The Power of Infrared Saunas
I've always loved saunas. I remember the first time I entered one was in Bondi was when I was a lot younger with my sister Vanja. Vanja loves saunas and used to frequent them multiple times a week. I remember when she relocated to Canberra for a few months and was desperately looking for a place that offered a sauna, which at that point, the choices were very slim. Last year, I enjoyed going to a wellness retreat and was introduced to an infrared sauna for the first time. During my stay, it was recommended for everyone in their first week to spend thirty minutes in the infrared sauna per day, and then soak in the magnesium pool afterwards. I definitely took advantage of the magnesium pool but didn't use the sauna as much as I would've liked.
What are Saunas?
For hundreds of years, the custom of sweating within a heated space has been a common practice by many different cultures. Dating back to Roman times, the method has been expanded and developed upon by different cultures like the Ancient Greeks, to Native Americans who used 'sweat lodges'. In Finland, there are roughly around 2 million saunas in the country of 5.2 million people. As the skin is our largest organ, and sweat is one of the biggest elimination channels for toxins stored in the body, the concept of saunas makes a lot of sense when it comes to improving our wellbeing. Generally speaking, a sauna is a small room that is heated between 65-90 degrees Celsius. Generally, the interior of these rooms is unpainted wood with temperature controls. There are various kinds of saunas, such as saunas that use the heat from rocks, with water being poured on them to create steam. The other popular sauna-type options are dry saunas, steam rooms and infrared saunas, which all vary. While infrared and regular dry saunas are more comparable in setup, steam rooms follow most of the concepts but are also very different.
What’s the Difference Between Saunas & Steam Rooms?
Steam rooms and saunas are both used to promote sweating, but use different heat to accomplish this. Saunas use dry heat produced from a stove or hot rocks to increase the room temperature, with very low humidity. In contrast, steam rooms involve moist heat. They operate at lower temperatures such as 40-45 degrees celsius and use 100% relative humidity. Steam rooms use a generator filled with boiling water to heat the space and consequently creates a very wet environment inside the chamber. This wet and damp air is very different from the dry air you experience in a regular dry sauna, so a steam room's health benefits will be different from the benefits from a traditional sauna. Some of the benefits that steam rooms excel at are improving circulation, loosening stiff joints and muscles, promoting skin health by opening our pores, allowing toxins to be released through them, and breaking up congestion inside our lungs and sinuses. I've personally never really enjoyed steam rooms as I find them claustrophobic and feel as if I can't breathe. I have, though, on occasion, found them beneficial for particular concerns and as a great practice before plunging into an ice-cold pool.
Taking it One Step Further with Infrared Saunas
Infrared saunas were first developed by Japanese scientists in the 1970's, and the Japanese were the only medical practitioners who were known to use the infrared sauna treatment for their patients until late in the decade. In 1979 the treatment became widely available in the United States and has only grown in popularity. Infrared saunas use infrared heaters to emit infrared light experienced as radiant heat which the body then absorbs through the surface of the skin. As traditional saunas use heat conduction through heated air, infrared saunas are not considered a real sauna by Finnish sauna societies.
Today we sat down with Shahnee Froome from Authentix Beauty and Wellness Clinic to discuss why infrared saunas are superior to regular saunas and how they work.
Why are saunas so beneficial when healing the body?
Sweat plays an integral part in detoxing the body. When we use a sauna, and particularly an infrared sauna, we are heating the core of the body, which begins the body's detoxification process.
How do infrared saunas work?
Inside an infrared sauna, there are infrared heat lamps. Infrared heat is a very natural thing that is all around us. When you sit in an infrared sauna, the body is directly warmed by the infrared lamps' heat, making the environment more comfortable and allowing us to sit in them for longer than a regular sauna.
What are the benefits of using an infrared sauna over a regular one?
A dry sauna and infrared sauna both heat our body, but that's about where the similarities between the two treatments end. We went with infrared over the traditional sauna because steam saunas directly heat the air and not the client, while the infrared heats the core temperature and begins detoxing from inside outwards. Due to the nature of infrared light, our body sweats at a lower temperature than we would from traditionally heated saunas, so people also tolerate it better. Infrared also penetrates us deeper, so can reach toxins trapped around fat that a regular sauna would not necessarily be able to access.
What are some of the benefits of infrared saunas?
There are many benefits we can experience from the use of an infrared sauna. Primarily it gets the body to begin to detox and can assist with joint and muscle pain, inflammation, digestive and skin concerns. Infrared heat also significantly improves our relaxation, raises our endorphin levels, can benefit musculoskeletal ailments, aid in heavy metal detoxification, increases the blood flow in the body and boosts the cell activity of the immune system.
How often should we get infrared sauna sessions?
As much and as often as possible. I have clients who own them, and they do one or two a day. The particular concern of the client can also direct the frequency that they should get the treatment. It can also depend on how toxic the body is; we generally recommend people who aren't accustomed to saunas to start with a beginner session which is 30 minutes.
What do infrared saunas work great in conjunction with?
We offer infrared sauna treatments at Authentix due to how well it goes with colonic hydrotherapy. When the toxins begin to move around the body, we can flush them out with a colonic afterwards. As a sauna is a dehydrating treatment for the body, a colonic can rehydrate the body, starting to move more of the toxins that began to move during the infrared treatment.
How do people generally feel after a session?
We recommend 30-minute sessions for people not accustomed to saunas because you can feel pretty wiped out after a session - the process is a huge detox for the body. That's why our evening infrared appointments fill up very quickly! The night after the treatment, you sleep exceptionally well, and your skin the next day looks fantastic because the collagen is boosted from the treatment.
