Sauna To Reduce The Risk Of Heart Attack

How would you like to reduce your risk of heart attack by 63%?

How about doing it with an easy activity that’s so pleasurable that you’ll love every minute of it. And it takes no effort whatsoever.

More effective than a major workout, this activity requires nothing more than sitting around talking to friends.

In the study published in JAMA: Internal Medicine, 2,315 Finnish men aged 42 to 60 were studied for 21 years.

The study’s specific interest: their use of sauna.

Dry sauna is a national sport of sorts for Finland and many other northern countries. In small cabins, stones are made red hot. Then, a small amount of water is splashed on the stones to make steam.

All you have to do is sit in the heat and sweat out disease. Saunas are often referred to as the poor man’s pharmacy or the lazy man’s gym.

But are these statements true?

Well, during the study period, 878 deaths due to cardiovascular diseases were recorded. That was almost half of all the men who died in this period. Of those, 281 were coronary heart disease deaths, 190 sudden heart attack deaths, and 407 deaths were from other cardiovascular diseases.

Those men who went to a sauna three times a week were 22% less likely to die from sudden heart attack. But those who went 4-7 times a week were a whopping 63% less likely to die from sudden heart attack.

Regular sauna use also prevented other types of cardiovascular disease. It was, on average, a 23% – 50% reduced risk of overall cardiovascular disease, depending on how often men used the sauna.