Hot And... Healthy? Why Saunas Are Seriously Good For You

All that heat could have some seriously beneficial effects. (Photo: Flickr/Sauna Hotel Arthurissa)

Get thee to a spa, ASAP. Researchers in Finland have found an association between going to the sauna more often and having a lower risk of dying from heart disease.

The study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, included 2,315 middle-aged men in eastern Finland whose sauna-going habits were analyzed, including how often they went each week and how long they spent in the actual sauna during each session.

Then, researchers from the University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, tracked them for approximately 20 years, including who died over that time period from sudden cardiac death, cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, or another cause.

Researchers found an association between going to the sauna more often and having a lower risk of dying over the follow-up period. Specifically, men who reported going to the sauna two or three times a week had a 27 percent lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease compared with men who only went once a week. The risk was even lower — 50 percent lower, in fact — for those who reported going four to seven times a week.

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Greater frequency of sauna bathing was also associated with dying from any cause over the study period: Death risk was 40 percent lower for those going four to seven times a week, compared with those who go once a week.

Time spent in the sauna also seemed to make a difference, at least for risk of death from heart-related problems. Spending more than 19 minutes in the sauna was associated with a 52 percent lower risk of dying from sudden cardiac death, compared with spending fewer than 11 minutes in the sauna.

It should be noted that this study was carried out in Finland, where sauna bathing has a very specific definition, which researchers described in the study:

Because researchers only looked at the effects of hot Finnish sauna bathing, they warned the results cannot directly be applied to other similar kinds of situations, like steam rooms and hot tubs, since they “may operate at lower temperatures than a typical Finnish sauna and do not allow pouring water on the rocks.”

"Extrapolation to other types of sauna at this time is difficult; we hope this study will drive further research to make clear the comparative contribution of high temperature and humidity of physiological changes in the cardiovascular system," study researcher Jari Laukkanen, MD, PhD, a cardiologist at the Institute of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition at the University of Eastern Finland, tells Yahoo Health. "In Finnish saunas, you can regulate temperature and it is possible to keep temperature optimal level also by the pouring/throwing of water on rocks."

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But still, they noted that saunas’ potential health effects — particularly the dry and warm aspects of Finnish saunas — may come from their ability to get heart rate up, similar to how heart rate would go up from exercise.

Sauna bathing can cause “heat stress or heat load to human body,” Laukkanen says. This “can be comparable to physical activity and its beneficial effect on vessels, risk factors and so on and leading to better relaxation.”

In addition, repeated visits to the sauna could improve blood vessel functioning, particularly in people with risk factors for coronary heart disease and heart failure.

However, the researchers did warn that some past research has shown harmful effects of sauna use on health. “The possible differences in results obtained in Finnish studies compared with studies from other countries may be at least partly due to the different conditions and temperature of the sauna,” they write. “Dry sauna bathing seems to be safe, and even patients who have re- covered from myocardial infarction and patients with stable an- gina pectoris or heart failure can enjoy sauna bathing without any significant adverse cardiovascular effects.” But still, they say that certain people (particularly those with orthostatic hypotension) should be careful before engaging in Finnish sauna bathing.

The study did not show cause-and-effect — only a correlation between sauna-going and risk of dying. But “[a]lthough we do not know why the men who took saunas more frequently had greater longevity (whether it is the time spent in the hot room, the relaxation time, the leisure of a life that allows for more relaxation time, or the camaraderie of the sauna), clearly time spent in the sauna is time well spent,” writes JAMA Internal Medicine editor-in-chief Rita F. Redberg, M.D., in a related editorial.

Want to try to recreate a Finnish sauna at home? In Finland, many people use saunas in their own private apartments, Laukkanen says. “Private saunas are within or outside the house (independent room). In saunas, stones top a special stove (‘kiuas’), and water is thrown safely on hot stones to increase temporarily humidity and temperature. Take a look here. 

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