This article summarises the study “Efficacy of Waon therapy for fibromyalgia” by Kakushi Matsushita, Akinori Masuda and Chuwa Tei, published in Internal Medicine, Vol. 47 (2008), No. 16, pp. 1473–1476. For full details, please refer to the original paper.
What the study looked at
Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is a chronic condition characterised by widespread pain and tenderness in specific areas of the body. The researchers wanted to see whether Waon therapy – a gentle whole-body warming in a far infrared dry sauna – could help reduce pain in people with fibromyalgia, including those whose physical condition makes exercise or spa treatments difficult.
“Waon” is a Japanese term that can be understood as “soothing warmth”: a warmth that comfortably refreshes body and mind. The sauna temperature used (60 °C) is lower than that of conventional saunas.
How the study was carried out
- Participants: 13 women with fibromyalgia (average age about 45, range 25–75), meeting the American College of Rheumatology criteria. Five had primary fibromyalgia; the others also had an autoimmune condition.
- Session: 15 minutes lying or sitting in a far infrared dry sauna at an even 60 °C, followed by 30 minutes resting under a blanket in a room at 26–27 °C to keep the body warm.
- Frequency: once a day, 5 days a week in hospital for seven patients, and twice a week as outpatients for the other six.
- Hydration: patients were weighed before and after each session and drank water to replace the fluid lost through sweating.
- Measurements: pain was rated on a visual analogue scale (VAS), and symptoms with the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ). Follow-up lasted on average 14 months.
Table 1 – Patient characteristics
| No. | Age | Sex | Complication | FMS duration (months) | Tender points | VAS pain score | FIQ score |
| 1 | 49 | F | RA | 4 | 18 | 8.0 | |
| 2 | 51 | F | No | 84 | 18 | 6.3 | |
| 3 | 60 | F | Aortitis | 3 | 16 | 9.0 | |
| 4 | 56 | F | SLE | 26 | 16 | 8.2 | 54 |
| 5 | 40 | F | SLE | 96 | 16 | 7.0 | 55 |
| 6 | 34 | F | No | 6 | 18 | 7.0 | 52 |
| 7 | 30 | F | Behçet | 7 | 18 | 8.0 | 46 |
| 8 | 50 | F | No | 12 | 11 | 4.0 | 33 |
| 9 | 75 | F | SLE | 11 | 18 | 7.5 | 59 |
| 10 | 27 | F | No | 29 | 18 | 5.0 | 20 |
| 11 | 25 | F | No | 60 | 18 | 4.8 | 51 |
| 12 | 30 | F | SS | 51 | 18 | 6.5 | 26 |
| 13 | 61 | F | SSc | 22 | 14 | 8.8 | 52 |
VAS: visual analogue scale; FIQ: Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire; RA: rheumatoid arthritis; Aortitis: aortitis syndrome; SLE: systemic lupus erythematosus; Behçet: Behçet’s disease; SS: Sjögren’s syndrome; SSc: systemic sclerosis.
Results
- All patients completed 10 sessions with no significant side effects.
- After the first session, all patients reported that their pain had roughly halved (reductions between 11% and 70%).
- After 10 sessions the effect became stable, with pain reductions of 20–78%.
- Average VAS pain scores went from 6.9 before therapy to 4.2 after the first session and 3.3 after the tenth, and were 3.9 at follow-up.
- FIQ symptom scores also fell significantly after ten sessions and stayed lower during the observation period.
- The number of tender points fell from about 16 to about 8.
- Five of the eight patients who had left work or taken leave because of fibromyalgia returned to work.
Figure 1. Average VAS pain scores before and after the first and tenth Waon sessions and at follow-up.
Figure 2. Average FIQ scores before and after the tenth Waon session and during follow-up.
What the authors concluded
The authors concluded that Waon therapy was effective in reducing pain and symptoms in this group of patients, and that it is practical: a session takes about an hour and does not require expensive equipment. They also noted that the study included only 13 patients and that larger clinical studies are needed to confirm these effects.
For a general overview you can read the Wikipedia article on fibromyalgia.
