Study: Men looking to live longer should hit the sauna

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published 24 February 2015

A new study suggests that men who want to live longer should prepare to sweat it out in a Finnish sauna several times a week.

Researchers looked at 2,315 Finnish men who have had their health tracked since 1984, the Los Angeles Times reports. The participants were between 42 and 60, with a median age of 53, and those who visited a sauna two to three times a week had a 23 percent lower risk of having cardiovascular disease or coronary heart disease compared to those who went just once weekly. The benefits were even better for men who used the sauna four to seven times a week, with a 48 percent lower risk of similar incidents compared to those who went once a week.

Researchers wrote that they are not sure why saunas have such a health benefit, and further studies are needed. It's unlikely the same thing would happen in regular hot tub and steam rooms, researchers said, as Finnish saunas have dry air with 10 to 20 percent humidity and are kept at 176 to 212 degrees, causing heart rates to go up to 100 to 150 beats per minute and more blood flow to the skin and less to internal organs. "Previous studies have suggested that sauna bathing might have some harmful effects, whereas our results indicated a protective effect," the authors wrote.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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