---
topic: "Sauna"
title: "Infrared vs Traditional"
order: 2
description: "How Finnish sauna, infrared sauna, and steam rooms compare in temperature, mechanisms, and health outcomes"
question: "Do infrared saunas give the same health benefits as traditional saunas?"
answer: "There is little evidence that infrared saunas match traditional saunas for long-term heart benefits; only small, short-term studies exist."
actions:
  - "For the best-supported benefits, use a traditional Finnish sauna: 80–100°C for 15–20 minutes, two to three times a week or more [1]."
  - "If you cannot tolerate 80–100°C, infrared at 45–60°C for 20–30 minutes is a lower-intensity option with some short-term evidence for joint pain [3]."
cautions:
  - "Traditional high-temperature sauna is contraindicated in congestive heart failure; check with a doctor before any sauna if you have heart disease [5]."
  - "Long-term outcome data (heart disease, mortality) come only from Finnish-style sauna; none exist for infrared saunas or steam rooms [1][4]."
  - "Stay hydrated and avoid alcohol around sauna sessions."
confidence: 1
confidenceNote: "No long-term cohort exists for infrared; its support is one 34-patient, 4-week controlled study and heart-failure data, versus a 2,315-man traditional-sauna cohort."
evidenceSummary:
  rctCount: 0
  observationalCount: 1
  metaAnalysisCount: 1
  totalParticipants: "2,300+"
  replicated: false
  newestStudyYear: 2021
references:
  - id: "1"
    pmid: "25705824"
    title: "Association between sauna bathing and fatal cardiovascular and all-cause mortality events"
    authors: "Laukkanen T, Khan H, Zaccardi F, Laukkanen JA"
    year: 2015
    journal: "JAMA Internal Medicine"
  - id: "2"
    pmid: "29849692"
    title: "Clinical effects of regular dry sauna bathing: a systematic review"
    authors: "Hussain J, Cohen M"
    year: 2018
    journal: "Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine"
  - id: "3"
    pmid: "18685882"
    title: "Infrared sauna in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis"
    authors: "Oosterveld FG, Rasker JJ, Floors M, Landkroon R, van Rennes B, Zwijnenberg J, van de Laar MA, Koel GJ"
    year: 2009
    journal: "Clinical Rheumatology"
  - id: "4"
    pmid: "30077204"
    title: "Cardiovascular and other health benefits of sauna bathing: a review of the evidence"
    authors: "Laukkanen JA, Laukkanen T, Kunutsor SK"
    year: 2018
    journal: "Mayo Clinic Proceedings"
  - id: "5"
    pmid: "34363927"
    title: "Sauna use as a lifestyle practice to extend healthspan"
    authors: "Patrick RP, Johnson TL"
    year: 2021
    journal: "Experimental Gerontology"
---

Not all saunas are created equal. Finnish-style saunas, infrared cabins, and steam rooms each deliver heat to the body through different mechanisms and at different intensities — and these differences matter when you look at the research. The vast majority of long-term health outcome data comes from traditional Finnish sauna studies, where temperatures reach 80-100°C and sessions of 15-20 minutes produce deep cardiovascular stress [1]. Infrared saunas operate at much lower air temperatures (45-60°C) but use radiant energy to penetrate tissue more directly, while steam rooms rely on humid heat at moderate temperatures [5]. Each has legitimate uses, but the evidence base is not equally deep.

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## How They Work: Three Different Heating Strategies

**Finnish (dry) sauna** heats the air in an enclosed room to 80-100°C using a wood, electric, or gas-fired stove, often with rocks on which water is poured to create brief bursts of steam (löyly). The air itself is the primary heat vector. Your body absorbs heat from the hot air through convection and radiation, raising core temperature by 1-2°C over a typical 15-20 minute session [2]. This produces profound cardiovascular demand — heart rates of 100-150 beats per minute — and heavy sweating of 0.5-1 liter per session [5].

**Infrared sauna** uses panels that emit infrared radiation in the far-infrared (FIR) spectrum, typically at wavelengths of 3-100 micrometers. Rather than heating the air, infrared energy penetrates the skin by approximately 1.5-4 centimeters and heats tissue directly [5]. Air temperatures stay much lower — usually 45-60°C — making the experience more tolerable for people who find traditional sauna oppressive. Core temperature still rises, but typically less dramatically, and sweat onset occurs more gradually. Sessions tend to run 20-30 minutes.

**Steam rooms** operate at 40-50°C with near 100% humidity. The high moisture content makes the heat feel more intense than the temperature suggests, because sweat cannot evaporate efficiently. Steam rooms produce heavy sweating but through a different thermoregulatory mechanism — the body's cooling system is essentially overwhelmed by humidity rather than challenged by extreme dry heat. There is very little controlled research on steam rooms specifically, so most health claims are extrapolated from general heat exposure studies.

## What the Finnish Studies Actually Show

The strongest evidence for sauna and long-term health outcomes comes from Finnish cohort studies involving traditional dry sauna at high temperatures [1][4]. In the landmark Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease (KIHD) study of 2,315 men followed for over 20 years, those using sauna two to three times per week had a 27% lower risk of cardiovascular mortality compared to once-weekly users. At four to seven sessions per week, cardiovascular mortality risk dropped by 50% [1]. These findings were later extended to include women, with consistent dose-response patterns [4].

The cardiovascular adaptations driving these outcomes — improved endothelial function, reduced arterial stiffness, lower resting blood pressure — appear to require the intense hemodynamic stress produced by high-temperature sauna [4][5]. Whether lower-temperature infrared sauna produces the same degree of cardiovascular conditioning over decades is simply not known, because no comparable long-term cohort studies exist for infrared.

## Where Infrared Has Its Own Evidence

Infrared sauna research, while less extensive, is not without substance. A controlled trial in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis found that infrared sauna sessions produced significant short-term reductions in pain and stiffness, with no disease worsening [3]. The lower air temperature made it accessible to patients who could not tolerate traditional sauna.

Infrared sauna has also shown promise for improving endothelial function and cardiac output in patients with congestive heart failure — a population for whom traditional high-temperature sauna would be contraindicated [5]. These clinical applications may represent infrared's most important niche: delivering heat therapy to people who cannot safely tolerate the extreme conditions of a Finnish sauna.

For healthy adults seeking the broadest evidence-backed benefits, traditional Finnish sauna at 80-100°C remains the most supported choice. But infrared offers a legitimate, lower-intensity alternative with its own emerging evidence base — particularly for pain management, joint conditions, and populations with cardiovascular limitations.

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## Evidence Review

### Finnish Cardiovascular Mortality Data (Laukkanen et al., 2015)

The KIHD prospective cohort study remains the gold standard for sauna and hard health outcomes [1]. Among 2,315 middle-aged Finnish men followed for a median of 20.7 years, sauna frequency showed a clear dose-response relationship with cardiovascular mortality. Compared to once-weekly users, those bathing two to three times per week had a 27% lower risk of fatal cardiovascular events (HR 0.73, 95% CI 0.58-0.92), and those bathing four to seven times per week had a 50% lower risk (HR 0.50, 95% CI 0.33-0.76). These sessions were conducted in traditional Finnish saunas at approximately 80°C or higher. The study did not include infrared or steam room users, meaning these specific risk reductions cannot be directly attributed to other sauna types.

### Systematic Review of Dry Sauna (Hussain and Cohen, 2018)

This systematic review examined the effects of repeated dry sauna interventions on human health, searching medical databases for studies of regular dry sauna bathing published from 2000 onwards and assessing risk of bias according to the Cochrane Collaboration guidelines [2]. Forty clinical studies involving a total of 3,855 participants met the inclusion criteria, but only 13 were randomized controlled trials and most studies were small (n < 40). Reported outcome measures were heterogeneous, with most studies reporting beneficial health effects. Only one small study (n = 10) reported an adverse health outcome, disrupted male spermatogenesis, which was reversible when sauna activity stopped. The authors concluded that regular dry sauna bathing has potential health benefits, and that more data of higher quality are needed on the frequency and extent of adverse side effects, on the optimal frequency and duration of distinct types of sauna bathing for targeted health effects, and on the clinical populations most likely to benefit.

### Infrared Sauna for Inflammatory Joint Disease (Oosterveld et al., 2009)

This controlled clinical study examined the effects of infrared sauna on patients with rheumatoid arthritis (n=17) and ankylosing spondylitis (n=17) [3]. Participants underwent eight infrared sauna sessions over four weeks at temperatures of approximately 55°C for 30 minutes per session. Both patient groups showed clinically meaningful reductions in pain and stiffness during the treatment period, with no adverse effects on disease activity markers (ESR, CRP). Fatigue scores also improved. The authors concluded that infrared sauna is well-tolerated and produces short-term symptomatic benefit in inflammatory arthritis, though they cautioned that larger trials with longer follow-up are needed to establish durability of effects. The study demonstrates that infrared sauna's lower operating temperature allows therapeutic heat exposure in populations that might not tolerate 80-100°C traditional sauna.

### Comprehensive Benefits Review (Laukkanen et al., 2018)

This review in *Mayo Clinic Proceedings* provided a broad assessment of sauna-associated health benefits drawing on the KIHD cohort and other evidence [4]. Beyond cardiovascular mortality, the authors documented associations between frequent Finnish sauna use and reduced risk of sudden cardiac death, coronary heart disease, stroke, hypertension, dementia, and respiratory disease. Proposed mechanisms included improved endothelial and cardiac function, reduced oxidative stress and inflammation, beneficial modulation of the autonomic nervous system, and positive effects on circulating lipid profiles. The review explicitly noted that most outcome data pertains to Finnish-style sauna at 80-100°C, and that while infrared sauna shows promise in smaller studies and specific clinical populations, the long-term outcome data required to make equivalent health claims does not yet exist.