text_1: Can't exercise? A hot bath may help improve inflammation, metabolism, study suggests
text_2: Take a look at the headline and subheading of this news release, because the former is very misleading, and the latter comes closer to the truth: Headline: ‘Can’t exercise? A hot bath may help improve inflammation, metabolism, study suggest’ Sub-head: ‘Hot-water immersion improved inflammatory markers and blood sugar in overweight men’ The subheading is a fairly good summary of the study. But the “Can’t exercise? …” headline promises much more than this small study can support. The research question? How does hot water immersion —  that is, ten 1-hour soaks at 102ºF over two weeks  — affect metabolic and inflammatory biomarkers in the blood of 10 overweight and sedentary men. The answer? Some mild, transient changes were noted that could theoretically be beneficial. Just because exercise has been shown to transiently increase inflammatory markers and decrease blood sugar, and hot water immersion does the same thing, doesn’t mean that the latter might substitute for the former. Furthermore, the research into the relationship between inflammation and sugar/insulin levels is mostly in rodents, and extrapolating these benefits to humans is unrealistic. Yes, exercise can temporarily trigger an anti-inflammatory response at the molecular level, as well as decrease sugar/insulin levels. This study suggests repeated, lengthy hot water immersion can do the same thing in 10 overweight men. But that hardly means the two interventions are comparable in any way, or that these blood changes have any meaningful or sustainable clinical benefits.