Hitting The Sauna May Protect Against Cardiovascular Risks | @Modern Medicine at PHARMATIVE.com
Older Finnish adults who sit in the sauna more frequently and for longer durations have a lower rates of death from cardiovascular disease.
Publishing their findings in BMC Medicine, researchers analyzed the sauna-going habits of 1,688 Finnish citizens with an average age of 63 years old (and a range of 53 to 74 years old) at the study’s outset, just over half of whom were women.
The participants were followed between 1998 and 2015, for an average of 15 years, during which 181 of them died of cardiovascular-related causes. There was a linear, inverse relationship between the frequency of sauna bathing in the study cohort and their rate of cardiovascular-related death per 1,000 cumulative years of study follow-up: 2.7 such deaths among those who used a sauna four to seven times per week, and 10.1 such deaths among those who went but once a week.
There was also an inverse relationship between sauna use and cardiovascular-related death risk when such attendance at a heated facility was categorized according to minutes of use per week.
After adjusting the data to account for differences in age and sex, the study authors found that, compared with those who went in a sauna once per week, those who went two to three times per were 29 percent less likely to die from a cardiovascular causes, and those who went four to seven times per week were 70 percent less likely to experience such a death. Then, after further adjusting the data for cardiovascular disease risk factors, including physical activity, socioeconomic status, and new diagnoses of coronary heart disease, the researchers found that, compared with going to a sauna once per week, going a respective two to three times and going four to seven times per week were associated with a 25 percent and 77 percent reduced risk of a cardiovascular-related death.
The study is limited by the fact that it was conducted only in one limited region; therefore its findings may not be generalizable to other populations. Additionally, because the study was observational in nature, it cannot determine a cause-and-effect relationship between sauna use and cardiovascular-related death risk. #sauna#modernmedicine#pharmative#HeartDisease
Sources:
1) https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-11/bc-fsu112618.php;
2) https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-018-1198-0
Older Finnish adults who sit in the sauna more frequently and for longer durations have a lower rates of death from cardiovascular disease.
Publishing their findings in BMC Medicine, researchers analyzed the sauna-going habits of 1,688 Finnish citizens with an average age of 63 years old (and a range of 53 to 74 years old) at the study’s outset, just over half of whom were women.
The participants were followed between 1998 and 2015, for an average of 15 years, during which 181 of them died of cardiovascular-related causes. There was a linear, inverse relationship between the frequency of sauna bathing in the study cohort and their rate of cardiovascular-related death per 1,000 cumulative years of study follow-up: 2.7 such deaths among those who used a sauna four to seven times per week, and 10.1 such deaths among those who went but once a week.
There was also an inverse relationship between sauna use and cardiovascular-related death risk when such attendance at a heated facility was categorized according to minutes of use per week.
After adjusting the data to account for differences in age and sex, the study authors found that, compared with those who went in a sauna once per week, those who went two to three times per were 29 percent less likely to die from a cardiovascular causes, and those who went four to seven times per week were 70 percent less likely to experience such a death. Then, after further adjusting the data for cardiovascular disease risk factors, including physical activity, socioeconomic status, and new diagnoses of coronary heart disease, the researchers found that, compared with going to a sauna once per week, going a respective two to three times and going four to seven times per week were associated with a 25 percent and 77 percent reduced risk of a cardiovascular-related death.
The study is limited by the fact that it was conducted only in one limited region; therefore its findings may not be generalizable to other populations. Additionally, because the study was observational in nature, it cannot determine a cause-and-effect relationship between sauna use and cardiovascular-related death risk.
#sauna #modernmedicine #pharmative #HeartDisease
Sources:
1) https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-11/bc-fsu112618.php;
2) https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-018-1198-0