Can going to the sauna help your BP?

I will start with a confession.  While I know the benefits of hydotherapy – basically you take a hot shower for 30 seconds then switch to freezing cold for 30 seconds, then go back to hot and repeat for 2 or 3 minutes – it has never appealed to me.  It may be fantastic for blood flow and good for your liver, but to me it seems brutal!  So in the past, I have only spent a few short minutes in a sauna and I have never been tempted to jump into the ice cold plunge pool afterwards – despite my finnish friends telling me how fantastic it is.

So I was interested in the Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study which looked at if frequent use of a sauna has reduces the risk of high BP.  The study looked at 1,621 middle-aged men living in eastern Finland.  The study found that

  • Going to the sauna 4 to 7 times per week reduces your risk of develping High BP by 46%.
  • Going to the sauna 2 to 3 times per week reduces your risk of develpoing High BP by 24%.

So my Finnish friends who rave about going to the sauna are wise, going regularly helps to keep your BP  in check.

References

F Zaccardi, T Laukkanen, P Willeit et al, Sauna Bathing and Incident Hypertension: A Prospective Cohort Study, American Journal of Hypertension, Volume 30, Issue 11, 1 November 2017, Pages 1120–1125, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajh/hpx102

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