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Exercise training and regular physical activity are well-documented strategies to improve health and prevent various diseases. However, heat therapy and the health benefits of Finnish sauna bathing are still not well understood in spite of its storied history and increasing global popularity. Regular use of the infrared sauna has previously been shown to improve health outcomes in patients with heart diseases, and some studies have also reported improved exercise performance in trained athletes with regular post-exercise sauna exposure. Nevertheless, information on the benefits of sauna bathing for the general population remain somewhat limited.

M.Sc. Earric Lee showed in his dissertation that Finnish sauna bathing is able to elicit acute positive effects in the cardiovascular system. More importantly, it is able to confer additive beneficial responses when performed after exercise.

“The first research study we conducted showed that 2x 15 minutes of sauna bathing was able to acutely reduce blood pressures and indices of vascular stiffness. We subsequently found that when a short bout of aerobic exercise was performed prior to 15 minutes of sauna bathing, these effects appear to be prolonged.” Earric explained.

“This led to a speculative hypothesis that exercise and sauna bathing may have synergistic potential, which could lead to improved cardiovascular adaptations compared to what regular exercise alone would confer,” he added. It has been well established that after a single bout of exercise, there is an increase in angiogenic factors and insulin sensitivity, together with decreases in blood lipid and blood pressure levels. As such, the final experiment in the dissertation was designed to take advantage of this unique opportunity and put this hypothesis to the test.

In the randomized controlled trial, middle-aged adults with at least one cardiovascular risk factor participated in an eight-week exercise intervention that adhered to the recommendations of the national guidelines (UKK-instituutti). One group of participants regularly went to the sauna for 15 minutes postexercise, while another did not.

The research showed that regular exercise was able to improve cardiorespiratory fitness and reduce body mass, which was somewhat expected. More notably however, regular exercise followed by sauna bathing led to greater improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness, and a decrease in systolic blood pressure and total cholesterol levels as well.

The dissertation in Exercise Medicine, titled “Alterations to Cardiovascular Function from Sauna Bathing, and Exercise and Sauna in Populations with Cardiovascular Risk Factors,” will be examined on 12th of May 2023 at 10 am, in Agora, Gamma (Ag B222.1, Gamma, 2nd floor). The opponent is Professor Hans Hägglund (Uppsala University) and the custos is Associate Professor Juha Ahtiainen (Ģ��ֱ��). The dissertation, held in English, was partially supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation.

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Earric Lee, who holds a Master's Degree in Biology of Physical Activity from the Ģ��ֱ��, is currently involved in several other research projects within the faculty.