Sauna Therapy

Evidence Highlights

• Finnish Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study (2 300 men, 20 y follow-up)
• Dose–response: 5–7 sessions/wk → strongest protection
• Dolezal et al. 2020 (linked): acute post-exercise sauna RCT framing—soreness and next-session performance readouts complement the epidemiologic mortality story above.
• Lee et al. 2022 (Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol; PMID 35785965; lee-2022-sauna-after-exercise-eight-week-rct-ajpregu): 8 wk exercise + post-exercise sauna vs exercise alone in sedentary adults with CVD risk factors—extra ~−8 mmHg SBP vs exercise-only in abstract contrasts (n ≈ 47).
• Debray et al. 2023 (J Appl Physiol; PMID 37650138; debray-2023-sauna-stable-cad-vascular-rct-j-appl-physiol): 8 wk Finnish sauna in stable CAD did not improve FMD / cf-PWV / clinic BP vs control despite heat-acclimation physiology—population-specific null anchor next to Kuopio associations.

Typical Session

• 20 min at 80–100 °C, 10–15 % humidity
• Cool-down with room-temp shower between rounds

Mechanisms

Improved endothelial function, reduced arterial stiffness, lower inflammation.

Tertiary map

Wikipedia: Sauna (wikipedia-sauna-overview) plus Wikipedia: Balneotherapy (wikipedia-balneotherapy-overview) separate dry heat-room practice from mineral-water spa traditions—both are navigation layers; mortality and vascular statistics stay on PubMed-linked Kuopio and trial rows here.