Dr. Zorba Paster: Taking A Bath May Be Good For The Heart

Bathing. I have fond memories of sitting in a bathtub as a kid. Putting in bubble bath, playing with those funny rubber ducks — and as a young teen putting in bubble bath and relaxing. But I haven’t bathed in years. Somehow sitting in the water that you just washed your body in doesn’t seem like good hygiene to me. But research from the BMJ might just call that into question — a daily bath might prevent heart disease. Really?

Let’s start with where this study came form — Japan. Now the Japanese do not just jump into the tub with a bar of Ivory Soap (one of my mom’s favorites, because it floated).

Anyway, in Japan, bathing starts before they go into a tub. I’ve traveled to Japan and Korea where this is commonly practiced. You sit on a small stool, in front of a faucet, spill some water over your head and body, lather up, clean yourself thoroughly and then, only then, do you go into the tub.

So the tub is more of a small hot tub than it is the usual porcelain thing that we all have at home. And one more thing — most bathing occurs at night, at the end of the day.

So off to the study. Starting in 1990 more than 40,000 people from 45 to 50 years old starting filling out a detailed questionnaire on their lifestyle — smoking, exercising, drinking, how long they slept, the medicine they were on, and how often they bathed. Over the years researchers continued to follow everyone — finally analyzing the data.

They found that a once or twice a week hot bath — less than 104 degrees — was associated with a 28 percent reduced risk of heart attacks and 26 percent reduced risk of stroke and a lower risk of high blood pressure and better sleep.

My spin: A weekly soak in the tub might feel good and be good for your heart. Maybe that should be part of your lifestyle program.