How Long Should You Sauna To Boost The Immune System?

How Long Should You Sauna To Boost The Immune System?

In this blog post, I talk about how long you should use a sauna to boost the immune system. This blog post is part of a series on the health benefits of infrared saunas. There I’ve considered how long you should use a sauna for different purposes, such as heart health or joint problems.

Today the specialisation is the human immune system. I’ve written several detailed blog posts on saunas and the immune system in the past, such as:

Today I’ll touch on many of these topics but from a very different perspective: the optimal time to spend inside a sauna. Lots of research has investigated the benefits of sauans for the immune system and uses specific protocols that have proven results. I’ll explore that research today.

How Long Should You Sauna For The Immune System

Depending on your goal, you should sauna for different periods of time for boosting the immune system. For instance, if you want to increase white blood cell count - the basic cell of the immune system - then a 15-minute sauna session is already good enough.

If you want to prevent respiratory disease in general though. For respiratory diseases in general and disease such as pneumonia or COVID in particular, it’s best to build up to four weekly sauna sessions per week. These effects are exclusively preventive so once you get ill I don’t recommend using a sauna at all. 

Make sure to build up to four weekly sauna sessions slowly over time though. And if you’ve got a chronic health condition, consult your physician first before engaging in intense sauna sessions.

Want to know all the details? Then keep reading the full blog post on the sauna and immune system benefits:

Infrared Sauna Immune System Benefits: Are Infrared Saunas Good For The Immune System?

In this section I’ll tell you how saunas aid the immune system in working more effectively and efficiently. But before I can do that, let’s first consider some immune system basics:

Immune System Basics

The immune system in biology - especially the human one - is ingenious. That immune system has many working parts but at the very core it can be subdivided into two main parts that interact: the innate and adaptive immune systems (1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7). 

That immune system doesn’t stand alone but interacts with your day and night cycle (circadian biology), your gut microbiome, the food you eat, your brain, and so forth. The immune system also interacts with the outside world constantly and it learns from these interactions. You might even say that the immune system thinks of its own because it draws lessons from previous invaders.

At the most basic level, the role of the immune system is to distinguish between the self and the non-self. Bacteria, viruses, or allergens need to be distinguished by that immune system from your own cells. Often, that goes correctly. 

And when that invader is strong enough, you might get sick temporarily until the invaders are overcome. As a result, the adaptive immune system creates a memory of that invader so that it can be swiftly death with in the future. 

Sometimes, however, the immune system also draws incorrect conclusions. In that case it falsely accuses your own cells to be invaders - so it incorrectly identifies the “self” as “non-self”. This incorrect conclusion then results in pathologies such as Multiple Sclerosis, Psoriasis, Lupus, and so forth.

So next up, let’s explore how saunas aid immune function at the fundamental level:

Saunas And The Immediate Immune Response

Fortunately, multiple studies exist that examine the effects of saunas on the immune system (8; 9). A 15-minute sauna sessions already boosts the immune response. After that session, there was an increase in white blood cells in the immune system. White blood cells - also called “leukocytes” - are the most basic type of cell of the immune system. 

After those 15 minutes of sauna, different types of white blood cells increased in quantity. These are basophils, lymphocytes, and neutrophils. All these immune cells play a different role in the immune system. Noteworthy was that athletes saw the biggest increase in their white blood cells compared to non-athletes.

In the long-run, additional immune system benefits exist. Over time, the immune response to saunas is extremely complex, with many different cells and moving parts either inhibited or stimulated. 

Instead of talking about the very complex specifics of these moving parts within the immune system, I’d rather focus on outcome for different diseases. I do want to explore one aspect of saunas and the immune system further though - the so-called “heat shock proteins”:

Sauna, Heat Shock Proteins, And Immunity

Saunas have a huge effect on the “heat shock proteins” in your body (10; 11; 12; 13; 14; 15; 16; 17; 18: 19). Many animal and human studies show this effect. Heat shock proteins are like a thermostat in your body that senses both low and high temperatures. That thermostat can then sound the alarm bell and initiate a cascade of physiological reactions to protect your body against overheating or undercooling.

As a temporary stressor, those heat shock proteins have massive effects on your overall health. Activating these heat shock proteins regularly has benefits for countering heart problems, diabetes, dementia and Alzheimer’s, and other diseases. However, the heat shock proteins also have significant effects on the immune system.

In turn, heat shock proteins also have huge effects on the immune response (20; 21; 22; 23; 24). Activating heat shock proteins can activate immune cells such as lymphocytes and macrophages. Also, levels of messenger cells in the immune system called “cytokines” can be changed through the heat shock proteins. 

And, heat shock proteins may play a role in autoimmunity or the protection agains them. More direct research is needed in humans between the link of heat shock proteins and autoimmune diseases but currently, theoretical projections assume the likelihood is high that there’s a link between them. The same is true for cancer - there’s a promising likely link but more research needs to be carried out here (25; 26; 27: 28).

Whole Body Hyperthermia, Inflammation, And The Immune System

As you already know, hyperthermia - or “overheating” - has an effect on the immune system. And that’s especially true for a protocol called “whole body hyperthermia”. In the whole body hyperthermia protocol, your body is heated to the maximum extent in a 40-90 minute period while your head is cooled. That protocol has large consequences for the immune system as well (29; 30; 31; 32).

The biggest takeaway so far is that a single 15-minute session in a hot regular sauna or an infrared sauna is sufficient to boost your immune system. Over time, these changes also accumulate. So even after a 10-week period of three weekly sauna sessions, the heating of your body continues to affect the immune system.

Let’s move on to the next topic:

How Saunas Help Boost The Immune System Against Common Pathologies Such As The Flu Or COVID

Below I’ll consider the effects saunas have on different pathologies. Not only do I consider the common cold but also COVID, a few autoimmune conditions, and more:

Does A Sauna Help Against The Common Cold And The Flu Viruses?

Currently, there’s evidence that spending time frequently inside a sauna prevents a common cold. But, once you have a cold, sauna time doesn’t make it go away quicker (33; 34; 35; 36; 37).

Several studies have looked at whether sauna time improves the course of a common cold and there’s no evidence for benefit. There might be slight benefit of spending time inside the sauna for nasal congestion though - so countering one of the most frequent symptoms of common cold.

Nevertheless, what I really recommend is not engaging in intensive sauna sessions if you’re sick from a cold. With a mild cold it’s still okay to do a mild, non-intensive sauna session. But if you’re really sick from a cold or from the flu, it’s highly recommended not to engage in intensive sauna sessions. Doing so can set you back and ensure you take longer to recover.

For a cold, preferably use an infrared sauna for 15 minutes to clear the nose. Don’t stay in longer because you might make recovery worse.

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