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Sauna Hype
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58%

lower hazard of cardiovascular death for Finnish men who were fit and bathed often

Frequent sauna bathers died of heart disease less often, and fit bathers did best.

In a Finnish study of 2,315 men followed for about 20 years, those who took four to seven saunas a week died of heart disease at about half the rate of once-a-week bathers.Source 1 · Cohort studyAssociation Between Sauna Bathing and Fatal Cardiovascular and All-Cause Mortality EventsLaukkanen T, Khan H, Zaccardi F, et al.. JAMA Internal Medicine, 2015.Read the paperPubMed ↗ With longer follow-up the gap narrowed, and it disappeared in the fittest men.Source 2 · Cohort studyInflammation, sauna bathing, and all-cause mortality in middle-aged and older Finnish men: a cohort studyKunutsor SK, Jae SY, Kurl S, et al.. European Journal of Epidemiology, 2022.Read the paperPubMed ↗Source 3 · Cohort studyJoint associations of sauna bathing and cardiorespiratory fitness on cardiovascular and all-cause mortality risk: a long-term prospective cohort studyKunutsor SK, Khan H, Laukkanen T, et al.. Annals of Medicine, 2018.Read the paperPubMed ↗

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Build a sauna habit you'll keep, and keep exercising. Men who were fit and bathed often had a 58% lower hazard of cardiovascular death than men who were neither.Source 3 · Cohort studyJoint associations of sauna bathing and cardiorespiratory fitness on cardiovascular and all-cause mortality risk: a long-term prospective cohort studyKunutsor SK, Khan H, Laukkanen T, et al.. Annals of Medicine, 2018.Read the paperPubMed ↗

We cited these sources

  1. 01Laukkanen T, Khan H, Zaccardi F, Laukkanen JA. Association Between Sauna Bathing and Fatal Cardiovascular and All-Cause Mortality Events. JAMA Internal Medicine. 2015;175(4):542-548. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2014.8187 PMID 25705824
  2. 02Kunutsor SK, Jae SY, Kurl S, Kauhanen J, Laukkanen JA. Inflammation, sauna bathing, and all-cause mortality in middle-aged and older Finnish men: a cohort study. European Journal of Epidemiology. 2022;37(12):1225-1231. doi:10.1007/s10654-022-00926-w PMID 36255556
  3. 03Kunutsor SK, Khan H, Laukkanen T, Laukkanen JA. Joint associations of sauna bathing and cardiorespiratory fitness on cardiovascular and all-cause mortality risk: a long-term prospective cohort study. Annals of Medicine. 2018;50(2):139-146. doi:10.1080/07853890.2017.1387927 PMID 28972808