Summary
Sauna bathing has been linked with many health benefits. These include improvement in the pain and symptoms associated with musculoskeletal diseases, treatment of chronic headache, and amelioration of skin diseases such as psoriasis and urticaria. Recent emerging evidence also suggests that sauna bathing is associated with lowered risks of cardiovascular disease, neurocognitive disease and all-cause mortality. Sauna bathing may reduce also the risk of respiratory diseases; however, prospective evidence hasn´t been existed to support this hypothesis. Sauna bathing has also been suggested to improve lung function and the symptoms of lung disease.
In this context the aim was to evaluate the prospective association between frequency of sauna bathing and the risk of respiratory diseases (as defined as COPD, asthma or pneumonia), using a population-based prospective cohort study which comprised of 1935 Caucasian men, who were apparently free from any respiratory diseases at study entry.
Sauna bathing habits were assessed in a prospective cohort of 1935 Caucasian men aged 42–61 years. During a median follow-up of 25.6 years, 379 hospital diagnosed incident cases of respiratory diseases were recorded. Participants who had 2–3 and ≥ 4 sauna sessions per week respectively compared with participants who had ≤ 1 sauna session per week.
Results: There was no evidence of an independent association between duration of a single sauna bathing session and risk of respiratory diseases. Frequency of sauna bathing is inversely associated with future risk of respiratory diseases in a graded fashion. The heat associated with sauna baths may also have direct effects on the lung tissue by reducing pulmonary congestion and increasing tidal volume, vital capacity, ventilation, and forced expiratory volume of the lungs. The current findings add to the accumulating knowledge on the beneficial effects of sauna baths on both acute and chronic health conditions.
Conclusion: Frequent sauna baths may be associated with a reduced risk of acute and chronic respiratory conditions in a middle-aged male Caucasian population.
