In a recent study of adults struggling with depression, a therapeutic approach combining infrared sauna sessions with cognitive behavioral therapy led to meaningful improvements in mental health
The potential mental health benefits of sweating in a sauna just got a substantial scientific boost.
In a recent study out of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), researchers found that the combination of whole-body heating (via infrared sauna) and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) was effective for patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). So effective, in fact, that 86.2% of participants no longer met the criteria for MDD after the trial.
The study, published in the journal Global Advances in Integrative Medicine and Health, used the Clearlight Curve Far Infrared Sauna Dome, which uses light to generate heat. Over the course of eight weeks, the 29 participants attended weekly virtual CBT sessions, and bi-weekly sauna sessions.
“That 25 of 29 participants (86.2 %) saw meaningful reductions in depression symptoms, regardless of infrared heating level, tells us that we have more work to do, but sends a positive and hopeful message,” said the study‘s lead author Dr. Ashley Mason, a clinical psychologist at the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Health. “It reinforces that we have much to learn about how heat therapy and traditional psychotherapy might work together.”
More than 75% of the participants said they would recommend the treatment to a friend or family member with depression.
This is Mason’s third study testing the efficacy of infrared sauna therapy on depression. In a previous trial of people with depression, Mason also found that the whole-body heating sessions combined with CBT led to clinically meaningful reductions in depression symptoms, with 11 of the 16 participants no longer meeting criteria for MDD. In the study, participants’ core body temperatures were raised to 101.3 degrees Fahrenheit, which took about 90 minutes to reach.
In a 2021 trial, Mason also found similar results among people who were not diagnosed with depression, with data showing significant improvements in mood and nearly statistically significant improvements in depression symptoms.
During a recent webinar hosted by the Global Wellness Institute, Mason explained why the combined mind-body approach to therapy might be so effective for those struggling with depression.
“When you go in a sauna or do some kind of heat therapy, you heat up,” Mason explained. “As soon as you exit the heat, you have a rebound temperature lowering.”
That drop in temperature is what Mason believes contributes to a dip in depressive symptoms.
“People with depression tend to run hotter,” Mason noted. Heat therapy forces the body to turn on its cooling mechanisms and combat that higher body temperature, in addition to the calming and relaxing atmosphere a sauna creates for the mind.
“We have largely edited meaningful thermal stress out of our lives,” she added. “We are always the same temperature.”
