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Time in Saunas Reduces Risk of Alzheimer’s and Dementia

A new study from the University of Eastern Finland (tracking men’s health over 20 years) found that those who used a sauna four to seven times a week had a 66-percent lower risk for dementia and a 65-percent lower risk for Alzheimer’s disease. The medical researchers hypothesized that sauna bathing reduces inflammation and blood pressure and improves vascular function.

saun1 286x286The databases often return hundreds of medical studies for a single wellness approach. This section summarizes a sampling of five studies – providing just a taste of the available research. These Spotlights were not selected because they are the most favorable or the most recent, but to provide you an introduction to the more extensive research you'll uncover searching the four databases found in the “Research” section of this site.

  • Time in Saunas Associated with Reduced Risk of Alzheimer’s & Dementia:
    A 2016 study from the University of Eastern Finland (analyzing the medical records of 2,315 men over 20 years) found that those who used a sauna 4-7 times a week had a 66% lower risk for dementia and a 65% lower risk for Alzheimer’s disease. The researchers hypothesized that various physiological mechanisms are likely involved: from sauna bathing reducing inflammation and blood pressure and improving vascular function.
  • A small University of Toyama (Japan) study showed that repeated sauna treatments improved exercise tolerance (increasing the heart’s ability to pump blood and boosting the distance that participants could walk in six minutes from 337 meters to 379) in patients with chronic heart failure – in association with improvement in endothelial function.
  • A small Nishi Kyusyu University study (Japan) found that patients with chronic pain that received four weeks of infrared sauna therapy and post-sauna warming (in addition to cognitive behavioral and exercise therapy) reported lower pain scores than those that just experienced the behavioral + exercise programs – suggesting that repeated thermal therapy may be a promising pain treatment method.
  • A small Montreal Heart Institute randomized study found that a single sauna session induced a significant alteration of autonomic cardiovascular control in patients with untreated hypertension, with an increased sympathetic and decreased parasympathetic drive. These alterations were normalized within 15 to 120 minutes after sauna bathing. Additional studies are required to identify long-term effects of chronic sauna bathing on patients with hypertension.
  • A Kagoshima University (Japan) study found that 3 weeks of sauna therapy combined with underwater exercise significantly improved the pain, symptoms and quality of life of female fibromyalgia patients.
  • A Charité University Medical Center (Germany) randomized, single blind control trial (137 participants) concluded that inhaling hot air while in a sauna has no significant impact on overall symptom severity for the common cold.

Source: globalwellnessinstitute.org

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