I described above, but it also includes 2 red light therapy panels which also serve to reduce inflammation, help your skin produce its own collagen, and aid in recovery and rejuvenation of every cell in your body!
The 4 main things I noticed after using this sauna for a week (6 out of 7 days):
Reduced pain in my Achilles tendon – I don’t deal with much joint pain any more, but my Achilles still likes to lock up on me at times and the pain and inflammation reduced significantly during this week of consistency.
Skin “dewiness.” In full transparency, I implemented a few other natural protocols to aid in reversing my skin age (yep, that’s a thing!) but after a week of using this sauna, it just appeared fresher.
Better deep sleep – When I say deep sleep, I don’t just mean I’m sleeping deeper, I mean I’m in deep wave sleep for longer according to my Oura ring. Deep sleep is imperative for body recovery. Not enough deep sleep and you won’t gain muscle, it will be harder to lose fat, and you’ll feel tired the next day…my sleep score is up and my deep sleep score is way up!
Less bloating – Toxins get stored in our fat cells and when we travel, when our nutrition is off, when we’re exposed to environmental factors that are out of our norm, it can show up in a bloated feel and look. After just one week, the bloating from travel and being out of my normal environment was all but gone and I felt like myself again after a month of just feeling “blah.”
I hope you will find an infrared sauna at a gym near you, or better yet, get one for yourself so you can take advantage of it several days a week to get all the juicy benefits out of it you possibly can!
Love you,
Lisa
