Waon Therapy – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20154403/

Waon Therapy for Cardiovascular Disease – Innovative Therapy for the 21st Century

What is Waon therapy?

• Waon therapy involves warming the entire body in a dry sauna maintained at 60°C for 15 minutes.
• Patients then rest outside the sauna covered in blankets for 30 minutes to maintain the soothing effect.
• Fluids are provided after to prevent dehydration.

Effects of Waon therapy on chronic heart failure (CHF)

• Improves hemodynamics, cardiac function, ventricular arrhythmias
• Improves vascular endothelial function, neurohormonal factors, sympathetic nervous system function
• Improves symptoms when administered for 4 weeks
• Decreases cardiac size and improves ejection fraction
• Decreases rate of death or hospitalization over 5 years

Mechanism of effect on CHF

• Improves endothelial function in parallel with reducing BNP levels
• Upregulates endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) expression in animal studies
• eNOS upregulation improves cardiac and vascular function

Effects on peripheral arterial disease (PAD)

• Substantially decreases pain scores and improves ankle-brachial pressure index and blood flow
• Forms new collateral vessels on angiography
• Heals ischemic ulcers

Mechanism of effect on PAD

• Upregulates eNOS expression in a mouse model of hindlimb ischemia
• Increases blood flow and capillary density through eNOS upregulation
• Effect is abolished in eNOS-deficient mice, showing eNOS is critical

Effects on lifestyle-related diseases

• Improves endothelial dysfunction related to atherosclerotic risk factors
• Reduces oxidative stress levels

Conclusion

• Waon therapy is a promising innovative therapy for cardiovascular diseases
• It has pleiotropic effects and a good safety profile