Not much direct science exists investigating the effects of Parkinson and infrared sauna use. However, what will be clear after my reading of the scientific literature in this area, is that infrared saunas are certainly very promising as they directly engage with many risk factors related to Parkinson’s disease.
I’ll explore the basics of Parkinson’s and interrelated risk factors in the next section. Then, I’ll tell you how existing research suggests infrared saunas deal with Parkinson's risk factors.
Let’s start with the basics:
Parkinson’s Disease Basics And Risk Factors
Parkinson’s disease is chronic and irreversible right now (1; 2; 3; 4; 5). Parkinson’s is what is called a “neurodegenerative disease” - which translates into the deterioration of the nervous system, in plain English.
Parkinson’s targets a specific brain signalling compound or “neurotransmitter” called “dopamine”. Dopamine is necessary for motivation, creativity, abstract and outside-the-box thinking, and pleasure-seeking (without necessarily the reward). Motor ability is also affected by Parkinson’s disease and the most obvious sign someone is affected is if no prescription medication is taken.
The most common symptoms are tremors (shaking muscles in rest), stiffness, the inability to initiate movement or stop it, and a deteriorating posture. Prescription medication like L-dopa reduces the intensity of these symptoms or fully removes them.
Changes in a brain area called the “substantia nigra” - that controls for dopamine - is the underlying physiological reason for Parkinson's. For that reason, it’s only logical that the disease has other side effects such as depression, anxiety, and problems with cognition.
I’ll come back to these symptoms later.
Genetics plays a role in the development of Parkinson’s, but not a huge role (6; 7; 8; 9). Ageing and being of the male gender also increase the risk of getting the condition.
Other risk factors are, believe it or not, being a non-smoker, a non-caffeine consumer, chronic constipation, familiar history of neurological disorders, and having a resting tremor (shaking of a body part). However, here’s where I’ll focus on more in the rest of this blog post: pesticide exposure is also a risk factor that is quite prominent.
More research is needed regarding these risk factors though, although, preliminary evidence is quite clear that things like comorbidities and pesticide exposure play a significant role. Pesticide use, in some studies, is in fact the largest contributor. Of course, the more risk factors you have, the greater the risk.
Other studies show heavy metal exposure as a risk factor - which I’ll return to soon (10). Exposure to oils and generalized anaesthesia are risk factors too.
Conclusion? Toxin exposure in general is a risk factor. I’ll return to that topic in a second, but first, let’s explore studies on Parkinson's and saunas specifically:
