Infrared Sauna and Heart Health: Can a sauna replace the treadmill?
Our medical team examines the use of infrared saunas for heart health. Find out if there are cardiovascular benefits or if this health trend is simply hype.
Infrared Sauna and Heart Health: Can a sauna replace the treadmill?
October 7, 2025
What Is an Infrared Sauna?
Infrared saunas gently warm your body with light, not extreme heat. This way, they feel easier than traditional saunas.
But inside, your body reacts almost like it’s exercising:
- Your core temperature climbs by 1–3°C
- Your heart beats faster (100–150 bpm)
- Cardiac output surges by 60–70%
- Blood pressure rises slightly (~15 mmHg)
Claimed Benefits of Heat Therapy
Regular sauna sessions may do more than just relax you. Research suggests they can:
- Support cardiovascular health
- Lower risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s
- Aid recovery and athletic performance
- Reduce stress and improve sleep
- Ease pain such as backaches and headaches
Understanding Heart Disease
At its core, heart disease comes from plaque buildup in the arteries. It’s driven by high LDL cholesterol, inflammation, high blood pressure, smoking, and obesity.
What the Evidence Shows
Regular sauna use can lower blood pressure, ease arterial stiffness, and in Finnish studies, even cut fatal heart risk nearly in half.
Why It Works
Sauna heat sparks powerful changes — boosting hormones, heat-shock proteins, and blood vessel function that support heart and brain health.
Know the Limits
Saunas don’t lower LDL cholesterol or apoB, and most benefits are short-term. They’re an add-on, not a replacement for exercise or meds.
How to Use It
Aim for 15–30 minutes, 2–4 times per week. Try after workouts for recovery, or before bed for better sleep. Skip if pregnant, dehydrated, intoxicated, or with uncontrolled heart issues.
The Bottom Line
Infrared saunas are a powerful complement for recovery and heart health but exercise, sleep, and nutrition should always come first.
What is an infrared sauna?
- Infrared saunas emit infrared light that is absorbed by the skin and experienced as heat. Unlike traditional dry saunas (80-100°C/176-212°F) or steam saunas, infrared saunas usually operate at lower temperatures.
- Typically, this heat exposure leads to transient physiological changes similar to moderate exercise. For example: a 1-3°C increase in core body temperature, increased heart rate (100-150 bpm), increased cardiac output (60-70%), and elevated systolic blood pressure (~15 mmHg).
- In the scientific literature, therapies like dry sauna and infrared sauna are commonly referred to as “heat therapies”. There are not many studies that directly compare the benefits of the two modalities. In the available literature, similar benefits have been reported in both modalities and it is reasonable to assume the benefits are similar, unless new evidence emerges to the contrary.
Understanding your own cardiovascular, metabolic, and recovery responses is the missing piece — and advanced diagnostics can reveal how heat therapy is really working for you.
What are the claimed benefits?
There is evidence to suggest that heat therapies hold numerous potential benefits, many of which are transient. Some of the claimed benefits include the following:
- Improved cardiovascular health and reduction in risk of cardiovascular disease-related death
- Decrease in all-cause mortality
- Reduced risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease
- Enhanced exercise recovery and sports performance
- Improved mental health, reduced stress and anxiety
- Alleviation of various types of pain including headaches and back pain
- Improved sleep quality
Understanding the mechanisms of heart disease
- To assess whether or not heat therapies pose any benefit in heart disease, we should be specific about what we mean by heart disease, and understand what causes it. If heat therapies can modify the underlying drivers of heart disease, then it is plausible that they may have an effect on reducing the risk of heart disease.
- Coronary heart disease is primarily caused by atherosclerosis (the build-up of plaque in the arteries of the heart). There is undeniable evidence that lipids, specifically atherogenic lipoprotein particles (i.e. apolipoprotein B, LDL cholesterol or non-HDL cholesterol) play a causal role in coronary heart disease.
- Atherogenic lipids are not enough - the environment inside the artery walls needs to be pro-inflammatory. This is why high blood pressure, obesity, and smoking are well-described risk factors for the development of heart disease: they all contribute to a pro-inflammatory endothelial environment. This is also partly why exercise is so beneficial in helping to reduce the risk of heart disease: among its numerous benefits, aerobic exercise significantly enhances endothelial function1.
The Everlab Position
- The available evidence largely supports the claimed cardiovascular benefits of heat therapy, with key benefits listed below:
- Regular heat therapy may improve cardiovascular function via improved endothelium-dependent dilatation, reduced arterial stiffness, modulation of the autonomic nervous system, and lowering of blood pressure2.
- Finnish observational studies show 48-64% reduced risk of fatal coronary heart disease and cardiovascular disease among frequent sauna users. There is also evidence from meta-analysis that infrared sauna is associated with short-term improvement in cardiac function in patients with heart failure3, but it is unclear whether these benefits have long-term effects on cardiovascular health in people with heart failure or other cardiovascular diseases.
- Plausible biological mechanisms exist: improved endothelial function, arterial compliance, and vascular health through transient increases in:
- Hormones (norepinephrine, beta-endorphins, growth hormone)
- Heat shock proteins (particularly HSP-70)
- Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)
- Reactive oxygen species (ROS)
- The most compelling evidence exists for the benefits of heat therapy in cardiovascular health and recovery after endurance exercise.
- Benefits appear dose-dependent with 4+ sessions per week showing greatest effects.
Recommendations and Conclusion
- There is evidence that heat therapy is a useful tool in reducing the risk of coronary artery disease. Mechanistically, this is likely due to its beneficial effects on endothelial function.
- As mentioned earlier, it is the pro-inflammatory endothelial environment that contributes to atherosclerosis, and heat therapies likely modify this environment in similar ways to exercise.
- Importantly, there is no clear evidence that heat therapies can durably modify the most important causal factor in heart disease, which is elevated levels of atherogenic lipoprotein particles like apolipoprotein B or lipoprotein (a).
- In summary, heat therapies are a useful tool to enhance cardiovascular health, but don’t replace targeted risk reduction strategies in high-risk individuals (like taking lipid-lowering therapy, losing weight, or stopping smoking).
- The bottom line: heat therapies are beneficial but should be considered “secondary tools” after targeted risk factor modification and dialling in exercise, sleep, and nutrition fundamentals.
- Consider the opportunity cost: if time is limited, prioritize exercise and sleep over sauna use.
Suggested protocol for maximum benefits
- 15-30 minutes per session, 2-4+ times per week
- For performance benefits, ideally done post-exercise
- For sleep benefits, ideally done 1-2 hours before bed
Contraindications
- Uncontrolled, symptomatic cardiovascular disease
- Pregnancy or nursing
- Risk of dehydration
- Alcohol intoxication
References:
Steven is a specialist general practitioner, preventative health consultant, medical educator, healthcare entrepreneur and co-founder of Everlab. With 15+ years of clinical experience, and driven by his passion for preventive care outcomes, Steven is dedicated to personalised and innovative approaches to enhance well-being, extend human lifespan, and improve healthspan.
