FAQ
1. How Does a Far Infrared Sauna Work for Healing?2. Far Infrared Shakes Toxins Loose
3. Having Trouble Losing Weight?
4. Do You Have Aches and Pains?
5. It Works for Astronauts- Pump Your Heart Down Here
6. Warming Up Kills Bugs
7. Aging Shouldn't Equal Sick
8. Bye-Bye Cellulite
9. Help Your Body Heal and Feel Good
10. Infrared Therapy
11. How Is A Sauna Different From Other Baths?
12. Where Can A Sauna Be Installed In A Home?
13. How Long Does It Take To Install A Sauna?
14. Sauna History and Benefits
15. Maintenance Tips
16. Infrared Sauna Effects On Cancer
17. Building Immunity
18. Prostate Cancer
19. A Trail Blazer In Oncology
20. Hyperthermia And Electrotherapy
21. Ovarian Cancer
22. Breast Cancer
23. Infrared Heat And Coronary Effect
1. HOW DOES A FAR INFRARED SAUNA WORK FOR HEALING? TOP
Historically from before Roman times, humans have used both wet and dry saunas for heating the body. Now new technology has both increased the beneficial effects and reduced potential hazards with the development of the far infrared sauna. A far infrared sauna requires less heat, thus making it more comfortable and less likely to cause a reaction while improving its ability to liberate chemicals out of the body.
2. FAR INFRARED SHAKES TOXINS LOOSE TOP
Far infrared is an invisible band of light that is part of the electromagnetic spectrum. This light penetrates the skin up to three-and-a-half inches. This warm, soothing, invisible light causes toxins to drop out into the bloodstream. These toxins are then released by sweating, as well as through feces and urine. Literally decades of poisons can be released. Users of spa saunas report smelling chemicals that they were exposed to decades before! These nasty chemicals can be lodged in fat cells and organs for decades, causing problem after problem over the years. Most of us are totally unaware that exposures long ago are still impacting our health today!
3. HAVING TROUBLE LOSING WEIGHT? TOP
Since many toxins are stored in fat cells, losing weight is vital to improving health. Yet, it is difficult to lose weight if your body is loaded with toxins and your metabolism is damaged and your intestines function poorly. The far infrared sauna releases the toxins that are in your fat, and can improve intestinal functioning. Some users see great improvement in their food allergies even after just a month or two of daily use. Also, as much as 600 calories per session are used up with increased heart rate, cardiac output, and metabolic rate.
4. DO YOU HAVE ACHES AND PAINS? TOP
Infrared heat is widely used for the treatment of arthritis, rheumatism, and muscle spasms. Regular use of FIR saunas widens blood vessels and increases blood circulation, allowing more oxygen to reach injured areas. This reduces pain and speeds the healing process.
5. IT WORKS FOR ASTRONAUTS- PUMP YOUR HEART DOWN HERE TOP
In the 1980's, NASA researchers concluded that far infrared helped astronauts to maintain cardiovascular conditioning during long space flights. Back home, chronically ill patients who cannot get meaningful exercise have benefited tremendously from far infrared saunas. Heart rate, cardiac output, and metabolic rate all increase as the body cools itself by diverting blood from internal organs out to the extremities and skin.
Thirty minutes in the sauna will cause a temporary 1 to 3 degree F increase in your body temperature. This increase will trigger more white blood cells and more killer cells and thus improve your immune system. Fevers are nature's way of killing viruses, bacteria and fungi.
7. AGING SHOULDN'T EQUAL SICK TOP
In a toxic world, adding years means adding toxins. Millions of people have illnesses they attribute merely to "getting old," but these illnesses are actually years of accumulation of a variety of poisons inside their bodies. Anti-aging specialists are now working to detoxify their clients through far infrared saunas and super nutrition. You wouldn't drive your car without ever changing the oil- why would you allow poisons to build up in your body without ever working on getting rid of them?
Those ugly lumps near the surface of the skin are made of fat, water and waste products. Let the invisible light of far infrared start shaking that sludge loose, especially if diet and massage are also included in your program.
9. HELP YOUR BODY HEAL AND FEEL GOOD TOP
A final note. Doing the saunas nightly can simply make you feel better. Many of us know how good our bodies can feel the next day after we have gotten real exercise. It's amazing, but the sauna can give your body that wonderful feel, too! Every one that I have gotten to use a sauna continues to this day, unwilling to give it up!
LuxSauna is excited to bring you a new realm in achieving extraordinary health and relaxation. The Infrared LuxSauna Radiant Therapy Room promotes detoxification of heavy metals and toxins from the blood stream. It also increases circulation and oxygen supply to damaged tissues, relieves pain and operates at temperatures significantly less than Finnish sauna
11. HOW IS A SAUNA DIFFERENT FROM OTHER BATHS? TOP
A Sauna is an insulated room built of softwood along with a heater which is capable of heating the room to about 180 ° F. Stones are heated to a temperature hot enough to produce a light steam when a ladle full of water is poured over them. A Sauna is not a steam bath since steam is 100% humidity while a Sauna is relatively dry at about 20-25% average.
12. WHERE CAN A SAUNA BE INSTALLED IN A HOME? TOP
Anywhere that space permits. Popular locations are in an exercise area, master bathroom, near a shower, basement, garage, patio, or by a pool.
13. HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO INSTALL A SAUNA? TOP
LuxSauna's provide soothing heat, radiated directly to your body to assist in relieving pain, aches, and strains.
Infrared saunas offer their own unique features and benefits. Unlike a traditional sauna where temperatures range from 140° to 190°, infrared saunas range from 105° to 140°. These simple-to-assemble modular rooms heat quickly and penetrate deeply to alleviate muscle tension, induce deep relaxation and promote restful, satisfying sleep
A pre-built LuxSauna can take as little as 30 minutes to assemble and install from one of our infrared sauna kits.
14. SAUNA HISTORY AND BENEFITS TOP
The rich tradition of an authentic sauna - enjoyed by people throughout the world for over 2,000 years - has truly been perfected in America. Sauna, pronounced "sow (like how) nah", is the only Finnish word in the English dictionary, and it means "bath" and the "bathhouse." Sauna has been a way of life for over 2000 years in Finland, where it was invented. Finns who settled in Delaware in 1638 first brought the sauna to America, and one of their first saunas was built where the Philadelphia City Hall now stands. After 350 years, the sauna is more popular than ever and has become an established tradition for many people in America today.
The sauna offers many health benefits. Medical studies have shown that frequent sauna bathing helps reduce stress, keeps your system toned and eliminates body toxins through perspiration.
It is recommended that users take a shower prior to entering the sauna room. Before sitting or reclining on benches, place a towel under each person to absorb perspiration.
CLEANING
* Sweep or vacuum periodically (at least once a week if used heavily) to remove dirt, hair, etc.. from the sauna interior.
* Wipe walls where people have touched them (e.g. above benches, around doors, and controls) as needed. Use a damp cloth or sponge with a mild solution of soap and water and then rinse well with a damp cloth and plain water. DO NOT USE TOO MUCH WATER as the wood will tend to turn dark. NEVER hose down the interior of a sauna room.
CARE OF INTERIOR
* If the interior walls have been scratched or dented, they may be smoothed by a light hand sanding using fine grade sandpaper.
* If the wood has darkened (this usually takes a long time) it may be restored by applying a special chemical treatment. These stains are easily removed by using a solution of
1. 4 ounces Oxalic Acid Crystals per gallon of warm water
2. 1 cup of trisodium phosphate (TSP)
3. Use a NON-METALLIC container only.
Apply the solution to the entire area at one time, using a cloth or soft brush. When the wood dries, rinse with clear water. More than one application may be necessary.
CAUTION:
Oxalic Acid is poisonous and special precautions must be taken.
Wear goggles and rubber gloves and be careful not to let the acid or solution touch your skin or eyes.
NEVER apply paint, stain or other chemical finishes or sealant to the interior of the sauna. The heat of the oom may cause the surface to become too hot to the touch or cause toxic fumes to be released.
* Clean the sauna often to keep a fresh and well-maintained appearance.
* Use a bucket of warm water with a mild detergent soap and a clean sponge or rag to wipe the bench surfaces and floor.
* Avoid heavy detergents, they could discolor your wood or leave a residue, which could emit irritating or harmful fumes.
* Never ever turn a hose on the sauna to wash it down.
* Thompson's WaterSeal may be used on exterior paneling for outdoor saunas only.
16. INFRARED SAUNA EFFECTS ON CANCER TOP
Alternative Medicine Issue 37 September, 2000 Hyperthermia (InfraRed) and ElectrotherapyBy Harvey Kaltsas, D.O.M.,A.P.Janice wasn't flattered when the German shopkeeper congratulated her on the baby she looked about to deliver. For despite her severely swollen abdomen, Janice was not pregnant. She had advanced multi-drug resistant peritoneal cancer with an accumulation of fluid in her abdominal cavity. Janice had been told she was in the end stages of an eight-year battle that had started with ovarian cancer and metastasized into liver, colon and bladder cancer.Instead of preparing to bring new life into the world, Janice wanted to die, to put an end to her constant pain, suffering and hopelessness. Her doctors in the United States had given up on her. She was frankly sick of it all, ready to let her will ebb away and surrender. But at a friend's pleading, Janice made one last try at a cure by going to the Klinik St. Georg in Bad Aibling, Germany, outside of Munich. The clinic, known to English-speaking people as St. Georg Hospital, nestled in the foothills of the Alps, treats 2,500 German and 2,500 foreign patients a year and has developed a widespread, word-of-mouth following.Janice told me her story three weeks after she stated treatment at the clinic. With a joyous smile on her beautiful face- -and a stomach now flat- -she pronounced, "This is my favorite place in the whole world. I just love it here!" She said she was completely free of pain, and her energy had been restored.She received treatment according to a standard Klinik St. Georg cancer protocol: a week of detoxification and the strengthening of the immune system with diet and nutritional supplements, followed by two weeks of localized hyperthermia treatment and low-dose chemotherapy. Hyperthermia involves raising the temperature of the body area surrounding a malignant tumor, or in many cases, the whole body itself, to levels of heat and for periods of time lethal to the cancerous tissue but not injurious to other cells. Friedrich Douwes, M.D., of Klinik St. George has great success using a "synergy of treatments"- with special emphasis on the use of heat from far InfraRed radiation and direct electrical current as mainstays of his cancer-killing strategy.In Janice's case, the abdominal area was perfused with the chemotherapy agents cisplatain and carboplatin during hyperthermia treatment.
Because the treatment heated the abdominal cavity to 107 degrees Fahrenheit (41.7 Celsius) for one hour (IR treatment), the chemotherapy was able to penetrate the membranes of the cancer cells much more easily.
Thus Janice needed only half the normal dose of chemotherapy and suffered none of the usual side effects.About two months after treatment began, Janice informed me that she was continuing to improve and felt better than she had in years. Shortly thereafter, she no longer showed any sign of disease whatsoever. Her CA 125 cancer markers (a blood test measurement of the level of antigens produced by ovarian cancer cells) dropped from above 2,500 to the 100's and her health is now perfect. Janice says that, from talking with long-term cancer survivors she has met at Klinik St. Georg, and from her own experiences, she is convinced there is hope for permanent remission.Ideally, before persons with cancer seek chemotherapy, radiation or surgery, they should consult an alternative or complementary physician such as Professor Friedrich R. Douwes, M.D., Medical Director and founder of Klinik St. Georg. As an oncologist who integrates holistic with conventional approaches, Dr. Douwes is widely renowned for his successes. He has published numerous papers on alternative cancer treatments and is currently Vice President of the German Society of Oncology.Clinic patients have the opportunity to initiate detoxification, nutritional/herbal supplementation for immune modulation, exercise, positive thinking practices and psychotherapy, as well as hyperthermia and/or electrotherapy treatment. Dr. Douwes is bound by the canons of German medical ethics to also advise his German patients as to standard conventional chemotherapy's, and feels obligated to inform his international patients of every option open to them. But if his patients decline chemo, then he becomes their biological therapist. (ND in America)What a difference this approach is to that of many conventional oncologists who scare their patients with treatment imperatives that include threatening prognoses: "If you don't do this surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, you're going to die in so many months.
One of the long-term cancer survivors I met in Bad Aibling is Friedhelm, a former schoolteacher who couldn't wait to tell me his story. We talked on a couch in "Professor" Dr. Douwes' waiting room. Friedhelm was diagnosed in May 1993 with a non-small-cell lung tumor 12 centimeters by 6 centimeters (about 4.7 inches by 2.4 inches) in size. This type of cancer usually has a five-year survival rate of only 10%. Doctors told Friedhelm: "Go for chemo tomorrow. If you're very lucky, you'll survive six months. He knew of Dr. Douwes' reputation and effectiveness of his therapeutic protocols because his brother had gone to university with the doctor.In Friedhelm's words, his immune status at the start of treatment was "nothing, absolutely terrible." Dr. Douwes told him he couldn't start chemotherapy right away. He could not withstand the poisons. Like most patients, he had to build his body up first. Thus, for two weeks, he was given nutritional supplements and natural immune system modulators.From May to September 1993 Friedhelm had two cycles of low-dose chemotherapy with hyperthermia. Then in October he had radiation in Munich, nothing more. Buy the end of treatment he was cancer-free, and has been ever since. His other medical doctors are astonished and consider the case unexplainable. He suffered no hair loss from the chemotherapy, no nausea. In fact, except for a mildly reduced white blood cell count that his doctors attribute to the radiation in Munich, he had no side effects whatsoever."Most people call it a wonder.
I think it's a result of this therapy." Says Friedhelm. He points out that he now has more hair than he did ten years ago. He also observes that "in the past, before health insurance, if you were poor, you died soon. Now, if you're not informed, you die".Dr. Douwes says that killing malignant tumors is usually not difficult, and a synergy of treatments works best for that. The biggest challenge comes about afterwards, to keep tumors from coming back once patients leave the clinic and resume a normal lifestyle.
To prevent their reoccurrence one must keep the immune system strong with diet, exercise, nutritional supplementation and especially a positive mental attitude.Friedhelm has taken this advice to heart. He is on a regular supplementation program and visits Dr. Douwes faithfully four times a year for reassessment and cancer screening (early detection).
He says he retired from teaching and fulfilled a life-long dream of riding his motorcycle down Route 66 in the U.S.While in Bad Aibling, I met patient after patient who would not have considered undergoing more chemotherapy unless it was low dose chemo in combination with hyperthermia or electrotherapy.
Not only do these treatments reduce the amount of chemotherapy needed, but also they markedly reduce side effects from chemotherapy and radiation, and they allow for achieving much greater results. Dr. Douwes backs this bold statement by referring to many oncology studies, both in the laboratory and in actual patients.
Another one of Dr. Douwes' many success stories is Les M., an engineer from California who had prostate cancer. From his professional education he brings a skeptical, inquiring, scientific perspective to viewing various situations.
Before Les came to Klinik St. Georg for transurethal prostate hyperthermia treatment, he carefully reviewed the literature on different treatments. He chose the clinic after learning that local-region radio-wave hyperthermia has produced "fabulous results" (whereas the U.S. study of hyperthermia using microwaves cause patients agonizing urethral pain and made U.S. doctors thereafter shun the procedure).
Les was also impressed to learn how sophisticated the clinic's method of determining efficacy of treatment is. The traditional Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) test gives a high rate of false negatives (about 30%). Les had a particular from of aggressive form of aggressive prostate cancer that is not revealed by elevated PSA's. Klinik St. Georg also uses the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) technique to determine whether cancer cells are still circulating in the blood stream.Just Les before he was to go in for his first treatment. He sat in a comfortable upholstered chair with flexible radio-receiving plates affixed to each buttock. With local anesthesia he had a probe containing a tiny radio transmitter introduced through a transurethral catheter into his enlarged prostate.
Unlike the American protocol, which used high-energy microwaves that burned both cancerous and non-cancerous tissue alike, the Klinik St. Georg treatment employs short-wave radio transmissions. These heat the prostate area to between 113 and 158 degrees Fahrenheit and adversely affect only malignant cells. At times Les felt some discomfort during the treatment, as if he had to urinate, but otherwise the three-hour process was not traumatic, and he was asleep for much of the time. I interviewed Les fifteen minutes post-therapy, after his catheter was removed and he had urinated without pain or any burning sensation. He was positively joyful and downright playful. I received a call from Les Two months later, just as I was finishing writing this article. He had to tell me that he had just visited his previous two conventional oncologists. They performed the ultrasound imaging and digital rectal palpation that had revealed his cancer in the first place (later confirmed by biopsy). They found nothing: there was no evidence of cancer left. They could not perform a follow-up biopsy because there was no mass left to target.
19. A TRAIL BLAZER IN ONCOLOGY TOP
Dr. Douwes is a large, muscular bear of a man. He reminds me of a middle linebacker from the National Football League, or one of those undeniably self-confident athletes who says to his opponent, "You think you're tough. So bring it on. Show me what you've got." That's the doctor's attitude toward cancer, and his upbeat optimism sets the tone for the entire clinic.For the most part, clinic staff and patients alike are happy and at times ebullient. The setting probably helps, the clinic rivals any five-star hotel for comfort and accommodations, quality of food, service and majestic view.
The only morose patients I saw were those who had just recently begun treatment.
I assumed that they, too, would be soon infected by the good cheer freely shared among patients in the dining room and group therapy rooms. A patient with prostate cancer said to me that Klinik St. Georg "is the only cancer clinic I've ever been to where people laugh".Dr. Douwes was not always so upbeat. Following his training in oncology at medical schools in both the U.S. and Germany, he served as head physician of the oncology department at the University of Gottengen, where he got severely discouraged. "I decided after 10 years," he said "to either quit medicine or to become a landscape gardener, because I was so disappointed about the results in clinical oncology". "I had my first fight with the faculty after I was supposed to publish a paper about patients with non-small cell cancer of the lung. We had a double-blind study, one placebo group and one that received Adriamycin, Cytoxan and Oncovin. The results were that from the placebo group, the median survival rate was 9.6 months and in the treated group it was 13.4 months, and this was statistically significant. I was supposed to publish it because the pharmaceutical companies gave us a grant."
I told them that this may be statistically significant, but is was baloney. What does it mean? Three or four months. If you take into account that these people in treatment survived this experience only four months longer, then I was not going to publish it. They had a lousy life quality; they had to be hospitalized most of the time; they had more chemotherapy, more blood transfusions, and we actually stole several months of their lives from them."
They told me that if I wasn't going to publish the paper because it's insignificant, then they would cut our grants. This was the minute when I quit and said, " This is it. I cannot do it anymore because this is not the way to treat these people." So I slowly adopted complementary methods into my medicine besides conventional and still stay with conventional medicine because St.Georg is a fully licensed hospital.
All major insurance's pay and I somehow had to balance it and, therefore, we call it integrative medicine. We have practiced this now for 15 years." As soon as I adopted these methods, I became more and more successful, especially when I had the opportunity to introduce hyperthermia into our treatment and protocol. This was in 1983 and 1984, and my mentor was an American surgeon, the late Dr. Harry Levine. Also, there was Dr. Rudi Falk from Toronto, also deceased. They were the first I met with experience in hyperthermia. Later we made our own machines, and at the moment I think we are now the leading such hospital in the world because we have all varieties of hyperthermia."
20. HYPERTHERMIA AND ELECTROTHERAPY TOP
"There are no other treatments I know," Dr. Douwes says, "that have such a high specificity to kill and inactivate cancer as hyperthermia and electrotherapy." These two methods form what Dr. Douwes calls "the new strategy," which he anticipates will become a mainstay of conventional cancer therapy in the near future. "They have few side effects and are absolutely cancer specific."Dr. Douwes showed a study by the European society for Hyperthermic Oncology on the five-year survival rates of patients with malignant melanoma. Only 28% of those treated with radiation alone survived five years. Whereas in the group treated with both radiation and hyperthermia, 46% were alive after five years.
Keep in mind that these studies were performed by conventional oncologists who added only hyperthermia to their standard treatment protocols. Nothing was done to support their patient's well being and immune systems.
Unlike Klinik St. George, they did not use detoxification regimens, biological dentistry, special diets, nutritional supplements, exercise programs like yoga and swimming, sessions in the hot tub and mud baths, lymphatic drainage massage, and visits with a staff psychologist for positive imaging. They were able to nearly double five-year survival rates for melanoma patients by using hyperthermia once a week with conventional radiation treatment.
In another trial with late-stage, therapy resistant ovarian cancer patients who had undergone multiple previous courses of chemotherapy (in some cases up to eight), 69.2% responded positively to a combination of chemotherapy and hyperthermia, and 15.5% went into remission.
In a Klinik St.Georg trial, 36 patients with advanced multi-drug resistant breast cancer were treated with whole-body hyperthermia, chemotherapy, anti-hormone treatment and local region hyperthermia. The positive response rate was 66.4%, of whom 13 patients (36.1%) went into remission. No change was noted in 11 patients (30.5%).
23. INFRARED HEAT AND CORONARY EFFECT TOP
Infrared Heat and Coronary Effect Finnish researchers, reporting the regular use of saunas state "there is abundant evidence to suggest that blood vessels of regular sauna-users remain elastic and pliable longer due to the regular dilation and contraction" of blood vessels induced by sauna use.
A group of hypertensive patients was studied using far infrared saunas, to carefully evaluate the effects on the circulatory system. With each infrared session, there was a decrease of blood pressure, cardiac ejection resistance, and total peripheral resistance in every subject. There was also a significant increase of heart rates, stroke volumes, cardiac outputs and ejection fractions.
The researchers cite these last three effects as evidence that stimulation of the heart during infrared induced hypothermia is well-compensated, while the prior list of effects show clear detail of the microcirculatory changes leading to the desired result of lowering blood pressure.
