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Super relaxing vacation activity can lower your blood pressure and boost your immune system: study
The single greatest thing that you can do to not only live longer but also age well is exercise.
But, let's face it — people are lazy.
'We always say that exercise is the primary nonpharmacological treatment that people should be doing to promote health, but some people can't or just won't exercise,' Jessica Atencio, a doctoral student in the lab of University of Oregon professor Christopher Minson, said in a statement.
Luckily for us couch potatoes, there's a much more enjoyable activity that Atencio described as 'good supplementation' to working out.
If you're staying at a hotel that has a sauna, a hot tub or the increasingly trendy infrared sauna — chances are you're way more likely to be spending your time there than at the gym, especially if you're on vacation.
And, according to Atencio's study in the American Journal of Physiology, that's a very good thing.
All three types of heat therapy — the use of elevated temperatures to stimulate physiological responses — are said to improve blood flow, lower blood pressure, reduce inflammation and support immune function, but the research has been limited.
Moreover, no one has set out to determine which of these three offers the most health benefits.
'We compared the most commonly utilized modalities of passive heating as they're used in everyday life and studied in scientific research,' Atencio said.
'No studies have compared the acute responses between the three.'
To answer this question, Atencio and her team compared the effects of soaking in a hot tub versus shvitzing in a traditional sauna or relaxing in an infrared one on 20 healthy men and women.
The winner? Pop the champagne for bubbles.
'We saw that hot water immersion was the most impactful in increasing core body temperature, which is the main stimulus for these subsequent responses,' Atencio said.
'Increasing body temperature causes an increase in blood flow, and just the force of blood moving across your vessels is beneficial for your vascular health.'
While it might surprise you that 'hot tub' was the answer, the scientists were unfazed.
'Hot water immersion gives you the most robust changes in core temperature because you can't effectively dissipate heat as you can if you have contact with the air and you're sweating to cool the body,' Atencio explained.
'When you're submerged in water, the sweat mechanisms aren't efficient.'
As with exercise, you need to hit up the hot tub on a regular basis — and not push yourself past your limits — to really reap the long-term benefits.
'There's no doubt in my mind that if people are willing to do some heat therapy, it's going to align with improved health, as long as it's done in moderation,' Minson said.
'If you repeat these stresses over time, our lab and many others have shown that they are consistent with improved health,' he added.
And if you can grab a few friends to join you — or meditate while you're having a solo soak — even better.
'It can be a very peaceful, sometimes religious, sometimes cultural and sometimes social experience,' Minson said.
'And I think those aspects contribute to the health benefits and are critically important.'
