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Editorial
Tub bathing and heart disease
  1. Andrew Felix Burden
  1. Exeter, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Andrew Felix Burden, Exeter, UK; acfelix.burden{at}me.com

https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2019-316187

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    Sudden death associated with hot bathing is a frequent occurrence in Japan,1 with estimates of the annual number of deaths of 19 000.2 In 2012, it was reported in the The Daily Telegraph 3 that Japan’s health ministry was to launch an investigation into bath-time deaths because of the large number of fatalities—said to be three times as many as those who died in car accidents.

    Cardiovascular disease (CVD) has been found to be an unlikely cause of these deaths; a more likely aetiology is hyperthermia leading to confusion and drowning.4

    A study5 published in Heart has now found an association between the frequency of hot bathing in some geographical districts of Japan and protection from deaths from CVD. There …

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors I contributed to this article.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent for publication Not required.

    • Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.

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