Recent evidence shows that saunas can reduce cardiovascular disease mortality by 27%. This is the startling finding from medical research in Finland. Saunas go back 10,000 years, to just after the Ice Age in Finland and they have been discovered all over the world, from Japan to Turkey; the Native Americans used sweat lodges for purification and relaxation. A 4000 year old sauna was recently found in the Orkney Islands.
Saunas have been used for relaxation, cleansing, and ritual purposes in many cultures. Now new research shows that saunas are a great way to improve your health. Sauna use is basically short-term passive exposure to extreme heat. This exposure elicits mild hyperthermia – an increase in the body’s core temperature – that induces a thermoregulatory response involving neuroendocrine, cardiovascular, and cytoprotective mechanisms that work together to restore normal functioning and condition the body for future heat stressors.
Studies of participants in the Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease Risk Factor (KIHD) Study, an ongoing population-based study of health outcomes in more than 2,300 middle-aged men from eastern Finland, which identified strong links between sauna use and reduced death and disease.
The KIHD findings showed that men who used the sauna two to three times per week were 27 percent less likely to die from cardiovascular-related causes than men who didn’t use the sauna. This is after for controlling for all other positive and negative lifestyle effects, such as smoking or regular gym use. The sauna users were 40% less likely to die from other forms of premature death. Heavy sauna users (4-7 times a week) were an astonishing 66% less likely to develop dementia.
The takeway from this and other investigations into saunas are that benefits are maximised from two or more 20 minute plus sauna sessions per week. That is a small investment of time to reduce such deadly scourges as cardiovascular disease or dementia.