Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Sauna effect on heart rate

tryterra.co

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 244 posts

Re: Sauna effect on heart rate

#81

Post by bluGill »

nyjah wrote: post #42
bluGill wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most important thing you didn't measure: does this affect long term health in the same way exercise it known to. That is can I put a TV in my sauna and watch that for an hour every day instead of getting out and exercising - yet get the same better long term health outcomes? My current guess is no. That is this improves a marker for good health without improving health. However this is a guess by someone who isn'…

Zero shot you'd make it an hour in a proper sauna for an hour. People have this idea that saunas are always enjoyable. I sauna daily, and its nice up to a point. For me thats like 10-12mins in. From then on, its tough.

I generally make it about 30 seconds in a sauna (I rarely even bother trying when I have access). Should I tough it out for 10-12 like you? Should you be toughing it out for the full hour I suggested (a random time I pulled out of my head)? Or is this all nonsense and I'm just fine ignoring the whole thing?

Re: Sauna effect on heart rate

#83

Post by al_borland »

kyriakosel wrote: post #2

Author here. Methodology upfront because I'd ask the same things: Data: daily records from wearable users who logged sauna sessions via connected apps. Within-person design — each user is their own control, comparing their own sauna-day nights against their own non-sauna-day nights. No cross-user comparisons. Stats: paired t-tests, FDR-corrected p 0.2 threshold for "meaningful effect." Anything below d=0.2 we don't r…

How would this play out over time? Will sauna see a 3bpm drop below baseline on days it’s used, while keeping the same baseline?

Exercise, over time, should lower the baseline (to a point). I’d think this would have the more desirable long term benefits.

One can do both, of course, but when people see headlines like this they often jump to the conclusion that sauna can replace exercise, because that’s what they want to believe.

Re: Sauna effect on heart rate

#84

Post by gonzalohm »

shevy-java wrote: post #64
bluGill wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Problem is sauna use and genetic factors corrolate too strongly to make any conclusion to the broader population. If you live in/near Finland you likely sauna often, as have all your ancestors for thousands of years. If you don't live there both are false. Thus we can't know if Sauna is helpful for the general population who isn't of a Finish background.

Japan has a +4 years lead of life expectancy over Finland; Norway almost +3 years on Finland. I am not saying this is conclusive per se, but to me the sauna-people-live-forever is not backed up by the data. I would instead reason that, e. g. weight correlates a lot more here.

A lot of Mediterranean countries also have high life expectancy and are the opposite of a sauna culture.

Re: Sauna effect on heart rate

#85

Post by SJMG »

SCdF wrote: post #53

Not to be glib, but being dead lowers your night time heart rate more then exercise as well. Is having a lower night time heart rate the core goal of exercise? Is it even a goal at all? Or is it just an indicator of other goals being reached? I'm genuinely curious, I wasn't aware that the number mattered, more than what that number actually represents.

It's just another measure. It's not ceteris paribus better to have a lower one.

From the author, "Strongest hypothesis: elevated parasympathetic tone from the post-sauna cooling phase carries into sleep"

AKA, they use it as a proxy to infer a deeper state of rest and improved recovery state. Says nothing about the fatigue generated from using a sauna.

Re: Sauna effect on heart rate

#86

Post by bluGill »

tester756 wrote: post #75
bluGill wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most important thing you didn't measure: does this affect long term health in the same way exercise it known to. That is can I put a TV in my sauna and watch that for an hour every day instead of getting out and exercising - yet get the same better long term health outcomes? My current guess is no. That is this improves a marker for good health without improving health. However this is a guess by someone who isn'…

One hour in sauna? :O

A random time I pulled out of my head. If this is real the next question is what is the optimal time. (also temperature and humidity levels)

Re: Sauna effect on heart rate

#87

Post by jampekka »

kyriakosel wrote: post #2

Author here. Methodology upfront because I'd ask the same things: Data: daily records from wearable users who logged sauna sessions via connected apps. Within-person design — each user is their own control, comparing their own sauna-day nights against their own non-sauna-day nights. No cross-user comparisons. Stats: paired t-tests, FDR-corrected p 0.2 threshold for "meaningful effect." Anything below d=0.2 we don't r…

I'd like to see a bit more detailed methods.

- How was the controlling for the other factors done? A linear model?

- What were the sauna vs non-sauna baseline HRs in fig 1? Could you plot raw averages?

- Was the min HR explicitly computed during the night (in Fig 2), or was it assumed min HR occurs during the night?

- Reporting only significant results is not prudent even with multiple comparisons corrections, please report all tests made

Re: Sauna effect on heart rate

#88

Post by verst »

al_borland wrote: post #83
kyriakosel wrote: post #2

Author here. Methodology upfront because I'd ask the same things: Data: daily records from wearable users who logged sauna sessions via connected apps. Within-person design — each user is their own control, comparing their own sauna-day nights against their own non-sauna-day nights. No cross-user comparisons. Stats: paired t-tests, FDR-corrected p 0.2 threshold for "meaningful effect." Anything below d=0.2 we don't r…

How would this play out over time? Will sauna see a 3bpm drop below baseline on days it’s used, while keeping the same baseline? Exercise, over time, should lower the baseline (to a point). I’d think this would have the more desirable long term benefits. One can do both, of course, but when people see headlines like this they often jump to the conclusion that sauna can replace exercise, because that’s what they want…

Due to lots of long distance running my rest heart rate is below 40. I am highly skeptical I would experience a 3bpm lower heart rate after sauna. Maybe this benefit applies after infrequent activity or less intense activity only.

Re: Sauna effect on heart rate

#89

Post by groundzeros2015 »

mminer237 wrote: post #40
nsbk wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently listened to a podcast about the benefits of sauna or deliberate heat exposure and the gist is that if you get your core temperature at about 39 degrees celsius your cardiovascular system is working comparably hard to light exercise. My take is that your heart and lungs are working out, even if your body is not. Do you get the same benefits as going for a run or bike ride for a comparable amount of time? no…

Edit: I posted this accidentally when editing without noticing. Hypertrophy isn't necessarily a bad thing. I thought I was discarding the comment cuz I realized I was out of my depth. whoops Please ignore my comment, though I will leave it to make the below comments less confusing. Original: You don't want to "work out" your heart though. Cardiac hypertrophy is a bad thing. The benefit of exercise is that your muscle…

This is why I hate health science. Informed people can have the same information and come to opposite conclusions. The entire field is made up of contradictory explanations and principles, to the extent that it’s unknowable what’s true or not.

Re: Sauna effect on heart rate

#90

Post by dukeofdoom »

Seems to me what we now know about neural networks, we should maybe weighted sum of inputs, that fire off the desired output. The human body/brain process all kinds of stimulus at once, and might only react to a combination of inputs.
Post reply on HN