Thermal / Thermoregulatory

The atlas's tenth mechanism family, and a genuinely different carrier from the nine before it: the lever is temperature — not a photoacceptor, not a gas, not an acceleration or a field. Heat and cold delivered to the body provoke a real, dosable thermoregulatory response — vasomotor load, cardiovascular strain, heat-shock and cold-shock protein induction. The family opens across the evidence range rather than clustering at the bottom: traditional Finnish sauna carries the strongest observational signal (the Kuopio cohort), Russian banya sits on a distinct humidity-driven dose profile, and the infrared cabin is the weakest of the three — with the standing caution that the Finnish cohort literature belongs to dry saunas and does not transfer to infrared, and that heat is not detoxification.

Infrared Sauna (Radiant Cabin)Radiant cabins at roughly 49–60 °C. Plausible as heat — but two claim-splits matter. The Finnish sauna cohort evidence does NOT transfer here (that studied traditional dry saunas at 71–100 °C; see the traditional-sauna row). And heat is not detoxification: sweat is not a principal elimination route.Insufficient evidence / under study grade C Traditional Finnish Sauna (Dry)Dry hot air at roughly 71–100 °C — and the row where the strongest evidence in the whole thermal area attaches: the Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease cohort. The association is large and consistent but observational, male-only and single-population, which is exactly why it is B/C and not higher.Insufficient evidence / under study grade B/C Russian Banya (Moist Hot Air with Steam Bursts)A distinct dose profile, not a national variant of the Finnish sauna: lower air temperature but high humidity, which suppresses evaporative cooling — so the physiological load is not read off the thermometer. Real and long-established; the indexed literature treats it as a named category beside the Finnish cohorts rather than as a studied exposure of its own.Insufficient evidence / under study grade C Whole-Body CryotherapyCompletes the thermal ladder alongside sauna and banya. For this row the safety profile governs, not the efficacy profile.Insufficient evidence / under study grade C/D Cold-Water Immersion & Contrast CircuitsNamed in the last wave as future thermal population. A real, dosable thermal stimulus with a modest, mixed evidence base. Negative commercial signal on the row: a Swiss clinic discontinued standalone contrast services (July 2026).Insufficient evidence / under study grade C