Heat Shock Proteins: How Saunas Boost Your Health

If you’ve looked into the health benefits of saunas, it’s likely you’ve heard about heat shock proteins (HSPs). Heat shock proteins are protective molecules that help maintain cellular health by preventing and repairing damage from stressors like toxins, inflammation, and physical damage.

Continue reading to learn everything you need to know about heat shock proteins and how to use saunas to benefit from them!

What Are Heat Shock Proteins?

Heat shock proteins are a group of specialized molecules (called chaperones) that play a crucial role in maintaining cellular health. Italian scientist Ferruccio Ritossa discovered them in 1962 after exposing fruit flies to elevated temperatures. He noticed a change in the expression of the flies’ chromosomes, which were later discovered to be the production of heat shock proteins.

HSPs stabilize proteins, repair misfolded proteins, and help degrade damaged and denatured proteins. (And while “degrade” tends to be a negatively connotated word, it is a beneficial process in this case.)

You can think of heat shock proteins as the body’s emergency responders on a cellular level. They are akin to white blood cells in that sense but function to protect your body from internal cellular damage (such as the accumulation of misfolded or damaged proteins), while WBCs function to protect your body from external threats (such as bacteria and viruses).

HSPs are vital for normal cellular function, protein folding, and protecting against various internal and external stressors.

How Saunas Trigger Heat Shock Proteins

Saunas create the perfect environment to activate HSPs by subjecting the body to controlled heat stress. The elevated temperatures in a sauna create mild yet beneficial stress on the body. This is known as hyperthermia and mimics natural heat exposure. (This is safe as long as your body temperature isn’t excessively elevated or for a prolonged duration. In fact, your body enters a state of hyperthermia when you have a fever or partake in strenuous exercise, so it’s a normal physiological response.)

It’s worth noting that heat shock proteins are present in our bodies even without regular sauna use. Our cells maintain HSP production to aid in regular cell maintenance even in normal, non-stressed conditions. But even though we already possess HSPs, heat exposure upregulates them by up to 50% and helps protect against protein denaturation and excessive oxidative stress.

Even though we already have heat shock proteins, we can always benefit from producing more. Luckily, we can achieve that by using saunas, which trigger the production of intracellular heat shock proteins from the stress response.

The Role of Heat Shock Proteins in the Body

HSPs serve as the body’s defense mechanism at the cellular level and ensure proteins remain healthy and functional under various conditions—namely, under stress. Without them, cells suffer from dysfunction. Heat shock proteins protect against cellular damage and play an essential role in our body’s ability to maintain homeostasis.

How Heat Shock Proteins Protect Our Cells

Before we talk about unhealthy or damaged proteins, we need to talk about healthy and functional proteins. Our bodies are made of proteins, which are three-dimensional structures that are essential to our body’s proper functioning. When proteins don’t achieve their proper 3D shapes, they don’t fit where they’re supposed to and can’t execute their proper functions.

One way proteins fail to achieve their proper shapes is by “misfolding” or experiencing other types of damage. Proteins can become misfolded or damaged when exposed to stressors like environmental toxins or chronic inflammation.

Heat shock proteins alter the level of molecular chaperones involved in restoring protein homeostasis and refold these proteins to their correct shape or move them to the cell’s degradation systems for safe removal—a process called proteolysis. 

Proteolysis is a Greek-derived word that can be broken down into “proteo-,” meaning “protein,” and “-lysis,” meaning “to break down.” This might sound bad, but HSPs only do this to damaged or misfolded proteins. This prevents the accumulation of dysfunctional proteins and allows our bodies to replace them with healthy ones.

Why Heat Shock Proteins Are Essential for Longevity

Healthy cells are the key to longevity, and HSPs ensure cellular vitality. Their ability to maintain, repair, and discard damaged proteins has direct links to the aging process. Studies suggest that organisms with higher levels of HSPs tend to live longer, as these proteins reduce cellular wear and tear.

Over time, the accumulation of cellular damage leads to aging, but by enhancing HSP production, you might slow down this process and extend both your healthspan and lifespan. 

HSPs are so effective at extending healthspan and lifespan, they have shown promise both preclinically and clinically in the treatment of cancer! Even more astoundingly, that same study points out that HSPs show benefits “especially when traditional cancer therapies fail.”

Heat Shock Proteins Fight Inflammation and Illness

Chronic inflammation is at the root of many diseases that span from heart disease to autoimmune disorders. HSPs reduce cellular stress and prevent cell damage, which can lower levels of inflammation throughout the body. 

Sauna-induced heat shock protein activation stimulates macrophages to suppress inflammation. (Macrophages are “a type of white blood cell that surrounds and kills microorganisms, removes dead cells, and stimulates the action of other immune system cells.” Therefore, upregulating them is beneficial to our immune system.)

Heat Shock Proteins and the Immune System

The benefits of saunas on your immune system have been validated by modern science for many years. Saunas enhance the body’s ability to manage cellular stress, and one of the ways is that HSPs help maintain an effecient immune response.

When it comes to many immune-boosting therapies, they tend to be most effective with bacterial infections, but fall short when fighting against viruses. However, this study found that “heat shock proteins can both inhibit viral proliferation and aid viral survival in host cells, with potential uses in antiviral therapy.”

Heat shock proteins are so beneficial to immunity, this study concluded that “the immunological properties of HSPs enable them to be used in new immunotherapies of cancers and infections.”

The Neuroprotective Role of Heat Shock Proteins

The brain is especially vulnerable to stress, and heat shock proteins play an essential role in protecting neurons from damage. This study found that “heat shock proteins, like HSP70, can protect the brain from ischemic injury and neurodegenerative diseases by enhancing synaptic protection.”

HSPs and their neuroprotective properties have been linked to reduced risks of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimers and Parkinsons. By directly increasing HSP levels, saunas are a proactive way to support long-term brain health and potentially lower the risk of neurodegenerative conditions.

And while that merely suggests an indirect link, this study found that “moderate to high frequency of sauna bathing was associated with lowered risks of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.”

Implementing Sauna Into Your Wellness Routine

What’s the Best Temperature for Heat Shock Protein Production?

There are numerous suggestions for how hot a sauna needs to be in order to activate heat shock proteins. And many of them vary in temperature.

The Huberman Lab episode on deliberate heat exposure recommends a total of one hour per week divided over two to three sessions at a temperature of 176 to 212°F (80 to 100°C). 

This study examined the effects of heat therapy and HSP70 activation on insulin sensitivity, recommends a temperature between 176 and 212°F (80 and 100°C) for 15 minutes, three times per week.

This study found that “a higher core temperature and a longer duration of time spent with a rectal temperature 101.3°F (38.5°C) or higher was associated with a greater increase in HSP72.”

The key takeaway is that it’s the elevated core body temperature (i.e., “hyperthermia”) that causes our bodies to produce and upregulat heat shock proteins. Ultimately, this makes the ambient temperature less important than our core temperature.

So as long as you’re in a sauna hot enough and long enough for your body temperature to increase beyond our homeostatic 98.6°F (37°C), your body will reap the benefits of heat shock proteins.

How Often Should You Use a Sauna for Health Benefits?

For consistent health gains, including optimal HSP production, it is recommended to use a sauna two to three times per week. Regular use helps maintain elevated levels of HSPs, ensuring your cells are consistently protected and repaired.

Using a sauna regularly and often during your week has other health benefits, such as using a sauna to improve sleep quality and how to use saunas for immune health.

Check out our Listings page to find a sauna location near you!