- Our cells make thousands of proteins and sometimes some of them are made incorrectly fortunately our cells have a way to detect and fix them.
- As we age our cells slowly lose the ability to repair proteins which can lead to diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.
- Activating heat shock proteins help proteins fold properly and heat therapy has been shown to be effective in improving heart and blood pressure functions.
DNA codes for RNA and RNA codes for proteins. The creation of proteins is the most important thing our DNA does for us. Proteins are what makes us a living, breathing, active being and the stability of these proteins once they are made are vital to healthy aging. It’s like making a wall with bricks and then the sun and rain slowly wares away the bricks. You have to have something in place to repair those bricks or the wall will soon fall apart. Our cells have a mechanism to repair the proteins that are made but as we age this mechanism starts to fail.
Any good mechanical system should have a process to monitor itself and alert someone when something is wrong. Biological systems must not only monitor but must also be able to repair itself too. The creation of proteins is a very complex process filled with multiple opportunities for something to go wrong. Fortunately our cells have figured out a way to do this accurately to avoid creating proteins that don’t work.
There are mechanisms in our cells that make sure our proteins are folded correctly, functioning correctly and that old proteins are degraded and removed properly. This system works seamlessly in our cells, however, as we age persistent expression of misfolded proteins, poorly functioning proteins that aren’t removed rapidly enough clog up the system and lead to diseases such as Alzeheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s and catarcts (1).
So the question is what can we do to help our proteins function better? We have to activate the genes that carry this function out. One gene in particular is a transcription factor called heat shock factor 1 (HSF-1). When this gene is turned on it then turns on a group of proteins called heat shock proteins. These proteins help to ensure proper folding of proteins particularly in stressful environments such as heat and in hypoxic or low oxygen conditions. This is a highly conserved gene, meaning really important to living organisms throughout millions of years. When cells are unstressed HSF is inactive but when stressed HSF-1 flips on the heat shock proteins that rush to the rescue.
A wise man should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings, and learn by his own thought to derive benefit from his illnesses.
Hippocrates
The father of medicine, Hippocrates, noted since the fifth century BC the benefits of heat therapy. It had favorable effects in malarial disease and epilepsy but also there were additional benefits on health and well being. Today we can measure more accurately these benefits. Several articles in the past few years have been published surrounding the benefits of sauna therapy on improving heart and blood pressure function. Articles such as: Heat therapy: an ancient concept re‐examined in the era of advanced biomedical technologies and Passive heat therapy improves endothelial function, arterial stiffness and blood pressure in sedentary humans .
We showed that, relative to a sham group which participated in thermoneutral water immersion, heat therapy increased flow-mediated dilatation, reduced arterial stiffness, reduced mean arterial and diastolic blood pressure, and reduced carotid intima media thickness, with changes all on par or greater than what is typically observed in sedentary subjects with exercise training.
J Physiol. 2016 Sep 15;594(18):5329-42. doi: 10.1113/JP272453.
This study involved 8 weeks of treatment, 4-5 times per week in 104.9 degrees Fahrenheit bath water for 60 minutes per session. It is thought that these results are similar to what happens with people who engage in lifelong sauna baths. They show a reduced incidence of cardiovascular diseases which is the number one killer of people in the United States.
The loss of proteostasis due to aging can be improved by activating genes that help regulate protein stability and function. Heat therapy may be a way to help improve your heart and blood pressure and stave off the ravages of a malfunctioning heart and blood pressure system.