Why hot saunas, running and other mild stress may be good for your brain

A new study has found that a little stress could actually make us healthier and help extend our lifespan
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It's true we live in uncertain times. Anxiety is said to be on the rise. And more of us are seeking comfort in mindfulness and meditation.

But if you are contemplating leaning out more than you lean in, you might first want to read this new study published on Sciencedaily.com.

Temporary stress – triggered by activities such as sitting in a hot sauna or going for a run - can have long-term benefits especially on our brain health, according to the study by scientists from the Californian non-profit research centre, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute.

That's because short term periods of stress activate a cellular process called autophagy which is involved in the recycling of old or broken cells, turning them into new molecules or burning them for energy.

Autophagy has long been associated with extending lifespan.  Scientists have also known for decades that mild stress in short doses can make human cells better able to survive additional stress later in life.

Now the researchers behind the latest study are hoping it could also lead to new treatments that help slow the advance of neurological disorders such as Huntington's disease, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease which are caused by sticky, clumping-prone proteins.

The study's lead author Dr Caroline Kumsta says her team studied the effects of stress on tiny roundworms known as C. elegans.

"They're a great model system because they're transparent, so you can easily observe what goes on inside them, most of their genes and molecular signaling pathways have functional counterparts in humans, and they only live a few weeks, which greatly facilitate measuring their lifespans,” Dr Kumsta told Science Daily.

She says mild heat stress may improve the worms (and possibly human) ability to handle the clumping of neural proteins which worsens with age and leads to degeneration throughout the brain. The study suggests exposing worms to a limited amount of heat stress could in fact reduce the toxic protein aggregation.

"A lot of people ask us if this means they should start going to the sauna or do hot yoga," joked Kumsta. "That may not be an entirely bad idea - epidemiological studies do indicate that frequent sauna use is associated with longer life. But we have a lot more research to do to figure out whether that has anything to do with the beneficial induction of autophagy by heat stress that we see in C. elegans."

Time to book that Bikram class.

This article originally appeared on Vogue.com.au