Interestingly, a key benefit of Infrared Sauna Therapy is increased circulation and heart health. The increase in blood flow during your sauna session has been shown to mirror the benefits of a passive cardiovascular workout, and as if this alone was not enough, regular infrared sauna use continues to stimulate blood flow even hours after your sauna session. You are taking care of your health with infrared sessions, did you know that helping others with the gift of life could also benefit your health as well? Find out in the excerpt below from Rachel Swalin, how donating blood, or platelets (which United Blood Services needs weekly) can benefit others and you!
Excerpt from:
https://www.health.com/mind-body/4-unexpe,mcted-benefits-of-donating-blood?utm_source=health.com&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=social-button-sharing
RACHEL SWALIN June 13, 2014
“While giving blood should be all about helping those in need, there ARE a few things in it for you. Here are four health perks to becoming a blood donor.
“Every two seconds, someone in the United States needs blood, and more than 41,000 blood donations are needed every day, according to the American Red Cross. So while you may never worry about having enough blood to function, plenty of others aren’t as fortunate.
It’s not clear if there are lasting health benefits associated with better blood flow. (These kinds of studies can’t prove cause and effect—for example, blood donors might lead healthier lifestyles than the general population.)
“What is clear is that blood donors seem not to be hospitalized so often, and if they are, they have shorter lengths of stay,” Dr. DeChristopher says. “And they’re less likely to get heart attacks, strokes, and cancers.”
Your blood may flow better.
“If blood has a high viscosity or resistance to flow, it will flow like molasses,” says Phillip DeChristopher, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Loyola University Health System blood bank. Repeated blood donations may help the blood flow in a way that’s less damaging to the lining of the blood vessels and could result in fewer arterial blockages. That may explain why the American Journal of Epidemiology found that blood donors are 88% less likely to suffer a heart attack.
You’ll get a mini check-up.
Before you give blood, you’ll first have to complete a quick physical that measures your temperature, pulse, blood pressure, and hemoglobin levels. After your blood is collected, it’s sent off to a lab where it will undergo 13 different tests for infectious diseases, like HIV and West Nile virus. If anything comes back positive, you’ll be notified immediately.
You could live longer
Doing good for others is one way to live a longer life. A study in Health Psychology found that people who volunteered for altruistic reasons had a significantly reduced risk of mortality four years later than those who volunteered for themselves alone. While the health benefits of donating blood are nice, don’t forget who you’re really helping: A single donation can save the lives of up to three people, according to the Red Cross. “The need for blood is always there,” Dr. DeChristopher says. “It’s important to recognize how important willing donors are.”
Your iron levels will stay balanced.
Healthy adults usually have about 5 grams of iron in their bodies, mostly in red blood cells but also in bone marrow. When you donate a unit of blood, you lose about a quarter of a gram of iron, which gets replenished from the food you eat in the weeks after donation, Dr. DeChristopher says. This regulation of iron levels is a good thing because having too much iron could be bad news for your blood vessels.
“The statistics appear to show that decreasing the amount of iron in otherwise healthy people over the long run is beneficial to their blood vessels, and diseases related to abnormalities in blood vessels, such as heart attack and stroke,” he says.”
