The benefits of hot yoga are many and include improved sleep, energy, mood, reduced pain and weight loss. To better understand how hot yoga gives these benefits we have to look a little deeper into the processes that are stimulated by practicing hot yoga. Combining heat, humidity with strengthening and stretching supercharges cellular detoxification, enhances the lymphatic systems’ ability to collect cellular waste and improves liver, kidney, lung and skin (sweating) detoxification.
A body that efficiently detoxifies is generally healthy. One specific example of how hot yoga improves your health involves Bromine. Bromine is in the same family as iodine and chlorine and is used in flame retardants for fabrics and furniture, soft drinks like Mountain Dew and Gatorade, inhalers for asthma, hot tubs, pesticides and bakery goods in the form of potassium bromate. Bromines are endocrine disruptors (they block your body’s ability to make energy and hormones) that harm your health by blocking iodine from binding to your thyroid.
When bromine competes with iodine on your thyroid your don’t make enough thyroid hormone and you might feel tired, cold, foggy, gain weight, suffer constipation, air hunger and hair loss. Flexing, stretching and compressing muscles in a hot humid room mobilizes bromine excretion in sweat and through your kidneys. Having less bromine lying around to disrupt your endocrine system allows your thyroid to work efficiently leaving you feeling more energetic and healthy.
Bromine is just one of hundreds of natural and human made toxins polluting our bodies, one of many toxins eliminated by sweating and yet another reason (aside from feeling strong, flexible, sleeping well and energetic) to practice hot yoga regular and often.
