A Finnish study suggests that regular sauna visits can reduce the risk for high blood pressure. The study, in the American Journal of Hypertension, included 1,621 middle-aged men with normal blood pressure who were followed for an average of 25 years. During that time, 251 developed hypertension. Compared with those who reported one sauna session a week or less, those who took two to three sessions were 24 percent less likely to have hypertension, and four to seven visits a week reduced the risk by 46 percent. The study is observational and does not prove cause and effect, but the senior author, Dr. Jari Laukkanen suggested several possible mechanisms. The warmth of the sauna, he said, improves the flexibility of the blood vessels which eases blood flow, and the warmth and subsequent cooling down of a typical Finnish sauna induces a general relaxation that helps moderate blood pressure. Also, sweating acts as a natural diuretic. Diuretics are among the oldest drugs for hypertension.

Drug price matters, in patients' minds

When people believe a medicine is expensive, they may show a greater response to it. Researchers told 49 volunteers that they were testing two anti-itch creams — one costly, and one cheap — that contained the same ingredient known to reduce itch, but that the ingredient sometimes increased sensitivity to heat. They did not tell them that neither contained any medicine. They randomly assigned them to try either the expensive or cheap cream. All participants knew which cream they were using. The study is in Science. When exposed to heat, the volunteers using the expensive cream felt consistently more pain than those using the cheap one, and the effect increased over time.

Researchers update breast cancer figures

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in American women except for skin cancers. Researchers at the American Cancer Society estimate that there will be 252,710 new cases of invasive breast cancer in women in the U.S. in 2017. Some 40,610 women will die from the disease. In addition, there will be 63,410 cases this year of carcinoma in situ, abnormal cells that may be an early form of cancer. Over a lifetime, a woman living in the United States has a 12.4 percent risk — 1 in 8 — of being diagnosed with breast cancer. Non-Hispanic whites and non-Hispanic blacks have higher breast cancer incidence and mortality than other racial and ethnic groups. The incidence of cancer in black women was slightly lower than that of whites, but the death rate during 2011 to 2015 was 42 percent higher in black women.