The claim
“Regular sauna use protects your lungs and prevents pneumonia.”
Early. In one Finnish cohort, men who took four or more saunas a week were diagnosed with pneumonia and chronic lung disease less often. The link disappeared when the analysis accounted for men who died of other causes first, and the published abstract leaves that result out.
Updated Sep 24, 2026 · 1 study reviewed
Some human data and a plausible mechanism. It needs better trials before anyone can lean on it.
People say it in places like these
Daily Express headline
Regular sessions in a hot room could slash your risk of pneumonia.
See an example ↗Journal titles
Sauna bathing cuts your risk of respiratory disease.
See an example ↗Research papers
Frequent sauna use and high fitness may hold lessons for COVID-19.
See an example ↗
The research found this
The Kuopio researchers followed 1,935 men who started without chronic lung disease and counted hospital diagnoses of pneumonia and chronic lung disease through 2014.Source 1 · Cohort studySauna bathing reduces the risk of respiratory diseases: a long-term prospective cohort studyKunutsor SK, Laukkanen T, Laukkanen JA. European Journal of Epidemiology, 2017.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗ Over a median of 25.6 years there were 379 cases. After adjustment for smoking, physical activity, socioeconomic status and other factors, men who went four or more times a week had a 41% lower hazard than men who went once a week or less.
Over the same years, 919 of the men died. When the researchers accounted for men who died of other causes before any lung diagnosis, the top group's hazard ratio was 1.00, which means no difference.Source 1 · Cohort studySauna bathing reduces the risk of respiratory diseases: a long-term prospective cohort studyKunutsor SK, Laukkanen T, Laukkanen JA. European Journal of Epidemiology, 2017.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗ The authors put the change down to the cohort's high death rate. The accepted manuscript reports that result, and the published abstract leaves it out.
Pneumonia on its own showed a hazard ratio of 0.63 for four or more sessions a week from 22 cases in the top group, and a second paper on 2,210 men printed the same estimates.Source 1 · Cohort studySauna bathing reduces the risk of respiratory diseases: a long-term prospective cohort studyKunutsor SK, Laukkanen T, Laukkanen JA. European Journal of Epidemiology, 2017.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗Source 2 · Cohort studyFrequent sauna bathing may reduce the risk of pneumonia in middle-aged Caucasian men: The KIHD prospective cohort studyKunutsor SK, Laukkanen T, Laukkanen JA. Respiratory Medicine, 2017.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗ Later analyses that grouped two to seven sessions a week together found pneumonia hazards about 20% lower, and in one of them the link held only in men who were also fit.Source 3 · Cohort studyHigh fitness levels, frequent sauna bathing and risk of pneumonia in a cohort study: Are there potential implications for COVID‐19?Kunutsor SK, Laukkanen JA. European Journal of Clinical Investigation, 2021.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗Source 4 · Cohort studyAttenuated Risk of Pneumonia Due to Inflammation by Frequent Sauna BathsKunutsor SK, Jae SY, Laukkanen JA. Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention, 2022.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗
A 2023 letter on 2,658 men, 150 of whom developed COPD, found a 38% lower hazard for three to seven sessions a week against two or fewer.Source 5 · Cohort studyFrequent sauna bathing may reduce chronic obstructive pulmonary disease risk: A prospective studyKunutsor SK, Laukkanen JA. European Journal of Clinical Investigation, 2023.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗ Its model adjusted for smoking and left out physical activity and socioeconomic status.
Direct measurements of the lungs are few. A 1988 review found that breathing changes by only about 10% in the sauna and advised against sauna during an acute respiratory infection.Source 6 · ReviewLungs and ventilation in saunaLaitinen LA, Lindqvist A, Heino M. Annals of clinical research, 1988.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗ In 12 men with obstructive lung disease, forced vital capacity rose from 3.22 to 3.6 liters after a sauna program in a study with no control group, and healthy volunteers showed no significant change in lung function.Source 7 · Clinical trialSauna to transiently improve pulmonary function in patients with obstructive lung diseaseCox NJ, Oostendorp GM, Folgering HT, et al.. Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation, 1989.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗Source 8 · Clinical trialEffects of the Sauna on Diffusing Capacity, Pulmonary Function and Cardiac Output in Healthy SubjectsKiss D, Popp W, Wagner C, et al.. Respiration, 1994.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗
The dial reads 49°H for four reasons
How the reading adds up
7 + 18 + 16 + 8 = 49°H
EvidenceWhat kind of evidence exists in people?
7/25The evidence is one prospective cohort of Finnish men with hospital-diagnosed lung disease over about 25 years.Source 1 · Cohort studySauna bathing reduces the risk of respiratory diseases: a long-term prospective cohort studyKunutsor SK, Laukkanen T, Laukkanen JA. European Journal of Epidemiology, 2017.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗ The direct lung studies are small and old, and one of them tested 12 men with obstructive lung disease without a control group.Source 7 · Clinical trialSauna to transiently improve pulmonary function in patients with obstructive lung diseaseCox NJ, Oostendorp GM, Folgering HT, et al.. Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation, 1989.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗
ConsistencyHas the finding held up?
18/25Every lung result comes from the Kuopio men, and two papers report identical pneumonia estimates from different numbers of men, which suggests the same events were counted in both.Source 1 · Cohort studySauna bathing reduces the risk of respiratory diseases: a long-term prospective cohort studyKunutsor SK, Laukkanen T, Laukkanen JA. European Journal of Epidemiology, 2017.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗Source 2 · Cohort studyFrequent sauna bathing may reduce the risk of pneumonia in middle-aged Caucasian men: The KIHD prospective cohort studyKunutsor SK, Laukkanen T, Laukkanen JA. Respiratory Medicine, 2017.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗ Accounting for deaths from other causes erased the link with lung disease.
MagnitudeDoes the claim match the size of the effect?
16/25For pneumonia alone, four or more sessions a week gave a hazard ratio of 0.63 from 22 cases in the top group, and its confidence interval reached 1.00, which fits no effect at all.Source 2 · Cohort studyFrequent sauna bathing may reduce the risk of pneumonia in middle-aged Caucasian men: The KIHD prospective cohort studyKunutsor SK, Laukkanen T, Laukkanen JA. Respiratory Medicine, 2017.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗ The word prevents turns that borderline result into a promise.
DoseDoes the studied protocol match how people use it?
8/25The men reported their usual Finnish sauna habit, and the lower rates sat in the 172 men who went four or more times a week.Source 1 · Cohort studySauna bathing reduces the risk of respiratory diseases: a long-term prospective cohort studyKunutsor SK, Laukkanen T, Laukkanen JA. European Journal of Epidemiology, 2017.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗
The claim drifts from the data here
The protection shows up only in the simpler analysis. Men who died during the follow-up could no longer be diagnosed with lung disease, and once the analysis allowed for those deaths, frequent bathers looked no different.Source 1 · Cohort studySauna bathing reduces the risk of respiratory diseases: a long-term prospective cohort studyKunutsor SK, Laukkanen T, Laukkanen JA. European Journal of Epidemiology, 2017.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗
In the lung study's sample, the men who bathed most were also more physically active and better off.Source 1 · Cohort studySauna bathing reduces the risk of respiratory diseases: a long-term prospective cohort studyKunutsor SK, Laukkanen T, Laukkanen JA. European Journal of Epidemiology, 2017.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗ The same cohort has linked sauna to less dementia and less stroke too, and critics read that spread as a sign of healthy people choosing saunas.Source 9 · ReviewReader response: Sauna bathing reduces the risk of stroke in Finnish men and women: A prospective cohort studyDippel DW, Fransen PS, Ikram MK. Neurology, 2019.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗
No trial has tested sauna against pneumonia, and the COVID-19 angle in one paper came without any COVID-19 data.Source 3 · Cohort studyHigh fitness levels, frequent sauna bathing and risk of pneumonia in a cohort study: Are there potential implications for COVID‐19?Kunutsor SK, Laukkanen JA. European Journal of Clinical Investigation, 2021.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗
Put it to use
Skip the sauna while you have a chest infection, as a Finnish review advised.Source 6 · ReviewLungs and ventilation in saunaLaitinen LA, Lindqvist A, Heino M. Annals of clinical research, 1988.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗ Treat any lung benefit as unproven, since it rests on one cohort of Finnish men and vanished in a stricter analysis.
From our sister magazine
Sauna Monthly explains how Finns fit frequent sessions into a week
People also ask
Is sauna good for your lungs?
In one cohort of Finnish men, frequent sauna use went with fewer hospital diagnoses of lung disease, and the link disappeared when the analysis accounted for deaths from other causes.Source 1 · Cohort studySauna bathing reduces the risk of respiratory diseases: a long-term prospective cohort studyKunutsor SK, Laukkanen T, Laukkanen JA. European Journal of Epidemiology, 2017.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗ Lab studies found small changes in breathing and no significant change in lung function in healthy people.Source 6 · ReviewLungs and ventilation in saunaLaitinen LA, Lindqvist A, Heino M. Annals of clinical research, 1988.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗Source 8 · Clinical trialEffects of the Sauna on Diffusing Capacity, Pulmonary Function and Cardiac Output in Healthy SubjectsKiss D, Popp W, Wagner C, et al.. Respiration, 1994.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗
Should you use a sauna with a cold or chest infection?
A Finnish review of sauna and the lungs advised avoiding the sauna during an acute respiratory infection.Source 6 · ReviewLungs and ventilation in saunaLaitinen LA, Lindqvist A, Heino M. Annals of clinical research, 1988.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗
Can a sauna help COPD or asthma?
One uncontrolled study of 12 men with obstructive lung disease found that forced vital capacity rose from 3.22 to 3.6 liters after a sauna program, and their airways didn't narrow.Source 7 · Clinical trialSauna to transiently improve pulmonary function in patients with obstructive lung diseaseCox NJ, Oostendorp GM, Folgering HT, et al.. Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation, 1989.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗ No controlled trial has tested it.
Check these claims next
54°H
Early
“Regular sauna use means you catch fewer colds.”
One 50-person trial from 1990 found fewer colds in regular sauna users, and in the last three of its six months they had about half as many. Nobody has repeated it, and the other support is a Finnish cohort that linked frequent sauna use to less pneumonia.
36°H
Likely
“Regular sauna use helps you live longer.”
One Finnish cohort ties frequent sauna use to fewer deaths. With longer follow-up the gap shrank from 40% to about 14%, and it disappeared in the fittest men and in women's heart deaths.
50°H
Early
“Cold showers mean you get sick less.”
In a trial of 3,018 Dutch adults, people who ended their showers cold took 29% fewer sick days off work. Their days of illness did not differ significantly from those of people who showered as usual, and most people in every group missed no work at all.
We cited these sources
- 01Kunutsor SK, Laukkanen T, Laukkanen JA. Sauna bathing reduces the risk of respiratory diseases: a long-term prospective cohort study. European Journal of Epidemiology. 2017;32(12):1107-1111. doi:10.1007/s10654-017-0311-6 PMID 28905164
- 02Kunutsor SK, Laukkanen T, Laukkanen JA. Frequent sauna bathing may reduce the risk of pneumonia in middle-aged Caucasian men: The KIHD prospective cohort study. Respiratory Medicine. 2017;132:161-163. doi:10.1016/j.rmed.2017.10.018 PMID 29229091
- 03Kunutsor SK, Laukkanen JA. High fitness levels, frequent sauna bathing and risk of pneumonia in a cohort study: Are there potential implications for COVID‐19?. European Journal of Clinical Investigation. 2021;51(3):e13490. doi:10.1111/eci.13490 PMID 33426640
- 04Kunutsor SK, Jae SY, Laukkanen JA. Attenuated Risk of Pneumonia Due to Inflammation by Frequent Sauna Baths. Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention. 2022;42(1):59-63. doi:10.1097/HCR.0000000000000598 PMID 33797457
- 05Kunutsor SK, Laukkanen JA. Frequent sauna bathing may reduce chronic obstructive pulmonary disease risk: A prospective study. European Journal of Clinical Investigation. 2023;53(5):e13940. doi:10.1111/eci.13940 PMID 36541049
- 06Laitinen LA, Lindqvist A, Heino M. Lungs and ventilation in sauna. Annals of clinical research. 1988;20(4):244-248. PMID 3218895
- 07Cox NJ, Oostendorp GM, Folgering HT, van Herwaarden CL. Sauna to transiently improve pulmonary function in patients with obstructive lung disease. Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation. 1989;70(13):911-913. PMID 2596966
- 08Kiss D, Popp W, Wagner C, Zwick H, Sertl K. Effects of the Sauna on Diffusing Capacity, Pulmonary Function and Cardiac Output in Healthy Subjects. Respiration. 1994;61(2):86-88. doi:10.1159/000196312 PMID 8008993
- 09Dippel DW, Fransen PS, Ikram MK. Reader response: Sauna bathing reduces the risk of stroke in Finnish men and women: A prospective cohort study. Neurology. 2019;92(4):205. doi:10.1212/WNL.0000000000006808 PMID 30665915