Have sauna to protect your heart

After strenuous exercise, do not forget to take a sauna as it may do more than just make you sweat.

A Finnish study has suggested that men who engaged in frequent sauna use had reduced risks of fatal cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and all-cause mortality.

"Although, we do not know why the men who took saunas more frequently had greater longevity, clearly, time spent in the sauna is time well spent," said Rita F Redberg from the University of California, San Francisco, and editor-in-chief of JAMA Internal Medicine that published the paper.

Although, some studies have found sauna bathing to be associated with better cardiovascular and circulatory function, the association between regular sauna bathing and risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD) and fatal cardiovascular diseases (CVD) is not known.

For this, Jari A Laukkanen from the University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, and co-authors investigated the association between sauna bathing and the risk of SCD, fatal coronary heart disease (CHD), fatal CVD and all-cause mortality in a group of 2,315 middle-aged men from eastern Finland.

Results show that compared with men who reported one sauna bathing session per week, the risk of SCD was 22 percent lower for two to three sauna bathing sessions per week and 63 percent lower for four to seven sauna sessions per week.

The risk of fatal CHD events was 23 percent lower for two to three bathing sessions per week and 48 percent lower for four to seven sauna sessions per week compared to once a week.

CVD death was also 27 percent lower for men who took saunas two to three times a week and 50 percent lower for men who were in the sauna four to seven times a week compared with men who indulged just once per week.

For all-cause mortality, sauna bathing two to three times per week was associated with a 24 percent lower risk and four to seven times per week with a 40 percent reduction in risk compared to only one sauna session per week.The amount of time spent in the sauna seemed to matter too.

"Compared with men who spent less than 11 minutes in the sauna, the risk of SCD was seven percent lower for sauna sessions of 11 to 19 minutes and 52 percent less for sessions lasting more than 19 minutes," the authors noted.

Similar associations were seen for fatal CHDs and fatal CVDs, but not for all-cause mortality events.

"Further studies are warranted to establish the potential mechanism that links sauna bathing and cardiovascular health," the study concluded.