A twenty-year study of more than 2,000 men in Finland has found that frequent sauna bathing is associated with a lower risk of sudden cardiac death.
When these men volunteered for the study in the 1980s, they filled out questionnaires about whether they visited the sauna two or three times a week, every day, or only once a week. Only 12 men in this study never went to the sauna.
Follow-up showed that 10% of those using the sauna weekly died of sudden cardiac death during the study, compared to 5% of those who went every day. The pattern held up for death from other cardiovascular causes, and daily sauna bathers were also less likely to die from any cause during the study time frame.
Finnish saunas use dry heat, so the results might not hold for steam baths. In Finland, saunas are common and readily accessible, so there were no significant socioeconomic differences between the men who visited the sauna frequently and those who went rarely.
[JAMA Internal Medicine, online Feb. 23, 2015]
8/9/18 redirected to: https://www.peoplespharmacy.com/articles/sauna-bathing-and-its-health-benefits/
