My father was right 60 years ago. He loved to take a hot bath, so he had built a 6′ 6” bathtub where he could soak for an hour. It was so long ago, that he had to have the Jacuzzi outside the tub with the jets put into the water. But I digress.
The good news comes from a study out of the National Center for Sport and Exercise Medicine at the University of Loughborough in the United Kingdom.
The researchers recruited 14 men and assigned them to either an hour of moderate cycling or an hour-long soak in a 104-degree bath.
The bathers burned about 140 calories on the average, similar to a half-hour walk. They also found the bathers had improved ability to control blood sugar, an important measure of metabolic health.
Exposing your body to heat has similar effects to cold exposure, it seems to activate your circulatory system that may have long-term health benefits.
Dr. Earl Mindell's Health Minute
by Dr. Earl Mindell