Sauna & Pain: Can Heat Turn Down the Volume?

Can heat turn that pain down?

Heat has been used for pain for thousands of years

There's nothing particularly revolutionary about putting heat on something that hurts.

Hot baths, hot-water bottles, heated stones, steam rooms and thermal springs have been used across cultures for centuries.

And modern research suggests there was something in it.

A systematic review looking at heat therapy across acute and chronic musculoskeletal problems found that heat could produce immediate reductions in pain as well as improvements in things such as stiffness and movement.

There is also clinical research showing improvements in pain following different forms of heat therapy in people with osteoarthritis, chronic back pain and fibromyalgia.

And there have even been small studies specifically using sauna in people with rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis.

So why?

Heat doesn't just warm your muscles

This is the really interesting bit.

When you get properly hot, a lot starts happening.

Blood vessels dilate.

Blood flow to the skin increases enormously.

Heart rate increases.

Muscles and connective tissues warm.

Stiffness can decrease.

Your autonomic nervous system responds.

And at the same time, your brain is receiving a huge amount of information from temperature-sensitive nerves throughout the body.

Pain isn't simply a signal travelling from an injury to your brain.

Pain is ultimately an experience produced by the nervous system.

And heat appears capable of changing that experience — at least temporarily.

Fibromyalgia is particularly interesting

Fibromyalgia is characterised by widespread pain, fatigue, poor sleep and often increased sensitivity to things that wouldn't normally be painful.

One theory is that the nervous system has essentially become overly sensitive.

And there have actually been clinical studies using whole-body heat in people with fibromyalgia.

One Japanese study used 15 minutes of gentle sauna followed by a period of keeping warm.

Pain decreased after the first treatment and the effect became more consistent following repeated treatments.

Another programme combining sauna with underwater exercise reported substantial improvements in pain and symptoms.

More recently, a randomised controlled trial of whole-body heat therapy again found evidence of reduced pain.

This absolutely does NOT mean sauna cures fibromyalgia.

But it does make heat a fascinating area of research.

What about arthritis?

There's interesting evidence here too.

Studies of thermal therapy in osteoarthritis have reported improvements in pain, stiffness and physical function.

And in a small sauna study involving people with rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis, pain and stiffness decreased during the infrared sauna sessions.

Again, sauna wasn't curing the underlying disease.

That's an important distinction.

Reducing someone's experience of pain is not necessarily the same thing as fixing the thing causing the pain.

But if you live with persistent pain every day, even temporary relief can matter.

So I'm curious

We run saunas.

Thousands of people come through our doors.

And people regularly tell us:

"My back feels amazing."

"My joints feel better."

"I don't feel as stiff."

"My pain disappeared while I was in there."

Those are anecdotes.

They're not clinical evidence.

But when anecdotes start lining up with published research, I start paying attention.

So I'd like to explore it a little further.

Do you live with persistent pain?

Fibromyalgia.

Arthritis.

Persistent back or muscular pain.

Or another diagnosed condition which leaves you living with pain.

I'd like to hear from you.

And , I'd like to give you a sauna session for free to see if it eases that pain.

Not because we're claiming sauna will treat your medical condition.

We're not.

I simply want to know:

How does your pain feel before a sauna?

And:

How does it feel afterwards?

Maybe there's no difference.

Maybe you feel worse.

Maybe you feel a little better.

Or perhaps, for a while, sauna turns the volume down on the pain.

Either way, I'd really like to know.

If you have persistent pain which effects your life- drop me a message and I can set you up with a free sauna to see if it helps. 

References & further reading

1. Clijsen R, et al. (2022). Heat therapy for musculoskeletal pain and function.
   Systematic review and meta-analysis examining heat therapy across acute and chronic musculoskeletal conditions. Found evidence of immediate reductions in pain and improvements in function/disability.
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3. Matsushita K, Masuda A, Tei C. (2008). Efficacy of Waon therapy for fibromyalgia. Internal Medicine, 47(16), 1473–1476.
   Fibromyalgia patients received 15 minutes of 60°C far-infrared dry sauna followed by 30 minutes of continued warming. Significant reductions in pain were reported.
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5. Matsumoto S, et al. (2011). Effects of thermal therapy combining sauna therapy and underwater exercise in patients with fibromyalgia. Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, 17(3), 162–166.
6. 
   Twelve weeks of combined sauna therapy and underwater exercise produced improvements in pain, symptoms and quality of life, with some benefits persisting at six months.
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8. Brockow T, et al. (2013). Whole-body hyperthermia and multimodal rehabilitation in fibromyalgia.
   Study of 67 fibromyalgia patients finding greater reductions in pain when mild whole-body infrared hyperthermia was added to rehabilitation.
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10. Randomised sham-controlled whole-body hyperthermia trial (2023).
    A more rigorous controlled investigation of mild whole-body hyperthermia in people with fibromyalgia, providing evidence of reductions in pain compared with sham treatment.
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12. Honda Y, et al. (2018). Effects of physical-agent pain relief modalities for fibromyalgia patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.
    Review of physical therapies including thermal treatments, supporting a potential effect of thermal therapy on pain and fibromyalgia symptoms.
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14. Oosterveld FGJ, et al. (2009). Infrared sauna in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis. Clinical Rheumatology, 28, 29–34.
    Seventeen rheumatoid arthritis and 17 ankylosing spondylitis patients received eight infrared sauna sessions. Pain and stiffness decreased during sauna sessions, without evidence of increased disease activity.
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16. Systematic review/meta-analysis of spa therapy for chronic lower-back pain (2019).
    Twelve studies involving approximately 1,000 patients. Spa therapy was associated with significant reductions in pain and disability compared with control treatments.
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18. Systematic review/meta-analysis of aquatic exercise and balneotherapy for chronic lower-back pain (2023).
    Sixteen studies involving 1,656 participants, providing further evidence that hot-water/spa-based interventions can reduce pain and disability in chronic lower-back pain.
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20. Systematic review/meta-analysis of heat therapy and delayed-onset muscle soreness (2021).
    Analysis of 32 randomised controlled trials involving 1,098 participants found that heat therapy reduced exercise-induced muscle soreness both within and beyond 24 hours after exercise.
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22. Bruehl S, et al. – temperature, sympathetic activity and pain in CRPS.
    Experimental research showing an interaction between sympathetic vasoconstrictor activity and spontaneous pain in people with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. This is mechanistic evidence rather than evidence that sauna treats CRPS.