The incredible healing power of infrared saunas | Healthy Living

Published 10:24 am Friday, April 17, 2015

Massage Green Spa staff

When it comes to revitalizing your health, reversing illness and just making you feel great, few things compare to an infrared sauna. Infrared saunas are clinically shown to help fight cancer, reduce blood pressure, relieve pain, reverse heart disease, promote weight loss and give you a host of other health benefits.

The Deep Healing Power of Infrared Energy

Ever get in a car on a sunny day in winter? Wonder how it feels so warm inside when the air outside is freezing? That’s the infrared light from the sun. In this same way, infrared saunas penetrate up to one and a half inches below your skin to detoxify and revitalize your cells. This produces a deep, detoxifying sweat that eliminates toxins at the cellular level. Infrared energy is powerful, yet it’s so safe it’s used in hospitals to warm newborn infants.

Seasonal Affective Disorder

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a mood disorder where people who generally have normal mental health and feelings experience a change in mood in the winter (and sometimes summer) months. These people experience the same mood disorder year after year in the same seasons.

What are the symptoms of SAD?

In addition to depression, common symptoms of SAD include anxiety, fatigue and low energy, irritability, increased sleeping or insomnia, and changes in appetite, most notably carbohydrate cravings. The depression leads to lack in concentration and the completion of work or home tasks becomes extremely difficult.

The “winter blues” is usually considered a form of SAD…

For many people, SAD is a seriously disabling illness that prevents them from functioning normally without continuous medical treatment. For others, it is a mild but debilitating condition that causes discomfort but not severe suffering. This milder form of SAD, called Subsyndromal Seasonal Affective Disorder, is what most people perceive to be the aforementioned winter blues.

Infrared saunas can provide benefits for people who have SAD…

Among the health-related companies that are now making light therapy part of their business are manufacturers and retailers of home saunas. It is a logical development since far infrared sauna therapy has repeatedly been proven to be an effective form of light therapy. The light found in a far infrared sauna is, of course, far infrared light, a type of invisible light located below the optical color red in the electromagnetic spectrum.

An indispensable part of life on Earth, far infrared light has long been used by humans to purify polluted air, keep newborn babies warm in hospitals, promote growth in plants and more. Equally impressive are the benefits far infrared light offers sauna bathers, which include increased blood circulation; improved cardiovascular functioning; strengthened immunity to illness; relief of headaches, muscle pain and joint stiffness; and the list goes on.

Using Infrared Saunas to Fight Cancer

More than 2,000 years ago, the famous Greek physician Parmenides said, “Give me the power to create fever, and I will cure any disease.” Cancer clinics in Germany and Mexico are putting this principle to use. They routinely treat patients with hyperthermia, where the body is exposed to high temperatures. High temperatures can kill cancer cells, usually without damage to normal tissues.

Most of the German cancer clinics that we’ve visited use both infrared hyperthermia and infrared saunas for their patients, and so do many of the Mexican clinics. Infrared saunas provide a form of whole-body hyperthermia that boosts your health in many ways. You can even enjoy infrared sauna at home, as we’ll explain in a moment.

In an article in the Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, Lawrence Wilson, MD writes, “If I were to single out one method to combat cancer, it is the sauna. It assists removal of chemical toxins and heavy metals, increases oxygenation, enhances the immune system, and reduces the radiation burden in the body.”

Dr. Wilson notes that infrared sauna therapy for cancer offers a combination of healing mechanisms. They act simultaneously to support the fight against cancer. These include hyperthermia: Heating the body is a well-known and underused method of killing cancer cells, says Dr. Wilson. Cancer cells are weaker than normal cells and more susceptible to damage from heat. Infrared saunas are superior for this purpose, he says.

Eliminate toxins: Saunas also help purge the body of toxins, such as heavy metals and chemicals.

Improving circulation: Cancer often grows in tissues with poor circulation and thus poor nutrition and oxygenation. Infrared saunas boost overall circulation. This brings nutrients, hormones, oxygen and other substances to all body tissues.

Decongesting the internal organs: The liver, kidneys and other internal organs can become burdened with estrogen, chemicals, and toxic metals. Infrared saunas cause blood to move toward the body surface. This helps cleanse the internal organs.

Care for your body’s largest organ: Your skin is a major organ for eliminating body wastes. But in most people, it’s inactive because they don’t sweat enough. Infrared saunas help cleanse you from the inside. They encourage sweating and free up toxins stored beneath the skin.

How to Use Infrared Saunas

If you’re already in good health, a 30-40-minute sauna session three or more times a week will do. Or if you’re trying to heal a specific health condition, some doctors prescribe daily or even multiple sessions each day. You can try an infrared sauna at a local health club, spa, or massage therapist. A typical fee is $30-$45.

For more information on far infrared or full spectrum saunas, contact Massage Green Spa,17181 Redmond Way, Redmond, at (425) 947-2286.