Daily bathing is good for your health

"A 2020 study published in the medical journal Heart found that taking a hot bath every day may significantly lower your risk of heart disease and heart attack. The study drew on extensive medical and personal data gathered between 1990 and 2009 from the Japan Public Health Center-based Study Cohort I, which included complete data sets from over 30,000 middle-aged participants with no history of cardiovascular disease (CVD) or cancer. After adjusting for other factors that affect heart health, including diet, exercise, and smoking habits, researchers found that taking a daily hot bath was associated with a 28 percent lower overall risk of cardiovascular disease when compared with those who took baths once or twice a week, or no baths at all.

"These findings seem to indicate that healthy adults who wish to lower their heart attack risk may be able to do so by taking daily hot baths. While the exact temperature of the bath did not appear to affect the findings, Harvard Health Publishing notes that a hot bath in Japan would customarily be between 104 and 107 degrees Fahrenheit, and these were likely the conditions of the study subjects. The research team also noted that in Japan, it is typical to bathe with water that comes up to shoulder height, and this could be a critical factor in any health benefits the habit may provide."

"Taking a daily hot bath was also found to lower one's stroke risk by 26 percent compared with less frequent bathing. Though the study was observational—and therefore unable to establish causality—the team speculated that both heart attack and stroke risks may be reduced because of a hot bath's ability to lower blood pressure. The Cleveland Clinic explains that this occurs because as the skin heats up, the blood vessels dilate to cool the body down, drawing blood away from the body's core toward the skin.

"We found that frequent tub bathing was significantly associated with a lower risk of hypertension, suggesting that a beneficial effect of tub bathing on risk of [cardiovascular disease] may in part be due to a reduced risk of developing hypertension," the team explained.