Taking a hot bath with beautiful fragrant bath salts is something that does wonders for the body because it relaxes you and leaves your skin feeling smooth after a good soak. If this is something that you enjoy doing, we have some great news! A recent study from Loughborough University found that taking a relaxing bath may have similar health benefits to exercising and can even help prevent type 2 diabetes–yay!
Researcher, Dr. Steve Faulkner explains to The Conversation how a hot bath has always been relaxing, but most recently they’ve discovered how “passive heating” can improve health. They investigated the effect of a hot bath on blood sugar control and on energy expended. Researchers recruited 14 men to take part in the study and they assigned them to an hour-long soak in a hot bath (104 °F) or an hour of cycling. These activities were chosen because they cause a rise in core body temperature over the course of one hour.
