Submitted by Dr. Chris Spooner

Heart failure may develop gradually over several years, or move quickly after a heart attack or a disease of the heart muscle. Heart failure is an illness in which the pumping action of the heart becomes less and less powerful. That is, the heart does not pump blood as well as it should. When this happens, blood does not move efficiently through the circulatory system and starts to back up, increasing the pressure in the blood vessels and forcing fluid from the blood vessels into body tissues. When the left side of the heart starts to fail, fluid collects in the lungs (pulmonary edema). This extra fluid in the lungs (congestion) makes it more difficult for the airways to expand as you inhale. Breathing becomes more difficult, and you may feel short of breath, particularly with activity or lying down.

Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) is generally classified as systolic or diastolic heart failure and becomes progressively more common with increasing age.

In Systolic heart failure the pumping action of the heart is reduced or weakened. A common clinical measurement is the ejection fraction (EF). The ejection fraction is a calculation of how much blood is ejected out of the left ventricle (stroke volume), divided by the maximum volume remaining in the left ventricle at the end of diastole or relaxation phase. A normal ejection fraction is greater than 50%. Systolic heart failure has a decreased ejection fraction of less than 50%.

In Diastolic heart failure the heart can contract normally but is stiff, or less compliant, when it is relaxing and filling with blood. This impedes blood filling into the heart and produces backup into the lungs and CHF symptoms. Diastolic heart failure is more common in patients older than 75 years, especially in women with high blood pressure. In Diastolic heart failure, the ejection fraction is normal.

Heart failure affects 1% of people aged 50 years, about 5% of those aged 75 years or older, and 25% of those aged 85 years or older. As the number of elderly people continues to rise, the number of people diagnosed with this condition will continue to increase. In the United States, nearly 5 million people have heart failure. Each year about 550,000 new cases are diagnosed.

How FIR Sauna Helps the Heart

Infrared heat penetrates more deeply than warmed air, which causes users to perspire more vigorously at a lower temperature than they would in traditional saunas. The body attempts to regulate temperature by sweating and dilating blood vessels. The effect on the cardiovascular system is to decrease the resistance the heart has to pump against, also referred to as afterload, and increase heart rate. The overall effect is an increase in cardiac output that is comparable to that achieved by walking at a moderate pace. For this reason, FIR Sauna can be of particular use in increasing cardiovascular fitness in those who are sedentary due to various medical conditions, such as osteoarthritis or cardiovascular or respiratory problems.

Congestive Heart Failure

Four papers support the use of Iinfrared Sauna Ttherapy for those with CHF.

In one randomized controlled trial (RCT)3, 30 subjects with New York Heart Association (NYHA) class II or III CHF and more than 200 premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) per 24 hours were randomized into treatment and non-treatment groups. Treatment consisted of 10, 15-minute infrared sauna sessions over a 2-week period. After 2 weeks the sauna group had significantly fewer PVCs compared with the untreated group. The authors concluded that repeated FIR Sauna treatment improved ventricular arrhythmias in patients with NYHA class II and III congestive heart failureHF.

Another RCT2 studied 30 patients with NYHA class II or III CHF: The treatment group had 10, 15-minute FIR Sauna treatments over a 2-week period. Clinical symptoms improved in 17 out of 20 patients in the treatment group and were unchanged in the remaining 3 patients. Patients’ NYHA classes improved as did their systolic blood pressure. In contrast, the control group did not improve. The authors concluded that FIR Sauna treatment improved cardiac function and clinical symptoms in those with CHF and that this improvement was the result of improved vascular endothelial function.

15 hospitalized patients with NYHA class II or III CHF underwent daily 15-minute FIR Sauna treatment for 4 weeks. Sauna treatment was safely completed without any adverse effects. Symptoms improved in 13 of 15 patients and every patient’s 6-minute walking distance increased. Further, systolic BP improved, tThe authors concluded that FIR Sauna treatment was a safe and effective adjunct therapy for CHF.3 This is the longest study of FIR Sauna therapy for CHF; it is also the only study to document the effect of FIR Sauna therapy on exercise tolerance.

Conclusions.

This summary provides reasonable evidence that Far Infrared Sauna Therapy is of use in reducing risk factors widely acknowledged to be associated with heart disease. There is encouraging evidence supporting the therapeutic use of FIR Sauna therapy for treatment of CHF and systolic hypertension.