The tradition has been a central part of various cultures and societies for centuries. Nope, no longer do you need a sauna in your gym to get your sweat on: Now, sauna studios including Sweattheory in Los Angeles and HigherDOSE in New York City let people heat up for roughly a dollar a minute most sessions are 30 minutes.
In a study published in Springerplus , both traditional steam saunas and infrared saunas decreased DOMs and improved exercise recovery. The researchers suggest that infrared saunas may penetrate the neuromuscular system to promote recovery. Over half of all Americans experience high blood pressure at some point in their lives, according to the American Heart Association. But according to a study published in Journal of Human Hypertension , even a single use of the sauna could help lower your blood pressure.
In the study, participants took turns sitting in a sauna for 30 minutes; immediately after getting out of the sauna, their average systolic blood pressure the top number lowered from mmHg to mmHg, and their average diastolic blood pressure the bottom number lowered from 82 mmHg to 75 mmHg. Plus, their systolic blood pressure remained low for 30 minutes post-sauna, which the researchers says suggests s long-term blood pressure benefit of sauna usage. If you want to give it a go, just make sure to talk to your doctor beforehand, because saunas are not advised for people who suffer from high blood pressure, and other heart-related illnesses, she says.
That partly explains why research from the University of Finland shows that saunas help reduce the risk of early death from heart attack, stroke, and cardiovascular disease. For the study, researchers found that the more often men went to the sauna, and the longer they stayed, over a period of 20 years, the lower their risk for sudden cardiac death and fatal cardiovascular disease.
While researchers looked at men, specifically, the results are promising for women, too, says Hokemeyer. Take your clothes off. Get sweaty. Boost your memory? Or at least according to research recently published in the journal Age and Ageing. The researchers say this could be connected to increased blood flow to the brain. That makes sense, because research has previously linked decreased blood flow to the brain with cognitive decline and dementia.
You may even see improvements in the quality of your sleep over time. You may also want to monitor various durations and frequencies, and the correlated effects on those same metrics to determine which type of sauna and frequency level is right for you. And as we always say, be sure to consult your health practitioner before starting any new health regimen! Awesome article! Saunas have plenty of benefits in terms of relaxation, detox and improving sleep patterns. It is however a good idea to check up with doctors before indulging in saunas regularly, particularly those who have cardio-vascular diseases.
Interesting post. It has practically changed my life so I encourage people to go to saunas regularly. Even created a website to help others out. Thank you so much for the list. I have just tried to add the sauna into my weekend time. And it worked amazingly for my mental performance. Nice summary article Dave. Very easy to skim over and pick out benefits. Would be great to see the sources referenced though since you say these are all proven.
Going through such blog posts are always have a great experience. Thanks for sharing the useful and informational stuff here with us. Your email address will not be published.
Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. What is a Sauna? However, we did not include studies of steam sauna interventions and therefore may have overlooked some evidence of the effects of heat on health. Another limitation of this study is the inclusion of only English language, especially since sauna activity is frequent in non-English speaking countries. Furthermore, the quality of the reviewed studies was variable with many studies having small sample sizes, poorly described methodology, variable use of controls, differing types of sauna and sauna protocols, variable duration and frequency of sauna interventions, and inconsistent mention of cooling therapies or rehydration protocols along with heterogeneous outcome measures.
The great heterogeneity of studies makes meaningful comparisons across studies difficult and provides insufficient evidence to recommend specific temperature, frequency, or duration of sauna bathing for any specific health outcome. In the months since this systematic review was conducted, a number of new research findings have been published, analyzing various subsets of the same Finnish prospective cohort of over men who regularly sauna-bathed, initially aged 42—60 years, followed over 20 years as part of the KIHD Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease study, as detailed in two of the studies included in Table 1 : cardiovascular disease- CVD- related sauna studies.
These newer findings cite reduced risk of acute and chronic respiratory conditions [ ], reduced risk of pneumonia [ ], reduced serum levels of C-reactive protein marker of systemic inflammation [ ] with more frequent sauna bathing, and reduced risk of hypertension [ ] and additional improved all-cause mortality when jointly associated with cardiorespiratory fitness [ ].
These findings add further support to the conclusions of this review. Further study of these metabolic pathways might also help to elucidate the stress-related pathways of immune and inflammatory activity that may be involved in conditions such as chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic pain, rheumatoid arthritis, and ankylosing spondylitis.
Studies examining heart rate variability HRV as an outcome assessment are increasing and further results may better inform the physiological models of what is thought to be happening with repeated sauna of either Finnish or infrared types.
Conducting more studies of repeated sauna in healthy but nonathletic participants may further help to elucidate the similarities and differences in metabolic pathways between repeated sauna activity and regular exercise.
Further studies are also needed to distinguish between the health effects of Finnish saunas, which often involve brief periods of increased humidity and dramatic cooling interventions, compared to the lower temperature infrared saunas that typically do not have such variations.
The mechanisms for these effects may include increased bioavailability of NO nitric oxide to vascular endothelium, heat shock protein-mediated metabolic activation, immune and hormonal pathway alterations, enhanced excretions of toxicants through increased sweating, and other hormetic stress responses.
Currently there is insufficient evidence to recommend specific types of sauna bathing for specific clinical conditions.
While regular sauna bathing appears to be well-tolerated in the clinical setting with only minor and infrequent adverse effects reported, further data on the frequency and extent of adverse effects is required. Further studies are also required to explore the mechanisms by which sauna bathing exerts physiological, psychological, and metabolic effects, as well as to better define the benefits and risks of distinct types of saunas and the optimal frequency and duration of sauna bathing for beneficial health effects.
This manuscript was developed as part of study conducted by Dr. Joy Hussain during her Ph. Joy Hussain is supported by a Ph. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. Published online Apr Joy Hussain and Marc Cohen. Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer. Joy Hussain: moc. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Abstract Introduction Many health benefits are claimed by individuals and facilities promoting sauna bathing; however the medical evidence to support these claims is not well established. Methods A systematic search was made of medical databases for studies reporting on the health effects of regular dry sauna bathing on humans from onwards. Results Forty clinical studies involving a total of participants met the inclusion criteria.
Conclusions Regular dry sauna bathing has potential health benefits. Introduction Sauna bathing is a form of whole-body thermotherapy that has been used in various forms radiant heat, sweat lodges, etc. Methods PRISMA guidelines for conducting systematic reviews were followed, including the use of validated tools to assess the risk of bias in randomized controlled trials [ 70 — 72 ].
Eligibility Criteria Studies of humans undergoing repeated dry sauna bathing that reported on health measures were included in the review. Data Extraction Abstracts of initially identified studies were screened by investigator JH and then the complete full-text articles of potentially eligible studies were carefully screened by both investigators JH and MC for research design, population descriptive data, timing and physical details of dry sauna intervention, outcome measures, key results, and adverse effects.
Assessment for Risk of Bias Included randomized controlled trials RCTs were assessed for risk of bias according to the Cochrane Collaboration's tool for assessing bias and calculated Jadad et al. Results 3. Literature Search Figure 1 summarises the screening and assessment strategies used with the search results. Open in a separate window. Figure 1. Table 1 Cardiovascular disease- CVD- related sauna studies. Table 3 Airway conditions and repeated sauna therapy.
None Pach et al. Symptom severity scoring 0—10 on four different days; intake of common cold medications daily during week of intervention. Mild , cough directly stimulated by face mask in both groups 2 in treatment group; 1 in control group. None Umehara et al. Table 4 Repeated sauna and athletes. Table 5 Sauna studies of healthy populations. None Kowatzki et al. None Pilch et al. None Gryka et al. Table 6 Repeat sauna therapy and detoxification. Mild , heat discomfort.
Table 7 Repeated sauna and male fertility. No significant changes in plasma sex hormones at any timepoints. Study Design Of the forty studies, 13 were randomized controlled trials RCTs , 6 were trials with nonrandomized control groups and 2 were prospective cohort studies.
Table 8 Risk of bias assessment in randomized controlled trials. Random sequence generation Allocation concealment Blinding of participants and personnel Blinding of outcome assessment Incomplete outcome data Selective reporting Other bias Jadad et al.
Setting and Participant Characteristics The reviewed studies included a total of participants living in 12 different countries. Interventions Eleven studies investigated the use of Finnish saunas and 25 studies utilised infrared sauna interventions. Outcome Measures Some studies focused solely on measuring subjective quality of life and symptom scoring surrounding sauna activity such as SF item short form health survey ; FASE Foundation for Advancements in Science and Education item survey of symptoms and sleep, CMI Cornell Medical Index survey of somatic complaints; VAS visual analogue scales for hunger, relaxation, and specific types of pain i.
Health Outcomes 3. Chronic Pain Syndromes Two randomized controlled trials investigated the subjective effects of repeated sauna on chronic pain disorders. Lungs and Airways Two studies focused on the effects of infrared sauna on patients diagnosed with COPD chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Athletes Two small noncontrolled interventional trials studied the physiological effects of repeat sauna in athletes. Healthy Populations Two small uncontrolled, single-gender studies reported reduced total cholesterol levels 4.
Detoxification Populations burdened with toxicants were the subject of two studies. Spermatogenesis One longitudinal time-course study examined the effects of Finnish sauna activity on male sperm and fertility measures in 10 healthy men. Adverse Side Effects Of the 40 included studies, only eight reported any adverse symptoms from sauna bathing. Discussion 4. Principal Findings The findings of this review suggest frequent dry sauna bathing improves a variety of subjective and objective health parameters and that frequent Finnish sauna bathing is associated with improved outcomes such as reduced overall mortality and reduced incidence of cardiovascular events and dementia, at least in men [ 38 , 39 ].
Mechanisms of Action: Sauna Bathing Several mechanisms of action have been proposed for the health effects of frequent sauna bathing. Acknowledgments This manuscript was developed as part of study conducted by Dr. Conflicts of Interest The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. References 1.
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