Biohacking Basics: Brian Richard, Sauna and Light Therapy

Heat shock proteins as cellular special forces for detox and protein repair

Brian Richards explains how heat shock proteins are produced when cells are heated sufficiently, acting as cellular special forces that refold damaged proteins and cleanse toxins from every cell in the body, leading to a general reduction in disease risk.

"But when the heat shock proteins are produced, they go in and they refold them, make them beautiful again, and get them working perfectly. So when we do sauna in every cell of the body, we cleanse the"

First sauna use resolved chronic insomnia immediately

Richards shares his personal experience of complete insomnia resolution on his very first use of a near-infrared light bath before bed, followed by clearing of brain fog and skin issues over six months of regular use.

"It was very brick alage, you know, it was very ugly, and it was amazing. Like I consider in that, like we're literally one use before bed and I slept well, ma, insomnia is gone. So the same night I do The next night, I do the same thing, same result. I go to sleep quickly, wake up incredibly well rested, and I was like wow. So I continued to use it for six months, and it took about that much time, maybe a little less, but I had this slow awakening and realization that wow, I didn't even know I had brain fog before I actually did, because my mind was super clear, and my mood had changed, my positivity and my patience and just drive. And on top of that, my skin looked really awesome. That acne I had, it was only on the back of my body, like where my kidneys are, so that all went away and so like complete rejuvenation. And really all I was doing was just sitting in this thing, and I wasn't going to working out and taking a bunch of supplements, and it was really just this one thing. And there was also I did change my diet a little bit and kind of got away from eating a lot of bread and carbs and sort of you know, any of that process type stuff. But as a as one like healing practice that I was doing, and I was really blown away at how easy this was. And I looked around and there was no electric light bath, Like where is this son of technology? Why couldn't I have just purchased this?"

Sauna session equivalent to a 70-100 kilowatt workout

Richards describes how a good sauna session provides cardiovascular effort equivalent to a 70-100 kilowatt workout or a 20-minute run, making it a safe way to get exercise-like benefits while also facilitating fat loss through toxin release.

"It's really equivalent a good saua session's equivalent to like between a seventy and one hundred kilowatt workout, So that's that's like going on a good run for twenty minutes or something."

Near-infrared light penetrates deeper than red for brain therapy

Richards explains that regardless of the light source, when a near-infrared photon hits mitochondria it activates healing effects. Near-infrared penetrates deeper than red light, making it essential for brain therapy since it can pass through the skull.

"So if we want to do light therapy on our brains and nourish our brain and give it all this awesome healing, we have to use nearfread light, not red light."

BDNF and brain detox effects from sauna use

Richards discusses how sauna produces BDNF for brain health while also cleaning the brain of accumulated toxins like heavy metals and glyphosate, potentially helping prevent Alzheimer's and dementia.

"The BDNF effect is one effect. The other effects are just as important though, cleaning the brain of toxins. We're exposed to so much, you know, so many heavy metals and chemicals like round up, glyphosate and even like nanoparticles nowadays and plastic and just like that would mess up any other organ it also messes up the brain, and you know, like like Alzheimer's for example, can also be called type three diabetes. So it's also aspects of our diet lead to build up of pollution basically in the brain, and it doesn't work as well. So when we're detoxing the brain and improving blood flow to it, it also has, you know, this sort of collaborative effect on the nervous system. It's also very calmly to the nervous system. So you also see some research in using sauna to help people with neuropathy and people with neuro degenerated disease like fibromyalgia and things like that, where it's helping ameliorate symptoms and helping people just improve the functioning and the plasticity of the nervous system."

Finnish study shows sauna reduces all-cause mortality

Richards cites the Finnish sauna study showing regular sauna use reduces all-cause mortality and dementia risk, with three sessions per week providing an additional 30% reduction beyond weekly use, applicable to both traditional saunas and infrared mats.

"It's not just for like one problem or another in the in the health world, you know, no matter where you're at and what you're dealing with, sauna is going to help you. And so I'm referring to what's now like over twenty year study approaching thirty year study of thousands of finished mails where they were tracking cardiovascular disease and heart attacks, and they found that that was the case if you did some sauna a week, just one sauna on a week, and in each sauna session you want to raise core temperature three degrees fairynheight and sweat out one pound of water. But what they also found was that if you increase your frequency from one to three days a week, you reduced your all cosmortality another like thirty percent or more. Is this huge increase, So the more sauna per week is actually even better. And that study and some other studies have also been going on. That study in particular continued where over the next five to seven years with the same test group, they looked at dementia outcomes and they found the exact same thing that sauna. Frequent sauna use reduces your risk of dementia, and the more you use it, the better. Ideally something like three times a week. So when we use sauna, we're increasing our healthspen and we're making sure our brain works, you know, well into the later years. And so yeah, we can talk definitely about the cellular science of like why that is."