Infrared Sauna – Heat For Healing And Holistic Health
April 30, 2022
Holistic Health and Wellness is a word we hear often, now more than ever people are considering alternative ways to take control of their own health and wellness. The holistic health and wellness industry is a rapidly growing multi billion-pound industry with Britain’s currently spending hundreds of pounds each year on their wellness.
So, what exactly is holistic health? Holistic is an approach that considers a person’s entire state, therefore rather than focusing on one aspect of the person's health such as mental or physical, holistic looks at intertwining each of these, the physical, the psychological, the spiritual treating the whole person rather than a particular ailment. Holistic is a concept that each of our forms are linked, i.e., the mental form can affect the physical and vice versa so rather than focus on one specific issue, we consider our wellbeing.
As a trauma informed therapist, I see daily the impact of how low mental health can affect the physical form and in turn how weak physical health can impact our mental health, this led me to research alternative holistic approaches that work to heal the whole body.
Recently there has been an increase of medical clinicians recommending holistic alternatives to manage health and wellbeing, I have seen a rise in infrared being recommended as a treatment and have recently opened a wellness studio with the aim to offer this to clients in need as I have seen the collective need to access such treatments, in this article we will look at using infrared saunas or holistic health and wellness.
Infrared Saunas – The benefits of healing heat
Infrared sauna is not like your traditional sauna, an infrared sauna works with infrared rather than the steam from traditional saunas, the infrared wavelengths penetrate on a cellular level, they work with the soft tissue up to an inch and a half warming the body, opening blood vessels, this process is called “vasodilation”, infrared is becoming more popular in the medical world and is used in various treatment plans.
The benefits of infrared for holistic health are endless. Here are just a few of my personal preferences:
1. Detoxification – it is widely known sweat helps us detox – infrared saunas help increase the blood circulation, stimulating sweat glands which help us release built up toxins in the body, built up toxins held in our system can be particularly harmful for our wellbeing, causing a multitude of health complaints.
2. Stress and fatigue reduction – stress is prevalent in today’s world, in a fast-paced society, the likelihood we will suffer either of these symptoms in our week is high. Just a few minutes in the gentle heat of infrared can release the relaxation response, balancing out any stress responses our bodies may feel, and as we all know the more relaxed we are the more resilient we can be in difficult situations, positively supporting our mental health when things become overwhelming.
3. Muscle aches and pains, chronic conditions such as arthritis and fibromyalgia – too much of anything even exercise can take its toll on the body causing excessive inflammation or muscle pain therefore it is important to implement recovery into our exercise regime, inflammation in the body can also be the source of chronic conditions, causing the body extreme pain and discomfort. Sitting in an infrared sauna can relieve inflammation, stiffness and soreness by increasing circulation. The deep infrared penetrates heat deep enough to help relax muscles and while delivering oxygen rich blood to the area for faster recovery.
Adding infrared into your wellness regime can have huge impact on each element of the body, mind and soul.
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