The Benefits of Heat Therapy
The first step of any good holistic healing approach includes up-regulating drainage. After-all being poisoned and holding onto toxicants or rather the inability to excrete them is one of the major causes of dis-ease.
Ancestrally, we would be outside throughout the day, vigorously sweating, moving and getting all the beneficial wavelengths of light to go with it. To heal, we must move back to those rhythms as much as we can. We also can use a second-best option to support the body.
In earlier times, saunas were a place to not only heal but to gather with the community. Finnish culture would build a sauna first and then the home. They often pair sauna with a cold bath. This is also similar in Korean culture.
When I lived in South Korea I learned about bath houses and saunas really for the first time. Even though they rely heavily on western medicine now, they still carry many threads of their ancient medicine principles.
They use heat and cold therapies frequently. It’s common for families to flock to the local Jimjibang which is a spa facility with numerous hot and cold baths, massage, skin brushing and of course sauna and salt rooms.
Families would spend the whole day there. They give you robes, tea and even an open space for you to nap in between therapies. I loved it so much I searched for something similar once I got back to the states.
In our western culture, we have to go out of our way to heal, connect and rejuvenate. Our lifestyles have edged out these types of previous staples of ancient wisdom.
I often hear people say things like, “healing is so expensive” or “living healthfully is not cheap.” It’s actually quite inexpensive and straightforward.
The conflict arises when we want to be healthy while we are living a lifestyle that is NOT compatible with health. The question then is do you want to heal or do you want to remain in the environment that contributed to your feeling unwell?
To change the way our body expresses itself we must change. There is no other way. You can do these things with the free medicine given by God. You can rework your entire life to live naturally, among the elements, within the natural rhythms of the earth. That would be simple and cost effective.
If you don’t want to completely change all that quite yet, we can use other tools. As we venture down this healing journey, we will see more and more how this “modern” way of living is so destructive to our well-being.
“Give me a fever, and I can cure any disease.”
— Hippocrates
Fever or hyperthermia is the cure, it is the remedy built in by nature. It has been used for hundreds of years by practitioners to assist the healing process of a person. It was never a process to intervene in.
That’s changed in the last 50 years. Now we have doctors telling people to stop the very mechanism of healing simply because it’s uncomfortable or the rare chance it could get “out of control.” There is grave consequences to such ignorance.
Our body is made up of gel water. This gel gets liquified when the temperature increases. The cells then can clean house, they excrete and drain the damaged proteins, the waste products, the toxicants and all that is interfering with proper function.
They ditch it all when this gel is heated up to a more liquid state. That is the purpose, at least one that I know, of increasing temperature.
NEAR VS FAR INFRARED
A typical sauna will use things like electric heat, steam or fire to heat up the ambient air. This air will then heat you up. However, near infrared (NIR) sauna will instigate your own body to create radiant heat, essentially meaning you will heat up from the inside out, not just by hot ambient air.
Near infrared’s light has shorter wavelengths which means the light penetrates more deeply to raise your core temperature faster. On the light spectrum you’ll see that infrared light comes just after visible light. It’s not one you can see, but its warmth can certainly be felt.
Above you’ll see that NIR light is the bulk of the light we get from the sun after UV and visible. This means that far infrared saunas or LED technology has a more limited spectrum.
Also far infrared saunas have a longer wavelength which means they are more readily absorbed by water. This makes it hard for this energy to penetrate deeper than the skin. You may notice that in a typical infrared sauna you’ll feel very hot at the layer of your skin, but your core temperature won’t increase as much.
Furthermore, far infrared saunas will not have that light therapy which is what we get from the sun. The water in our cells responds to the suns radiation by engaging our living water in the tissue, increasing the electrical differential and thus fueling healthy cellular function and circulation.
These light particles are taken up by the cells’ mitochondria. This alone helps reduce inflammation, produces useful energy for the cells, and improves circulation by charging up that needed voltage to increase flow.
BENEFITS OF HEAT THERAPY
Detoxing/Drainage: In just one 20-minute of raising your core temp, you could release up to a pint of sweat! To achieve this, of course, you want to start slowly. Over time your body will adjust and you’ll be sweating out all the biowaste including heavy metals like mercury, arsenic, cadmium. (1)
As several researchers found that, “Many toxic elements appeared to be preferentially excreted through sweat. Presumably stored in tissues, some toxic elements readily identified in the perspiration of some participants were not found in their serum. Induced sweating appears to be a potential method for elimination of many toxic elements from the human body.” (2)
Reduced Risk of All Cause Mortality: This means reduction of risk of death from all causes as elucidated in the large review below. (3)
Immunity Supportive: Regular sauna sessions help boost the body’s ability to clean house and utilize energy. This means immune responses will improve. (4)
Weight Loss: The average person will pour out a pint of sweat during a short stint in a sauna, so the small amount of weight loss is water weight.
One study published in the International Journal of Complementary Therapies in Medicine found that the level of cardiac output exerted during a sauna session was similar to that experienced during moderate exercise. (5)
Furthermore, we know that sauna assists in pushing out the very toxicants known in the research as obesogens, which will improve metabolic function and consequently will allow for easier weight loss. (6)
Reduces Cellulite: Many factors contribute to cellulite – reduced muscle tone, reduced lymphatic and blood circulation, endocrine disruptors, toxicant storage. Several of those factors we know can be shifted with hyperthermia. (7, 8)
Parasympathetic Engagement: Some studies show that infrared sauna therapy can induce relaxation and reduce impacts of stress. (1)
MY SAUNA SPACE
I’ve been wanting a Saunaspace for a while, especially after having Brian from Shielded Healing come out last year to test all the EMFs in my home. (For more on EMF’s check out another article I’ve posted: EMF: What You Need to Know & How to Protect Yourself )
The QUALITY of sauna is very important. The type of light, the materials, and EMF output. When you step into a sauna, you want to aid healing, not create additional burdens. Some brands will claim they have low output but will only reference one type of frequency such as magnetic, not the others, unfortunately.
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SaunaSpace is the one and only sauna I know of that has ZERO EMF output. This isn’t just a claim they make, this is has been tested repeatedly by EMF experts in the field, all the non native EMFs tested.
No body burden of electrical fields, magnetic fields, dirty electricity, radio frequency, and it has no light flicker. It is an incandescent light (not LED) just like the sun. Sun is best, but this is a great supplement.
As you can imagine, Saunaspace is not a cheap Amazon sauna. I always tell my clients IF they can swing the cost, this is THE ONE.
SAUNASPACE BENEFITS:
— It is two therapies in one, the light therapy and the heat therapy.
— ZERO synthetic materials, organic cotton
— ZERO EMF’s, with organic grounded mat
— The ThermaLight bulb has a very similar light distribution to sunlight which peaks in the optimal therapeutic wavelengths of red and near infrared light, then trailing into mid and far infrared.
— Don’t need to make the air in your sauna as hot. You’ll get all the benefits of heat and light therapy, but without suffocating in ambient heat.
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The best discount I could snag for you is 5% off with DETOXDOC5 off at ShieldedHealing.com OR at SaunaSpace.com.
I happily purchased a SaunaSpace myself because I had been wanting this tool for a long while. I did not get it given to me and they didn’t ask me to promote it!
Sweating and heat therapy is a highly beneficial instrument in healing, and being able to have a sauna at home is the ultimate gift to yourself!
REFERENCES
- Sears ME, Kerr KJ, Bray RI. Arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury in sweat: a systematic review. J Environ Public Health. 2012;2012:184745.
- Genuis SJ, Birkholz D, Rodushkin I, Beesoon S. Blood, urine, and sweat (BUS) study: monitoring and elimination of bioaccumulated toxic elements. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol. 2011 Aug;61(2):344-57.
- Laukkanen T, Khan H, Zaccardi F, Laukkanen JA. Association between sauna bathing and fatal cardiovascular and all-cause mortality events. JAMA Intern Med. 2015 Apr;175(4):542-8.
- Hussain J, Cohen M. Clinical Effects of Regular Dry Sauna Bathing: A Systematic Review. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2018 Apr 24;2018:1857413.
- Ketelhut S, Ketelhut RG. The blood pressure and heart rate during sauna bath correspond to cardiac responses during submaximal dynamic exercise. Complement Ther Med. 2019 Jun;44:218-222.
- Möckel F, Hoffmann G, Obermüller R, Drobnik W, Schmitz G. Influence of water-filtered infrared-A (wIRA) on reduction of local fat and body weight by physical exercise . Ger Med Sci. 2006; 4: Doc05.
- Alster TS, Tanzi EL. Cellulite treatment using a novel combination radiofrequency, infrared light, and mechanical tissue manipulation device . J Cosmet Laser Ther. 2005 Jun;7(2):81-5.
- Sasaki GH,Oberg K, Tucker B, Gaston M. The effectiveness and safety of topical PhotoActif phosphatidylcholine-based anti-cellulite gel and LED (red and near-infrared) light on Grade II-III thigh cellulite: a randomized, double-blinded study . J Cosmet Laser Ther. 2007 Jun;9(2):87-96.