Sauna

News I can use: to be published in the academic journal Experimental Gerontology, “Frequent sauna bathing offsets the increased risk of death due to low socioeconomic status” ⁠— a prospective cohort study of middle-aged and older men.

Glenn of Sauna Talk stands on the street in Helsinki and interviews passersby on their practice of and relationship with, well, sauna.

The Sabus in Himeji is a Japanese bus sauna. Hot.

Awesome triangular semi-transparent Japanese sauna by architect Taichi Kuma.

How lovely and wonderful: Finnish sauna culture is recognized by UNESCO, as reported by EuroNews.

DesignBoom’s sauna page. This is just great work about great work about great living.

It’s Tim Ferriss’s most soulful interview yet: Jack Kornfield, a guru who talks the talk, walks the walk, sat the sit. With a great selection in the shownotes of links and people mentioned.

As these two leaders discuss morning practices, I’m struck by how many of the perspectives and attitudes they hope for are nicely handled by the Jewish morning prayers.

The conclusion of this peer-reviewed scientific article on sauna: “Increased frequency of sauna bathing is associated with a reduced risk of SCD, CHD, CVD, and all-cause mortality.”

A 21-year Finnish study (not that they’re biased) has concluded that the sauna is great for middle-aged men’s health, the UK Daily Mail reports. Among 2,315 men aged 42 to 60 from eastern Finland, a sauna 2–3 times per week was associated with a 24% lower risk of death and 4–7 times per week with a 40% lower risk! Update 2020 Dec 13: The study: “Association Between Sauna Bathing and Fatal Cardiovascular and All-Cause Mortality Events” in JAMA Internal Medicine, 2015;175(4):542-548.

Lots of good thought and results in Vincent Kartheiser’s (Mad Men) tiny Hollywood home.

Check out the “Beneficial effects of sauna bathing for heart failure patients” by Arnon Blum and Nava Blum, an article published by the US National Institutes of Health. Turns out people with heart problems not only can use the sauna, it’s a therapy.

Some pro-sauna theory: Sweat Therapy Theory by Stephen Colmant. “From clinical experience, sweating induces commonly observed effects of exercise on mental health, such as reducing anxiety, depression, and stress and improving body image, self-esteem, and sense of well being.”

Causing local uproar, the City of Helsinki planned to replace the wood-burning stove at the famous Yrjönkatu public sauna with an electric sauna stove. Instead, there’s now a competition to redesign the wood-burning system.

The power shvitz in the basement of the Finnish embassy in Washington.

Julian Barnes visits Sibelius’s house.

Scotland’s early industrialisation produced great wealth and great poverty and after two centuries is yet to tackle that fundamental inequity. Lesley Riddoch compares Scotland’s failure and Finland’s success.

The kiln, Korea’s sauna.