Европын анагаах ухааны физиологийн сэтгүүлд нийтлэгдсэн шинэ судалгаагаар 30 минут халуун усанд суух нь цусны даралтыг бууруулах, судасны төлөв байдлыг сайжруулахад эерэг нөлөөтэй болохыг тогтоожээ.
University of Western Australia-ийн судлаач Кристанти Вигати тэргүүтэй баг 45-70 насны, илүүдэл жинтэй буюу таргалалттай 25 оролцогчийг судалгаанд хамруулжээ. Туршилтын явцад оролцогчид 40°C хэмийн халуун усанд 30 минут суух болон дунд зэргийн эрчимтэй дугуй унах дасгалыг тус тус гүйцэтгэсэн байна. Судалгааны үр дүнд халуун усанд орох нь дугуй унахтай харьцуулахад цусны даралтыг илүү ихээр бууруулж, судасны өргөсөлт болон цусны урсгалыг сайжруулж байгаа нь ажиглагджээ.
Судлаачдын тайлбарласнаар, халуун ус нь биеийн гүн дэх температурыг нэмэгдүүлж, цусны судасны дотор хананд үзүүлэх ачааллыг идэвхжүүлснээр ийм үр дүнд хүргэж байна. Энэ нь дасгал хөдөлгөөн хийх боломжгүй хүмүүст судасны эрүүл мэндийг дэмжих нэмэлт эсвэл өөр хувилбар байж болохыг харуулж байгаа юм.
Гэсэн хэдий ч мэргэжилтнүүд энэхүү судалгаа нь жижиг хэмжээний туршилт гэдгийг онцолж, халуун усанд орохыг дасгал хөдөлгөөнийг бүрэн орлох арга хэмээн үзэж болохгүй гэдгийг анхаарууллаа. Энэхүү үр дүн нь судасны үйл ажиллагааг сайжруулах “дасгалтай төстэй” өдөөлт болж байгаа ч цаашид илүү өргөн хүрээтэй судалгаа шаардлагатай байна.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
Taking a nice hot bath at the end of a long day is a wonderful way to unwind, but the end results can go way beyond simple relaxation.
In fact, the health benefits of sustained immersion in hot water can be truly surprising, and new research has just uncovered another remarkable effect of a good hot soak.
In a study published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology, researchers found soaking in hot water for 30 minutes can trigger dramatic changes in the blood vessels beneath your skin, in some respects exceeding the effects produced by moderate exercise.
The hot water immersion even lowered people’s blood pressure more than 30 minutes of moderate-intensity cycling.
It’s worth noting this was only a small experiment, and nobody’s suggesting people should give up exercise to instead take more hot baths.
But for people who may be unable to exercise, hot water immersion, or other forms of what’s known as passive heat therapy, may be an important way of getting some of the same health benefits that exercise can provide.
“Exercise training is a well-established stimulus for improving vascular health, in part by enhancing endothelial function, arterial compliance, and microvascular responsiveness,” researchers explain in a new paper, led by first author and exercise physiologist Kristanti Wigati from the University of Western Australia.
“However, recent global estimates indicate that approximately 31 percent of adults worldwide do not meet physical activity guidelines, supporting the need to explore adjunct or alternative interventions for individuals who may struggle with regular exercise participation.”
Hot water immersion, like exercise itself, provides an increase in blood flow and shear stress along the inside walls of blood vessels, which triggers adaptations that improve vascular function.
Previous research in young healthy adults has shown that repeated hot water immersion can improve blood vessel function, reduce arterial stiffness, and help blood vessels widen through nitric oxide.
“These findings suggest that hot water immersion may act as an ‘exercise-like’ vascular stimulus, but evidence in older individuals with risk factors for cardiovascular disease who are unable to engage in conventional exercise is lacking,” the researchers note.
To plug the gap, the researchers recruited 25 adults aged 45–70 with overweight or obesity, with an average age of 59.
During the experiment, each of the participants completed two different interventions, in a random order, and separated by at least 72 hours.
In one intervention, participants sat chest-deep for 30 minutes in hot water, which was maintained at a temperature of 40 °C (104 °F).
In the other intervention, participants performed a moderate-intensity exercise session, cycling for 30 minutes on a stationary exercise bicycle, with the intensity corresponding to 60–70 percent of their maximum heart rate.
The participants had their heart rate, mean arterial pressure, and core body temperature monitored during the tests, and researchers also assessed tiny blood vessels in the participants’ skin, using a non-invasive technique called optical coherence tomography (OCT).
Results showed that, compared to the exercise intervention, the hot water immersion produced significantly larger increases in blood vessel diameter, blood flow, and blood velocity, as well as the density of microvessels with detectable blood flow.
An indication of this can be seen in an OCT-derived image from participants’ forearms, which visibly shows increased blood flow activity in the microvascular network after hot water immersion.
“These pronounced microvascular responses were accompanied by a larger elevation in core body temperature and greater reductions in systolic and diastolic blood pressure following hot water immersion, whereas moderate-intensity exercise elicited a higher heart rate response,” the researchers write.
“Collectively, these findings suggest that the larger microvascular responses observed after hot water immersion likely reflect the combined effects of direct local skin heating and greater systemic thermal strain imposed by passive heating.”
The researchers say that hot water immersion promotes the widening of blood vessels, a process called vasodilation, which facilitates heat dissipation by redistributing blood flow to the skin.
While the findings suggest hot water immersion could potentially hold promise as a complementary way of providing a vascular stimulus, the researchers are careful to point out there’s much we still don’t know.
That’s especially so since the experiment here was matched for time (30 minutes for each intervention), but not for the levels of thermal strain experienced by the body.
“Accordingly, the present findings should not be interpreted as indicating that hot water immersion is intrinsically superior to moderate-intensity exercise per se; rather, they reflect the greater thermal strain achieved during hot water immersion, which elicited substantial shear-mediated vascular stimuli in the absence of active muscle contraction,” the authors explain.
“This may be particularly relevant for clinical populations who are unable to engage in regular exercise, suggesting that hot water immersion could serve as a complementary or alternative strategy to induce beneficial vascular stimuli.”
The findings are reported in the European Journal of Applied Physiology.
This article was fact-checked by Rebecca Dyer and edited by Rebecca Dyer. While we pride ourselves on our process, we are only human. If you spot a mistake, please let us know.
