What about tanning (or tanning studios)? I know there's a big difference between a sauna and a tanning studio, but since we're talking about heating up the body, would it have the same effect? (...despite causing skin cancer)
A sauna does not heat up the body enough to trigger protein denaturation (unless you get locked in and die, which happens to be among my worst nightmares).
Core temperature is tightly regulated, as well. It should be 37degC. Plus or minus just 2 degrees will severely impair function, plus or minus 5 degrees is reason to call 911.
Our mammalian bodies go to great lengths to keep our cells at a stable temperature to prevent protein denaturation from killing our cells. Our first line of defense for thermostasis is our circulatory system (to carry extra heat energy away from overheated organs towards the surface where it can dissipate), combined with sweating (to allow evaporative phase change to cool the blood near the skin).
One can argue whether sweating in this context does or does not also carry off toxins. But in addition to its thermoregulatory role, increased circulation is one of the body's natural healing mechanisms. (Out of control increased circulation causing tissue damage is one of the reasons we ice injuries.) It delivers oxygen and nutrients to our cells. Increased circulation in the sauna may be giving the body the chance to deliver more of these things and to repair cells and organs at a higher rate than it might otherwise.
I am not a scientist but I think there is a problem in the article that you are correctly (IMO) pointing out.
It is that the notion of temperature has not the same meaning at molecular level and at macro level.
I also appreciated the dynamic progression indicator at the top of the page. Some of these journal articles are organized and written such that there is no end in sight -
it's hard to intuitively know where you are in the article, if you are nearly the buried results/conclusion, etc. The simply indicator tracks progress through the article without having to glance at the oft-invisible right-side scrollbar.
[+] [-] kapuru|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] matt4077|8 years ago|reply
Core temperature is tightly regulated, as well. It should be 37degC. Plus or minus just 2 degrees will severely impair function, plus or minus 5 degrees is reason to call 911.
[+] [-] galfarragem|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] twobyfour|8 years ago|reply
One can argue whether sweating in this context does or does not also carry off toxins. But in addition to its thermoregulatory role, increased circulation is one of the body's natural healing mechanisms. (Out of control increased circulation causing tissue damage is one of the reasons we ice injuries.) It delivers oxygen and nutrients to our cells. Increased circulation in the sauna may be giving the body the chance to deliver more of these things and to repair cells and organs at a higher rate than it might otherwise.
[+] [-] adrianN|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Errorcod3|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Shivetya|8 years ago|reply
does this give us the upper limit of the sources we can convert?
[+] [-] JPLeRouzic|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] retox|8 years ago|reply
>The proteins that unravel as the temperature starts to rise turn out to be among the most vital.
[+] [-] iplaw|8 years ago|reply