Dr. Peter Attia has always helped his followers through his podcast, for the overall improvement of their health. He has had many fitness gurus on his show, and back in 2023, he was once invited by Dr. Rhonda Patrick, where both of them discussed various complex scientific topics. The doctors also focused on an intriguing subject, which is the possible brain benefits of sauna, according to her personal experience with it.
Attia is aware of her being a sauna fanatic, though he was interested in knowing how she incorporates it into her workout schedule.
Apart from going for a dry sauna, she also reveals that she does hot tubing frequently, and both of these forms of heat shock protein respond to stress conditions and give a huge boost to brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which is essential for learning and memory. Dr. Rhonda further describes her personal preference while trying out these heat stress methods, as she says:
“I often…in the sauna, I like to read scientific papers or listen to podcasts like ‘The Drive’…there’s only a couple of podcasts that I have ever listened to.”
She then reflects on her daily routine, which begins with her morning workout and ends with her sauna session. However, Dr. Rhonda also keeps a paper or any kind of presentation in her mind, as this whole procedure helps her memorize the content in them much better, as the memory is crystal clear to her while recalling any significant topic.
Attia was more interested in knowing about her sauna preferences, as she says:
“Generally speaking if I go right after I do my Tabata session, I probably stay in about 20 to 25 minutes and my temperature is like 175 degree Fahrenheit. If I’m not going right after a training session then I’ll stay in longer than 30 minutes…and my temperature will be 175, 180 sometimes.”
Dr. Rhonda also recalls that she used to go to saunas with greater temperatures of around 190 degrees, which made it tough for her because she suffered from headaches and dehydration. Aside from her usual experience with heat stress procedures, Attia wanted to know how she responded to this method during her pregnancy.
Dr. Peter Attia’s Major Doubt Regarding Saunas
The question posed by Peter Attia prompted Rhonda Patrick to reminisce about her tour in Finland when she first discovered she was pregnant. It was also the time when she was traveling around looking for saunas to gain a thorough understanding of the procedures. She recalls how, in the beginning, she indulged in saunas, but after she returned home from Finland, she stopped doing so.
Dr. Rhonda states that pregnant women should avoid hot tubs since they can raise the risk of fetal alcohol syndrome and potentially neural tube abnormalities. Even after her pregnancy, she waited over six months to return to saunas, but she never stopped exercising during that period.
