Regular sauna bathing may reduce the incidence of common colds.
Regular sauna bathing may reduce how often people develop a common cold, although the evidence comes from a small, older trial. Researchers followed 50 volunteers for six months: 25 participants underwent regular sauna bathing, while 25 controls abstained from sauna and comparable heat treatments.
The sauna group experienced significantly fewer common-cold episodes. The difference was most apparent during the final three months, when cold incidence was roughly half that of the control group. Once participants became sick, however, sauna use did not significantly change the average duration or severity of their symptoms.
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The delayed separation between groups is consistent with the possibility that repeated heat exposure produces an adaptation rather than an immediate protective effect. However, the study was small, did not report laboratory confirmation of infections, and has not been robustly replicated. It therefore suggests that regular sauna use might reduce cold incidence but does not establish an immune-protective effect or show that sauna treats an existing cold.