Cardiac Arrest – Never Bathe Again (in Japan)

Or, alternatively, never bathe in fall and winter.

Data mining expedition evaluating the event rate of out-of-hospital arrest where activity could be determined, and then using the Japanese averages of time-per-day to evaluate for hourly rates of arrest per activity.

Working was the most cardioprotective per hour spent – and it had the best ROSC and survival, mostly because it was highly witnessed.  Sleeping and exercising were riskier behaviors than working – sleeping moreso, because it was infrequently witnessed and had minimal survival.  So, you might as well just keep working.

But, definitely don’t bathe because 1) no one is watching you bathe, so the survival is dismal and 2) the risk of cardiac arrest was a preposterous 40 times greater than working, and when the time of year was taken into account, bathing in cold winter months led to up to 100-fold increase in arrest rate.

The authors believe this is specifically related to Japanese homes being poorly insulated, leading to predictable large blood pressure drops when entering their traditional very hot baths.

Work harder, live longer.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21543146