Bleedin' obvious: Saunas and beer
The rigours of scientific research often necessitate long, painstaking hours in a lab, in front of a computer or out in the field. Well research just got a whole lot better - let’s get naked and drink beer. Recent work in Japan has been investigating the effect of alcohol consumption and sauna activity on uric acid concentration in urine. Uric acid is a by-product of the breakdown of food and body protein and is discharged in our urine each day.
Five healthy subjects were used, their urine and blood plasma measured before and after each of them had a sauna, drank beer, and drank beer right after a sauna. The different combinations of beer and sauna suggested that saunas on their own increased the plasma concentrations and made you pee less uric acid; while beer only increased the plasma concentrations and made you pee more uric acid. A bit of both gave you increased plasma concentration and less uric acid in your urine.
So what were the author’s recommendations? People “with gout should refrain from drinking alcoholic beverages, including beer, after taking a sauna…” Pretty sound advice.
[Yamamoto, T. et al. (2004). Effect of sauna bathing and beer ingestion on plasma concentrations of purine bases. Metabolism: Clinical and Experimental 53, 772-776.]
Sauna and beer facts
A sauna is a bath of dry heat and, therefore, not really a bath at all according to the proper definition of bathing. They can get up to a rather warm 80°C from the effect of water being thrown on the hot rocks. The sauna world championships get up to 110°C.
Londoner Peter Dowdeswell holds the current world record for downing a pint when, in 2001, he drank a pink of Guinness in just 2.1 seconds.
Although we think of them as Scandinavian, they are also commonplace in several other countries, but go under different names: Hammam in Turkey, Thermae in Rome, Temescal in Spain, Banya in Russia and the aptly named Sweat lodge in America.
The Czech Republic is the world’s leading beer consumer with 282 pints per person per year being drunk, while Finland has the most saunas per capita, where they can be found in private houses, corporate headquarters and even in the Parliament.
Sauna etiquette dictates that talking should be kept to friendly banter and doors should be opened only very briefly to prevent chilly drafts. Although levels of nudity vary in different countries, sex is strictly faux pas.
Share this
