Overview
Because of the various impacts far infrared saunas have on your body they are becoming more and more popular. Celebrities like Lady Gaga have been depending on their far infrared saunas almost a decade to help with the Fibromyalgia. Sports Illustrated has even talked about how impactful far infrared saunas are to athletes and hitting their peak performance.
What Is a Far Infrared Sauna?
Saunas have been around for literally thousands of years and can be seen in various cultures to help with healing, revitalization, and even community building. The most well-known country for saunas is Finland. With a population of 5 million, there are around 3 million saunas. This is a critical part of mental and physical health in Finland, not just a great way to escape the winter heat.
Far infrared saunas help heat the whole body whereas traditional saunas heat the air in turn heating the body. The human body naturally produces infrared light, specifically far infrared light. The thermal energy generated by heating the body, not the air, increases what the body is naturally producing inturn creating a deeper detoxifying experience and helping your overall relaxation.
Everyone can see infrared up to around 1150 – 1250 nm. Just to put that in perspective, visible light is 400 – 700, far red is 700 – 800, and infrared is 800 – 1,000,000 nm. Thus, 1250 nm is still near-infrared (NIR).
Benefits:
Heart health and Improving cardiovascular health
Blood flow has been shown to go from an average 5 – 7 qts up to 13 qts per minute. Ways to increase blood flow even more is to stretch or do yoga during your time in the sauna.
A post-workout cool down in a Far Infrared Sauna is also going to help lower the heart rate at a steady pace as well as help your muscles repair themselves. With increasing blood flow you’re able to maintain a lower blood pressure reducing the risk of heart disease and increasing white blood cells.
Dr. Joel Kahn, America’s healthy heart doctor, says Far Infrared light is the only clinically shown type of sauna to lower blood pressure, heal endothelium, reduce belly fat, and improve symptoms and prognosis for congestive heart failure and coronary artery disease. The benefits are comparable to walking at a moderate pace.
Far Infrared Light is able to increase the production of vasodilation with an increase in nitric oxide in the bloodstream. Nitric Oxide is essential to the human body. It dilates blood vessels, stimulates hormone release, regulates neurotransmission and acts as a signaling molecule. This improves the overall heart rate and ejection from the heart’s left ventricle
Sleep
By increasing oxygen metabolism and blood flow the process leads to a snowball effect causing the body to sleep easier. Infrared Saunas can also help with chronic fatigue syndrome helping people get a more restful and rejuvenating sleep. You’ll also be able to get rid of all sleep aids if you’re struggling with hormone fluctuations, stress, post caffeine symptoms, and various other elements that might impact your sleep.
Immunity and Enhanced immune system
Far infrared light penetrates deeper than other types of saunas which stimulates your mitochondria and immune cell response, strengthening your overall immune system. By raising the body temperature in a healthy way you can increase your body’s ability to fight viruses. Fever has been an age old way of fighting viruses and increasing white blood cells counts
Stress and fatigue reduction
With the development of various techniques from Japan, far infrared light has been shown to have a better impact than traditional treatments. 10 minutes in a sauna at 140 F followed by 30 minutes under a blanket to retain the body heat helps mood and energy levels almost immediately. After 4 weeks of treatment, 5 times a week your body will start to adopt the new rhythms you’ve created and maintain energy levels.
Muscle pain relief and Muscle recovery
After workouts your muscles have gone through a lot. With 15 – 20 minutes after any heavy or light workout you’ll significantly increase your recovery time. This can be essential for powerlifting, body builders, or anyone physically training on a regular basis.
Relaxation And Stress reduction
With increased blood flow naturally relaxes. Loosening up tense muscles physically helps the mind relax. 10 – 15 minutes a day in your sauna can also be used for meditating and other mental health practices. With infrared light heating your body as opposed to the air in our sauna you’re putting less physical stress on your body.
Ease joint pain, Inflammation, and stiffness
With an increase in lactic acid and blood flow to our muscles we’re able to strengthen joints and loosen up areas of the body that have been holding onto tension. Far Infrared light. For people struggling with rheumatoid arthritis infrared therapy is known to help inflammation lowering plaque build up. By detoxifying your body you actually are widening your blood vessels lowering your risk of congenital heart failure. Infrared light also boosts collagen production. Collagen helps the body regenerate bone marrow and start repairing bones, ligaments, and tendons that have been damaged by a neurological disease.
For musculoskeletal diseases, like rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis, infrared saunas were proven in a 2008 study over the course of just four weeks there was a reduction in pain, stiffness, and overall fatigue.
Improves skin, Flushes out toxins, and Detoxification
Infrared rays penetrate up to 4 inches of the body and create a slower increase in heart rate making for a safer rise in circulation. This leads to a better deeper breath which helps oxygenate the bloodstream. Because of the type of heat, you’ll avoid any skin irritation as well. Infrared saunas are notorious for helping cleanse the top layer of skin and helping look as rejuvenated as you’ll feel.
In 2016 a study by The National Center For Biological Information showed the far infrared light was able to even clear up acne. Shortly after these studies the FDA approved far infrared light as a treatment. This depth of penetration will help any issues with acne on your body.
One big aspect of using a sauna is sweating. The gentle heat from infrared will help your body sweat detoxifying you deeper than any convection saunas. This removes countless toxins with heavy metals being one of the biggest. Scientists have found an increase in the release of copper, arsenic, lead, and mercury. This will also support any sort of internal cleanse raising the overall amount of toxins you remove from your body.
Increased metabolism and Weight Loss
If you’re just starting to workout infrared saunas will also help with weight loss. By raising your core temperature it increases your metabolism and studies have shown that extended weekly use can have profound impacts. Due to the low heat and the way infrared rays work you’re also able to stay in the sauna longer maximizing the benefits. The cardiovascular demand imparted by thermoregulatory homeostasis is similar to that achieved by walking at a moderate pace.