Are hot tubs safe for people with treated hypertension?
Tae Won Shin, Merne Wilson and Thomas W. Wilson From the Departments of Medicine and Pharmacology and the Cardiovascular Risk Factor Reduction Unit, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon (all authors). Dr. Shin is currently a resident in internal medicine at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC. Correspondence to: Dr. Thomas W. Wilson, Department of Medicine, RUH 3544, 103 Hospital Dr., Saskatoon SK S7N 0W8; fax 306 966-7970; wilsont{at}duke.usask.ca’ + u + ‘@’ + d + ”//–> Abstract Background: People with hypertension are commonly warned to check with a physician before using a hot tub, but there is little literature on which to base this advice. We compared symptoms, heart rate, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure in response to 10 minutes of hot-tub immersion in a group of patients with treated hypertension and in a control group normotensive subjects. Methods: We recruited 21 patients (18 men and 3 women aged 43 76 years) with stable, treated hypertension and 23
