How Long Should You Sauna For Detoxification Benefits?

Ever since their invention, saunas have been used for different purposes, mainly relaxation. But that’s not the only benefit you can experience from sauna use. Did you also know that regular sauna bathing can help eliminate toxins from your body through sweat?

To learn more about this phenomenon, check out our detailed guide to the incredible sauna detox benefits you can receive in a traditional and infrared sauna.

Understanding the Sauna Detox Process

You may have heard from your fellow sauna users about how they feel much better after a few weeks of sauna treatments. It’s as though the sauna experience has lifted a massive burden off their chest, but they can’t put their finger on it. Why do they feel that way?

The answer, among other things, lies in the ability of the sauna to expel toxins.

What Is Sauna Detoxification?

Sauna detoxification is a natural detoxification process that occurs when you expose your body to the high heat of a traditional or infrared sauna. This raises your core body temperature and leads to sweating, which helps transport toxins from your skin. On top of that, the treatment increases your circulation to combat toxins in your fat cells and muscles, purging them through your kidneys, liver, and many other elimination vessels.

The Role of Infrared Sauna in Detoxification

Many people use infrared sauna detox rather than traditional sauna detox to expel heavy metals (such as arsenic), radioactive particles, chemicals, and other harmful substances. They do so because infrared saunas can detoxify your body on a deeper level. To understand why that’s the case, you need to familiarize yourself with the differences between standard and infrared saunas.

On the one hand, traditional saunas heat the air around you, which, in turn, raises your temperature and promotes sweating to help eliminate toxins. On the other hand, infrared saunas heat your body directly by exposing you to infrared rays that increase your body temperature directly. As such, infrared saunas act deep inside your core to empower the detoxification process.

The Benefits of Sauna Use for Detoxification

You’d hardly use sweating in a sauna, benefits, and health improvements in the same sentence, but that’s normal when discussing sauna therapy. Regular sessions can work wonders for you by helping flush out toxins and enhance other aspects of your well-being.

Elimination of Toxins

Heat-induced detoxification is a process that helps remove toxins through your body using sweat. Each bead that exits your body may contain a large number of harmful substances, producing a powerful cleansing effect.

That’s why you can use saunas to help purge some of the most common toxins you encounter in everyday life. These impurities come from different sources:

• Household cleaners and personal care products – Most of these products have chemicals your skin may absorb, enabling them to enter the bloodstream. Alternatively, they may make their way inside your body through ingestion (contaminated utensils) or inhalation (spray cleaners).

• Air pollution – If you live in a heavily polluted area, industrial contaminants and different types of smoke can easily seep into your body.

• Processed food – What makes processed foods harmful is that they usually contain additives, artificial colors, and preservatives, all of which can have serious consequences. They may have also been grown in a pesticide-based system (pesticides have been associated with a reduced immune system and other health problems).

Sauna therapy plays a pivotal role in taking care of these impurities (e.g., BPA and heavy metals). Once you induce sweating and raise your temperature in a sauna, you may drastically increase the rate at which contaminants escape your organism. As a result, you lower the risk of oxidative stress, which can cause Alzheimer’s, heart disease, and many other conditions.

Sauna Therapy and Cardiovascular Health

Although sweating is the primary driver of detoxifying your body, other mechanisms play a vital role as well. Heart health is especially significant, and you can improve it with sauna treatments.

The reason is simple – by elevating your temperature in a sauna, you also enhance circulation. That’s because your blood vessels dilate in high heat. Regular bathing may permanently dilate your blood vessels, enabling more blood to flow to and from your heart.

And guess what? Circulation may be essential for removing toxins. The better your blood flow, the more toxins you might be able to purge through sweating.

To maintain optimal circulation, you want to keep your heart strong and vigorous. Sauna therapy is the answer once again. As your temperature rises, so does your heart rate. It jumps from the normal BPM of 60-100 to well over 120-130, giving the muscle a much-needed workout. This strengthens your heart and supports related systems, including blood circulation.

Given the sauna impact on your heart, it’s easy to see why sauna longevity has become a thing. Sauna longevity is the practice of relying on saunas to improve your health and life expectancy. One of the ways to do so is to reinforce your heart, which is precisely what you can accomplish through frequent sauna use.

That’s not just a wild guess. Numerous studies have tested and confirmed the link between good heart health and a lower risk of dying.

Take this research by Mattias Brunstrom and Bo Carlberg as an example. They discovered that you can, in fact, live longer by keeping your blood pressure in check, which is one of the most important indicators of optimal heart health.

Relaxation and Stress Reduction

Toxins aren’t the only thing you want to eliminate from your body. You should also combat stress, and what better way to do so than through sauna treatments? But how exactly does a sauna help alleviate stress?

Intense heat is the key factor here. Prolonged exposure relaxes your muscles, especially the neck area, which is usually a tension hotspot. Not only that, but it also promotes the release of endorphins and serotonin, the two hormones associated with joyfulness. Most importantly, saunas have been linked with reducing cortisol – the main stress hormone in your body.

Types of Saunas and Their Detox Capabilities

No discussion about sauna detox benefits is complete without breaking down different kinds of saunas. There are many differences between the types, one of which is how they help you remove impurities.

Comparison of Different Types of Saunas

You can achieve heat and sweat-induced detoxification in pretty much any type of sauna. However different types of saunas promote detoxification in different ways. Here’s how some of the most common saunas can remove toxins:

• Infrared saunas – Raising your temperature and promoting sweating directly through infrared rays

• Finnish saunas – Using a wood-burning or electric stove to raise the temperature and humidity to make you sweat

• Traditional dry saunas – Increasing the temperature to promote sweating by heating the air around you without elevating humidity

If we had to single out one type of sauna as the most effective method to eliminate toxins, it would be infrared saunas. Their unique ability to heat you directly and potentially boost the detox effect puts them head and shoulders above the rest.

That’s especially true if you use a cutting-edge sauna made of high-quality materials, like the ones at Komowa. Check out our offer, and you’ll find a variety of infrared saunas built from aspen and other robust materials to provide a long-lasting investment. Our saunas also feature built-in LCD touchscreens, ergonomic backrests, adjustable footrests, and double-walled construction to deliver a mesmerizing experience.

How to Maximize Detox Benefits in a Sauna Session

Yes, a sauna does all the dirty work when it comes to cleansing your body. Still, this doesn’t mean you should simply go inside without any preparation. You can gain much more from individual sessions if you tailor them to your experience level, wear the right accessories, and follow safety recommendations.

Sauna Session Guidelines for Optimal Detox

Now that you understand why detoxification is one of the most significant health benefits of saunas, the only question that remains is, how much sauna is good for you if you want to remove toxins? More specifically, how often should you visit a sauna, and what’s the recommended session duration?

In general, you can remove a lot of toxins from your body with two to three 20-minute weekly sessions. If you’re a beginner, spending a full 20 minutes inside can be hard, so feel free to trim a few minutes off your session. If you’re an advanced sauna goer, you can go past the 20-minute mark and boost your detox.

If detox isn’t your only goal, you can tweak your session duration and frequency however you like. For instance, if you just want to relax and get a light cardio workout, you may get away with just one or two 5-10-minute sessions. By contrast, if you’re looking for a full spectrum of health benefits (e.g., skin rejuvenation, less muscle pain, and increasing bone mass), ramp up your sauna use to five or six 30-45-minute sessions.

Regardless of your health goals and preferred session duration, one thing’s for sure – you should always bring a glass water bottle with you to stay hydrated and support the detox process. Glass is superior to plastic because it contains fewer harmful compounds that may get released in high heat.

Additional Detox Protocols in Sauna Therapy

If you’re already all in on your frequent sauna treatments for detox, you want to make the most of your sessions. You can do so by incorporating the following detox protocols into your routine:

• Work out before your sauna use – Even the lightest form of activity, such as walking, can stimulate your lymphatic system and help it flush out impurities. That’s why you should exercise before using a sauna. It lets you double down on the detox effect and promotes a healthier lifestyle.

• Use a towel – As mentioned above, sweat may contain various impurities as it reaches your skin. Why let it linger there and potentially contaminate the skin when you can wipe it away? Bring a towel and use it to wick away sweat whenever it gets intense.

• Take vitamin B3 – This vitamin is also crucial for detoxification, as it supports your lymphatic system. Take 16 milligrams of it to complement your sauna treatment and excrete even more contaminants from your body.

Considerations and Safety Tips for Sauna Detox

Although detox is important, staying safe while eliminating impurities matters even more. To maximize safety, you need to choose the right kind of sauna and follow time-tested safety recommendations.

Choosing the Right Sauna

Here are a few tips on how to choose the right sauna for your detox experience:

• If you don’t like high humidity, stick to infrared saunas.

• If you also want to treat blocked airways and free up mucus, use a traditional sauna (high humidity is good for relieving mucus buildup).

• If you want to start your treatment faster, use an infrared sauna (it heats up 15-20 minutes faster than traditional saunas).

Precautions and Safety Measures

You’ll have a safe and effective sauna detox session if you follow these tips:

• Drink plenty of water and avoid alcohol to prevent dehydration.

• Wait 20-30 minutes after a workout to let your body recover before going to a sauna.

• Consult your doctor to fine-tune your session length and duration if you have any underlying conditions.

The Evolving Role of Sauna in Wellness and Detox

A sauna can have many different purposes, but this isn’t a new concept. It’s been used in numerous rituals for thousands of years and, over time, evolved into a proper healthcare complement.

Sauna Use in Traditional and Modern Practices

The origins of the sauna can be traced back to about 7000 BC. However, the modern version was invented much later by the Finnish. Initially, the Finnish used saunas to deliver babies and wash dead bodies before burials. As such, they had an enormous cultural significance.

Saunas are still a vital cultural element in many traditions, but their potential to improve health might be more significant. Many people recognized this, not just the Finnish. For example, Koreans have a sauna version of their own known as hanjeungmak. Its ability to combat different conditions was discovered as early as the 15th century when Buddhist monks used saunas to treat sick people.

Nowadays, you can use saunas to improve your health in several ways. Modern facilities have all sorts of amenities (e.g., comfortable benches and relaxing audio) to help you relax and experience the health effects on a deeper level.

Emerging Research and Future Directions

Many scientists have noted the ability of saunas to remove toxins, such as this systematic review by Joy Hussain and Marc Cohen. The researchers acknowledge the participants’ overall improved health after sauna sessions and indicate that saunas can indeed help eliminate toxins.

However, they also encourage further research on this topic that may lend even more credibility to the use of saunas for detoxification.

Cleanse Your Body Naturally in a High-Quality Sauna

You’ll hardly find a safer and more effective way to achieve toxin excretion than through sauna treatments. The moment your temperature jumps, and you start sweating, millions of impurities may leave your body.

But just because toxins exit your body doesn’t mean they won’t return. You’re constantly exposed to them in your everyday life, so expect them to come back. That’s why you should use sauna bathing regularly.

If you want to do so from the comfort of your own home, get in touch with Komowa. Explore our world-class collection of infrared and traditional saunas that will help you achieve the desired detox effect. Simply choose the right size, install your sauna, and say goodbye to toxins.