No you can not raise your body temperature high enough to kill viruses, but sauna use is generally good for our immune systems.
So there has been a lot of virus talk in the past few weeks, I have been seeing dubious claims that sauna is a potential cure for a certain virus going around. I have yet to see any scientists directly address these rumors so I figured I should investigate any validity to these rumors and find data to back up if saunas can kill viral infections in general and not just help symptoms.
It is easy to find semi-reputable websites make claims of sauna use killing off viruses but it is harder to find the sources of some of the bolder claims. A major claim is that a high body temperature can kill a virus. While there is some support for the idea that high heat may weaken a virus our body temperature will not get high enough to kill off a virus without causing major bodily complications first since hyperthermia (the opposite of hypothermia) sets in at 35°C (internal body temperature) and going much beyond that can create organ issues. It takes a temperature of 74-100°C to kill a virus from heat alone, this means that sauna heat will not cure any viral infection directly.
While the sauna is likely no miracle cure there may be some benefits from sauna use in fighting viral infections however. The New York Times has an article about the effectiveness of sauna use fighting viruses and colds sighting an Austrian controlled study. There are numerous studies demonstrating that sauna use helps our immune system for a variety of reasons. Saunas have won a reputation to help beat your cold symptoms fast, this has now been backed up by research.
Studies have shown white blood cell count is significantly raised during a single sauna session. White blood cells fight off viruses, infections, and foreign bacteria. This study suggests that the immune response is even stronger in athletes than non-athletes. This could help get a leg up on any sickness by increasing your defenses before a virus begins to make you sick.
When you expose your body to high heats in a sauna Heat Shock Proteins (HSPs) are created and have numerous beneficial effects on the body. As I discussed in this article HSPs are an area receiving a lot of study and are frequently cited as a major benefit of sauna use. Heat shock proteins work to repair damaged protein cells. Studies on mice have shown inducing HSPs using short term heat can lead to better survival rates from the influenza virus, although they admit they are still only beginning to understand why.
“Following HPAIV H5N1 infection, short-term heat shock alleviated immunopathology and viral replication in lung tissue and repressed the weight loss and increased the survival rate of H5N1-infected mice. Our data reported that short-term heat shock provided beneficial anti-HPAIV H5N1 properties in mice model, which offers an alternative strategy for non-drug prevention for influenza infection.”
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