Finnish researchers have a health tip for middle-aged men: To stay alive, spend more time in the sauna.
A 20-year study led by scientists from the University of Eastern Finland found that frequent sauna use was significantly correlated with lowered risk of death from heart attacks, coronary heart disease, cardiovascular disease and mortality in general.
The study followed long-term health outcomes over two decades for about 2,000 men between the ages of 42 to 60. Baseline examinations were conducted between 1984 and 1989. The men were divided into groups -- those who took sauna baths just once a week, those who took them two or three times a week and those who spent time in the sauna four to seven times a week.
The researchers found the men who took to the sauna two or three times a week had a 22 percent lower risk of sudden cardiac death than those making just one visit each week. Those who went four to seven times a week lowered their risk level to about one-third of the once-a-week sauna users.
Risk reduction rates were similar for other forms of cardiac deaths, the study said.
There were benefits from longer visits to the sauna as well as from more frequent visits. The men who spent more than 19 minutes in the sauna per visit had about half the risk of sudden cardiac death of those who spent only 11 minutes or fewer per visit, the study found.
The study adjusted for inherent coronary risks among the test subjects. Further research is needed to pinpoint the mechanisms by which saunas benefit heart health, the study said.
The study was published in the Feb. 23 issues of the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.
Saunas and steam baths are common around the far north. Steam baths are traditional in several Alaska Native and Native American cultures. In Alutiiq culture, for example, the steam bath is known as maqiq, and Russian cultural influences brought the term "banya" to Alaska.
In Finland, the sauna is a revered national tradition.
"Most of the Finns that are living in Alaska built their own saunas. That's the first thing they missed from Finland," said Hanna Eklund, president of the Anchorage Suomi Finland Club and honorary consul of Finland in Alaska.
Eklund's husband, who has roots in Kotzebue and Anchorage, was such an enthusiastic convert to the Finnish style that the couple refashioned a backyard shed at their Anchorage home into a first-class Finnish sauna. That home was sold -- with the sauna as one of the main attractions, Eklund said -- so now the two are planning to build another family sauna at their new home.
Eklund was aware of the study about saunas and heart health, and said she is not surprised by the findings.
"All Finns know that saunas are good for you. You get rid of your worries there and when you're sick you get better," she said. The sauna tradition, if adopted by other Alaskans, could even make newly legalized marijuana obsolete for some people, she suggested. "If they would go to the sauna every week, they probably wouldn't smoke pot, it's so relaxing."
Other Scandinavian traditions also have health benefits, according to another recently published University of Eastern Finland-led study.
Health problems from obesity were lower for test subjects -- middle-aged men and women -- who followed a traditional Nordic diet based on fish, whole-grain products, vegetables, root vegetables, berries and fruit, low-fat dairy products and rapeseed oil, the study found.
Those eating the traditional Nordic diet were not necessarily slimmer than test subjects maintaining a non-Nordic diet that featured limited fish intake and lots of low-fiber grain products and butter-based spreads. Test subjects were instructed to maintain their body weight, so there was minimal loss or gain. But within fat tissue, there was significantly less inflammation among those following the traditional Nordic diet, according to the study, which was published in the January issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.