How does a far infrared sauna work?

The idea behind infrared therapy is to heat your body directly with far infrared heat. In a traditional sauna you are just sitting in a hot room – 180-220 degrees. In an infrared sauna, the heat is heating your body directly and only 20% of the heat is heating the air. You want to heat your body core, meaning your front core and your back core. Your body absorbs the infrared heat and reacts to it.

The infrared heat raise your core body temperature and stimulates your lymphatic system, immune system and your cardiovascular system. Your bodies response to that is to sweat profusely.

In addition to the infrared heat triggering a profuse sweat, the water in our bodies also resonate with far infrared heat and this also helps with the detoxification process.

With this in mind, you now understand why we stress the importance of both front and back wall heaters in an infrared sauna. If you do not have front heaters in your sauna, you will not raise your core body temperature as well and you will not receive as much of the desired effect.

The evidence is overwhelming. Toxins are everywhere, in our water, air, food, soaps, shampoos, even in the clothes we wear. It has become commonplace to read about mercury in our fish, jet fuel in our lettuce, heavy metals in our air.

Toxins have been directly linked with a host of diseases: cancer, lowered immune function, arthritis, autism, fibromyalgia, alzheimers, neurological and cardiovascular disorders, just to name a few.

People living today carry within their bodies a chemical cocktail made up of industrial chemicals, pesticides, food additives, heavy metals, general anaesthetics, and the residues of therapeutic pharmaceuticals, as well as toxins from alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, and illegal drugs. It is a problem that is not going away, at least not in our lifetime. We need to detoxify!

Sherry Rogers MD in her groundbreaking book, Detox or Die, says toxicity is a one-way street leading to disease; the key to healing the impossible is to reverse the toxicity.But what is the best way to detoxify? There are several methods being used today: chelation, where enzyme preparations are injected into the bloodstream, binding toxins asthey pass through and are excreted; fasting, with or without herbal and mineral preparations and/or colonics to help to remove toxins; and saunas, removing toxins throughsweating.

Whereas the first two methods are suitable for persons with a high degree of dedication and/or discipline, the infrared sauna method is one that can be used easily and effectively by almost everyone. And it can be used in conjunction with the other methods of fasting, colonics, and chelation. Raymond Francis, in his fascinating book, Never be Sick Again, emphatically states, “Not only do saunas feel good, they are good! Saunas get your heart beating and your blood circulating, helping the body to detoxify in unique and important ways.”

Sweating is an ancient tradition and a good method of removing toxins. From the Roman Steam Bath, to the Finnish Savusauna, the Russian Banya, the Native AmericanSweat Lodge, and the Morroccan Hammam, people have been detoxing and restoring themselves this way throughout history.

Today there are many types of sauna and steam available for almost any budget and location, from exotic built-ins to simple portable units. Some use conventional steam, some use heated rocks, and others use efficient infrared heaters. The effectiveness of the detox will depend on the type of heat chosen and the protocol employed. In her book Some like it Hot, Nicola Rajala describes the major difference between the steam room and the conventional sauna.

Although the steam room feels hotter because of the high humidity, the body actually has a harder time sweating because of the relatively low temperature (120F.). The water on the skin is primarily condensation rather than actual sweat.

The conventional “box of hot rocks” sauna is still very common today, but it seems to be losing ground due to the many advantages of infrared saunas such as energy efficiency, comfort in use, deeper penetration of heat, and more substantial detox.

A study analyzing the chemical composition of sweat found that the sweat of participants using the box of hot rocks sauna had 95-97% water, while the sweat of those using an infrared sauna was 80-85% water–the rest being composed of cholesterol, fat-soluble toxins, heavy metals (such as mercury and cadmium), sulfuric acid, ammonia,sodium, and uric acid.

Read more at infraredsauna.com