Sauna Bathing and Incident Hypertension: A Prospective Cohort Study

Mayo Clinic Proceedings

Kunutsor

2018

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107

127

Sauna bathing, an activity that has been a tradition in Finland for thousands of years and mainly used for the purposes of pleasure and relaxation, is becoming increasingly popular in many other populations. Emerging evidence suggests that beyond its use for pleasure, sauna bathing may be linked to several health benefits, which include reduction in the risk of vascular diseases such as high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and neurocognitive diseases; nonvascular conditions such as pulmonary diseases; mortality; as well as amelioration of conditions such as arthritis, headache, and flu. The beneficial effects of sauna bathing on these outcomes have been linked to its effect on circulatory, cardiovascular, and immune functions. It has been postulated that regular sauna bathing may improve cardiovascular function via improved endothelium-dependent dilatation, reduced arterial stiffness, modulation of the autonomic nervous system, beneficial changes in circulating lipid profiles, and lowering of systemic blood pressure. This review summarizes the available epidemiological, experimental, and interventional evidence linking Finnish sauna bathing and its effects on cardiovascular outcomes and other disease conditions on the basis of a comprehensive search for observational studies, randomized controlled trials, and non-randomized controlled trials from MEDLINE and EMBASE from their inception until February 24, 2018. An overview of the postulated biological mechanisms underlying the associations between sauna bathing and its health benefits, areas of outstanding uncertainty, and implications for clinical practice is also provided.

Section: Pathways Implicated In Health Benefits Of Sauna Bathingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cardiovascular and Other Health Benefits of Sauna Bathing: A Review of the Evidence

Mayo Clinic Proceedings

Kunutsor

2018

Self Cite

107

127

“…29 The weekly frequency and duration of sauna sessions and temperature in the sauna room were assessed by a selfadministered questionnaire. 20,21 An experienced nurse checked the questionnaires at the time of baseline examination.…”

Section: Assessment Of Crf and Fsbmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…9 Sauna bathing, a traditional Finnish activity which is commonly used for the purposes of pleasure, relaxation, and wellness, and becoming a popular activity in many other countries, 12,13 has been observed to be linked to several health benefits. These include improvement in the pain and symptoms associated with musculoskeletal diseases 14 ; treatment of chronic headache 15 ; improvement in CV function 16,17 and reduced risk of respiratory diseases, 18,19 hypertension, 20 and neurocognitive disease. 21 Recent long-term observational epidemiological evidence has shown that having frequent sauna baths is independently associated with a reduced risk of SCD.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Combined Effect of Sauna Bathing and Cardiorespiratory Fitness on the Risk of Sudden Cardiac Deaths in Caucasian Men: A Long-term Prospective Cohort Study

Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases

Khan

et al. 2018

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Both cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and frequency of sauna bathing (FSB) are each strongly and independently associated with sudden cardiac death (SCD) risk. However, the combined effect of CRF and FSB on SCD risk has not been previously investigated. We evaluated the joint impact of CRF and FSB on the risk of SCD in the Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease prospective cohort study of 2291 men aged 42-61 years at recruitment. Objectively measured CRF and self-reported sauna bathing habits were assessed at baseline. CRF was categorized as low and high (median cutoffs) and FSB as low and high (defined as ≤2 and 3-7 sessions/week respectively). Multivariable adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) with confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated for SCD. During a median follow-up of 26.1 years, 226 SCDs occurred. Comparing high vs low CRF, the HR (95% CIs) for SCD in analysis adjusted for several established risk factors was 0.48 (0.34-0.67). Comparing high vs low FSB, the corresponding HR was 0.67 (0.46-0.98). Compared to men with low CRF & low FSB, the multivariate-adjusted HRs of SCD for the following groups: high CRF & high FSB; high CRF & low FSB; and low CRF & high FSB were 0.31 (0.16-0.63), 0.49 (0.34-0.70), and 0.71 (0.45-1.10) respectively. In a general male Caucasian population, the combined effect of high aerobic fitness (as measured by CRF) and frequent sauna baths is associated with a substantially lowered risk of future SCD compared with high CRF or frequent sauna bathing alone.

“…The beneficial effects of sauna bathing on long-term risk of vascular and non-vascular diseases have also been recently reported. Sauna bathing has been demonstrated to be associated with reduced risks of hypertension [6], cardiovascular disease (CVD) outcomes [7], dementia [8], as well as mortality from all causes [7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Frequent sauna bathing may reduce the risk of pneumonia in middle-aged Caucasian men: The KIHD prospective cohort study

Kunutsor

2017

Respiratory Medicine

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