Humans weren't optimized to endure the unnatural extreme heat of a 175 degree sauna, yet studies point to frequent sauna use being associated with a reduction in all-cause mortality
> yet studies point to frequent sauna use being associated with a reduction in all-cause mortality
Is this perhaps because frequent sauna access is correlated with higher socioeconomic status/less stress/more free time/etc. What kind of confounding factors did they include in that study?
Emerging evidence suggests a plausible mechanism is the "heat-shock response", which upregulates a lot of crap related to cleaning up misfolded (= aggregatey) proteins, like protein degradation and chaperone protein expression. Where most of these neurodegenerative diseases AD, PD, some dementias, CTE, prion diesases etc. involve protein aggregation at some point whether necessary-and-sufficient or just along for the ride. Like at this point if some kind of degenerative disease isn't thought to relate to protein aggregation, it's more likely nobody's bothered to look for it
Anecdotally/personally, it seems like there's kind of a step response going from "not cooked" to "cooked", the good stuff doesn't happen until you get "cooked" (ideally remaining that way for a while), and this seems to happen around a body temperature of 38.5-39C.
I don't think so. Saunas are economically available to almost everyone (where there is fuel). I grew up a yooper in Upper Michigan and saunas are a very common part of the culture and even folks without indoor plumbing (much less common now) would have wood-burning saunas in the back yard. Saunas are one of the most relaxing, and invigorating, experiences I know of.
Do you really think that the people who worked on this study didn't consider your knee-jerk level-1 confounding factor? Obviously they look socioeconomic status into account when they were studying all-cause mortality, what study wouldn't?
theLiminator|2 years ago
Is this perhaps because frequent sauna access is correlated with higher socioeconomic status/less stress/more free time/etc. What kind of confounding factors did they include in that study?
xkcd-sucks|2 years ago
Emerging evidence suggests a plausible mechanism is the "heat-shock response", which upregulates a lot of crap related to cleaning up misfolded (= aggregatey) proteins, like protein degradation and chaperone protein expression. Where most of these neurodegenerative diseases AD, PD, some dementias, CTE, prion diesases etc. involve protein aggregation at some point whether necessary-and-sufficient or just along for the ride. Like at this point if some kind of degenerative disease isn't thought to relate to protein aggregation, it's more likely nobody's bothered to look for it
Anecdotally/personally, it seems like there's kind of a step response going from "not cooked" to "cooked", the good stuff doesn't happen until you get "cooked" (ideally remaining that way for a while), and this seems to happen around a body temperature of 38.5-39C.
jabits|2 years ago
rylittle|2 years ago