How Long Should You Sauna For Heart Health?

How Long Should You Sauna For Heart Health?

Spending time in a sauna, especially an infrared sauna, has gained an extremely impressive track record in the last decade. Lots of research has emerged on the relationship between saunas and heart and blood vessel health.  From a broader perspective though, you may know that the infrared sauna health benefits are extremely impressive. In the past, I’ve written several blog posts on infrared sauna and heart health benefits. Examples include:

In this blog post, I’ll take you through more of the science on infrared saunas and heart health. We’ll answer the very important question of “how long should you sauna for heart health?” I’ll break down much of the research into easy to understand terms on this topic. I’ll also answer some frequently asked questions such as who should avoid infrared saunas due to side-effect and what the best infrared saunas for heart health are. Let’s begin with the beginning though:

A Problem Of Epic Proportions: Why Cardiovascular Disease Matters So Much

Cardiovascular - or heart and blood vessel disease - is a worldwide problem of epic proportions (1; 2; 3; 4). Ischemic heart disease, where the heart receives insufficient oxygen and can undergo a heart attack, and stroke are the main worst outcomes here. Strokes, heart attacks, and other “cardiovascular events” lead to lots of disability every year. In most countries, heart disease is also a main if not the main cause of mortality. More than 500 million people suffer from heart disease worldwide.

Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to lower your risk of getting heart and blood vessel disease. Such strategies include smoking as little as possible, limiting alcoholic consumptions to 1-2 glasses per day, staying active, lowering stress, normalising blood glucose and cholesterol, and to prevent yourself from becoming overweight and especially obese.

Fortunately, since the last decade, lots of research has emerged on saunas and cardiovascular risk factors. It turns out that (infrared) saunas are a fantastic tool to lower your risk of getting bad outcomes, such as a heart attack or stroke. Let’s explore these studies:

Saunas And Cardiovascular Risk

I hope I didn’t make you too scared. So let’s switch to some extremely positive news: Spending time in a sauna can dramatically lower your risk of having heart and blood vessel disease. The risk of bad outcomes such as ischemic heart disease and strokes also goes down big time. Many different studies have emerged on this topic in the last few years (5; 6; 7; 8; 9). 

One Finnish study tracked men and women for 15 years and asked them about their sauna habits. After those 15 years, the participants were divided into groups that had used the sauna once per week, two to three times per week, and four to seven times per week. The outcome?

When compared to using the sauna once per week, the group that used the sauna two to three times per week had a 29% reduction in risk of dying of cardiovascular disease. And the group that used the sauna four to seven times per week had a whopping 70% reduced risk of dying of cardiovascular disease during that 15 year period.

Also, the more minutes per week the participants spent inside the sauna, the greater the reduction of dying of cardiovascular disease. This relationship was linear, meaning that more is better (up to a certain point, of course, as you want to quit when you’re exhausted). The good thing is also that the participants were middle aged. Most people don’t get cardiovascular issues until they’re in their forties and fifties. So, if you’re currently 40 years old or 70 years old, this extremely exciting research is applicable to you as well.  And there’s more: 

In another study, participants used a single sauna session. The researchers then monitored the blood pressure of the study participants. A traditional sauna was used, but only at 70 degrees Celsius, which isn’t even that hot. The result? Just a single 30-minute session lowers systolic blood pressure by seven points on average. For diastolic blood pressure that’s also seven points. After the sauna session, blood pressure slightly rises again but systolic blood pressure doesn’t fully recover. (Systolic blood pressure occurs when your heart is beating and the pressure on the vessels is highest. Diastolic blood pressure happens when your heart muscles are relaxed and pressure is lower.)

High blood pressure is an extremely important independent risk factor for heart disease, just like being overweight or having a low activity level in your daily life. And there’s more: Chronic stress is another independent risk factor for heart disease. Infrared saunas have a huge effect on the stress you’re experiencing. For instance, infrared saunas allow for the release of “endorphins”, which are natural opioids (10; 11; 12). Endorphins are natural painkillers that are also released when you’re running.

Just a 20 or 30 minute session of an infrared sauna will already give you that good feeling. Many people also sleep a lot better after spending time inside a sauna, further reducing stress. Hence, infrared saunas deal with one of the most important risk factors of cardiovascular disease - stress - through several mechanisms. You probably know whether you’re more susceptible to stress or not - and thus whether infrared saunas help you deal with cardiovascular disease.

A recent 2022 study showed that for the best results, you have to combine saunas and exercise (8). Exercise alone reduced body fat levels in the study, as you’d probably already expect. However, when the exercise was combined with saunas, there were far greater improvements in cardiovascular fitness, systolic blood pressure, and even cholesterol levels.  These results were achieved with as little as a 15-minute sauna session after a workout. Next up, let’s consider a few mechanisms through which infrared saunas improve heart health big time:

Newer Post Older Post