The Cardiometabolic Health Benefits of Sauna Exposure in Individuals with High-Stress Occupations. A Mechanistic Review

Kaemmer N. Henderson, Lauren G. Killen, Eric K. O’Neal and Hunter S. Waldman
Additional contact information
Kaemmer N. Henderson: Human Performance Laboratory, Department of Kinesiology, University of North Alabama, Florence, AL 35632, USA
Lauren G. Killen: Human Performance Laboratory, Department of Kinesiology, University of North Alabama, Florence, AL 35632, USA
Eric K. O’Neal: Human Performance Laboratory, Department of Kinesiology, University of North Alabama, Florence, AL 35632, USA
Hunter S. Waldman: Human Performance Laboratory, Department of Kinesiology, University of North Alabama, Florence, AL 35632, USA

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 3, 1-13

Abstract: Components of the metabolic syndrome (i.e., hypertension, insulin resistance, obesity, atherosclerosis) are a leading cause of death in the United States and result in low-grade chronic inflammation, excessive oxidative stress, and the eventual development of cardiometabolic diseases (CMD). High-stress occupations (HSO: firefighters, police, military personnel, first responders, etc.) increase the risk of developing CMD because they expose individuals to chronic and multiple stressors (i.e., sleep deprivation, poor nutrition habits, lack of physical activity, psychological stress). Interestingly, heat exposure and, more specifically, sauna bathing have been shown to improve multiple markers of CMD, potentially acting as hormetic stressors, at the cellular level and in the whole organism. Therefore, sauna bathing might be a practical and alternative intervention for disease prevention for individuals with HSO. The purpose of this review is to detail the mechanisms and pathways involved in the response to both acute and chronic sauna bathing and collectively present sauna bathing as a potential treatment, in addition to current standard of care, for mitigating CMD to both clinicians and individuals serving in HSO.

Keywords: firefighters; police; military; oxidative stress; inflammation; performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/3/1105/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/3/1105/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:3:p:1105-:d:487635

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().