Cardiovascular and Other Health Benefits of Sauna Bathing: A Review of the Evidence
Technology context Traditional Finnish sauna research
Finding: Summarises evidence linking regular Finnish sauna bathing with reduced risk of vascular and neurocognitive disease and proposes mechanisms including improved endothelial function, reduced arterial stiffness and lowered blood pressure.
Main limitation: A narrative review, largely of observational studies produced by the reviewing authors’ own research programme, concerning traditional saunas rather than infrared cabins.
Executive summary
This is the paper most sauna marketing is ultimately quoting, whether or not it names it.
Published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings by the group behind the Finnish Kuopio cohort studies, it summarises epidemiological, experimental and interventional evidence linking Finnish sauna bathing to health outcomes, based on a comprehensive search of MEDLINE and EMBASE to February 2018.
The review reports that emerging evidence suggests sauna bathing may be linked to reduced risk of vascular diseases including high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease, and of neurocognitive diseases; to non-vascular conditions such as pulmonary disease; to mortality; and to amelioration of conditions including arthritis, headache and flu.
It proposes mechanisms: improved endothelium-dependent dilatation, reduced arterial stiffness, modulation of the autonomic nervous system, beneficial changes in circulating lipid profiles, and lowering of systemic blood pressure.
Two things are worth holding in mind while reading it. The authors are the researchers who produced much of the underlying observational evidence, so this is a synthesis by the field's principal investigators rather than an independent appraisal. And the subject throughout is Finnish sauna bathing, not infrared cabins.
Why this research matters
This is the citation of record for sauna health claims. Anyone evaluating a sauna will encounter its conclusions, usually second-hand and usually without its qualifications.
It is also the clearest statement of the proposed mechanisms, which matters because mechanism is what would make the observational findings credible as cause rather than correlation.
Study design
- Study type
- Narrative review
- Databases searched
- MEDLINE and EMBASE
- Search period
- From database inception to 24 February 2018
- Study designs included
- Observational studies, randomised controlled trials, non-randomised controlled trials
- Exposure
- Finnish sauna bathing
- Outcomes reviewed
- Cardiovascular disease, blood pressure, neurocognitive disease, pulmonary disease, mortality, arthritis, headache, influenza
- Number of studies included
- Not reported in the source abstract
- Total participants
- Not reported in the source abstract
- Risk-of-bias assessment
- Not reported in the source abstract
- Meta-analysis
- Not performed
What the researchers found
The review reports that emerging evidence suggests sauna bathing may be linked to several health benefits: reduction in risk of vascular diseases such as high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease, and neurocognitive diseases; non-vascular conditions such as pulmonary diseases; mortality; and amelioration of conditions such as arthritis, headache and flu.
It attributes these to effects on circulatory, cardiovascular and immune function, and postulates that regular sauna bathing may improve cardiovascular function via improved endothelium-dependent dilatation, reduced arterial stiffness, modulation of the autonomic nervous system, beneficial changes in circulating lipid profiles, and lowering of systemic blood pressure.
The review also provides an overview of areas of outstanding uncertainty and implications for clinical practice.
As a narrative review it generates no pooled effect estimates, and none are reproduced here. The quantitative findings it draws on are reported in the individual cohort studies, which are listed separately in this library.
What the results mean
The value of this review is the mechanistic account. Blood pressure reduction, improved endothelial function and reduced arterial stiffness are measurable, plausible, and consistent with what heat exposure does to the circulation. That makes the observational findings more credible than they would be with no mechanism at all.
It does not resolve the causal question. Proposing a mechanism explains how an effect could occur; it does not demonstrate that it did. The underlying evidence remains predominantly observational.
The breadth of conditions listed - from cardiovascular disease to headache and flu - should also prompt caution. A single exposure associated with improvement across many unrelated outcomes is a pattern that sometimes indicates a genuine systemic effect and sometimes indicates confounding by general health and lifestyle.
What this study does not prove
- It does not establish causation for any outcome. The underlying evidence is largely observational.
- It does not apply to infrared saunas. The subject throughout is Finnish sauna bathing.
- It does not provide pooled effect estimates or formal quality grading of the studies it covers.
- It is not an independent appraisal; the authors produced much of the primary evidence reviewed.
- It does not establish that any listed benefit will occur in an individual who starts using a sauna.
- It does not establish dose thresholds beyond those reported in the underlying cohort studies.
Evidence strength
Narrative review
A narrative review synthesises a field without a pre-registered protocol or formal bias scoring. It is excellent for mapping mechanisms and context, and weaker than a systematic review for weighing how reliable the underlying studies are.
The search here was comprehensive - MEDLINE and EMBASE from inception to February 2018, covering observational studies, randomised and non-randomised controlled trials - but the appraisal is narrative rather than formal.
Strengths and limitations
Strengths
- Comprehensive search of two major databases from inception.
- Includes randomised and non-randomised controlled trials alongside observational studies.
- Provides a detailed and physiologically coherent mechanistic account.
- Published in a well-regarded peer-reviewed clinical journal.
- Explicitly discusses areas of outstanding uncertainty.
- Written by researchers with deep subject knowledge of the primary literature.
Limitations
- Narrative rather than systematic; no pre-registered protocol or formal bias assessment.
- No meta-analysis and no pooled effect estimates.
- Substantial overlap between the reviewing authors and the authors of the primary evidence.
- Number of included studies and total participants not reported in the source abstract.
- Breadth of outcomes claimed is wide relative to the strength of the underlying designs.
- Concerns traditional sauna bathing only.
Does this apply to the equipment IMPERVITA sells?
The subject is traditional Finnish sauna bathing. These findings should not be applied to infrared sauna systems unless additional evidence directly supports that comparison.
The mechanistic account is the part most likely to transfer in some form, since any sufficient heat load will produce peripheral vasodilation and cardiovascular response. But magnitude matters, and an infrared cabin at 130°F does not impose the same thermal load as a Finnish sauna at 180°F.
For infrared-specific evidence, the Beever review listed in this library is the relevant entry, and it reaches considerably more modest conclusions.
Evidence in context
A 2018 independent systematic review of 40 dry sauna studies applied Cochrane bias criteria and reached a more restrained conclusion: potential health benefits, only 13 randomised trials, most studies small, and optimal dosing undetermined. Read alongside this review, it is the better guide to evidence quality.
The same authors published a further review in 2023 examining sauna bathing in combination with other lifestyle factors, extending the argument without changing the underlying design limitation.
No randomised trial with hard clinical endpoints has been conducted, and none is likely given the required duration.
Related research
- Clinical effects of regular dry sauna bathing: a systematic review An independent systematic review with formal bias assessment - the better counterweight to this review's optimism.
- Association between sauna bathing and fatal cardiovascular and all-cause mortality events The primary cohort study supplying much of the mortality evidence summarised here.
- Sauna bathing is inversely associated with dementia and Alzheimer's disease in middle-aged Finnish men The dementia analysis from the same cohort.
- Far-infrared saunas for treatment of cardiovascular risk factors: summary of published evidence The infrared-specific review, and a direct illustration of how much smaller that evidence base is.
- Does the combination of Finnish sauna bathing and other lifestyle factors confer additional health benefits? A review of the evidence The authors' later review examining combined lifestyle exposures.
Practical buyer relevance
Treat this review as the map of what has been claimed, and the Hussain systematic review as the map of how well it has been shown.
The practical consequence for a purchase is limited. Nothing here distinguishes one cabin from another, and nothing here has been demonstrated for infrared specifically. What it does support is that regular heat exposure produces measurable cardiovascular responses - which is a reasonable thing to want, provided you are not paying a premium for a disease-prevention claim.
The recurring theme across this literature remains frequency. If you take one thing from it into a showroom, make it the question of which cabin you will realistically use several times a week.
Safety context
Heat exposure is not appropriate for everyone. People with cardiovascular disease, unstable angina, recent myocardial infarction, low blood pressure, or conditions affecting heat tolerance, and people who are pregnant or taking medication that affects thermoregulation, may require guidance from a qualified healthcare professional before using a sauna.
Alcohol should not be combined with sauna use. A systematic review of dry sauna bathing identified one small study reporting reversible disruption of male spermatogenesis, which is worth raising with a clinician if you are trying to conceive.
Full source record
- Title
- Cardiovascular and Other Health Benefits of Sauna Bathing: A Review of the Evidence
- Authors
- Laukkanen JA, Laukkanen T, Kunutsor SK
- Organization
- University of Eastern Finland / University of Bristol
- Publication
- Mayo Clinic Proceedings
- Year
- 2018
- Volume / issue / pages
- Volume 93, issue 8, pages 1111-1121
- PMID
- 30077204
- Study type
- Narrative review of observational studies, randomised and non-randomised controlled trials
- Sample size
- Not reported in the source abstract
- Population
- Varied across the epidemiological, experimental and interventional studies reviewed
- Topic
- Longevity, Recovery, Sauna
- Document type
- Narrative review
- Technology context
- Traditional Finnish sauna research
- Related equipment context
- Infrared Saunas
- Source last verified
- 19 August 2026
References
- Cardiovascular and other health benefits of sauna bathing: a review of the evidence
- Clinical effects of regular dry sauna bathing: a systematic review
- Association between sauna bathing and fatal cardiovascular and all-cause mortality events
- Sauna bathing is inversely associated with dementia and Alzheimer's disease in middle-aged Finnish men
- Far-infrared saunas for treatment of cardiovascular risk factors: summary of published evidence
- Does the combination of Finnish sauna bathing and other lifestyle factors confer additional health benefits? A review of the evidence
Information provided by IMPERVITA is for educational and general wellness purposes and is not intended to replace professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
