Study suggests saunas can help prevent early heart attack deaths

Men who regularly visited a sauna lived longer and were less likely to die of sudden heart attacks than men who did not visit as often, said a Finnish study.

In often frigid Finland, going to the sauna is a popular activity, and is believed to confer good health and relaxation.

While other studies have examined the link between better circulation and sauna use, the latest study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Internal Medicine out Monday looked at the link between sauna bathing and the risk of sudden cardiac death, fatal coronary heart disease, fatal cardiovascular disease and dying from any cause among a group of 2,315 middle-aged men (42 to 60 years old) from eastern Finland.

The men - all of whom went to saunas but some more often than others - were tracked for a median, or midpoint, of 21 years.

Comparing the risk of sudden cardiac death among those who reported going to sauna once a week to those who went two to three times, the more frequent sauna-goers had a 22 per cent lower risk of cardiac death. Those who went four to seven times a week had a 63 per cent lower risk than those who went once.

Similarly, coronary heart disease risk was 23 per cent lower for two to three bathing sessions per week and 48 per cent lower for four to seven sauna sessions per week compared to once a week, the study said.