What is the influence of the sauna on the heart?
The first question that usually arises during a discussion about the sauna is always about the effort of the heart. Claiming that “hot causes heart effort” comes from observing that in hot, especially humid days, older people with heart problems often suffer. If the body reacts properly to hot, extra work is actually required from the heart. If it is very warm, the skin tends to redden, because the blood vessels dilate and the color of the blood circulating in the vessels shines through the upper layers of the skin. The heart intensifies blood circulation by beating faster and more prominently.
What exactly should we understand by the term “more efficiently”. Under normal conditions, the heart works a little sluggishly, striking calmly. The heart chambers are not emptied completely during contractions. Not all of the blood is pressed into the artery, and a certain amount, sometimes half, stays in the chambers, which then fill up again.
How does the heart react to a sauna?
Many scientific studies carried out in many countries have tried to answer the question of how the heart works if the body is exposed to the temperature that occurs in the sauna. It was found that the heart rate (pulse per minute) increases by half, while in the same period of time the volume of blood volume doubles. So the heart itself is more empty, it works more economically. This is due to a significant dilatation of the blood vessels. An important factor is also that the heart is stimulated by the sympathetic nerve, which increases its activity, the action is more energetic. Salt caves.
Increased blood flow associated with doubling the speed is needed to transfer heat from the skin to the interior of the body. In this way, the skin does not become too hot and the interior becomes warmer. Later, during the cooling of the body, transport through the heart takes place in the opposite direction. In normal sauna bathing time 8 – 12 minutes, as we recommend in our sauna rules, the described extra performance of the heart is not an important issue. Although it must transfer more blood per minute, it does so against the reduced resistance of blood vessels, because the arteries have been greatly expanded. It has been found that this resistance decreases by 42 to 46% so that the blood flows along the artery walls with a correspondingly smaller urge. The influence of the sauna on the heart.
Another important factor for the heart’s work is the fact that with the expansion of blood vessels in the skin tissue, the coronary vessels are also dilated. This results in a better supply of blood to the heart and better nutrition during the sauna. This is also the reason that patients who suffer from a heart attack can use the sauna in the first phase of rehabilitation.