In recent years, scientists at the University of Eastern Finland have shown that sauna bathing is associated with a number of health benefits. This time, using an experimental setting, the research group now explored the physiological mechanisms by which exposure to heat from the sauna can affect a person's health. Their latest study with 100 subjects shows that taking a 30-minute sauna bath lowers blood pressure and improves vascular compliance, while also increasing heart rate, similar to moderate-intensity exercise.
The experimental study provides new insight into changes that take place in the human body during and after having a sauna. The study analyzed the effects of a 30-minute sauna on 100 subjects. In particular, the aim was to analyze the role of vascular compliance and lowered blood pressure in the health benefits induced by sauna baths.
Vascular compliance was measured from the carotid and femoral arteries before the sauna, immediately after the sauna and after 30 minutes of recovery. These vascular compliance measurements performed in the experimental study represent a new assessment method in a sauna environment.
Immediately after 30 minutes of sauna bathing, the subjects' mean systolic blood pressure decreased from 137 mmHg to 130 mmHg and their diastolic blood pressure from 82 mmHg to 75 mmHg. In addition, their systolic blood pressure remained lower even after bathing in the sauna for 30 minutes. Subjects' mean carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity, which is an indicator of vessel compliance, was 9.8 m/s before the sauna, falling immediately to 8.6 m/s. While bathing in the sauna, the subjects' heart rate increased, as with moderate-intensity exercise, and their body temperature increased by approximately 2°C. The findings shed light on the physiological mechanisms by which health benefits, which have been observed at the population level and caused by exposure to heat from the sauna, can develop.
