dr. Rhonda Patrick here in my last video
an accompanying article I discussed
growth hormone and igf-1 and their
performance longevity trade-off on the
one hand as a downstream mediator of
growth hormone igf-1 has many positive
effects associated with youth such as
decreasing fat while increasing lean
muscle mass increasing verbal memory and
increasing neurogenesis the growth of
new brain cells and also promoting
muscle repair on the other hand mice
worms and flies that are genetically
engineered to have high levels of growth
hormone or igf-1 have substantially
shortened lifespans
hence the trade-off heat acclamation
through sauna use a term that I call
hyperthermic conditioning can help
achieve and give you many of those
positive effects associated with igf-1
without the risk of high levels of
growth hormone or Supra physiological
levels of growth hormone that's
associated with growth hormone therapy
today I'm going to discuss how
acclimating your body to heat through
using something like the sauna either in
conjunction with or independent of
exercise can induce physiological
adaptations that can help improve your
endurance performance and the
acquisition of muscle mass in addition
I'm going to discuss how he Taklamakan
and positive effects on the hypothalamus
and neuro endocrine system many of these
impacting brain function including
neurogenesis lastly I will discuss how
he acclimates or modulating your core
body temperature may also be responsible
for the term known as the runner's high
so let's begin with the endurance
enhancements first PETA acclamation
increases the blood flow to your
skeletal muscles
this increases glucose esterified fatty
acids and oxygen to your skeletal
muscles often times during endurance
training your skeletal muscles will
deplete these nutrients and then they
have to rely on local glycogen stores
anecdotally endurance athletes often
talk about hitting a wall while this in
biological terms is referring to when
your muscles have depleted local
glycogen stores in fact it's been shown
that heat acclamation reduces the need
to rely on glycogen stores between 40
and 50 percent as compared to not being
heat acclimated second heat acclamation
increases blood flow to the heart
this lowers cardiovascular strain and
lowers the heart rate for the same given
exercise workload these things allow
physical activity to be maintained for a
longer period of time as compared to not
being heat acclimated third is heat
acclamation increases blood flow to the
skin and it activates the sympathetic
nervous system which allows sweating to
occur at a lower core body temperature
and to be maintained for a longer period
therefore lowering your core body
temperature it also releases
norepinephrine which is a vasodilator
among other things and allows for heat
to be dissipated more official
efficiently also lowering the core body
temperature so let's take a step back
from these nuts and bolts and talk about
what kind of endurance gains you can
expect from heat acclamation through
sauna use in one study male runners
engaged in the 30 minutes on a session
two times a week after their workout
these runners were able to increase
their running until exhaustion by 32%
and they experienced and accompanied
seven percent increase in plasma volume
and 3.5 percent increase in red blood
cell count it's thought that the
increase in red blood cell count was due
to a compensatory mechanism for the
increased plasma volume and possibly
through erythropoietin heat acclamation
through sauna use can also have positive
effects on muscle hypertrophy
is gaining muscle mass muscle
hypertrophy mostly relies on increasing
the size of muscle cells which depends
on increasing protein synthesis exercise
is a well-known inducer of muscle
hypertrophy because it increases net
protein synthesis but unfortunately it
also has to combat the effects of
oxidative stress which increases protein
degradation at the same time so anything
that can combat oxidative stress during
exercise will result in a net increase
in protein synthesis and thus muscle
hypertrophy there are three ways that
being heat acclimated can increase
muscle hypertrophy first it's through
the induction of heat shock proteins
second is by boosting growth hormone
levels and third is by improving insulin
sensitivity heat shock proteins as their
name implies are induced by heat this
robust induction of heat shock proteins
upon heat exposure is a prime example of
hormesis heat shock proteins are able to
repair damaged proteins and prevent
protein oxidation by scavenging free
radicals and by increasing endogenous
antioxidants in our body such as
glutathione and this is how they are
able to cause a net increase in protein
synthesis acclimating your body to heat
can also result in higher basal
expression of heat shock proteins as
well as a more robust induction during
later elevations in core body
temperatures such as during physical
exercise in one study in rats
hyperthermia conditioning resulted in a
robust induction of heat shock proteins
and is correlated with 30% more muscle
regrowth compared to controls after
seven days of immobilization
the second way heat acclamation effects
muscle hypertrophy is to the release of
growth hormone the anabolic effects of
growth hormone are well-known for
example growth hormone administration to
endurance athletes for four weeks
resulted in 50% less protein oxidation
and degradation thereby increasing
muscle hypertrophy but what's not well
known is that the sauna also effects
growth hormone levels these effects
depend on the temperature time spent and
the frequency of sauna use for example
two 20-minute sauna sessions a day at 80
degrees Celsius can result in a two-fold
increase in growth hormone levels over
baseline but perhaps what's more
surprising is the profound effects that
frequency of sauna use can have on
growth hormone levels and this really
highlights the physiological adaptations
that occur as a consequence to
hyperthermic Lia conditioning your body
to heat to one hour a day sauna sessions
at 80 degrees Celsius for seven days in
a row resulted in a 16 fold increase in
growth hormone levels over baseline in
men that's pretty huge
you
the third way in which heat acclamation
can promote muscle growth is by
improving insulin sensitivity
insulin is anabolic because it decreases
protein degradation much like heat shock
proteins and growth hormone whole body
hyperthermia has been shown to reduce
insulin resistance and improve insulin
sensitivity in an obese diabetic mouse
model what's also interesting is that
heat stress which is known to boost
growth hormone levels in humans has been
shown in flies and worms to cause about
a 15% increase in lifespan now this is
counter to what you might expect if you
watched my last video on the performance
longevity trade-off the reason for this
is that heat stress induces hormesis and
that causes the increase in expression
in genes and proteins such as heat shock
proteins that are known to improve
longevity intermittent heat exposure and
heat acclamation also have positive
benefits on the brain these positive
benefits include increased neurogenesis
improved learning and memory and
improved focus sauna adduced
hyperthermia also has a profound effect
on norepinephrine and prolactin levels
and one study individuals that stayed in
the sauna until exhaustion had a 310
percent increase in norepinephrine and a
tenfold increase in prolactin levels
norepinephrine helps with focus and
attention and prolactin is important for
myelin growth myelin increases the
efficiency of the electrical activity in
your brain and is also important for
repairing nerve cell damage in addition
to increasing norepinephrine heat
acclamation also increases the
biological capacity to store
norepinephrine for later release this is
very relevant for disorders such as ADHD
which is often treated with
norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors and
is associated with decreased
norepinephrine release during exercise
heat stress also increases neurogenesis
hyperthermia in conjunction with
exercise increases the expression of
brain derived neurotrophic factor BDNF
even more so than extra
ellone BDNF is often referred to as a
Miracle Grow for brain cells because it
increases the growth of new brain cells
and it promotes their survival of
already existing neurons BDNF also
increases neuronal plasticity which is
important to learn new information as
well as to remember and retain that new
information be gen-f has also been shown
to decrease depression and anxiety
associated with early life stressful
events and if that weren't enough BDNF
can also be released from your muscle
cells where it promotes muscle repair
and the growth of new muscle tissue all
I can say is Wow
a couple of other interesting facts
about physiological effects of heat
stress ever wonder what's responsible
for the runner's high or the post
exercise high in general you may think
it's due to the release of endorphins
but that's not the whole story
endorphins also known as beta endorphins
are part of the body's natural mucoid
painkiller system this is the same
system that potent narcotics like
morphine interact with well you may not
be familiar is the counterpart to this
the Kappa opioid system dine or Fionn is
responsible for that feeling of
dysphoria it is the opposite of
endorphin the discomfort experienced
from intense exercise heat stress or
even eating spicy foods is due to the
release of that dysphoric opioid Dyne
orphan it is the release of Dyne orphan
that causes your new opioid receptors to
become sensitized to that feel-good
opioid endorphin hyperthermia from sauna
use increases Dyne orphan levels and
subsequently endorphin levels even more
than exercise alone did you retain all
that awesomeness I just threw it you
okay let's have a quick recap heat
acclamation through sauna use a term I
call hyperthermic conditioning has been
shown to improve endurance by increasing
nutrient delivery to your muscles and
thereby reducing the need for glycogen
stores by improving
vascular mechanisms and reducing heart
rate and also by improving thermo
regulatory mechanisms and lowering core
body temperature it's been shown to
improve muscle hypertrophy by the by
preventing protein degradation and
thereby causing a net increase in
protein synthesis from the pulp
following three mechanisms one by
inducing the expression of heat shock
proteins which also are induced from a
hormetic response that has been shown to
improve longevity and lower organisms
secondly by increasing the release of
growth hormone and thirdly by improving
insulin sensitivity hyperthermic
conditioning through sauna use also has
important positive effects on the brain
it increases the release and the storage
of norepinephrine which is important for
focus and attention it increases
prolactin which helps your brain
function faster through myelination
which is also important for repairing
damaged nerve cells in addition
increases BDNF which increases the
growth of new brain cells it is
important for learning and memory and
also helps decrease depression and
anxiety that's associated with early
stressful events lastly it also
increases the expression of dine orphan
which sensitizes your body to the
feel-good and orphan I believe that
hyperthermic conditioning in general is
worth a closer look as a tool in the
tool bit of athletes beyond its more
traditional role as a means of
relaxation because hyperthermic
conditioning works by inducing stress in
order to build stress tolerance it
should definitely be used with some
level of caution and common sense
particularly with regards to your own
unique body chemistry here's one more
thing for you CrossFit people out there
heat stress has been shown to increase
the expression of heme oxygenase one
which as it turns out is also known as
heat shock protein 32 and has been shown
to protect against the toxic effects of
rhabdomyolysis in rodents
I'm dr. Rhonda Patrick and I'll catch
you next time
you