Dr. Rhonda Patrick on Heat Exposure
What does Dr. Rhonda Patrick have to say about the benefits of heat exposure?
“What is that doing? Well, that is actually kicking on a physiological response that is in many ways very similar to moderate-intensity aerobic exercise because when you’re exposed to the ambient increases in temperature, you are elevating your core body temperature, which is what’s happening with physical activity.
Your heart rate increases, your plasma flow increases, your stroke volume increases. All these things that are happening during physical exercise are happening during this deliberate heat exposure.
And so there’s somewhat of a mimicking effect of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise. And there have actually been studies that have compared that head to head. They’ve looked at being on a stationary cycle doing, not anything crazy, but like 120 watts, and then comparing that to sitting in a sauna for 20 minutes, so doing each of those for 20 minutes. And they were comparable in terms of heart rate elevation during the physical activity or during the heat exposure—the changes in blood pressure during the activity and then the improvements after.
Blood pressure improved after the stationary cycling. Blood pressure improved after the deliberate heat exposure. Resting heart rate improved after the stationary cycling, and resting heart rate improved after the deliberate heat exposure."