Hubert Czerniak - Sauna! Sprawdź, jak prawidłowo z niej korzystać i jakie korzyści zdrowotne niesie!

Czerniak bases this protocol on his sweat analysis study. He emphasizes that the skin is a major excretory organ, and that metals are eliminated in sweat. The warm rinse and wiping are critical: cold water could cause pores to close and metals to be reabsorbed. He also notes that the sauna should be hot enough to cause significant sweating; 60°C dry sauna fails to do this. The protocol can be adapted for those with kidney failure who cannot rely on urinary excretion.

Czerniak references Slavic and Scandinavian traditions of sauna followed by jumping into icy water. He frames this as a method of 'hardening steel'—building resilience. He connects it to the modern understanding of hormesis, where non-lethal stressors stimulate protective mechanisms. This practice is distinct from his detox protocol, where cold water is contraindicated to prevent metal reabsorption.

Czerniak shares an anecdote of being abroad and feeling sleepy after a sauna, which he attributes to melatonin. He contrasts this with pharmaceutical sleep aids, advocating natural stimulation of endogenous melatonin. He notes that melatonin is produced not only at night but also during the day by all cells, and sauna amplifies this production.

Czerniak presented data from a study he conducted: a person underwent a one-hour sauna session, and sweat samples were analyzed before and after. The results showed a drop in most measured heavy metals. For example, antimony fell from 24 to 2 (units not specified), arsenic from 41 to 39, cadmium from 73 to 72, nickel from 29 to 27. However, platinum rose from 13 to 1 (likely a typo, but he interpreted it as mobilization from deep stores into the bloodstream), and gadolinium from 54 to 51. He stressed that even a single session produced measurable declines, and recommended 2–3 sessions per week for maintenance, or daily for people with kidney failure who cannot excrete via urine. He also noted that after sauna, vitamins entered tissues more readily: vitamin A rose from 37 to 59, C from 58 to 76, E from 60 to 76, B6 from 51 to 58, B12 from 64 to 78, folic acid from 34 to 54, while D3 dropped from 48 to 43, suggesting it was used in the cleansing process. A general health radar chart showed that before sauna all parameters were outside the normal range, but after sauna only three remained abnormal (mental state, liver function, tendency to gain weight).

Czerniak explains that heat, as a form of electromagnetic radiation (infrared), stimulates melatonin production in mitochondria, the energy centers of cells. He ties this to hormesis: the stress of alternating hot and cold forces the body to maintain temperature, which requires mitochondrial energy output, and that process upregulates melatonin. He claims melatonin is five times more powerful than glutathione in protecting against free radicals. This mechanism, he argues, explains the subjective well-being after sauna and the traditional practice of cold plunges. He also connects it to jet lag: traveling across time zones disrupts the biological clock; sauna-induced melatonin helps reset it naturally, without sleeping pills. He says 'po saunie chce się nam spać' (after sauna we feel sleepy), advocating sauna as a natural sleep aid.

The observation that D3 drops while other vitamins rise suggests that sauna-induced detox places a demand on vitamin D3, possibly as a cofactor in immune or antioxidant pathways. Czerniak does not elaborate on the mechanism but presents it as a noteworthy finding. This could imply that regular sauna users might need to monitor or supplement vitamin D3 to avoid depletion, though he does not explicitly recommend that.

He recommends steam sauna (parowa) for 60 minutes with cycles of entering and exiting, cooling down outside (not with cold water), and then a warm shower to rinse without reabsorbing metals. He also mentions the Slavic/Scandinavian tradition of jumping into ice holes after sauna, but that is for hormesis and immune hardening, not for detox. For detox, he insists on warm rinsing and wiping. He considers 100°C dry sauna acceptable because it makes you sweat well. Infrared, by implication, does not induce enough sweating.