Good news for those who have a bathtub at home, a new Japanese study shows that a bath a day could reduce the risk of stroke and heart attack.
In partnership with other Japanese institutions, students from Osaka Medical University followed 30,076 participants aged 40 to 59 with no history of cardiovascular disease or cancer at the start of the study.
They asked the participants to provide information about their daily habits, including alcohol consumption, diet, exercise frequency, weight, average sleep time, medical history, and medication. The researchers followed them from 1990 to 2009.
Their results were published in the online journal Heart. They showed that after controlling for factors that could potentially influence the results, taking a hot bath every day was linked to a 28% lower risk of cardiovascular disease and a 26% lower risk of stroke compared to people who bathed only once or twice a week, or never.
The water temperature seemed to be related to the risk of cardiovascular disease. Thus, subjects who preferred hot baths lowered their risk of cardiovascular disease by 26%, and those who preferred very hot baths saw their risk fall by 35%. On the other hand, no significant association between water temperature and the risk of stroke was found.
The researchers noted that frequent bathing did not appear to affect the risk of sudden cardiac death or a particular type of stroke resulting from a brain hemorrhage. However, they pointed out that sudden death associated with very hot baths was relatively common in Japan.
“There is no doubt about the potential dangers of very hot baths, and the occurrence of death in this context increases with age and water temperature,” noted Dr. Andrew Felix Burden.
While the researchers note that taking hot baths is not without risk, especially if the temperature is too high, they add that there are indications that bathing may have health benefits.
Previous studies have shown that baths can improve sleep quality.