Regular sauna use can be enjoyable for many, relaxing for others, and according to recent research, very healthy for some people as well. New research by scientists at Brigham Young University in Utah, in the United States, has come to support that hypothesis, as it has shown that enjoying sauna heat therapy lowers blood pressure levels in middle-aged people. The study has revealed that their specific sauna method lowered the body’s core temperature more than techniques used in previous heat studies.
The sauna provides a type of passive heat therapy that has become popular as an enjoyable way to improve cardiovascular health. High blood pressure or hypertension can trigger serious health problems – in fact, it is known as the ‘silent killer’ – such as heart or kidney disease, stroke, or eye disorders, and it can damage the arteries, hindering blood flow and of oxygen to the heart.
The new work built on a previous study carried out in Finland – a country where sauna use is widespread – which showed that people who used the sauna frequently with a minimum stay of 19 minutes were less likely to develop cardiovascular diseases than those who did not have this habit.
After a single sauna session, blood pressure in middle-aged individuals dropped significantly, but not in the young.
The authors of the new research studied 10 men and women aged 18 to 30 and eight men and women aged 50 to 64. Participants remained in the sauna at 176 degrees Fahrenheit (equivalent to 80ºC) for 40 minutes divided into 20-minute sessions. The results showed that the physiological response to a single sauna session was identical between young and middle-aged adults, significantly lowering blood pressure in middle-aged individuals, but not in the young. No adverse effects were observed among the participants.
“This suggests that we may not need to go to extremes to see improvements in cardiovascular health when we use heat therapy for a longer period of time,” says Olivia Leach, a master’s student at Brigham Young University and first author. of the study, the conclusions of which were presented at the American Physiology Summit held in Long Beach (California) between April 20 and 23.
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