Sauna Bathing
Sauna bathing is deliberate whole-body heat exposure, traditionally at 80–100°C in dry Finnish-style saunas for sessions of roughly 5–20 minutes.
What published research reports
A prospective cohort of 2,315 Finnish men followed for about 20 years, published in JAMA Internal Medicine (2015), reported that more frequent sauna bathing (4–7 sessions per week versus one) was associated with lower risk of sudden cardiac death, fatal cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality — an association, the authors note, not proof of cause. A 2018 systematic review of regular dry sauna bathing reported mostly beneficial or neutral findings across small studies of blood pressure, heart failure and cholesterol, with adverse events rare in healthy users, and identified people advised to seek medical guidance first, including those with unstable heart conditions and pregnant women. Alcohol combined with sauna use is a documented risk factor in the Finnish data.
References
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