Little-Known Light Form That Heals Your Body

Infrared light may sound scientific or even mysterious, but it’s actually quite simple to understand and present all around us.

For instance, did you know that infrared light from the sun accounts for 49% of all the heat on earth? Compared to UV light or radiation, infrared is extremely safe, non-toxic and actually quite beneficial to your body. I want to share more about this health and beauty-enhancing light in this blog post.

How Infrared Light and Heat Lead to Healing

As you know, we live in a world that has become progressively more toxic. Even if you eat the cleanest, most pure diet—chances are you’re exposed to environmental toxins, from car exhaust to cleaning products—along with an abundance of electromagnetic pollution and much more.

At no time in history has there been a greater need for ongoing detoxification. Of course, improving your diet as recommend here on the blog goes a long way toward assisting your body detox more, yet it’s not always easy to remove toxins that are stuck in our cells or fat tissues.

And that is precisely where infrared heat and therapy can help most.

How New York Rescue Workers Detoxified Using Infrared

When the World Trade Center buildings collapsed on September 11th, there was an incredible amount of chemical pollution and toxic materials released into surrounding area. As they carried out their jobs, the firemen and rescuers were quickly overloaded with toxicity.

The problem became so severe that they were forced to seek out “alternative” therapy with the hope of greater elimination of all these chemical toxins. Over a three- year period, more than 500 of these workers were treated using a detoxification program based largely on infrared heat — the same type of heat found in the infrared saunas.

The results from this study seemed almost too good to be true: Before treatment, most workers suffered from respiratory, skin, emotional, cognitive ailments—in other words, pain, difficulty breathing, depression, fatigue and more. On average, they missed 2.1 days of work each month and spent 4.4 days in bed. [1]

After the infrared detoxification protocol, however, they healed to such an extent that their missed work days dropped down to an average of only .2 days per month – and nearly all their symptoms improved dramatically. Many were able to discontinue drugs and fully resume normal life again.

Of course, detoxification also produces many visible benefits in the body.

More Youthful Skin, Energy and “Glow”

Your skin is the largest elimination organ in the body. Unfortunately, modern living continually exposes our skin, lungs and digestive system to a wide variety of harmful toxins – and clogged skin pores throughout your body can create dullness and aging. To make matters worse, one of the best ways to eliminate toxins is sweating through the skin – yet so few people actually sweat on a daily basis!

Exposing your body to therapeutic levels of infrared heat consistently can help reverse this issue by opening up your pores and promoting detoxification on a deep, cellular level. While I know of no actual clinical studies on the connection between beauty and infrared therapy, there have been studies that prove it helps with detoxification, just like the study on rescue workers.

From an anecdotal standpoint, I can say that since using infrared regularly, I personally have seen an improvement in my body tone and glow- I feel slimmer in my clothes and my skin has brightened. After each session, not only do I sweat but I also urinate a lot, which may be a way that the toxins stirred up in the session are exiting my body.

And as you know, greater elimination of toxins means your body’s many cells are less burdened, age less rapidly, heal faster, naturally brighten, and can even appear younger and more radiant.

Reduced Appearance of Cellulite

For us ladies, cellulite is always a little worrisome — especially since it can be influenced by environmental factors outside our control. Of course, by eating a Beauty Detox-friendly diet, you’re already avoiding many toxins and difficult to digest oils that can lead to cellulite build up. That’s amazing, and I applaud you!

But what if you do everything right and cellulite is still an issue or worry? Well, one way infrared therapy can help is is through the elimination of heavy metals.

Few people know this, but heavy metals are so toxic, our body does the smart thing and surrounds them with fat stores — in order to protect our vital organs and tissue. Over time, however, these metals can remain lodged in the body, surrounded by protective fat layers, leading to cellulite buildup unless the heavy metals are removed from the cells.

Again, just like we saw with the rescue workers, infrared rays are one of the best ways to penetrate the skin, open the cells and help cleanse fat cells of toxins, stagnancy and waste. This can lead to a steady but meaningful reduction in cellulite.

Weight Loss, Too?

How is it possible for a sauna to help with fat? As we discussed a moment ago regarding cellulite, it’s normal and indeed necessary for the body to store fat as a “protective layer” that insulates your organs against toxicity. This is especially true when it comes to the ultra toxic substances, such as heavy metals.

Once these toxins are released, which infrared light/heat can help with, the excess fat and fluid is no longer needed for protection. This can lead to a potential reduction in overall weight and inches around the waste.

Indeed, Canadian researchers found that subjects who were exposed to infrared heat therapy for three 20-minute sessions per week lost approximately one inch of fat around their waistline in only three short months. That’s with no other changes to their diet or exercise program. [2] Pretty impressive, right?

Infrared Can Even Help With Pain

Many pain symptoms are triggered by, or at least related to, poor circulation. Thus it makes sense that when you raise your core body temperature and stimulate your heart to pump more blood, your circulation improves. It’s through this process that pain can be mitigated, sometimes to a tremendous degree.

There has been some promising initial research in this area. One such study—published in a 2009 issue of the Journal of Clinical Rheumatology—took patients with rheumatoid arthritis and gave them 8 infrared sauna sessions over 4 weeks. In a statistically high portion of patients, there was a reduction in pain, stiffness and fatigue. [3]

Results were observed both short-term and long-term. Best of all, there were none of the adverse side effects that you’d typically associate with pain reduction drugs or treatments.

So How Do You Get All These Benefits?

Seeing all this, it’s only natural to wonder how you can get all the benefits of infrared light/heat on a regular basis.

You could spend more time in the sun, but that is not for everyone. Even though I personally believe some sun exposure is healthy, even if just 10-15 minutes per day, I also understand the argument for too much sun aging your skin. It also seems likely that we all have different needs depending on our skin pigment and genetic heritage.

Another option would be to have an infrared sauna at home. Of course, I realize purchasing a sauna may not be in your budget — and that’s totally okay. There are so many things you can do to detoxify, look younger and feel better — this sauna is just one tool and not for everyone.

I personally love having an at-home device that’s as gentle as this infrared sauna, which raises my body’s core temperature, opens up my pores, promotes detoxification, potentially reduce pain and stiffness (which is amazing after yoga) — even helps keep cellulite at bay – and I use mine quite often.

Whatever you decide, whether you choose to get moderate amounts of sunshine, or infrared treatments someplace outside your home, or you purchase one of these portable sauna units — I hope you found this post helpful and have a better understanding of how infrared light and heat can help your health.

[1] http://www.townsendletter.com/Dec2006/chemexp1206.htm
[2] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2718593
[3] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18685882