How Long Should You Sauna For Detoxification Benefits?

How Long Should You Sauna For Detoxification Benefits?

Nowadays, humans are exposed to toxins almost everywhere. Whether you’re breathing in some toxins when filling up the gas tank of your car, lead from an overflying airplane, parabens in cosmetics that you put on your skin, and hormone disruptors in shampoos and hair conditioners.

Most people just want to live their lives and don’t want to worry about exposure to so many dangerous substances. And yet, if you’re reading this, you’re one of the few people who is probably concerned about excessive exposure to toxins. And, surprise, I’ve also a great tool in your health toolbox that will massively help you remove toxins from your body. That tool is an infrared sauna.

In this blog post, I’ll tell you exactly how long you should use a sauna for detoxification benefits. I’ve written extensively about this topic in the past, with blogs such as:

Today, I’ll refer back to some of these topics but mainly focus on the question of “how long should you use an infrared sauna for detoxification benefits” I’ll also tell you how to maximise the health benefits. Let’s start with a summary that gives you the basics of the optimal session time for using a sauna for detox:

Doesn’t Detoxification Happen Automatically? Why Do I Need To Spend Time In A Sauna?

Detoxification in the human body is like breathing. Sure, people breathe automatically but many people also breathe improperly as mouth breathing has become really problematic. Half of school children mouth breathe nowadays (1). And, while breathing is automatic, it’s not automatically proper.

Detoxification is similar to breathing. In a perfect world, your body would automatically detoxify substances that it shouldn’t be exposed to. In a perfect world, however, you’d also not live in a society where there are hundreds of thousands of new toxins introduced into the world that weren’t there a few hundred years ago. And, in a perfect world, you’d eat a well-rounded diet of organic foods and move and sweat a lot throughout the day so that your detoxification pathways are supported properly. But, you and I don’t live in a perfect world. 

Unfortunately, just like with mouth breathing, we need to learn how to detoxify properly. For you, that means 1) limiting exposure to toxins; 2) supporting the body’s natural ability to remove toxins. That process is no longer automatic as most of us no longer sweat a lot in our daily lives, don’t know what healthy toxin-free products are for skincare and our hair, and don’t automatically eat the right foods. Now here’s the deal:

Many different compounds can be eliminated from your body through sweating (2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10). These compounds include heavy metals such as nickel, mercury, arsenic, and cadmium, phthalates and Bisphenol-A from plastics, drugs such as the metabolites of alcohol and more dangerous compounds, prescription drugs, and more. And, sure, your body detoxifies internally as well. That internal system includes the liver, urinary system, and gastrointestinal system. Both systems are equally important. For both the internal and external systems (sweating) to work well, you’ll need optimal nutritional status.  And the problem here is that many people have nutritional deficiencies nowadays (11; 12; 13; 14; 15; 16; 17; 18; 19). Examples here are vitamin D, vitamin K, potassium and magnesium where 25-~95% of people have a deficiency. Which leads me to the next topic:

Why You Want To Remove Toxins Through Sweating In A Sauna

The solution here is to sweat profusely on a frequent basis. And, the best way to accomplish that feat is to spend time in an infrared sauna regularly. After just 5-10 minutes, you’ll start sweating like never before. And the experience is extremely gentle and relaxing, meaning that most people feel amazing after a session. Here the example of mouth breathing comes in once again: ideally every person would breathe through their nose. But once that behaviour is unlearned, we’ll have to help nature a hand and help someone breathe properly again. The same is true for detoxification: what normally didn’t need any active intervention we now need to direct so that you’ll get the proper results. Basically, the more you sweat, the more toxins are removed from the human body. And infrared saunas are the perfect tool to accomplish that. And sweating more is better, assuming you don’t get any side-effects.

So if you ask “how long should you sauna for detoxification benefits?” The answer here is that three 30-minute sessions per week in an infrared sauna are great already. But if you can accomplish six 45-minute sessions per week that would be far better even.  I’m assuming here that you recover properly and don’t place unnecessary stress on your body. Infrared saunas are like exercise in that they place temporary stress on your body. So if you’ve got health issues - especially multiple health conditions - then you’ll have to take things very slowly in the beginning.

Suffice it to say that the more you sweat, the more toxins you’ll remove from your body over time. So more is better, assuming that your health improves and you don’t get any side-effects. You may ask though: “but does my body really store toxins?” Let’s consider how that is the case below:

Does The Human Body Accumulate Toxins?

It turns out that some toxins are preferably stored in your body fat (20; 21; 22; 23). PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) are an example of that. PCBs were traditionally used in consumer products and are still stored in the body fat of many people. Sweating, in many studies, helps mobilise these toxins and removes them from the body permanently (24). But why do these toxins end up in your fat cells in the first place?

Often, the body is exposed to toxic elements. That used to be true when humans were hunter-gatherers and that’s still true today. However, today the levels of exposure you and I are getting is far greater than anyone ever had in history. Over time, if the initial internal detoxification systems of the human body cannot deal with the overload of toxins, many of these toxins will be stored in your body fat. The human brain is an example of that. Some toxins are also stored in your bones. And, over time, these toxins wreak havoc on your health as the function of many organ systems is impeded by them. Nevertheless, the human body chooses for the lesser evil in that regard. Instead of letting the toxins be processed by the liver and gastrointestinal system over and over again, or leaving the toxins in the bloodstream where they can do harm, the body stores them. And, your bones and fat tissues become the prime areas for storing toxins.

Creating a “garbage dump” type of place is thus a defense-mechanism for your body to prevent toxins from even doing more harm. The goal, of course, for you, is to remove these toxins from their storage and remove them from your body permanently. This blog post gives you the basics on how to do that. One of the most dangerous stored toxins are so-called “heavy-metals”, such as mercury, cadmium, nickel, and aluminum. Let’s explore these now:

Does The Human Body Accumulate Heavy Metals?

I’ve talked about some elements of the periodic table of Chemistry in this blog post before. For instance, your body needs potassium, magnesium, and many other minerals to function properly.  Heavy metals such as arsenic, mercury, nickel, and cadmium are also found on that periodic table. However, contrary to minerals such as magnesium and potassium there’s no function of these heavy metals in your body - their only effect is to deteriorate your health. And, the more of these heavy metals that are stored in your body, the worse your health becomes. 

Many government agencies have also reduced the cutoff points of “tolerable” exposure levels to these heavy metals throughout the decades. So a level in the blood and other tissues of lead in the 1960s was no longer considered safe in the 1980s. And, the current 1980s level that was accepted is no longer safe as well. There is overwhelming evidence that heavy metals are stored inside the human body, unfortunately (25; 26; 27; 28). The good news, however, is that you can remove these toxins from your body.

And, the more toxins you remove, the easier detoxification gets. Heavy metals and other toxins stored in the human body are a continuous stressor. When you remove these toxins, more energy is freed for other activities. So detoxification becomes easier over time - the beginning is the hardest part. So if you’ve got chronic health conditions and can only stay inside an infrared sauna for 15 minutes, that’s no problem. Three sessions of 15 minutes inside an infrared sauna will do amazing things for your health over time. You’ll start removing toxins from your body, freeing up precious energy for other processes. Ironically, the more energy that is freed up, the better your liver, urinary system, and gastrointestinal system can do their job removing incoming new toxins.

So you’re creating a virtuous cycle. In no time, you’ll be doing 30-minute sessions six times a week and enjoying it. And, while you were tired initially when you just started your infrared sauna detoxification journey, now you’re feeling more energetic than ever even after six sessions per week. But why should you worry about toxins in the first place? Many people ask me whether toxins really are that harmful? I’ll explore the health effects of toxins immediately:

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