Practice sauna bathing very frequently (4 to 7 sessions per week) to drastically reduce the risk of developing mental health disorders.

noli's read

This claim is based on a landmark prospective observational study, the Finnish Kuopio cohort published in 2018 by Jari Laukkanen's team, which followed more than 2,000 men over 25 years. The data indeed show that a frequency of 4 to 7 sessions per week is associated with a 77% lower risk of developing psychotic disorders. Another study published in 2024 by Setor Kunutsor's team confirms this strong link by associating the benefits of heat with those of general physical fitness. Nevertheless, presenting this statistical correlation as a direct cause-and-effect relationship remains an overstatement. As these are observational data and not randomized controlled trials, it is difficult to isolate the thermal impact from an already well-balanced lifestyle or lower daily stress exposure. Furthermore, the homogeneous profile of the original cohort (middle-aged men in Finland) limits the exact generalization of this 77% figure to the entire population.

the sources

1. 1NIH Office of Dietary Supplements 2026
2. 2Manson JE et al. 2019
3. 3foundmyfitness.com/topics