Hot bath on a cold day 'could place strain on the heart'
A long soak in the bath during th colder months could hold some unexpected dangers, a Japanese study has found.
The researchers from Kyoto Prefectural University found that enjoying a hot tub could spell trouble for the heart.
They found the rate of cardiac arrests during bathing were ten times higher in winter than in summer.
The team, led by Chika Nishiyama, based their study on data from nearly 11,000 cardiac arrests in the western prefecture of Osaka between 2005 and 2007.
Prior to the cardiac arrest, 22 percent of people had been sleeping, 9 percent had been bathing, 3 percent had been working, and 0.5 percent had been exercising. The rest had been doing "nonspecific" or unknown activities.
When looking at cardiac arrest rates, at the top of the list was 54 arrests per 10 million people per hour of bathing, followed by 10 per 10 million people per hour of exercising.
For bathers, the risk was tied to outside temperatures, with more cardiac arrests on colder days.
While it's still unclear how to explain the link, getting into a hot tub on a chilly day causes a rapid blood pressure drop, which stresses the heart.
'Preventive approaches such as warming a bathroom and hallway or refraining from taking a deep, hot bath could be important for high risk people,' Dr Nishiyama wrote in the journal Resuscitation.
Hot baths are very important in Japan since traditional homes are not well-insulated as in the west and central heating is quite uncommon. Thousands flock to the country's numerous hot springs for recreation.
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