FAR INFRARED SAUNA
 Why You Need to Detox Your Insides with a Far Infrared Sauna
One of the main root causes of illnesses is TOXINS - TOXINS - TOXINS.
By some estimates there are currently as many as 80,000 chemicals in our environment, most of which have not been extensively tested for their effects on our body.
There is absolutely no escaping toxins. They're everywhere. And no matter how conscientious we are, many of those toxins will manage to get inside our body one way or the other- through food, air, or simple exposure to the environment. Toxins are found in everyday items we use such as, water bottles, underarm deodorant, canned foods etc.
Our bodies did NOT evolve to deal with this level of chemical assault. Toxins contribute to inflammation and free radical damage, shortening our lives and fostering disease.
The bottom line: we need to get rid of them. On a regular basis.
ONE OF THE BEST SOLUTIONS IS TO SWEAT OUT THE TOXINS
We wouldn't dream of living without taking a shower, brushing our teeth, cleaning and sterilizing our dishes, washing and drying our clothes, or any of the other things we routinely do for EXTERNAL CLEANING. But what do we do to clean our insides?
The answer is: Not enough!
WE ABSOLUTELY MUST DETOX our insides.
The Far Infrared Technology is extremely safe and has been used in baby incubators for 25 years-- NASA has used it for about 30 years. Unlike the traditional steam saunas that can be uncomfortable for some, and do not accomplish the deep heat penetration, Far Infrared is not only safe but very comfortable and relaxing.
WHY DETOXIFY?
Detoxification can be helpful for people suffering from diseases and conditions, including:
| Allergies |
Depression |
Low blood sugar levels |
| Anxiety |
Headaches |
Digestive disorders |
| Arthritis |
Heart disease |
Mental illness |
| Asthma |
High cholesterol |
Obesity |
| Chronic infections |
|
|
Detoxification therapy is also useful for those suffering from immune system problems that including chronic fatigue syndrome, environmental illness/multiple chemical sensitivity, and fibromyalgia. The United States Centers for Disease Control estimate that over 80% of all illnesses have environmental and lifestyle causes.
What is infrared energy?
The electromagnetic spectrum is divided into three segments by wavelength, which is measured in microns (1/1,000,000 of a meter).
- 0.76 to 1.5 microns = near infrared
- 1.5 to 5.6 microns = middle infrared
- 5.6 to 1000 microns = far infrared
- This wavelength of light warms objects without warming the air between the source and the object (known as conversion).
- This radiant heat can also be called Infrared Energy (IR).
- Do not confuse this with UV radiation (sunburn) or atomic radiation (nuclear) - see the diagram above for where these types of light fall on the spectrum.
- Infrared waves are not visible to human eyes but can be seen by special instruments that translate infrared into colors that are visible to our eyes.
- The best example is the sun (80% of the sun’s rays are infrared).
- Our atmosphere allows infrared rays in the 7 to 14 micron range to safely reach the earth’s surface.
- When warmed, the earth radiates infrared rays with its peak output at 10 microns.
- The human body radiates infrared energy out through the skin at 3 to50 microns, with most around 9.4 microns.
HOW DOES AN INFRARED SAUNA WORK?
What is the theory behind these saunas
- Far infrared sauna therapy is said to duplicate the healthy frequencies of our own cells. The tissues are purported to selectively absorb these rays as the water in the cell reacts in a process called “resonant absorption”.
- This resonant absorption is said to occur when the frequency of the far infrared matches the frequency of the water in the cell. This causes toxins from the cells to be put out into the blood stream and excreted in sweat, feces, and urine.
- Proponents of this therapy state that our tissues which are undergoing the healing process may need a boost of infrared to ensure the fullest healing response.
- Far infrared is claimed to penetrate the body’s tissues to a depth of 1.5 to 3 inches.
- Due to the supposed deep penetration of infrared rays, a heating effect is observed deep in the muscular tissues and even into the internal organs.
- This “deep heating,” along with sweating, is thought to be responsible for the healing effects and the other health benefits associated with these infrared rays.
HOW DO I USE THE SAUNA?
What is sauna etiquette?
- Always consult with your personal physician before using any sauna.
- Drink around 12 ounces of water for every 15 minutes you are in the sauna (glass bottle is best)
- Start with 20 minutes per day and gradually increase. After a few weeks, may increase to 30-40 minutes up to twice per day. If you suffer from serious medical problems, start with 15 minutes.
- The number of sessions and amount of time spent in the sauna should be discussed with your physician. This should be individualized.
- Use twice per week up to twice per day.
- The best time for sauna is first thing in the morning or last thing before bed.
- Showering prior to using the sauna can increase the amount you sweat.
- Relax! Time spent in a sauna should be enjoyable - forget all your worries.
- You can sit, lay, stand or meditate, whatever is comfortable for you.
- At any point during your sauna if you do not feel well, leave immediately, especially if you feel weak, lightheaded, dizzy, or nauseous. If symptoms do not resolve, seek medical attention!
- You may experience “healing reactions,” which are temporary symptoms that occur as toxic substances leave the body – these may be odors, rashes, tastes, fatigue, headaches, or gastrointestinal changes. This may be normal, but if symptoms are severe, medical attention should be sought.
Mercury Toxicity and the Far Infrared Sauna
By Pertti Olavi Jalasjaa
Mercury is the name of a planet, an ancient Roman god, and a make of automobile. Most people have a casual understanding of each of those three, but it is the mercury included in the periodic table of elements that demands greater public contemplation. For if contemporary society placed more of an emphasis on the pernicious effects of mercury exposure, perhaps fewer people would be victimized by related illnesses and diseases.
Mercury is the most toxic non-radioactive element on Earth, and the World Health Organization (WHO) has proclaimed that no level of mercury can be regarded as being safe. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced in a 2001 study that one in every 10 American women of childbearing age is at risk for having a baby born with neurological problems due to mercury exposure.
There are three principal types of mercury, and each type presents a serious health hazard to humans.
The first type, elemental mercury, is a liquid that gives off mercury vapor at room temperature. This vapor can be inhaled into the lungs and passed into the bloodstream. Elemental mercury can also enter the bloodstream by permeating the skin.
Inorganic mercury compounds, the second type, can also be inhaled as well as pass through the skin. Unlike elemental mercury, though, inorganic mercury compounds can also be absorbed through the stomach if swallowed. Elemental mercury, if swallowed, is not absorbed and usually exits the body without causing any harm. Many inorganic mercury compounds are irritating or corrosive to the skin, eyes and mucus membranes.
The third type of mercury, organic mercury compounds, can enter the body by way of all three routes – lungs, skin and stomach.
Exposure to any form of mercury on a repeated basis, or even a very high single dose, can lead to chronic mercury poisoning. According to the New Jersey State Department of Health, chronic mercury poisoning is characterized by three major symptoms:
Gum problems. The gums become soft and spongy; teeth loosen; sores may develop, and saliva production may increase.
Mood and mental changes. People with chronic mercury poisoning frequently experience wide mood swings, becoming irritable, frightened, excited or depressed very quickly for no apparent reason. Some people may become extremely upset at any criticism, lose all self-confidence, and become apathetic. Memory loss, hallucinations, and inability to concentrate can also occur.
Nervous system impairment. The earliest and most frequent symptom of chronic mercury poisoning is a fine tremor of the hand. Tremors can also occur in the eyelids and tongue. A person with chronic mercury poisoning may also experience difficulty balancing and walking.
In What Your Doctor May Not Be Telling You About Autoimmune Disorders, authors Dr. Stephen Edelson and Deborah Mitchell call mercury “one of the most common poisons to which we are exposed,” noting its presence in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the fish we eat, and our dental fillings.
According to Edelson and Mitchell, “Once it is in the body, mercury affects both the immune and nervous systems by damaging neurons and the transmission of signals in the brain, causing symptoms such as loss of sensation, vision problems, muscle weakness, loss of coordination, loss of memory, chronic fatigue and tremors.” The authors further state that mercury toxicity has been linked with Alzheimer’s disease, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, rheumatoid arthritis, and many other conditions.
While mercury can also be found in such common consumer products as fabric softener, waterproof mascara, and contact lens solution, the use of mercury in amalgam fillings seems to have aroused particular public passion in recent years.
Consider the following information from the Alternative Medicine Guide to Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia and Environmental Illness: “Every year, more than 100 million mercury amalgam fillings are put into the mouths of U.S. dental patients, despite the fact that, in 1988, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared scrap dental amalgam a hazardous waste… Evidence now shows that mercury amalgams are the major source of mercury exposure for the general public, at rates six times higher than mercury from fish and seafood.”
The guide further states, “Since mercury vapors are continuously released from amalgam fillings, as long as you have mercury dental fillings, you inhale mercury vapor 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The resulting level of mercury in the body has serious health consequences. Research has demonstrated that the body’s tissues, especially in the brain, kidneys, jaw, lungs, gastrointestinal tract, and liver, absorb and store mercury.”
With such research findings having caught the public’s attention, some people have begun insisting that their dentists use composite fillings, also known as “white fillings,” as a non-toxic alternative to amalgam fillings. As well, some dental patients are demanding that their existing amalgam fillings be removed and replaced with composite fillings.
In her book Detoxify or Die, Dr. Sherry A. Rogers writes, “Autoimmune disease, heart disease, high cholesterol and triglycerides, chemical sensitivity, allergies, antibiotic-resistant infections, depression, schizophrenia, multiple sclerosis, leukemia and just about any symptom you can think of have improved once sufficient accumulated mercury was removed from the teeth and body.”
Going a step further, Dr. Daniel Royal, member of the Nevada State Board of Homeopathic Medical Examiners, states, “While removal of amalgam fillings stops further poisoning from mercury fillings, you still need to detoxify the body to eliminate the residual effect from mercury that remains behind in the body. After all, it has been accumulating for as long as you’ve had amalgam fillings.”
Dr. Royal calls the sauna a useful adjunct to safe mercury removal because it induces profuse sweating. And, he notes, “You will derive immediate benefits from sauna detoxification, such as mental alertness, a sense of inner cleanliness, and enhanced well-being.”
The sauna of choice for many health professionals who routinely prescribe sauna detoxification or sauna therapy is the far infrared sauna. One reason is that far infrared saunas, also known as radiant heat saunas or soft heat saunas, can effectively function at temperatures lower than those characteristic of traditional hot Finnish saunas. Another reason can be found in the distinct contents of the sweat that results from proper far infrared sauna bathing.
A recent U.S. study revealed that the sweat of subjects who used a far infrared sauna consisted of less water and more toxic material than the sweat of the participants who bathed in a traditional Finnish sauna. In the perspiration of the far infrared sauna bathers, the non-water portion consisted of cholesterol; fat-soluble toxins; toxic heavy metals like mercury and aluminium; sulfuric acid; sodium; ammonia, and uric acid. The findings of this study make a strong case that far infrared saunas are simply better detoxification devices than conventional hot saunas.
Before you begin a sauna detoxification program, or if you suspect that you suffer from mercury poisoning, you should discuss your plans or share your suspicions with a qualified health professional. And if you decide to purchase a far infrared sauna for any of its many therapeutic properties, be sure to research your choices thoroughly, as satisfied sauna buyers are typically well-informed sauna buyers.
 Detoxify or Die FIR Sauna Vs. Toxins and Disease
Excerpt From the book, “Detoxify or Die” by Sherry A. Rogers
The world is full of diseases today. Plastic is used for packing foods and beverages, and these plastic containers tend to leach into the foods they pack. And once they start leaching, the body's hormone receptors become damaged. With this, there is weight loss, loss of energy and a decreased sex drive, that may lead to cancers of the prostrate, thyroid and breast.
It can be said that it is basically the accumulation of toxins that bring about the many diseases; and with a bid to educate people about this, Dr. Sherry A. Rogers set about writing the book Detoxify or Die. She defines the fact that the cadmium that accumulates from seafood, auto and incinerator exhausts and dental work all tend to lead to osteoporosis, high blood pressure, arthritis, kidney disease, hip pain, cancer, chronic fatigue and damage to your eyesight.
In addition to all of this, you learn that the arsenic that is found in cigarettes, paints, pesticides and porcelain dental work can lead to painful burning skin irritations, heart disease leading to arrhymia or congestive heart failure, bloody colitis, weakness or paralysis, numerous forms of cancer and anemia. This is the perfect book to be read if you know someone that seems to be dying from mystery symptoms that leave physicians baffled.
The 409 pages of Detoxify or Die also entails that mercury leads to depression, ALS, MS, neuropathy, thyroiditis, chronic fatigue or leukemia. Not only does Dr. Sherry describe all of the possible diseases that arise with an accumulation of toxins in the body, she also describes the one single and positive means of reversing the disease process, and thus slow down the process of aging.
The solutions Dr. Sherry offers for detoxification here are rather easy to do, and rather cheap. There is the "detox cocktail," which is cheap and a sauna called FIR that leads to detoxification, with a higher cost. She describes the means of coping with toxins that begin from metals that are heavy to mega-chemicals and to endocrine mimics. And to prove her point, Dr. Sherry follows on as many references as possible; so you know that she is well aware of what she is trying to say.
Dr. Sherry points out that today it is the younger generation that is piling up toxins faster than their elders because of a less healthy environment. She even points out that Eskimo mothers find that their milk is filled with toxins which leads to the toxification of their babies. The only thing to do it to detoxify oneself; and this is best done through sweating yourself in a sauna. So it can be seen that with the right knowledge of what causes this toxin accumulation, and what to avoid, you are sure to able to fight the toxic battle. And it is exactly this that is described in the book; and gives it all the more reason to read the book, Detoxify or Die.
Part 1
“A sauna used to be thought of as a luxury. Studies now confirm that diet and environmental chemicals cause 95% of cancers. Furthermore, as the first generation of man exposed to such an unprecedented plethora of daily chemicals, we have learned that stored or undetoxified chemicals can mimic any disease. ‘ Incurable’ chronic diseases that were thought to have no known cause often disappear once toxic chemicals are gone. Since the far infrared sauna is the safest, most efficacious and economical way of depurating stored toxins, this makes it a household necessity.”
Sherry Rogers, M.D., Northeast Center for Environmental Medicine - internationally known expert in environmental medicine and author of; Detoxify or Die, and Tired or Toxic? |
The Secret of Sweat
So here we are riddled with disease-producing toxins and piling on more each day. Inevitably the axe will fall. But what if we could get rid of these toxins? What if we could have a body that only had the toxins we had accumulated up until 20 years ago, or better yet at age 16? What if we could get rid of our lifetime burden of toxins or even just turn the hands of time back a couple of decades?
I have followed hundreds of patients who used the oral, non-prescription mercury detox cocktail to get rid of mercury aluminum, cadmium, arsenic, and other heavy metals. For folks who have tougher cases we can use DMPS which is available by prescription as Chemet, or the infinitely cheaper and non-prescription and identical substance, Captomer (Thorne, N.E.E.D.S.). And for folks with high levels of calcifications in their arteries EDTA is an intravenous chelator, but requires sitting hooked up to an intravenous solution in a doctor's office for four hours three times a week for 20 to 40 sessions, costing thousands of dollars. Then you need a maintenance program. A safer proven way to reverse coronary calcifications is with the macrobiotic diet (Ornish, 1998). PET scans proved that the calcifications melted away. For the full directions on doing the health-promoting diet, start with You Are What You Ate, then proceed to The Cure Is In The Kitchen, and use Macro Mellow for the cookbook).
But what about the cancer-causing PCBs and the multitude of plastics and pesticides with all sorts of chemical configurations that the body has no way of metabolizing? What about all of the newly synthesized dangerous chemicals that firemen, for example, are exposed to when these plastics and pesticides burn, creating new compounds that have never before been seen by man? None of these chemicals are removed by chelation or any drug.
In the 1970s a controversial gentleman named L. Ron Hubbard designed a sauna program that enabled drug addicts to detoxify. He reasoned that folks were never addicted until they had taken drugs. And the more they took, the more they craved. He thought if he could get the drugs out of the body (the unmetabolized residues), the addict
would no longer crave. He published his brilliantly successful program in his book Clear Body Clear Mind in 1990. Shortly after the results of the program were known, physicians from many specialties realized that this program might also be adapted for getting rid of all sorts of other types of chemicals, thereby restoring health in an endless variety of diseases (Kilburn, Schnare, Roehm, Rea, Root, Tretjak, Tei).
Sauna Proven in the Toughest, Most Resistant Cases
I always say, if you want to prove that a new medical therapy works, pick the most recalcitrant, impossible to treat conditions. For if it is a success on those cases, everything else is bound to be a "piece of cake". And that is exactly what folks have done with the sauna. By getting rid of years of drug residues in addicts, Hubbard freed them from their cravings and addictions, impressively lowering recidivism. Drugs are metabolic poisons, damaging the normal function of the body. Only when years of drug residues have been reduced are folks freed from the plague caused by the slow leeching out of sub-therapeutic doses of stored drugs and toxins. For these trace amounts unmercifully trigger cravings, reminding them that they need a higher dose to block out all feeling. For addicts it is imperative to get rid of all drug residues in order to cure their cravings and addictive behavior. This includes alcohol, cigarettes, and prescription drugs.
In addition, the accompanying nutritional program has corrected long-standing deficiencies that also trigger addictive behavior, fatigue and a myriad of symptoms. For when it comes right down to it, chronic drug addiction has two causes: nutrient deficiencies which cause cravings and stockpiled unmetabolized drug residues that slowly leach out and cause cravings. That's why drug pushers give so many freebies, because once you get it in your system, it is difficult to resist wanting more, depending upon each individual's chemistry. The trick is to be smart enough to never take the first dose.
But proof only began there. One of the worst occupations for bizarre chemically-induced or toxic symptoms is that of a fireman. This is because when modern home and commercial furnishings and construction materials burn, they release even more damaging chemicals whose carcinogenic potential has become magnified. Not only does burning of a multitude of phthalates and other plasticizers, PCBs, dioxins and related compounds create chemicals that are many fold more toxic, but when they are inhaled in massive amounts by fireman, it gives them as high a level as if they had had it by IV.
These chemical concoctions have caused the most difficult to diagnose and treat disorders, especially of the brain and the nervous system. But researchers using Hubbard's protocol (Kilburn) were able to accomplish what medicine was paralyzed in accomplishing. They restored these toxic firemen to normal once they got rid of their tightly stored chemicals. A sauna program is still the only known way of getting rid of these 20th century man-made chemicals.
Using Hubbard's protocol, other researchers (Schnare, Roehm) cleared people of PCBs and pesticides as well as Agent Orange (dioxins). These were folks who had undiagnosable and unbeatable symptoms, totally resistant to all therapies that medicine could offer. But the Master Planner, left one route for us to unload a lifetime of damaging, disease-producing chemicals: SWEAT.
Other clinicians reaffirmed the benefits of detoxifying saunas when, as a result of accidents involving pilots who did aerial spraying of pesticides, these men were also cleared of life-threatening symptoms. Likewise residents of Michigan gave us a huge amount of scientific information when a PCB-laden cancer-causing fire retardant was accidentally put into animal feed, contaminating their entire dairy industry, milk and cheese, statewide, forever (Wolff).
Clearly we have trashed our bodies.
Luckily, you have the power to reverse that. |
Studies six years later, showed that Michigan residents and folks from over 25 other states who also got the PCBs hidden in their dairy products, just did not get rid of those nasty PCBs. The body does not have the chemistry to do so. Even in the soil these chemicals are what we call persistent environmental poisons. But those who did saunas were able to eliminate the PCBs as well as other stored toxins from their bodies. The truth is we have all eaten foods from Michigan and have slowly bioaccumulated these and hundreds of other similar toxins that are known as some of the most powerful inducers of cancer in existence. Remember, EPA studies show 100% of humans harbor PCBs, one of the most potent causes of cancer known to man.
But the proof for the magic of sauna detoxification does not end with drug addicts, fire fighters, Vietnam vets, pesticide pilots, or consumers of polluted dairy. Other researchers and clinicians studied workers accidentally contaminated from occupations as diverse as electricians to farmers. Meanwhile, machinists to office workers also had their lives saved, as serious conditions that medicine was powerless to help were reversed through the use of sauna.
Then there are my hundreds of patients with severe chemical sensitivity, saddled with just about any symptom you can think of, who have traveled the world in search of how to get well. When exposed to simple everyday perfumes, fabric softeners, carpets, pesticides, malls or traffic fumes, they were left unable to think or in total body pain, as examples of hundreds of symptoms. Some were referred to the specialized environmental units like the Environmental Health Center of Dallas, (Dr. William J. Rea, www.EHCD.com) or to North Charleston, South Carolina (Dr. Allan Lieberman) and then returned home to continue saunas for life.
Dr. William Rea, medical director of the Environmental Health Center, Dallas, receives the most difficult to treat cases in the world, cases for which there is no more hope and many of whom are physicians themselves. By now you are getting the idea that whenever you hear a disease is "hopeless", it merely means no one has looked for the underlying cause, nor have they been committed to getting rid of it. For this is why Dr. Rea's program has been so successful, because he does just that. And sauna is an integral part of it.
Alcoholism is a biochemical disease, not a lack of will power.
And curing it requires (1) correcting fatty acids, amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and orphan nutrients, plus (2) removing toxic residues of drugs, alcohol, and other chemicals that damage normal function of brain chemistry responsible for pleasure sensation. |
In fact Dr. William J. Rea, medical director of the American Environmental Health Center in Dallas Texas, has treated literally thousands of patients with nearly every diagnosis, incorporating this technique into an all-encompassing environmental medicine program. Because these patients come from all corners of the world, are desperately ill and have all exhausted everything that modern medicine has to offer, getting rid of their underlying chemicals is crucial to their healing. In fact when physicians knowledgeable in finding the causes of disease are totally stumped and do not know what else to do for seriously ill patients, they often send folks (and themselves) to this unique center.
These people are so full of chemicals and their detoxication pathways are so damaged, that often they will need one or more months of detoxication saunas at the unit to be followed by months and years of saunas at home.
In one study by Dr. Rea, 210 patients with a variety of symptoms did only one or two 40-minute sessions a day for one month (Rea). Even a program this short with people for whom medicine had nothing more to offer yielded impressive results. Within one month 63% measurably decreased their levels of toxic chemicals and 31% improved their symptoms. Clearly, sauna is the only proven method for depurating a lifetime burden of xenobiotics producing "incurable" symptoms.
As lifesaving as sauna programs are however, there was a problem with saunas. Not everyone could tolerate them. In fact I was one who could not even spend five minutes in a sauna. For starters, as you have learned, the nervous system is one of the most commonly damaged areas of the body. Many of us just plain had broken, poisoned, thermostats and could not tolerate high heat.
I sprayed herbicides (atrazine) on our farm and my autonomic nervous system became damaged. For decades, whenever I got overheated, I would never sweat, but just remained bone dry and beet red. If I tried to go in a sauna I couldn't stand it even five minutes, feeling like I would go crazy. Many people experience this because of a damaged autonomic nervous
system, especially those with multiple chemical sensitivities, chronic fatigue, MS, and fibromyalgia.
And then there are heart patients who are notoriously intolerant of heat. The newspapers predictably report on the numbers of heart patients who die whenever there is a heat wave. Consequently, heart patients and especially those in congestive heart failure would be the last people on earth you would want to put in a sauna. So what do you do when the worse the poisoning, the less chance you have of tolerating a regular high heat sauna?
The Superior Sauna —FIRS (Far Infrared Sauna)
What is the best way to get rid of toxic chemicals including pesticides, heavy metals and hydrocarbon residues when you cannot tolerate a sauna? When a sauna makes you feel weak, sick, have a fast heart rate, faint, dizzy, panicky, headachy or just plain miserable, what is the solution? The far infrared sauna. Thanks to improved technology, the far infrared sauna is far safer and infinitely more tolerable, because it uses a heat energy that penetrates tissues, triggering mobilization of chemicals from subcutaneous fat storage, directly into the sweat. This activating penetration allows for a much lower overall temperature to be used (as I'll show you later), one that is enjoyable and not torture.
But more important, you haven't forced the body to bear very high temperatures (160 degrees and higher), pulling chemicals back into the bloodstream where they can duplicate original symptoms. Instead they slip out the back door, so to speak, from just under the skin storage directly into the sweat. Over weeks and months there is an equilibration, where chemicals that were stored in other organs slowly and safely disseminate throughout the body and eventually empty into subcutaneous fat. It is the chemical load that is stored beneath the skin that is the main area activated by the far infrared sauna.
Even if you are on your deathbed, it is not too late to turn the tide of disease.
Many others have (Nussbaum, Rogers). |
Another thing I always worried about in a conventional sauna, even for the few brief moments I could stand one, was the fact that my eyeballs burned so much. I couldn't believe that intensive heat on my corneas was good for them and feared triggering cataracts. To my knowledge, no studies have ever been done on this, but this high temperature on the eyeball and lens cannot be good for them. It's unphysiologic. Anyway, I do not get that type of eye pain in the infrared sauna, only profuse sweating. And that is just the effect you want in order to release a lifetime of toxins from body storage.
The body gets rid of stored chemicals in stool, urine or sweat. The sweat route requires no drugs and is the most efficient and natural (man used to physically work and sweat before computers were invented). As the oldest of eight children, I used to hesitate to recommend something as expensive as a home sauna. I was looking for treatments that were natural, but inexpensive and definitely not high tech! But when you realize the lifelong incapacity and expense of diseases such as chronic pain syndromes, heart disease, chemical sensitivity, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, migraines, Alzheimer's, cancer or any others caused by chemical toxicity, a sauna is cheap. Let's face it: high-tech pollution requires high-tech solutions.
If you're overwhelmed by medical bills with no end in sight,
it's time to consider reversing the hidden causes of your diseases. |
(1) Just add up the time and money you wasted getting diagnosed. (2) Or add up the cost for a year of prescription medications and you will have paid for it. But its advantages do not end there. (3) Once you have it, it's yours to use forever, for the world will never run out of ways to poison us. (4) The whole family can use it. (5) It is not only capable of providing the primary "cure" or solution for your current medical problem, but can free you from symptom-producing medications. Since we are continually being bombarded by new chemicals every day, it is a tool to keep you "cleaned out" for life. It is a win-win situation.
I'm convinced that the far infrared sauna is something that everyone should do to restore health, and then continue to do on a less frequent basis to maintain the "cleaned out" state for the rest of their lives. It's therapeutic as well as prophylactic.
The Hot Solution for Body Pollution: FIRS
How can we bring aging and illness to a screeching halt? Better yet, how can we turn back the hands of time? By booting those nasty disease-causing chemicals out of the body. Sweat out the poisons is the answer, but not any old sauna or sweating program will do, in fact some are dangerous.
FIRS, the Only Sauna Proven Safe For Elderly, Severe End-Stage Heart Patients
Many people who are sick, like heart patients, would never tolerate the extreme temperatures of regular saunas. In fact it would make them worse, raising blood pressure and heart rate, while triggering arrhythmias and shortness of breath. Clearly heat is contraindicated. Imagine a man with cadmium-induced arthritis and hypertension, or a woman with mercury-induced shoulder pain and angina, or toluene-p induced migraines and arrhythmia. When, environmental chemicals create pain in addition to cardiovascular disease, as examples, what is the heart patient to do?
If you are like most people, you may have never learned much about the diagnosis of CHF or congestive heart failure. Yet it attacks more people each year than cancer, and it is as lethal as cancer. For with the diagnosis of cancer, the median survival (different cancers have their own survival rates, but if you average them all together) is 6 years. With CHF, the median survival is less: 5 years. When the diagnosis of cancer is made, folks feel imminent doom and urgency. But with CHF, it has received such scant press that it merely engenders a "So what?" response. It fosters no doom and gloom urgency.
In fact, even though congestive heart failure is more prevalent and more lethal than cancer, folks know so little about CHF that they do not concern themselves with preventing it the way they do cancer. CHF starts with any heart symptom you can imagine. High blood pressure, high cholesterol, angina, arrhythmias like atrial fibrillation, dyspnea (shortness of breath, beginning with the stairs and inclines), claudication (leg pains when walking), pedal edema (ankle swelling), pericarditis, cardio-myopathy (heavy metal or other poisoning of heart muscle), fluid in the lungs, recurrent pneumonias, bypass surgery (putting new coronary vessels in) or endarterectomy (roto-rooting or reaming out the old plugged arteries) can be the beginning that insidiously leads to congestive heart failure. The most common symptom is shortness of breath, especially on stairs, inclines, or while doing repeated deep knee bends, or jogging. An even worse sign is the swelling of ankles at the end of the day, indicating a heart so overloaded that fluid backs-up all the way to the leg vessels.
Unless you get rid of stored trash, it eventually causes disease and death.
You have complete control. Is that heart disease really cadmium toxicity in disguise? |
As with every illness, in "modern medicine" CHF suddenly becomes a deficiency of a multitude of heart drugs. Drugs to control the rhythm, like calcium channel blockers (proven to cause shrinkage of the brain and loss of mental function as well as increase the risk of heart attack and cancer). And ACE inhibitors are often prescribed, known to cause bronchitis (chronic cough). Digitalis-type drugs like Lanoxin to boost the force of contraction, and diuretics or fluid pills to decrease the swelling and work of the heart (and known to cause worsening of high blood pressure and the chance of sudden death by heart attack) are some of the other drugs added to the brew. And the list does not stop there, for the CHF patient has more drugs on board than most other diseases. Meanwhile the real underlying causes, which can be totally correctable, go consistently ignored by medicine. And once a congestive heart failure victim starts accumulating drugs, it is extremely rare if any drugs are withdrawn. Instead his physicians steadily pile on more to keep pace with his worsening symptoms.
FIR Sauna Vs. Toxins and Disease
Excerpt From the book, “Detoxify or Die” by Sherry A. Rogers: Part 2
The Heart as Allergic Target Organ
The number of drugs should tell you that medicine doesn't have a clue as to what the true underlying cause is for CHF. But you know. It is anything that can poison the heart; mercury from dental amalgams, fish and paints; cadmium from auto exhaust, cigarette smoke (including secondhand from others), shellfish, incinerator pollution, and industrial pollution in air, food and water. You cannot escape heavy metals or other environmental pollutants. Yet even though these toxic elements have been a recognized cause of high blood pressure and heart failure for decades, they remain ignored by medicine.
What else can silently poison hearts? You guessed it, herbicides and pesticides, which are also hidden in our air, food and water. No one is protected, while not one toxin is suspected. And the causes of heart disease do not end there. They include hydrocarbons and other environmental pollutants or toxins, from trichloroethylene in city water supplies, solvent extraction fluids used to decaffeinate coffee, toluene in painted rooms, formaldehyde in carpets, and benzene in air fresheners, to good old diesel and other common pollutants in vehicle exhaust (EPA, Bond, Theriault, Levine, Atkins, Kesteloot, Alexander, Goldsmith, Myerson, Asokan, Williams, Mee, McLeod, Wiseman, Wright, Speizer, Antti-Poika, Edling, Kobayaski, Ludomirsky, Sharp, Schroeder).
You might be tempted to fall for the story that there is no way to get all these poisons out of the heart, but you are much too smart for that by now. The far infrared sauna (FIRS) has been proven by specialists at the famed Mayo Clinic to improve heart failure, even when nothing more could be done by medicine. And in Japan, clinicians and researchers have confirmed its life-saving properties when nothing else could be done (Tei, Kihara, Imamura).
But not any old sauna was effective, for example, the regular or dry Finnish saunas actually triggered worsening of arrhythmias, increased hypertension and shortness of breath (even at rest), and most heart patients could not tolerate them. In fact, some of these heart failure patients could not even tolerate a hot bath or a hot day out of doors without drawing closer to death.
As an example of how little an increase in ambient temperature heart patients can tolerate, a July 7, 2000 Wall Street Journal front-page article reported that in Europe as temperatures reached 113 F. from a high-pressure system trapping drifting Sahara air masses, 25 people died. Later that month on July 14th, CNN reported multiple deaths for heart patients as temperatures in Texas lingered between 105 and 110 F. Clearly a regular sauna of over 140°F would be out of the question for the heart patient.
| When the heart is broken, you need to identify and correct nutrient deficiencies,
then safely get rid of the toxins that poisoned the heart muscle and its nerves. |
But hang onto your hats, for the far infrared sauna (FIRS) was not only very well tolerated with no adverse reactions, but it got rid of so many of the underlying chemical triggers of CHF, that these end-stage heart patients actually reversed and improved and were able to discard some of their medications (Tei, Kihar, Imamura)! This is unheard of. With CHF, the rule in medicine is you increasingly pile on medications as you deteriorate. You rarely drop any, for there is no hope of cure. It is a one-way street — at least it is if you do not do a FIRS. Currently they are evaluating cutting out a part of the damaged heart muscle (ablation) as temporary improvement for heart failure! As usual, when drugs fail, medicine resorts to cutting it out and throwing it away. They figured they do it with cancers, colitis and other problems, so why not the heart?
How is the Far Infrared Sauna Different?
Let's look at the energy that comes from the sun. It is responsible for photosynthesis, the process by which plants make energy to grow. In essence, solar energy is responsible for all of life (since animals must have plants to eat or there are no animals).
The spectrum of energy from the sun is classified according to the length of the waves. The shortest (and most damaging) rays of the solar spectrum are gamma rays. Think of a gamma gun in a sci-fi movie that vaporizes assailants in an instant. The next longer rays of the sun are x-rays (carcinogenic), then ultraviolet (causes sunburn, corneal and lens damage and skin cancer), and then visible light. After that is the infrared spectrum, then radio waves.
At the far end of the infrared spectrum are the longest and most healing rays, the far infrared (FIR) spectrum, spanning from 1,000 to 4 microns. Between 4-14 microns in the FIR (far infrared) spectrum, fall most of the rays that are the safest and most vital to health and healing. They are responsible for photosynthesis, without which there would be no life on each.
Even our bodies radiate infrared energy through our skin between 3-50 microns, mostly around 9.4 microns. This is the basis for infrared glasses allowing Special Forces to see the enemy at night. Palm healing and other hands-on therapies are based on the healing properties of natural far infrared rays, with our palms emitting infrared energy at between 8-14 microns. Our bodies absorb 93% of the infrared waves presented to us, the basis for similar heaters being used to warm premature infants in nurseries. The FIRS uses a patented zirconium ceramic infrared heater, emitting between 2 and 25 microns, with a third of the output in the 2-5.6 micron range for deepest penetration, about 1.5 inches. Patented in 1965, it was used predominantly in Japan, and then use extended to the U.S. since 1981. Safer, more economical to operate, lower in EMF, and inducing 2-3 times the sweat volume, while allowing a much more tolerable and safer operating temperature, makes it my preferred tool for purifying and detoxifying the body. Naturally nothing stands alone, and a clean diet, environment and soul are, of course, crucial components to healing the impossible. I'll take you through more of the "TOTAL LOAD" later.
| Far infrared rays are the healing, safe rays of the sun's spectrum, responsible for photosynthesis. Without this wavelength, plants would be unable to make energy, and consequently, there would be no life on earth. |
Far infrared wavelengths have other beneficial properties. They lower lactic acid (the acid that accumulates and causes pain in muscles when you have overdone during exercising), stimulate endorphins or happy hormones of the brain, and kill organisms like bacteria and parasites. More important, they penetrate tissues, detoxify cells by vibrating ionic bonds, stop swelling, improve lymphatic flow and blood circulation, and attract calcium to cell membranes where it is needed for healing.
Far infrared wavelengths also decrease the size of water clusters, giving them greater mobility and penetration in and out of body tissues. For it is when these hyperactive or energized water molecules move in and out of cells that they also carry toxins that previously were stuck. FIR energy actually causes a resonance dance between the water and chemical molecules to mobilize and unite them.
The lungs, urine, stool, and sweat are the main vehicles the body has for getting rid of nasty chemicals. But by far sweat is the most efficacious. And Mayo Clinic studies show that FIR is the safest way to induce healing sweat, using the most heat-sensitive cardiac patients as proof (Tei).
In studies published in Circulation and the Journal of Cardiology, both respected cardiology journals, physicians at the famed Mayo Clinic used the worst classification of congestive heart failure patients to demonstrate the safety and therapeutic value of the far infrared sauna. The New York Heart Association (NYHA) classifies the most debilitated heart patients with the highest numbers, III and IV. The study used patients who were end-stage heart patients who were maximally medicated and unable to walk across the room without shortness of breath, and unable to tolerate warm baths, much less tolerate a sauna. There were no further therapeutic options available. They had reached the end of their ropes.
But not only did these serious end-stage heart patients all tolerate the FIR sauna, but they had no side effects from it. Furthermore, in getting rid of chemicals that were the underlying causes of their diseases, they improved their heart function, something that the latest in surgery or drugs was powerless to do for them. The FIR sauna literally saved their lives.
During the sauna, no patients had dyspnea (shortness of breath), angina (chest pain) or arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat), nor complained of excess heat. There were no side effects, something that never happens with drugs and surgery. Diastolic blood pressure (the low number) decreased but systolic pressure (the top number) was unchanged. This means they did not get hypertensive, and in fact the work of the heart was lessened. Furthermore the stroke volume and ejection fraction increased, meaning the heart beat more efficiently with less effort.
Contrast this with warm baths that caused an increase in systemic blood pressure and pulmonary vascular resistance. Warm baths, by raising blood pressure cause more work for an already failing heart. And in a regular sauna, the arrhythmias increased 20%, whereas in the FIR sauna, arrhythmias decreased or disappeared entirely. Other cardiovascular improvements unique to the FIR sauna that would impress cardiologists include decreased pulmonary arterial and capillary wedge pressure as well as right atrial pressure, and in some cases disappearance of mitral regurgitation. The ECHO (echocardiogram) showed smaller left ventricular and left atrial dimensions, and epinephrine levels did not change, but norepinephrine increased. And FIR actually increased the core and intrapulmonary arterial temperature to 38.2 +/- 0.4 C (normal body temperature is 37 degrees Centigrade).
Fifty percent of heart attack victims do not have high cholesterol.
They need to get irons fatty acids and toxins out of the heart. |
Because the far infrared sauna has so many physiologic benefits that improved cellular detoxification (without making the rest of the body toxic or sick in the process), no side effects were observed with the FIR sauna, even at 60 C. (140 F.). Meanwhile, recall warm baths adversely increased cardiac work for heart patients, as did regular high heat saunas which triggered arrhythmias in over 20% of patients at 90 C. (194 F.). In fact, even mere high outdoor ambient temperature can kill the heart patient. In contrast, with the FIR sauna, arrhythmias disappeared, even when these folks were exposed to the high end of heat that the FIR sauna can reach. But the FIRS can generate a total sweat at 120 F. and less, providing the opportunity for even longer and more tolerable therapeutic time in the sauna.
In regular high heat saunas, plasma norepinephrine (related to adrenaline) increased 100-160% accompanied by subjective discomfort and intolerance. Adrenaline can, of course, trigger arrhythmias or a heart attack. In contrast, FIR sauna was extremely well tolerated and did the impossible. It improved the cardiac status of folks who were at the end of their therapeutic ropes. Even though medicine had nothing more to offer, congestive heart failure was reversed by the far infrared sauna.
FIR Sauna Vs. Toxins and Disease
Excerpt From the book, “Detoxify or Die” by Sherry A. Rogers: Part 3
FIRS Cures the Most Mysterious Cases
The bottom line is that folks with the most severe forms of heart disease and resistant to all medications, tolerated the FIRS with no side effects. Most importantly, it improved their heart health in this Mayo Clinic study within 3 short weeks. Of course, it is recommended to continue longer, say a year of daily or every other day saunas for an hour or less to more completely lower stored chemicals that cause disease. Then it is necessary to do them at least once a week for life, since the world will never run out of ways to poison us.
It should not surprise you by now that mysterious joint pain in war veterans exposed to Agent Orange also disappeared, as did a host of other pain syndromes. Schnare of the U.S. EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) also showed that not only did sauna reduce body levels of HCB (hexachlorobenzene) and PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) in electrical workers, for example, but it did this even though the men were continually exposed at work.
This is important because it means that if your livelihood depends on an occupation with continual exposures, you still have a chance of being able to tolerate it more safely, as long as you are reducing the chemicals faster than you are tanking up on them. And let's face it. Most occupations have their specific toxins. Also this could allow tolerance of poorly tolerated implanted items that we would like to keep, like root canals and artificial joints.
Schnare also reviewed different types of workers, drug users, victims of accidental ingestions, and those poisoned by a variety of environmental chemicals; all recovered with sauna detoxification. Meanwhile, scientists from the Tokyo Medical and Dental University and others explained in further studies, once more how the FIR is superior to just plain old heat of regular saunas. There is no lack of data on this subject that has remained a secret cure for decades.
In addition, some saunas are a combination of far infrared along with regular sauna heaters. This is self-defeating for heart patients. They need just the far infrared, for they cannot tolerate any extra heat. Likewise for highly poisoned people, they do not need auxiliary heat forcing chemicals out of storage into the bloodstream to duplicate symptoms. They just need the far infrared technology to pull chemicals out of subcutaneous fat storage directly into the sweat. Furthermore, being the oldest of eight children from a poor family, I'm much like a mother hen. I needed a supplier with whom I could trust my precious patients and readers.
| Do not let a lack of diagnostic label or "mysterious" illness keep you from getting the toxins out. That's when you need to do this the most. Do not wait too long, for the longer you do, the more you damage other parts of chemistry. |
Sweating is a God-given mechanism, but it must be done properly and safely to be successful. The far infrared sauna is something that you will use for a lifetime. It is a major tool not only in your detox program, but also in your anti-aging program. Because it is a major expense, you might want to figure a way to put it in a garage, basement, game room, patio, lanai or porch to share it with neighbors, or have your church, physician, chiropractor, or organization buy one, for example. There are smaller units that could fit into a corner of a room. These units plug into a standard electric outlet.
Where is Your Focus?
No matter what disease you look at, from the most seemingly innocent to the nastiest symptoms, environmental chemicals are at the base. Look at endometriosis. It is not a killer, you rarely hear about it, but it has a devastating effect on millions of women in the United States. It affects 15% of women in the reproductive age range and is increasing each year. It leads to extensive and expensive problems with infertility as well as loss of much productive work time, not to mention loss of personal time because of severe pain and/or abnormal bleeding.
Even worse, endometriosis often cripples women to the point of forcing them to have a hysterectomy in their early 20s, before they have had a chance to marry and have a family. Or they are put on drugs like Lupron, which is analogous to a chemical castration and may contribute to irreversible infertility, chemical sensitivity, or cancer later on.
Did you know that dioxins are one of many causes of endometriosis? Totally unavoidable in the 21st century lifestyle and diet, dioxins are even in everything from our foods and toilet paper to coffee filters, diapers, tampons, and much more (Birnbaum). Since they are persistent environmental poisons, they never leave the soil or water permanently, but cycle through rain, plants, animals, and into our food and bodies. The only way out is through sweat.
Remember the EPA study where 29% of folks had high levels of trichloroethylene in their exhaled breath? This can come from wearing a dry cleaned suit, and it out-gases from carpeting, cardboard and a multitude of other everyday sources. It is not exotic. It is in the water supply of many municipalities as an industrial contaminant. It can cause bizarre numbness and tingling, dizziness, inability to concentrate, headaches, depression and brain fog. And that's just in the brain. In terms of cancer, it has been associated with kidney cancer, liver cancer, Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma as well as cervical cancer, leukemia, and esophageal cancer (Wartenberg). And it can cause cardiac arrhythmia, endometriosis, and much more.
Clearly our most potent environments are in our homes, but we are not safe regardless of where we go. Most work environments add even more to the total daily body burden. And depending upon meteorologic conditions, cloud cover, wind velocity, temperature and other factors, outdoor air pollution definitely fluctuates causing increased death by heart attack (Janssen, Zanobetti, Laden, Wong).
In our outdoor as well as indoor air, we have the heavy metal, lead, as one of hundreds of contaminants that is rarely looked for. It causes devastating effects from lowering children's IQ (Schwartz 1994) to loss of hearing (Schwartz 1991). But if that were not enough, the level that causes brain damage in children is lower than 10 mcg/dl, which has been designated by "authorities" to be the cutoff point for diagnosing whether lead is a problem (Lanphear). Because this arbitrary cutoff has been inappropriately assigned, to too low a value, regular testing often will not pick up a lead level less than 10. The only way brain-damaging lead in the body can be found is with the same provocation test we used for mercury. But instead of asking for mercury to be analyzed in the urine, the doctor should order lead.
But where are the physicians who are doing lead and other heavy metal provocations for children whose IQ's do not match their parents'? I can't tell you the number of times I see children who are not half as smart as their parents, but no one is curious about why they are not. Where are the physicians who are looking for environmental triggers for hearing loss, endometriosis, high blood pressure, heart disease, disparate I.Q. or cancer? We have a true information warp. We're focused on drugs, surgery, organ transplants and genetic manipulation, when we should be focused on merely getting the causative chemicals out. Or as they say, GET THE LEAD OUT!
The bottom line is that sweat is the only proven method for getting the most damaging toxins out of the body. There are no drugs, no surgery, no chelation, nor other detoxification methods with before and after measurements proving that unwanted chemicals like PCBs and pesticides were eliminated. Regular saunas have a disadvantage of generally starting well above 160 F. degrees, and could be damaging to the eye lens and other delicate tissues. But far infrared technology is safe enough for elderly end-stage heart patients, because you do not even have to go above 100 F. degrees. It makes no sense to push the body to unphysiologic temperatures or to make someone who is already sick even more uncomfortable.
| Let's face it. You and your doctor have been screwed into believing every symptom is a deficiency of some drug or surgery. You've been led to believe you have no control, when in truth you're the one who must take control. |
The ailing heart for example, is the result of a lifetime of tanking up on heavy metals like cadmium, mercury, lead, aluminum, in addition to chemicals like the plasticizers, PCBs, volatile organic hydrocarbons, pesticides, dioxins, and more. The heart truly is a toxic target organ. No wonder it is the number one cause of death and disease. When there are only two causes for disease (diet and environment), it's imperative that we be able to reverse both of these. And we can!
Far infrared sauna technology is the only proven, most efficacious way of getting rid of stored environmental chemicals. Preferably start with an oil change to get rid of trans fatty acids, and restore missing fatty acids while correcting mineral deficiencies, like selenium, manganese, zinc and magnesium, to facilitate safer detoxification. The formula is really quite simple. The problem is it doesn't make any money for the drug industry that owns medicine. In fact the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA 287: 6 12-6 17, 2002) documented how over 87% of physicians who make up the panels of "experts" who determine the practice guidelines for medicine receive compensation from the drug industry. These are the guidelines that your doctors and insurance companies follow.
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