Newsletter #126: Hot Baths and Weighted Blankets 🛌🏿
Welcome to the latest edition of the humanOS newsletter!
This week, we learned that where you carry body fat may be nearly as important as how much; regular hot baths are associated with better health markers and lower BMI in people with diabetes (check out this podcast to learn a little more on the myriad benefits of passive heat exposure); and weighted blankets might actually live up to the hype.
Scroll down for more info, and please stay safe everyone. 👇
This Week’s Research Highlights
📈 Body fat distribution appears to be linked to all-cause mortality risk.
Researchers performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of 72 prospective cohort studies with a total of 2528297 participants, followed for 3-24 years, which reported risk estimates of all-cause mortality across several categories of indices of central adiposity. Sure enough, they found that most measures of abdominal fatness, such as waist circumference, were significantly associated with higher all-cause mortality risk. Every 10 cm increase in waist circumference was associated with an 11% higher risk of all-cause mortality, while every 0.1 unit increase in waist-to-hip ratio, waist-to-height ratio, and the waist-to-thigh ratio was associated with ~20% higher risk. But larger hip and thigh circumferences were associated with lower risk. Every 10 cm increase in hip circumference was associated with a 10% lower risk of all-cause mortality, while each 5 cm increase in thigh circumference was associated with an 18% lower risk. Importantly, these associations were significant even after accounting for body mass index.
🛀 Regular hot baths are linked to lower BMI and improved biomarkers in people with type 2 diabetes.
Researchers obtained information on bathing habits from 1297 patients with type 2 diabetes, who regularly visited the outpatient unit of Kohnodai Hospital in Japan. Japan is an ideal place to study the effects of hot baths because most residences are outfitted with a bath or hot tub and they are commonly used there (somewhat similar to the relationship to saunas in Finland). Patients were divided into three groups based on their bathing frequency. Mean frequency was 4.2 times per week and the mean duration was 16 minutes. The researchers then analyzed how frequency of bathing was associated with anthropometric measurements and bloodwork. They found that increased bathing frequency was independently associated with lower BMI, lower diastolic blood pressure, and lower glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c). This follows previous work showing that daily hot bathing was linked to a 28% lower overall risk of cardiovascular disease, and a 26% lower overall risk of stroke, as well as a plethora of research linking various forms of passive heat exposure to improved cardiometabolic health.
😴 Weighted blankets may improve sleep in patients with insomnia.
Researchers recruited 120 adults who had been diagnosed with clinical insomnia as well as a co-occurring psychiatric disorder. They were randomized to sleep for four weeks at home with either a chain-weighted blanket or a light plastic chain blanket (control). Nearly 60% of weighted blanket users had a positive response, with a decrease of 50% or more in their Insomnia
Severity Index score from baseline, compared with 5.4% of the control group. 42.2% of the weighted blanket group achieved remission (meaning a score of seven or less on the ISI scale), compared with just 3.6% in the control group. When subjects were given the opportunity to use the weighted blankets for a 12-month follow-up phase, 92% of weighted blanket users positively responded to the intervention, and 78% achieved remission from insomnia.
Podcasts We Loved This Week
- James Hébert: Dietary Inflammatory Index. Via Sigma Nutrition Radio.
- Bill Tripp, Don Hankins, & Ezra David Romero: How Indigenous Burning Practices Could Prevent Massive Wildfires. Via Science Friday.
- Benjamin Thompson & Shamini Bundell: Greenland’s historic ice loss, “long covid,” and other research highlights. Via Nature Podcast.
Products We Are Enjoying
Portable dressing containers.
These 2-ounce reusable silicone containers make it easy to pack dressings, sauces, or other condiments for traveling, or even just for meal prep if you’re into that. Also useful for controlling portion sizes, if you’re someone who tends to overdo it when freely pouring dressings and other tasty stuff. They are safe for the fridge, freezer, microwave, and dishwasher, and are BPA free.
