Muscle temperature increases during a single far infrared sauna session without changes in intestinal temperature
Reed EL, Uzoekwe CC, Atencio JK, Minson CT, Halliwill JR
Journal of applied physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985) · 2 citations
How it was studied
- Design
- Controlled clinical trial (classified by our AI screen)
- Studied in
- People
- Main outcome
- Health markers and function
Who paid for it
- Funding
- Independent funding
- Government
- National Institutes of Health
- Government
- National Institute on Aging
- Government
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
- Government
- HHS | National Institutes of Health
- Nonprofit
- Eugene and Clarissa Evonuk Memorial Graduate Fellowship
- Government
- HHS | National Institutes of Health (NIH)
- Government
- NIA NIH HHS
- Government
- NHLBI NIH HHS
- Grants
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (R01 HL144128); National Institutes of Health (HL144218); National Institute on Aging (R01 AG072805); National Institutes of Health (AG072805)
Based on 8 listed funder(s).
Publication
- Published
- 2025-05-07 · J Appl Physiol (1985) · vol. 138 · issue 6 · pp. 1628–1637
- Publisher
- American Physiological Society
- Cited
- 2 citations · more than 76% of similar papers · 1.1× the field average
- References
- 83 works
- Access
- Open access (hybrid journal) · CC-BY
- Research areas
- Thermoregulation and physiological responses · Infrared Thermography in Medicine · Exercise and Physiological Responses
- Keywords
- Skin temperature, Thermoregulation, Animal science, Medicine, SWEAT, Core temperature, Core (optical fiber), Chemistry, Surgery, Anatomy, Anesthesia, Materials science, Internal medicine, Biomedical engineering, Biology
- MeSH
- muscle, skeletal, intestines, humans, body temperature, exercise, steam bath, infrared rays, body temperature regulation, sweating, skin temperature, adult, female, male, young adult
5 authors
- Emma L. Reed
- Colleen Uzoekwe
- Jessica K. Atencio
- Christopher Todd Minson
- John R. Halliwill · corresponding
Abstract
Increases in muscle temperature during exercise and passive heating are associated with beneficial outcomes. Far infrared (FIR) saunas are a radiant heating stimulus. It has been claimed that FIR waves penetrate 3 to 4 cm deep into the peripheral tissues, but muscle temperature during FIR sauna bathing is unknown. The purpose was to quantify muscle temperature at three different depths during an FIR sauna session. Ten adults had a multisensor intramuscular temperature probe inserted into the quadriceps muscles before sitting in a FIR sauna for 45 min. Thermocouples were 3.4 cm (deep), 2.4 cm (middle), and 1.4 cm (superficial) below the skin surface. Muscle, core, and skin temperatures, and nude body weight (to calculate whole body sweat rate) were collected before and at the end of heating. Data are reported as (mean [95% confidence intervals]). Muscle temperature increased at the deep (+1.1 [0.3, 1.9]°C), middle (+1.9 [1.0, 2.9]°C), and superficial (+3.0 [1.8, 4.1]°C) depths (all P P = 0.94), but there was an increase in mean body temperature (+1.3 [1.1, 4.1]°C) (P P NEW & NOTEWORTHY To our knowledge, this is the first investigation on far infrared sauna bathing with a commercially available sauna and muscle temperature. Muscle temperature increased in the absence of changes in core temperature. The increases in muscle temperature were lessened with increasing depth and were negligible beyond 3.8 cm below the skin surface. More practically, the thermic effect had lessened by 63% at a depth of 2.4 cm, which can be considered the effective thermal penetration.
Abstract via Europe PMC. Copyright remains with the authors or publisher.
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