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Sauna Hype

Eight weeks of regular sauna lowered headache intensity by 1.27 points in a small randomized trial

This 2015 trial in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine randomly assigned 37 people with chronic tension-type headache to advice plus regular sauna or to advice alone.

The paper

Efficacy of Regular Sauna Bathing for Chronic Tension-Type Headache: A Randomized Controlled Study

Kanji G, Weatherall M, Peter R, Purdie G, et al.. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 2015;21(2):103-109.

Read the paper ↗PubMed 25636135 ↗

See the study at a glance

Design
Randomized controlled trial
People
37 people with chronic tension-type headache
Who they were
People with chronic tension-type headache. Seventeen were in the sauna group and 20 in the advice-only group.
What they did
Everyone got advice on managing headaches, and the sauna group also took regular saunas for eight weeks. The abstract doesn't give the sauna temperature or how often people went.
How long
Eight weeks

These numbers came out of it

1.27 points

The sauna group rated headache intensity 1.27 points lower on a numerical pain scale. The plausible range (95% confidence interval) ran from 0.48 to 2.07.

No difference

The groups didn't differ on headache duration, sleep, depression or disability.

17 vs 20

Seventeen people were in the sauna group and 20 got advice only.

The researchers did this

Researchers randomly assigned 37 people with chronic tension-type headache to eight weeks of advice plus regular sauna bathing (17 people) or advice alone (20 people).Source 1 · Randomized trialEfficacy of Regular Sauna Bathing for Chronic Tension-Type Headache: A Randomized Controlled StudyKanji G, Weatherall M, Peter R, et al.. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 2015.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗

Headache intensity came out 1.27 points lower in the sauna group on a numerical pain scale (95% confidence interval 0.48 to 2.07). The groups did not differ on headache duration, sleep, depression or disability.

The trial is one of the few randomized tests of sauna for a pain condition. A 2009 evidence summary rated the evidence for infrared sauna in chronic pain as fair, based on one study, and found no blinded placebo control in any of the studies it reviewed.Source 2 · Systematic reviewFar-infrared saunas for treatment of cardiovascular risk factors: summary of published evidenceBeever R. Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien, 2009.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗

The study can't tell you these things

  • The trial was small, and only 17 people took saunas.
  • People knew whether they were taking saunas, and the control group got no stand-in treatment. Expectations could shape a pain score that people rate themselves.
  • We couldn't find the sauna temperature or schedule in the abstract.
  • The benefit showed up in headache intensity alone. How long headaches lasted didn't differ between the groups.

We cited these sources

  1. 01Kanji G, Weatherall M, Peter R, Purdie G, Page R. Efficacy of Regular Sauna Bathing for Chronic Tension-Type Headache: A Randomized Controlled Study. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. 2015;21(2):103-109. doi:10.1089/acm.2013.0466 PMID 25636135
  2. 02Beever R. Far-infrared saunas for treatment of cardiovascular risk factors: summary of published evidence. Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien. 2009;55(7):691-696. PMID 19602651