One minute, I was in the sauna – the next, I was in a steamy panic | Arwa Mahdawi

Sweating profusely has improved my life, with the heat wringing all the worry out of me. But an unexpected conversation sent me spiralling

Don't ask me why, but I keep a list in my head of inane and avoidable ways I might meet an untimely end. When I lived in New York and used a bike-share to get everywhere, crashing into a halal food truck while swerving to avoid a low-flying pigeon was at the top of that list. Either that or tripping over my small and erratic dog.

When I moved to a house in Philadelphia, falling down the stairs while carrying my laptop in one hand and half-drunk coffee cups in the other usurped those scenarios to take the top spot. As of a few weeks ago, however, a new No 1 has emerged: passing out in the sauna or getting infected with a brain-eating amoeba after spending time in a steam room.