Well, boy, did I read some interesting articles today, which took me into a deep dive, which brought back memories, which made me think, I want to go over some of these studies with you. Hi, my name is Michael Gross. This is a daily grateful and let's do this thing. Ever been in a sauna, let me tell you, the people in Finland where there is one sauna.
I did. This is additional research. I did using Alexa. There is one sauna where every two people in Finland, I don't know how many people are in Finland, but I would imagine it was next this week.
I did a lot of saunas. They did a 20-year study, I think it was a 20-year study, it was released in 2017. It was a Finnish cohort study, population 2,315 middle-aged men. Now, by the way, I was listening to the radio and people don't listen to the radio anymore, I listened to the radio.
I heard this on a talk show. Some bizarre AM station that isn't even around here, but I was picking it up as I was driving. So then I came and did this research study in 2017, 20-year study, 2,315 middle-aged men. Key findings.
Two to three sauna sessions a week, two to three sauna sessions a week, 20 percent lower dementia. What? It reduced the possibility of getting dementia by 20 percent by having two to three sauna sessions a week. What is a sauna session?
I can do 15 minutes in a sauna and years ago I used to go in a sauna a lot because there was one at a place I used to go to, and I went into it a lot. I got to tell you something, I felt really good after being in a sauna. We'll talk more about that later. Key findings.
Four to seven sessions a week, you're going to like this from the 20 percent lower dementia risk, 66 percent lower dementia risk from, you know, if you have four to seven sauna sessions a week. All right, Alzheimer's risk, drop by, you know, similarly, 65 percent lower in high-frequency sauna users. Isn't that interesting? Then another study came out in 2020.
This one had 13,994 men and women follow up to a 39 year study, key findings, more frequent sauna use linked to reduce dementia, 20 percent lower control lifestyle, metabolic and demographic factors and all that goes into it. So sauna's are good for you. Now, is there an illness? But you see me.
I'm very skeptical person. I am very, very skeptical person and as I dug deeper into this, the, there is an association between saunews and lower dementia, evidence is observational, not casual. Yeah, I don't know. What scientists think might be happening?
Well, let's see what they say. Better blood blood flow to the brain. They're saying sauna acts like a mild cardiovascular exercise. I can go along with that.
I sit in a sauna for 15 minutes, I'm a little bit wore out because it's the heat's getting in there. It's working all kinds of things. It's getting your brain better. Yeah.
I'm going to admit something a little while. Okay. Maybe. I don't know.
Still thinking about that improved circulation equals better brain health reduces blood pressure. High blood pressure is a major dementia risk factor. Sauna is linked to lowering blood pressure, I'd like to see the studies. Heat shock proteins high stress may be the trigger proteins that protect brain cells.
So in other words, heat stress triggers proteins that may protect brain cells help clear up damaged proteins. Who knows? Reduced inflammation, chronic inflammation is linked to Alzheimer's. Bottom line.
All plausible. None definitely proven though. Nothing is definitely proven here. No, no science.
No randomized trials, you know, this is just people are studying things, but you know, you need double blind studies. Yeah, they're all kinds of, you know, you need peer reviewed studies, all kinds of things like that. But this is just people that are writing stuff, mostly in Finland. There are zero long term RCTs that's, yeah, proving sauna prevents dementia.
That means we have correlation, but not causation. People who use saunas frequently also, and this is true, exercise more, have better social lives. You know, I used to go to a sauna, okay, am I going to admit this? I'm going to admit this.
I have a friend named Patty lives out in Washington state, Patty's been my friend. I mean, just friends. I've known her through a husband, a long, long, long term boyfriend. And yeah, we just, you know, we've never been, you know, dating type thing.
She'd just been very, very, very good friends. And she used to belong to this club over in North Tampa. And when I say club, it was a nudist place. Okay, let's just say it was a nudist place that they had a swimming pool.
And it wasn't a, it wasn't open to the public. It was not open. You could not just show up and go. You had to be invited.
And she was a member there and she had been invited and she had been a member there. And she went there for the sauna and she took me over there. And we all went in the sauna, as a matter of fact, there was a bunch of us in our local computer VBS group back then. And I got to tell you, they had a sauna.
It was a big, big room. It could fit. I don't know. 10, 15 people.
And we got in there. All of us naked. And we're, we're sitting in the sauna and I got to tell you, let's, let's review this a little bit. People who sauna frequently also exercise more at that time, I was exercising more have better social lives.
Oh, hell yeah. We were all hanging out at a naked place. You know, what's that? Um, talking about shortcomings.
Uh, be wealthier and healthier overall. Uh, so even though studies adjust for this, you can eliminate all that, you know, but the Finland problem. Here's the problem. Sauna is a cultural norm in Finland.
Everybody have lifestyle patterns different than the U S people in Finland live their lives totally different than we do. Totally different. They have a lot of less stress. Lots of less stress.
They don't get all upset about things. Uh, the political structure there is totally different. Uh, what we don't know, ideal temperature, ideal length frequency, ideal or session length, ideal frequency. So how many studies actually exist?
Well, two major long to two covered studies of youth supporting analysis reviews. That's it. That is all that is available out there. So the no hype version of all of this is pretty simple.
There's a consistent observation, observational evidence that frequent sauna use is linked to lower dementia and Alzheimer's risk. But that is observational. That doesn't mean diddly squat. Okay.
Diddly squat. But. Oh, God. I, another friend of ours.
I'm not going to name him. Um, he goes to this place to this day. I've been to this place in 30 years. Yeah, probably 30 years, but I have another friend who goes to this place all the time.
He lives up that way. And he goes there all the time because he likes the people and these people all hang out. They have cookouts. They have a full kitchen there and you're allowed to bring your own food and everybody brings food and they have like pot locks and they all hang out.
Okay. So that is good. Here's something that you can tell or what, you know, you could tell and be honest. Sona is probably probably good for cardiovascular health.
I'm thinking of getting one now just for that relaxing and stress reducing. Yeah, I will say that I 30 years ago, when I was doing that sauna, I was going over there and sitting in that sauna quite a bit. I was under a high stress environment at that time and it helped to reduce the stress because it just drains it all out of you. And possibly helpful for brain health, but not a proven anti Alzheimer's tool.
So that is about it. And, you know, having a sauna might be expensive because their sauna ran on natural gas. That was the one that I was in. I have, I had customers who had saunas in their house.
I have a couple. Oh my gosh. They, I've known them since they were in their 50s and now they're in their upper 70s, like 78, 79. And they've got a sauna in their house that they go to every day and these people are really healthy.
They can out walk me out, run me. They can do it. You know, they're wonderful health. He had a knee problem, but that's because he had a bike exit.
Oh well. Something to think about might give me a sauna. I wonder if I can build one. See you next time.