There are many health benefits to be gained from using a sauna, but infrared sauna health is even more remarkable.

If you’ve ever spent time in a sauna, you know that it is a great way to feel invigorated. But did you know that the health benefits of sauna use have been proven? Research has shown that these benefits, everything from healthier skin to better blood circulation, are significant.

The major benefits of sauna use include an increased heart rate, increased circulation, and stimulation of the immune system. The increased heart rate yields the same benefits as an invigorating walk. The increased circulation helps nutrients reach their destinations. And the immune stimulus creates a body that is better able to fight disease.

With all of these benefits, it is easy to see why so many people use saunas on a regular basis. But there is even better news for health-conscious sauna users. Infrared saunas, which provide the same health benefits as traditional saunas, provide further benefits including softer, more tolerable heat and can spur even deeper detoxification of the body.

A traditional steam sauna operates by pouring water over a heating element, which heats the room. The heated room then heats the user’s body. An infrared sauna uses radiant energy (the same kind of energy produced by the sun) to heat only the user’s body, not the room. And the infrared technology does not include potentially harmful UV rays.

The heating element in a traditional sauna operates at a temperature of 150 – 200 degrees Fahrenheit. In an infrared sauna, the temperature is approximately 110 – 140 degrees Fahrenheit. That 40-90 degree difference can make all the difference in your sauna experience. Because the heat in an infrared sauna is lower, and because its radiant energy heats only the user’s body, people often say they are able to stay in an infrared sauna longer than a traditional sauna. This is significant because the longer they stay in the sauna, the more health benefits they gain.

The other significant benefit that is only provided by an infrared sauna is deeper detoxification. Infrared energy penetrates deep into the muscle tissue. This penetration forces the cells to react by eliminating waste. Infrared sauna users often say they begin to sweat sooner and sweat more than with traditional saunas. And more sweat means better cleansing.

If you are interested in gaining all of these health benefits, look into an infrared sauna. The difference between traditional and infrared sauna health will impress you.

For more information, visit yourinfraredsauna.com.

Saunas have been around for a long time. Most of us are familiar with saunas: we see the little wood-paneled rooms in hotels and other public pool areas. People in bathing suits or towels sit on wooden benches inside the sauna and sweat it out for basically as long as they can stand. But many of us don’t know that there are actually two types of saunas: traditional saunas and far infrared saunas.

Traditional saunas contain some type of furnace with rocks or coals inside it. By heating the coals, the air is kept hot. Through convection the hot air warms our skin. That means that in a traditional sauna the coals heat the air, and the air heats us.

With infrared saunas, the middleman is eliminated. The infrared energy produced heats us, not the air. If you understand that the sun also produces far infrared radiation, you can better understand this concept. On a cool day, you may be perfectly comfortable outside in the sunshine. But it can be quite cold in the shade because the clouds are blocking you from the suns infrared radiation.

Because of the direct heating methods it uses, an infrared sauna is a great choice. It conserves energy (meaning a substantial savings over the long run if you’re looking to buy your own personal sauna) and creates a heat that actually penetrates deeper into our skin.

By now, you’re probably wondering whether using far infrared radiation in a sauna is safe. Infrared radiation conjures up images of covert military operations or dangerous chemicals that could harm our bodies.
But infrared is completely safe. We are exposed to it every day of our lives due to the sun.

However, the type of infrared used in far infrared saunas is much safer than the suns light. The suns rays also carry potentially harmful UV rays, which can damage skin, but in an infrared sauna these aren’t present.

Infrared saunas are one of the best things you can do to boost your own health!

It helps us sweat off extra calories and gives our bodies a way to release built-up toxins through perspiration. It also speeds up our body’s natural healing functions.

Hopefully this article has illustrated the difference between traditional saunas and the far infrared sauna. This completely safe, natural method of purifying our bodies is now available to you. So throw on a towel and jump in!

For more information, visit yourinfraredsauna.com

To understand how infrared heat works, picture yourself outdoors on a summer day with the sun beaming overhead. Your body feels warm from the sun and you become hot. Then a cloud passes overhead, blocking out the sun. The temperature outside has not changed, but you feel cooler in the shade. The Sun’s infrared rays were heating your body.

Infrared heaters warm the body in the same manner as natural sunlight. Infrared emitters in the sauna mimic and intensify this effect. All life requires heat from the sun.

FAR Infrared heat is not ultraviolet radiation but a narrow band of energy within the 5.6 to 15 micron (µ) level. This type of energy travels only 2-3″ deep into the body to increase circulation and nourish damaged tissue.

The sun is the primary source of radiant energy, but not all of this energy is beneficial. Sunlight also contains harmful solar radiation. Although life needs energy from the sun, too much sunlight damages the skin.

Infrared heat provides all the healthy benefits of natural sunlight without any of the dangerous effects of solar radiation. FAR Infrared heat therapy uses the wavelength of the visible and non-visible light spectrum of sunlight that heats the body normally.

Infrared, the healthy part of sunlight:

Sunlight is part of a wide spectrum of frequencies, including ultraviolet and infrared rays. Visible sunlight is in the middle of this spectrum.

At a higher frequency, visible light changes to ultraviolet rays that can cause sunburn. At a lower frequency, however, sunlight changes to gentle infrared rays. It is these rays that allow the sun to warm you, even on a cold winter’s day.

Varying in wavelength from 0.76µ to 1000µ, Infrared light is everywhere, even in the palm of your hand; as infrared heat is produced as a natural by-product of energy production within the body.

Within this wide spread of frequencies the 5.6-15 micron range is the most therapeutic to the human body. Split evenly between the 9.4 µ pivot point of peak human output.

Infrared means deep heat:

Because infrared penetrates safely and comfortably up to 3 inches inside your body, even your deep tissues and organs are stimulated, meaning you perspire. Hard to reach impurities are eliminated through your skin using lower, comfortable temperatures.

Increases blood circulation and strengthens your cardiovascular system:

As your body increases sweat production to cool itself, your heart works harder pumping more blood, achieving the conditioning benefits of continuous exercise. By widening your blood vessels and enriching your blood with oxygen you feel more energetic and your skin gets a beautiful, youthful glow.

For more information, visit saunafin.com

By C. CLAIBORNE RAY

Q. Is there a medical reason to keep children under 12 out of a whirlpool or sauna?

A. While there are plenty of common-sense reasons to keep people with childish judgment out of heat and water at any age, studies (mostly in Finland) have not linked careful sauna use to serious medical problems in healthy children. The chief injury risk to children seems to be scalding.

Whirlpool baths appear to be dangerous to children — and adults — chiefly as a drowning risk, especially if a strong whirlpool mechanism traps a small body. Another possible risk is bacteria in a whirlpool that is not properly maintained, but again, the risk is not age-specific.

A Finnish review article published in 2006 in The International Journal of Circumpolar Health noted that children in Finland were first taken to the sauna at an average age of 5 months. A single physiological study of healthy babies with an average age of 7 months found no harmful cardiovascular responses after a three-minute exposure. But the review also said that a sauna put bigger demands on a child’s circulatory regulation than on that of an adult, and it reported that a study of 20 children 5 to 10 years old found moderate hormonal changes. The review concluded that healthy children older than 2 could be allowed in a sauna with adequate adult supervision.

There were some caveats for children who had specific heart disorders, but a study of sauna-like heat as a treatment to dilate blood vessels in some very young infants with heart failure because of ventricular defects found benefits that avoided surgery in some cases.

For more information, visit topics.nytimes.com.