
Regular sauna users may have fewer chronic diseases - prostoalex
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-sauna/regular-sauna-users-may-have-fewer-chronic-diseases-idUSKBN1KM5U0
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carbocation
It's very difficult to contort the causal arrow from the obvious explanation
(that sick people don't use saunas very often) to less obvious ones (that
saunas stimulate something in the heart to improve cardiovascular health). But
boy, do they try.

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bsder
Yeah, I tend to agree.

However, I can certainly imagine that a sauna gets your heart rate up and your
metabolism into overdrive trying to cool you down.

The human body burns roughly a fixed set of calories--it simply shunts those
calories between the systems it considers to be immediately important.

If you are shunting one or two hundred calories a day to cooling yourself off,
that's a bunch of calories your body can't throw at creating chronic
conditions.

~~~
loco5niner
> If you are shunting one or two hundred calories a day to cooling yourself
> off, that's a bunch of calories your body can't throw at creating chronic
> conditions.

... or fighting off chronic conditions either.

~~~
bsder
"Chronic" conditions don't get fought off--they persist. That's what "chronic"
means.

And, yes, doing this _does_ remove calories from the ability to fight off
"acute" conditions.

It's a tradeoff.

~~~
loco5niner
> "Chronic" conditions don't get fought off--they persist. That's what
> "chronic" means.

Well, of course. Fighting off the creation of chronic conditions.

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m0llusk
Regular saunas are common in Sweden and Finland but rare in Scotland. It is
quite possible that who uses saunas regularly and how they live is what
matters and not the sauna at all.

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DennisP
This is interesting but I'd like to see a comparison with not using sauna at
all. If 4x/week is better than 1x/week, in theory it could be because 1x/week
is bad for you.

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6t6t6t6
Or... People with chonic diseases don't tend to use saunas.

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im3w1l
Once when I had a fever, I set my sauna to 40C and read books there. I have no
idea whether it helped or not but it was very comfortable - much better than
shivering in bed.

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oh5nxo
Regular bathing forces you to do lots of auxiliary physical activity.
Firewood, ashes, etc. Enough to distort statistics.

~~~
vesak
Most Finns have electric saunas, though. Activity required: turn a dial 30-60
minutes before going in.

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ahmedalsudani
If I had the free time and the peace of mind to enjoy going to the sauna, I
too would have fewer chronic diseases.

