3-Tip Friday on Strengthening your Immune System: From Saunas to Cold Showers to Exposing yourself to the Sun
Autophagy is a process that occurs in the body when cells start self-eating to eliminate pathogens and strengthen the immune system. The body basically recognizes damaged cells and recycles them. Autophagy is triggered in response to negative stressors like infections, physical strain, starvation and certain compounds in the environment such as phytochemicals.
However, positive stressors can also be used to boost this autophagy, such as cold exposure, heat exposure, regular sunlight, regular exercise, a healthy diet and sleep among others.
In today’s 3-Tip Friday, we’re going to have a look at how heat exposure therapy such as saunas, cold exposure therapy such as cold showers, and regular sunlight are some of the best and most efficient ways to boost your immune system and optimize your overall health.
1. Saunas or Heat Exposure
Saunas are a super healthy way to flush your body from toxins and infections by boosting your lymphatic drainage and blood circulation. They not only decrease your risk of cardiovascular and neurocognitive diseases and ameliorate conditions such as arthritis and pulmonary issues, but also strengthen the immune system and reduce inflammation in the body. A recent study even demonstrated that just one single Finnish sauna already gives the immune system a significant boost, the effect being even more pronounced in athletes.
Healthy cardiovascular, neurological and immune system health benefits of saunas:
What’s more, both the traditional and infrared sauna kill pathogens due to their high heat, making it a perfect remedy for prevention in the flu (corona!) season. Going to the sauna between 2 and 4 times per week seems to reap the most health benefits.
2. Cold showers or Cold Exposure
Cold exposure has similar effects to heat exposure but is still a practice of its own in several ways. Similar to sauna bathing, cold exposure – in the form of either taking a cold shower, a cold plunge, or being surrounded by cold air – is an immune system enhancer. Specifically, cold exposure induces leukocytosis and granulocytosis, meaning an increase in the number and activity of your ‘natural killer cells’, white blood cells that kill tumor and virus-infected cells. It also decreases pro-inflammatory agents while at the same time increasing anti-inflammatory agents.
What’s more, besides immune system strengthening, cold exposure is great for burning fat. It achieves this by increasing the amount of brown adipose tissue, or BAT, which is healthy fat that helps you generate heat to keep yourself warm and does this by burning your white adipose tissue (WAT), the regular fat found on your stomach, butt, hips, and legs. So cold exposure makes more brown fat which then helps you burn more white fat.
Other benefits of cold exposure are that it decreases stress while improving your alertness and mood thanks to the stimulated release of one of the body’s natural anti-depressants noradrenaline (or norepinephrine). It also increases metabolism, cellular longevity, and has been found to improve muscle recovery and reduce pain.
Taking daily cold showers is a great way to implement this: just a few minutes are enough, turning your shower knob from hot to cold gradually is already a great start. Bonus tip: focus on your breath, making it very deep and controlled will help in keeping calm during the initial cold shock and actually make the cold quite enjoyable.
2. Regular Exposure to Sunlight
Nowadays, we’re often told to stay out of the sun as much as possible because the sun is a major factor contributing to skin cancer. However, the most bioavailable source of Vitamin D is in those very sunrays: we need the sun (in moderation of course). Sunlight affects our circadian rhythm – in other words, our biological clock – which controls the timing of our daily cycles of alertness, sleep and wake, mood, appetite, hormone regulation, and body temperature.
Simply put, every organ in our body has its own biological clock, and all biological clocks throughout the body are synchronized. The immune system thus also has its own biological clocks, which when disturbed, disrupt the immune system.
One of the factors that disturb our circadian rhythm and hence our immune system is artificial blue light, meaning basically all standard indoor lighting. Through this dysregulation, artificial blue light has been found to increase the risk of breast and prostate cancer (only hormone-regulated cancers since it disturbs hormone regulation), stress, heart disease, obesity, and diabetes. Thus, for optimum health, it’s important to let our circadian rhythm know the correct time of day: you can best achieve this by getting a good dose of sunlight in the morning, so your body understands it should set its circadian rhythm on morning time. A half-hour walk, a run, or some outdoor stretching or yoga are great options to achieve this.
In fact, the more sun you get in the morning, the more melatonin you make at night. Since melatonin is the main hormone your body uses to induce sleep, this may naturally improve your sleep and wake cycle. Also, receiving the full spectrum of UVA, UVB, near-infrared, and far-infrared light from the sun can mitigate some of the damage that artificial light does to your body during the rest of the day.
That’s right, it’s time to implement some pleasurably peaceful morning walks or short activities outdoors before starting off your busy indoor day…
Conclusion
In order to strengthen your immune system, there are many health hacks you can implement, including cold and heat exposure, regular (morning) sunlight, a healthy diet, adequate sleep, and regular exercise.
Saunas are a great form of heat exposure that boosts your lymphatic and blood circulation and thereby also your immune system, killing off pathogens and preventing many neurological and cardiovascular diseases. 2-4 saunas per week are recommended for maximal health benefits.
Cold showers or plunges are a great form of cold exposure, being anti-inflammatory to your immune system, boosting alertness and your metabolism, all the while burning fat and lowering stress. A few minutes of cold goodness a day will definitely get the job done.
Sunlight plays a major role in regulating your circadian rhythm, and thereby also your immune system. It’s crucial to allow your body to synchronize its circadian rhythm throughout the body: this can be achieved by limiting your artificial blue light exposure (especially towards the evening) and getting some regular sunlight during the day, especially in the morning.
