Short read
Setor Kunutsor and Jari Laukkanen published this review in Mayo Clinic Proceedings in 2023, volume 98, issue 6, pages 915 to 926. It asks whether combining Finnish sauna bathing with other lifestyle factors brings additional benefit, above all physical activity. It draws on the cohort analyses of fitness and sauna use as well as several intervention studies that paired sauna sessions with training.
The review describes that high cardiorespiratory fitness and frequent sauna use together were associated with a greater reduction in risk than either factor alone. For systolic blood pressure as well, the combination came out more favourable than the individual factors. The review itself adds no new figures; its statements summarise the underlying studies.
Like the earlier review by the same group, it summarises largely the authors' own primary data, and the underlying cohort is to a large extent the same. That limits how far the conclusions can be treated as independent. The cohort findings remain observational.
The review places sauna use alongside other health behaviours rather than as a substitute for them. For recovery, that means heat is described in these data as a complement to training, not an alternative. It does not show how much any individual gains from adding sauna sessions to an existing routine.