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All of these studies are always performed by Finns (or SE / DK / NO + maybe Russia). I'd love to see this (and other sauna studies) replicated by someone somew
by cue_the_strings 6mo ago
All of these studies are always performed by Finns (or SE / DK / NO + maybe Russia).
I'd love to see this (and other sauna studies) replicated by someone somewhere to the south or hotter climates in general (southern Europe, Africa, hotter parts of Asia and the Americas).
- Jensson 6mo agoIt is hard to study this in a place with less access to saunas.
- dafelst 6mo agoSaunas are very cheap to buy and/or build, certainly within the budget of an average research grant.
- usrnm 6mo agoEver heard of hamam?
- dafelst 6mo agoI have not, what is it?
- thesz 6mo agoHammam is not as hot as sauna and not as dry. Sauna's air temperatures can reach above 100 degress Celsius and humidity is usually relatively low (around 20%). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauna https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauna Hammam's temperatures are around 40-50 degrees Celsius and humidity is close to 100%. These are very different conditions, with very different body response.
- KellyCriterion 6mo agoThere is also a World Championship with up to 130° https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Sauna_Championships https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Sauna_Championships :-D
- Towaway69 6mo agoWas - there was a world championship The last time it was held, a Russian died and a Finn ended up in hospital with severe burns. The problem is that staying as long as possible in a sauna can be fatal.
- rashkov 6mo agoSo, you’re telling me the Finn won?
- margalabargala 5mo agoThey were both disqualified as they did not leave the sauna unaided. A different Finn won.
- euroderf 5mo ago> The problem is that staying as long as possible in a sauna can be fatal. One used to read regularly (like a few times a year) about someone who came home drunk and went to (electric) sauna and passed out... and died. Saunas in new construction now all have timers.
- gjulianm 6mo ago
- helsinkiandrew 6mo agoThere’s a saying in Finland that foreign "saunas" are not true saunas at all, but rather just "untypically warm rooms". The experiments where at 73°C which is a lot hotter than most gym/hotel/spa saunas I’ve been in outside Finland
- ttiurani 6mo agoAlso while 73°C is a proper sauna, there are plenty of hotter ones. 90°C is closer to what I'm used to at my apartment building's common sauna. I do take two breaks when I'm there for 30 mims though.
- mrgoldenbrown 5mo agoWhat percent humidity? That is just as important as temperature for understanding how tolerable a particular sauna is.
- ttiurani 5mo agoIt's a sauna so humidity depends on how much water I feel like throwing on the stones ("kiuas"). I throw at about once per minute, but I have no idea what that would mean in humidity.
- ludicrousdispla 6mo agoyou can sous vide beef and pork at a lower temperature than that
- koolba 6mo agoI knew a guy that would bring a steak sealed in a vac seal bag to the gym and leave it in the sauna while he worked out. One hour later he was done working out and it was ready to eat too. Not sure I can actually recommend it to others but the novelty was interesting till they nearly kicked him out of the gym.
- 6mo ago
- sumea 6mo agoAnd also replicated with participants not used to high temperatures inside a typical Finnish sauna. As the study said such people are very difficult to find in Finland. But I wonder if a person who has never been to a real sauna would tolerate this study protocol (2*15 min at 73° Celsius) without any training. Sauna and hot climates may sound counterintuitive, but it has been tested by most Finns that when you come out of a hot sauna any outside temperature feels cool.
- piva00 6mo agoI'm an immigrant in Scandinavia, originally from a hot country, in my experience a 73C steam sauna is quite tolerable for a 2*15 min session. The first time I was in a sauna after moving was a bit harder than after getting used to it but doable. Nowadays I just love them, my friends and I built a couple of saunas to leave by the lake in their summerhouses, the cravings of going from hot -> very cold, and back to the heat is hard to explain, and I totally recommend it.
- euroderf 5mo agoIt's sensory overload as a reaction to cold dark grey murky winters.
- anthk 5mo agoNorthern Spaniard there, bring a Saunaa lover Finn with one of these climate-change induced hours at 43C at some day or two in Summer... in the Atlantic, in Bilbao, which is... inside a valley. I've been in saunas at 60-70C and the feeling inside was much bearable because of the lack of humidity than 43C under a climate closer to UK than inner/Mediterranean Spain.
- gjulianm 6mo agoI doubt they would replicate it or any of the magical effects of saunas. Lots of the sauna studies suffer from the same issue where people self-report sauna usage rather than being assigned randomly to a treatment group. In countries where saunas are readily accessible and most people are under the impression that the more you use sauna the healthier you are, the ones that use the sauna less are probably because they tolerate it far worse. And that's probably related with age, comorbidities, physical condition, etc. Basically, the sauna studies are probably mostly discovering that "healthier people can stand sauna longer". In countries where most people don't stand sauna for more than a few minutes, that self-selection bias won't exist.
- fy20 5mo agoAlso location. In my country, saunas at home aren't as common in Finland, but basically every gym has one. So the people that use the sauna the most, are likely to be the most active.
- curiousgal 5mo agoI don't know about that. As in yes I agree but that seems to apply to Western countries in general. For example in Tunisia, people go to public baths at least once a week and part of that involves sitting in a hot steamy room for 30+ minutes. So here you have an example for a population that does use sauna (in a way) but aren't relying on self-reporting.
- lukan 5mo agoIf you want to experience positive health effects from sauna, you don't have to set records in heat and duration. You just get hot and sweat as much as you feel is fine. So you can do it in almost all conditions. Sweating out bad stuff from your body, activating the blood flow, unless you are at risk of a aneurysm - of course it is beneficial, even though it doesn't magically turn your health around. But a proper sauna and ice bath do revive and make you feel reborn. Try it at least at some point and then you can judge if it did not make you feel more alive and healthier and that all the studies around it a "probably bullshit".
- 5mo ago
- Findecanor 5mo agoWhat about Japanese hot springs? ("onsen") Those are typically around 40°C but could be up to 60°C. Because it is hot water and not hot air the temperature would be transferred differently to the body though, so I don't think the numeric temperature is directly comparable. Onsen baths are taken all year round: including summers that get hotter than in Finland, but especially enjoyed in winter.
- pezezin 5mo agoI am a Spanish guy currently living in Japan, and honestly I hate sauna but love onsen. Most on my Spanish colleagues seem to think the same. I guess the main factor being that both Spain and Japan are have really hot summers, so why would you get in a hot room to sweat like a pig when you are already sweating outside?
- otuutti 5mo agoOnly 1 test subject, but might at least be interesting read: https://blueprint.bryanjohnson.com/blogs/news/sauna-protocol https://blueprint.bryanjohnson.com/blogs/news/sauna-protocol