Can a Hot Bath Reduce Blood Sugar & Burn Calories?

While performing their normal daily activities, most people just don't get the same amount of exercise today, as people did a few hundred years ago.

There are many people who would love to just take an "exercise pill" and obtain the same benefits as they would from going through a strenuous workout. That exercise pill doesn't yet exist and it may never will, but we can't rule out the possibility of that happening someday.

Getting back to reality, there is however a trick that can be done today, to get some of the benefits of exercise without the effort. This "trick" is a procedure and not a pill.

Recent research confirms that not only are more calories burned when your body temperature rises in a hot bath, but that hot bath also has a surprisingly beneficial effect on blood sugar levels.

The researchers found that by sitting in a hot bath for an hour, energy expenditure increased by 80%. This didn't approach the energy expenditure from riding a bike for an hour, but it was extremely close to a that of a brisk 30-minute walk. Riding the bike burned 630 calories and the hot bath burned 140 calories in an hour.

The second factor they evaluated was peak glucose output, or the rise in glucose in your blood after a meal. The two groups of participants ate a meal of similar composition. the first group did this a few of hours after their hour long hot bath and the second group, a few hours after exercising for an hour.

A very high blood glucose level after a meal, is a risk marker for type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome. If you don't have diabetes, your pancreas secretes small amounts of insulin throughout the day in response to the amount of blood glucose and other factors.

If your body becomes more resistant to insulin, the amount of glucose rises in your blood as your cells do not effectively utilize the available insulin as well.

The researchers also found something that was totally unexpected. They found that peak glucose was actually 10%lower after the bath, as compared to after the hour of exercise.

The head researcher, Faulkner theorizes this may be the result of the work of heat shock proteins (HSPs), which are released when your body temperature rises.

These proteins are part of your defense system and may help shunt glucose from your blood stream into your skeletal muscles, thus reducing your blood glucose levels. They are released when your body is under stress such as that caused by inflammation, infection or exercise.

Can Heat Shock Proteins Improve Insulin Sensitivity?

Can these heat shock proteins, improve diabetes? HSPs are involved in muscle preservation, decreasing oxidative stress (free radicals) and inhibiting inflammatory responses. Animal studies have demonstrated increasing HSPs in mice, resulted in decreased age-related oxidative stress, protection from muscle damage and from diet-induced insulin resistance.

Increasing amounts of HSPs were able to improve insulin sensitivity in animal models, which suggests that they can help diabetes in humans too.

Faulkner does not suggest that a hot bath or sauna daily should replace exercise, as exercise has significantly more benefits than reducing post-meal glucose output and energy expenditure.

This discovery could be very beneficial to those people who are physically unable to exercise.

Important Safety Considerations:

1. If you are going to soak in a hot bath or hot tub, make sure the water is filtered so you are not opening your pores in hot water and loading your body with chlorine, fluoride and disinfection byproducts (DBPs).

2. Drink plenty of water to stay hydrated. Heat stress or heat stroke are real possibilities from excessive fluid loss. The potential for the effects of significant dehydration are higher when you use a sauna after a hard workout.

3. If you experience a headache after using a sauna or hot tub, you may want to use a cloth over your head.

4. If you are a man and are trying to conceive a child, hot baths can significantly reduce your fertility.

5. A hot bath is supposed to be relaxing and not new torture. Raising your core temperature above 104.8 degrees Fahrenheit, can cause a medical emergency and could cause you to pass out and possibly drown.

6. When taking a hot bath or using a whirlpool, it is always safer to have another supervise you, to make sure that you don't raise your core body temperature too much and pass out. If you choose not to have supervision, try to position yourself, so if you did ever pass out, you would not drown. This still won't prevent any damage that could occur from a highly elevated core body temperature.

7. Someone with diabetes, may have some nerve damage. That nerve damage could impair their ability to feel heat, which could lead to them taking a hotter bath than they should be taking. This can also occur in the elderly who don't have diabetes. 102 degrees Fahrenheit, is usually considered the safe temperature for a hot bath. Some healthier individuals, may tolerate 104 degrees Fahrenheit, which is the legal limit for hot tub temperatures. When you start to go over 104 degrees Fahrenheit, you run the risk of raising the core body temperature too high.

Thinner people will raise their core body temperature faster, since they have a greater surface area to volume ratio than an individual who is not thin. Thinner people also cool off faster.

It is amazing what a few degrees one way or the other does to the perceived temperature of a bath.

8. If you are taking an hour long hot bath, the bath will cool down from heat loss and evaporation. You will have to add hot water a few times during that hour, to maintain the water temperature of the hot bath.

9. If you have any medical condition, consult with your physician, to make sure that taking hot baths are safe for you.

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