Dr. Rhonda Patrick

I literally like down a bunch of water and then I get in and then I like either read a science paper, prepare for a presentation or a podcast, or I...

hash over things in my mind.

And it's interesting because I would use the sauna to memorize things.

I don't know if it has to do with the like the stress response, like when you when you have an emotional trigger, like you remember things better, right?

The vasodilation does occur.

So there's a lot of overlap between moderate intensity aerobic exercise and heat stress.

And as you can imagine, when you're exercising, you're elevating your core body temperature, you're sweating.

And when you're actually in the sauna, blood does get redistributed to the skin to facilitate sweating.

But much like exercise,

blood flow in general is improved to the brain, to the muscles, everywhere.

So I think generally speaking that... And there's studies showing that sauna use is associated with a much lower risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

People that use it four to seven times a week have greater than 60% reduction in dementia risk and Alzheimer's disease risk compared to people that use it only one time a week.

People that use it two to three times a week have...

something like a little greater than 20% reduction in risk.

There's a dose-dependent effect on dementia risk and Alzheimer's disease risk.

It also has a profound... There's a big link between the cardiovascular system and the brain.

Obviously, blood flow, a big one, right?

You need to get blood to your brain.

But cardiovascular mortality, so mortality from cardiovascular disease, if people use, or actually this was men, if men use the sauna four to seven times a week, it's a 50% reduction in cardiovascular-related mortality compared to one time a week.

Again, dose-dependent manner, two to three times a week is something like 24% lower death from cardiovascular disease.