In my recent newsletter I shared with you what I was up to lately for my health. This month, I decided, is my detox month. I eat clean, use toxin free body care and cleaning products. As a former sustainable building expert I also remodeled my home to be as low in volatile organic compounds (VOCs) as possible. But I can’t control the air I breath or some of the water in the local swimming pool. Inevitably toxins creep in and accumulate in our fat tissue and stay there a good long while until we do something about it. Enter in the magical sauna!This is a perfect time of year to start using a sauna. The weather is changing, it’s getting nippy outside and I love to feel like I’m on a tropical island.Sweating is one of the most effective ways to detox the body of hundreds of toxins like heavy metals, PCB’s, flame-retardants, pesticides, herbicides and other household and personal. Regular sauna use can lower the risk of cardiovascular disease, lower blood pressure and increases longevity. Saunas are a simple, inexpensive way to detox.
The type of sauna is critical as well. Dry heat saunas have the most evidence that they help you age well but most of these found at fitness centers tend to have large electromagnetic fields (EMFs) that are harmful. Infrared saunas are not far behind dry saunas and more research is coming out indicating that infrared saunas cause more toxins to be expelled than dry heat saunas.
Saunas are a heat stressor that resets the body including the DNA! It’s like a workout for your longevity genes. When activated these genes increase antioxidant production, protein maintenance, DNA repair and tumor killing. Infrared saunas also decreases pain.
It’s important to note that although far-infrared saunas provide a benefit, further benefit is attained by the entire infrared spectrum; mid-, near- and far-infrared wavelengths. Near-infrared helps with collagen stimulation, would healing and reduced inflammation. Mid-infrared reduces pain. Far-infrared is the deepest and enhances circulation and muscle relaxation. Sunlighten Saunas are well researched, have low EMFs and also provide a full spectrum of infrared benefits. Find out more at http://www.sunlighten.com.
If you aren’t a big fan of sweating, research shows that up to 85% of the toxins come out in the first five minutes of sweating! Remember to take a shower right after so those toxins don’t soak back in. Also nobody wants to smell you after a sauna. To help aid in the detox, combining sauna use with an intestinal toxin binder like Zeobind and Chlorella is a big help. These will help your body process more toxins out of your system. As always drink plenty of water and replace electrolytes as needed before and after using a sauna.
For some extra reading on detoxing, check out Toxin Toxout. This book, written by two environmentalists, Bruce Lourie and Rick Smith, is a fun examination of a number of detoxing methods. Remember that removing toxins from our home, body care and foods is the best first step to take!
If you’re interested in detoxing as a part of your healing journey (course it would be right?), sign up for my monthly newsletter for updates on my upcoming detox program and an upcoming freebie on detoxing through diet.
