This Relaxing Activity May Help Protect Your Heart
Cardiovascular disease and other heart-related issues are some of the deadliest diseases in America.
Every year more than 500,000 Americans die because of heart-related issues.
And while there are a multitude of factors that end up killing them, there is a promising new treatment that may help reduce the risk of death from a heart attack or other heart-related catastrophe.
And that is taking a warm bath.
Actually, that should say taking somewhere around 5 warm baths a week.
5 warms baths a week could be a new luxury treatment for anyone wishing to improve their heart health according to a group of Japanese-based scientists at the Faculty of Collaborative Regional Innovation at Ehime University in Matsuyama, Japan.
The team of scientists were investigating whether or not baths would be beneficial to heart health because prior studies on the use of saunas have indicated that the heat a person is exposed to has a therapeutic effect on the cardiovascular system,
There are studies that show saunas are capable of bringing down high blood pressure and there are studies that show saunas can seriously reduce the chances of both men and women having a stroke.
And two of the most encouraging studies, and the ones that likely initiated the research on baths were studies that showed sauna use 4-7 a week was likely responsible for lowering the risk of a stroke 60% compared to those who only used the sauna once a week…and could also help to lower hypertension risk by about 46 percent.
Since sauna therapy is expensive, and not everyone can pay (or even has access) to a sauna, the researchers wanted to see how baths might improve cardiovascular health.
To find out whether or not baths helped, the team analyzed 873 study participants answers to a survey on their bath habits. The participants, all between the ages of 60 and 76 years, were asked how often they took a bath that was above 107 ° and lasted longer than 12.5 minutes.
Then, they analyzed their heart health by measuring several different aspects of heart health that included brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity. This measurement helps determine atherosclerosis.
Also, “of the 873 participants, the researchers had access to longitudinal data on 164 people who had undergone a minimum of two medical examinations, averaging a follow-up period of almost 5 years.”
Their findings?
5 hot baths a week could improve heart health.
In their findings, they noted hot baths had a “favorable effect on atherosclerotic and central hemodynamic parameters.”
As Medical News Today writes: More specifically, people who took at least five hot baths every week had significantly lower markers of atherosclerosis and cardiac loading. Prof. Kohara and his colleagues conclude:
“Based upon these findings, it is conceivable that hot water bathing could have beneficial effects on the cardiovascular system in the general population.”
What this study failed to mention and what you might want to investigate is how adding in salts like magnesium bath salts can help improve heart health even more.
Magnesium is an essential nutrient for heart health as it helps form the chemical messenger that causes the heart to beat on time.
Chances are if you were to add magnesium to every bath your risk for cardiovascular disease would be even lower.
