Dr Steve Faulkner, a researcher at Loughborough University, says that having a hot, relaxing bath may have similar health benefits to exercising and can help prevent type 2 diabetes.
He explained to The Conversation that, though a hot bath has always been relaxing, it is only recently that science has begun to discover how "passive heating" can improve health.
Dr Faulkner and his team have investigated the effect a hot bath has on blood sugar control and the number of calories burned. The study, published in the Journal of Temperature, involved 14 people each enjoying an hour-long soak in a bath run at 40 degrees as well as heading out on a hour's cycle.
The two tests were designed to raise core body temperature by just one degree so that the team could measure how many calories were burned in each session.
Though cycling did burn more calories, they found that a hot bath used up as many calories as a 30-minute walk.
'The overall blood sugar response to both conditions was similar, but peak blood sugar after eating was about 10% lower when participants took a hot bath compared with when they exercised,' Dr Faulkner reports.
He also explained that the anti-inflammatory properties of exercise are important for our immune systems and help us fight diseases: "This suggests that repeated passive heating may contribute to reducing chronic inflammation, which is often present with long-term diseases, such as type 2 diabetes".
The authors noted that additional research was needed 'to confirm these data in larger cohorts over a prolonged period of time' and 'the possible therapeutic benefits of PH require more extensive investigation'. The study was conducted on 14 volunteers and they were all male.
Not that these findings will make us choose having a bath over going for a walk, but they definitely help us feel completely happy indulging in both more often.
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