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

141–150 of 244 posts

Re: Sauna effect on heart rate

#141

Post by MyHonestOpinon »

bluGill wrote: post #81
nyjah wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

IMHO. 10-20 mins is good enough. I wouldn't try to stay for an hour.

If 10mins feels too much, do less.

Re: Sauna effect on heart rate

#142

Post by xkcd-sucks »

storus wrote: post #97

Can anyone suggest why after covid I can't do Finnish sauna anymore? Prior to that I used to do 1-2x a week a sequence of 5x(10 minutes in sauna + 5 minutes cold water immersion + 10 minutes rest) which was absolutely great for both stress reduction and blood flow. Now if I do 5 minutes in sauna I feel like my skin was burning and I am about to die, and I need to recover for 1 hour from that to be able to just walk a…

I'm a big fan of soaking in hot water and have noticed that cardiac function seems to have a massive effect on heat tolerance as measured vs body temperature.

For example, if I've been totally sedentary for the whole day (and my feet are chilly+blue), a body temperature as low as 101F is unbearable. But if I've been actively moving around all day (and my feet are warm and pink), I only start getting uncomfortable at a body temperature around 103.5F-104F.

This also seems to correlate over a longer timespan re: exercise habits, consumption habits, sickness, etc.

Re: Sauna effect on heart rate

#143

Post by asdfman123 »

shmel wrote: post #113
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…

Not saying you are wrong, but I'd like to see some evidence on that. Just because your heart is pumping faster doesn't mean your cardio fitness is getting better. Otherwise we could all just snort cocaine and skip the gym. Alcohol does that too, anyone with a fitness tracker can check that.

Athletes already know the answer from years of cultural knowledge, research, and firsthand experience. No, it doesn't make your cardio fitness meaningfully better. If you did sauna training for years and then tried to ramp up for a marathon, you'd be hopelessly out of shape.

Endurance athletes obsessively track VO2 max, basically your body's ability to consume oxygen during workouts, and it certainly doesn't improve with sauna training.

It's like asking "if you only did puzzles, would you be smarter?" Well, in a way, yes, but if you actually want to compete with someone with a good education you have to read.

Same with physical exercise. It puts a lot of different stresses on your body that saunas don't. The question isn't "do saunas make you physically fit," because they don't. The question is "for people who don't want to exercise, does sauna training alone meaningfully extend your healthspan?" I'm guessing the answer is "a little but not enough," but I'm not sure.

Re: Sauna effect on heart rate

#144

Post by vinni2 »

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…

A lot of people go to sauna after workout. I rarely go to sauna without workout so not sure if the combination is helping me or exercise or the sauna. How to control for that?

Re: Sauna effect on heart rate

#145

Post by cpncrunch »

kyriakosel wrote: post #44
iwontberude wrote: post #28

Website doesn’t load, it times out. Anyone have tl;dr?

it works for me - what browser are you using?

Its a cloudflare gateway timeout, so not working for anyone on any browser right now. Seems like a contradiction if cloudflare cant cache what is presumably a static site.

Re: Sauna effect on heart rate

#146

Post by jmdeon »

bluGill wrote: post #6
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…

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'…

I'm being slightly snarky, but good luck watching a TV if you're doing an intense/valuable sauna session.

When I'm in my dry sauna and really pushing myself with the heat and steam off the hot rocks, I basically have to mediate to stay in beyond 15 minutes because every part of my mind starts telling me to get out and cool down.

Re: Sauna effect on heart rate

#147

Post by gf000 »

kazga wrote: post #77
mminer237 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Not true. You can't really train your muscles to use less oxygen for the same energy output (what "oxygen-efficiency" would imply). You rather increase their capacity to take up oxygen from the blood and burn it. They will use more oxygen to output more energy. That additional oxygen needs to come from somewhere. Endurance training at the same time trains the heart to deliver more oxygen to the periphery; the primary…

I would assume that another factor is that the technique for a given exercise on the other hand can be improved, and that can help with decreasing the necessary energy - would that be a correct statement? And as a follow up, depending on activity type this may or may not be significant?

Re: Sauna effect on heart rate

#148

Post by marcosdumay »

vinni2 wrote: post #144
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…

A lot of people go to sauna after workout. I rarely go to sauna without workout so not sure if the combination is helping me or exercise or the sauna. How to control for that?

You are replying to a comment that said they log and control for time of activity.

Re: Sauna effect on heart rate

#149

Post by xtracto »

Insanity wrote: post #123
xtracto wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Moreover, I'm from a very hot and humid tropical region. Its normal to ne 40°C with 80% humidity there. And you dont see people having better health or longevity (Yucatan peninsula) .

The great but not super healthy Mexican diet might offset the potential heat exposure benefits! Although I’m basing that on the diet of my Monterrey-based in-laws, not sure how different Yucatan is.

LOL, Monterrey diet is healthy compared to the diet in the Yucatan peninsula.

Tamales, Cochinita (roasted pork with herbs), salbutes, trancas. Everything of course cooked in Lard. With CocaCola on the side.

So yeah, that's a strong point.

Re: Sauna effect on heart rate

#150

Post by smileysteve »

xtracto wrote: post #117
shmel wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not saying you are wrong, but I'd like to see some evidence on that. Just because your heart is pumping faster doesn't mean your cardio fitness is getting better. Otherwise we could all just snort cocaine and skip the gym. Alcohol does that too, anyone with a fitness tracker can check that.

Moreover, I'm from a very hot and humid tropical region. Its normal to ne 40°C with 80% humidity there. And you dont see people having better health or longevity (Yucatan peninsula) .

40° internal body temperature is not the same as 40° weather.

Yucatan is not the same as Dubai in Summer.

Your body is under heat shock trying to keep up in a Sauna (that isn't considered warm until 60°). Versus a healthy body CAN keep up in 40°.

The Yucatan equivalent of a Sauna is more like doing hard labor on a roof on a sunny day with no breeze.

Post reply on HN