 Well, as I often talk about, one of the best things you can do for your health is uncouple your mitochondria. There are many ways to do this, like eating pistachios, swallowing polyphenols, taking MCT oil, and ice bath, to name a few. But one of my personal favorite ways to uncouple mitochondria, and that is support our longevity, is regular sauna use. This has become even easier thanks to my new infrared sauna. Saunas are widely available and may even be free to use at your local health club, so they're a great option for temperature-induced hormesis. And if you're not a fan of the sweaty part or sitting around half naked with a bunch of strangers, you can get a similar effect and even more benefits for your mitochondria from an infrared sauna. The brand I decided to go to for my personal use is Sunlighten. They have been committed to helping others with their products for nearly 25 years, really long before the sauna craze was even heard of. Now why do this? Well, first of all, these saunas have great benefits. Number one right up on the top of the list is uncoupling mitochondria. Using temperatures you might experience in a sauna can uncouple your mitochondria. First of all, the heat. Hormesis is a short-term stress that also has healing benefits. The word hormesis first got coined from Nietzsche's famous line, that which doesn't kill me makes me stronger. So hormesis is using a stressor to get a benefit from that stressor. And heat actually stresses your mitochondria. The weak ones or the non-functioning ones die off while the others uncouple and divide. And there's excellent studies to show that this happens. Now sunlighten saunas are proven to raise body temperature by up to three degrees in human clinical studies. But it's the near-infrared exposure that's really exciting. A paper in the Journal of Phytochemistry and Phytobiology explained that red light therapy might increase the number of mitochondria via multiple mechanisms, including mitochondrial and coupling. Now exercise will uncouple mitochondria. Multiple exercise seems to globally stimulate mitochondrial and coupling, leading to a remodeling of skeletal muscle cell physiology. But infrared saunas sessions raise your heart rate and increase circulation. And this replicates a cardiovascular work. We turn passive cardio. In fact, blood flow during infrared sauna use may raise from a normal rate of about five to seven liters or quarts per minute to up to 13 quarts per minute, 13 liters per minute. Basically a doubling of your cardiac output. And this is human studies. Now an additional benefit that many people have used sauna for generations is that it can loosen up your muscles. Now red light and near-infrared light can help build muscles and decrease inflammation and oxidative stress. The heat of infrared increases circulation and blood flow. Now obviously red blood cells carry oxygen and nutrients to the site of a strain or inflammation, which actually helps create new blood vessels and tissues at the site. So the more red blood cells that get delivered to your muscles, the quicker they rebuild. And since white blood cells are the clean-up agents, the more white blood cells you deliver to your muscles from increasing blood flow, the quicker the inflammation gets cleaned up. Now there's more to it than just that. A study conducted at Auburn University of Montgomery showed a sunlight and impulse sauna can increase your flexibility by up to three times. Benefits in the study showed an increased range of motion, including joint mobility, less friction in the joints, and diminished stiffness and joint relaxation. Again, a published study in humans. With his increase in flexibility, you can expect a decrease risk of injury because the less stress is placed on the muscles if moving properly. Now all of this can have energy boosting effects, including helping to alleviate fatigue symptoms, mostly because of its ability to support circulation and dilated blood vessels. In one study of patients suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome, symptoms were dramatically improved after 15 to 25 sessions of thermal therapy. Why? Because among other things, red and near-infrared therapy support mitochondrial function and the efficient production of ATP through cellular respiration, another published study. Now the nice thing that I like about infrared saunas, they operate at a much lower temperature than traditional saunas. And with a sun-lightened sauna, you don't have to wait for the sauna to heat up because the infrared energy makes you heat up rather than the air around you heat up. This temperature difference allows you to leave the sauna feeling refreshed rather than drained. In other words, you get to enjoy the experience rather than endure the experience. And if you've ever endured saunas, particularly after skiing or at the gym, you'll know that one of the feelings you get is certainly not one of thoroughly enjoying the experience, but kind of suffering through the experience to get the benefit later. In this case, you actually get to enjoy the experience. And oh, by the way, we can pipe in music in our sauna to really enhance the experience. Now infrared saunas can give cardiovascular systems the same boost as exercising. And that's because your cardiac output goes up, your blood vessels dilate. And that's a great thing. Now when exposed to the stresses of extreme heat, cells engage in coordinated adaptive measures that stimulate them to clean up, repair, restore themselves. And that's what the hormesis response is. One of the benefits of frequent sauna use that's been documented in sauna-using countries is that it appears to be protective against cardiovascular and neurodegenerative disease. That's pretty good. In fact, repeated sauna use is shown to preserve muscle mass and countering sarcopenia in humans. Now to do all that, you can spend time in a sauna or a steam room. You can get a near-infrared or red light sauna for your home use, like sunlight. You can take a hot yoga class or, quite frankly, come and visit me in Palm Springs in the summer. I guarantee you, you will get a hot experience. But there's an easy way that I used to use all the time. That is, take a nice hot bath to enjoy sampling these benefits and take it before you go to bed. Recent studies show that a hot bath relieves mild depression better than antidepressants. In a hot bath before bedtime, it will make you drop your temperature, which will induce a better and deeper sleep. Now get into the bathtub with the bathtub warm, and then once you're acclimated, let water out and add hotter and hotter water. You'll achieve the same hormetic effects as long as you're sweating in the bathtub. Now you hear about cold showers, but it goes both ways. Exposing your body to cold and hot temperatures can support a long, vital life. And get yourself a sauna. I love my sunlight and sauna, but if you don't have one and want some benefits, fill that bathtub full of hot water before you go to bed and watch the benefits. And you may notice that those benefits will translate into you looking into a sauna for long-term use like I did.