My Experience with Saunas

My copy has been in the sauna with me so many times it is falling apart!

I’ve always loved saunas. But I never used them therapeutically until I came across studies that proved the detoxification effects are real. In 2008 I bought a Sunlight Sauna and really enjoyed the sessions. Then I found out about the electromagnetic fields it produced and couldn’t get past that so I sold it. By then I had learned about the work of Dr. Larry Wilson, who wrote Sauna Therapy (which I highly recommend). I ordered the near infrared bulbs to make my own sauna and this is the one I still use today.

Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt, M.D., a well-known doctor in the field of chelation and detoxification, wrote this:

"Since hyperthermic sauna therapy removes metal contaminants from the body, we have found that it may be used to further the benefits derived from chelation therapy. And we have also found that it may be an alternative for those who are unable to undergo chelation. Research conducted by U.S. scientists has demonstrated that close to 80% of individuals with chronic fatigue syndrome will improve markedly by a guided detoxification program. We combine this approach with hyperthermic therapy using the far-infrared sauna, as well as exercise and chelation. The results we are seeing are very promising."

Building my DIY near infrared sauna as per Dr. Wilson’s instructions

Below are journal entries chronicling my journey into sauna therapy. (At the beginning of this time I was trying NDF to remove metals, but didn't keep that up for very long.) The main gist is that I wanted to sweat out heavy metals, and still do. I always feel warm, calm and relaxed after a sauna session. I am quite happy I have this healing tool in my arsenal. In fact, I need to make sauna therapy one of this site’s main pages along with qigong and the others, because it is so helpful for one’s health. You do need to build time up slowly though, or you may get super-fatigued in the beginning, which is what happened to me.

1.27

Still quite tired. Am taking NDF for mercury but to help detox it would be good to sweat I read. But I never sweat because I’m too tired to exercise. So maybe I really do need a far infrared sauna to sweat my metals and pesticides and toxins out. I found this today on the NDF/BioRay site:

"I've found that I can handle a 50% larger dose of NDF when taken 1-2 hours before a 60min sauna, without a healing overload. Why is this?"

Mobilzing the toxins with detox agents is only one part of the detox process. We also need to focus on being able to open up pathways so toxins can leave the body. We need to make sure the bowels are moving efficiently every day and we need to increase our liquid intake to make sure toxins are able to be flushed out through the kidneys. As well as maintaining proper liver support. If you don't have the ability to excrete the toxins these detox agents are mobilizing, then you will experience the detox reactions and your detox process will be slow and inefficient. During chelation it's important to support the kidneys and the liver but we can take a tremendous load off these overburdened organs by opening up an exit channel through the skin. Our skin contains sweat glands and oil glands, both of which help us move things through the skin. Sweat gets rid of water-soluble toxins, and helps to eliminate toxic heavy metals. Oil glands help remove oil- soluble toxins such as gasoline, solvents, and pesticides.

Infrared sauna increases circulation which helps the blood bring in nutrients and remove toxins. And the deep penetration of the infrared energy allows the cells to eliminate better. When you use every tool in the body to facilitate the detox process, you will see an increase in elimination and a decrease in detox reactions which means tolerating higher doses of detox agents. The NDF's and sauna will assist one another. In clinic, we found that giving NDF's before and/or during sauna treatment is best. Taking a hot and cold shower, before and after will help to increase circulation. Make sure that you wipe the sweat off with a towel while you are in the sauna. This will help to bypass some of the reabsorption. Also, taking in a cold cup of good water in the sauna and drinking while you're in there will help to replace the fluids you are sweating out.

I hope this is helpful.

Tami

1.31

I ordered a sauna. It comes in two weeks. From Sunlight Saunas. Infrared. Very excited. I had an email exchange with a woman who bought from them and she is very pleased with the sauna:

Hi Amanda,

I just want to let you know that I have had a Far Infrared Sauna for about a year now. I Love it! My autistic and seizure prone son also goes in there. I feel it is a real benefit. I researced them out and have found Sunlight Saunas to be top notch. You can get balsam wood that has no smell and does not gas off. I ended up with the redwood and we have no problem with it. The other wood is specific for ones that cannot tolerate anything. Good company and great product.

2.4

Started sauna about a week ago, the one at the gym. Hot air sauna. I’m doing this until my far infrared Sunlight sauna comes. Got a butt muscle pain in the sauna yesterday, just lying there. It got bad for the next hour or two then started to subside and this am don't feel it much at all. My Sauna Therapy book says that aches and pains that are temporary can be part of the detoxification. I generally feel good although this am a little tired so I'll have some tea.

My far infrared sauna will be here in a couple of weeks. It is so wonderful that I got a bonus from work and then decided to go for the sauna. AND they were having a sale so it's costing 2700 bucks including shipping. I feel very very lucky to afford this.

Sauna therapy thus far IS making me more tired than usual. I could nap each day easily but cannot due to work. The best I can do is take a sauna 2-3 nights a week and go to sleep when I can.

2.6

So much to do at work and at home. Cannot keep up, have to accept. At least I am saunaing at the gym every two days. Last night it was me and about ten guys sitting around. Two of them were talking about CT scans and colonoscopies and colon cancer and I had to chime in because I wanted to hear about what peoples' colons looked like. The med student had only seen 15 colonoscopies so he couldn't answer my question.

My feet and hands are cold still which I learned could be a symptom of toxicity. Saunas are good for building yang, which is great because I'm yang deficient and my organs are congested and my circulation needs improving so I'm psyched for my sauna to come.

2.14

My SAUNA came and is waiting for me at home in massive boxes RIGHT NOW and tonight I can set it up. I am so excited. What if this is a major piece of the puzzle?! Get rid of metals, pesticides and other chemicals, chronic hidden infections, uncongest my organs, shunt blood to my skin with increased circulation. It takes years though. There are layers and layers of toxins. The guy at Sunlight Saunas said that I should feel a difference in the first week. However Larry Wilson, who wrote Sauna Therapy, says detox reactions do occur. Many happened to him. So many that it sounded like he didn't feel good for the years he was detoxing. I will let you know.

2.21

I sit here at work. It's February. I have a heater under my desk and it blows up at my face and makes my contacts dry. I sit in a cubicle. I have to look at my screen all day every day. This is sort of like factory work except I’m not standing at a conveyor belt and the only noise I hear is that of people coughing and the hum of the high-tech wiring in the building and my little heater blowing at me.

I have done six far infrared sauna sessions. My sauna arrived six days ago. I am in there for an hour. I start sweating about forty minutes into it. I want to sweat more but read that it can take weeks or months to start sweating sooner and more. Everywhere I read I see to stay in the sauna no more than 30 minutes max in the beginning or else too great of a healing reaction will occur. It hasn't occured yet.

I worry of course about electromagnetic fields so I wear the Q-Link pendant during the day and in the sauna.

My latest passionate interest is detoxing from chemicals, radiation (I had scores of x-rays as a teen because of my scoliosis and spine surgery) and oh yes ten years of chemicals from major partying from age 15-25. My main complaint? Fatigue. Which I read is often from toxicity. I have taken all these supplements in the past to try and find the missing nutrition and here I am realizing, or betting at least, that I need to get things OUT of my body instead.

Dr. Larry Wilson, author of Sauna Therapy, writes that sauna sessions will slowly bring the toxins out. 2, 3 years of daily use. I just ordered L. Ron Hubbard's book Clear Body Clear Mind which incorporates a nine day program of a half hour of running followed by four hours of a hot air sauna session plus multi vitamins and minerals. I guess what I'm looking for is more info on far infrared sauna treatment, which is the type of sauna I have.

It's interesting because I did the hot air sauna at the gym for two weeks and I was feeling pretty happy. Then I started the infrared and my happiness has gone down a bit. If I do get a healing crisis don't worry, I will welcome it because it will mean that I am changing things. Maybe I'll get stoned while the pot comes out, like when you retrace with LSD residues as they exit.

How do I know sauna therapy will work for me? I am tall and thin and always cold. Cold hands and feet. Cold intolerance. Don't like winter. Want to move to Puerto Rico. After a sauna session my hands and feet are warm. I feel comfortable although a little chilly in my 66 degree bedroom after my post-sauna shower. So I believe that the sauna heat makes the blood leave your internal organs and get to the extremities and skin. My face looks better after a session - younger and healthier. Circulation is improved and you don't need to have to do exercise to achieve that. Which is good cause I'm not getting any exercise. It's too cold outside. Have I mentioned I don't like cold?

Oh yeah and brain fog has increased the last few days. In fact someone just called me here at work and said a bunch of stuff about teen kids news and something else and at the end of it I said wait can you say that all again and go slow and I'll write it all down? I need to write everything but it's been that way for a long time! Wouldn't it be amazing if me and L. Ron Hubbard got the pot out of our bodies and my mind became incredibly clear?

I am on a search for health, it is so true. Ask anyone who knows me. Friends, family, some of them think I'm nutso. Or maybe not so nutso anymore since the truth about this stuff (our toxic environment) is slowly coming out. Anyway I remain strong and committed and confident that there is a way to feel better.

A welcomed change from sauna therapy so far in this early stage is increased bowel movements. Two a day without any aid like Magnesium Calm. This I attribute to the increased circulation so that my digestive and eliminative organs function better.

Here is a list of symptoms I'd like to see gone soon:

fatigue (usually in afternoons/evenings)

no libido

cold a lot

cold hands and feet

brain fog

poor memory

no desire to use rebounder

veiny hands

sun damage on face

3.7

After my sauna today I noticed an itchy bumpy rash by lower left jaw. Same thing happened yesterday. I checked my notes back in early 1999 when I got the amalgams removed and the root canal tooth put in that soon became infected and I got the same itchy rash in the same place. Right now that left way back jaw area is pulsating like it knows I'm talking about it.

3.28

Depressed. Dr. Larry Wilson, sauna therapy guy, says sometimes when body gets a little energy then depression can happen because before there was not even enough energy for that. Whatever,  I'm just so apathetic.

4.2

Chronic fatigue. Is how I feel lately. Skinny and veiny and fatigued. This could be the healing reaction from my sauna therapy. After reading Dr. Wilson's article on adrenal burnout I realize what's best for me is to rest more. Do less. Try for nine hours of sleep. Do only 45 minutes in the sauna.

5.9

Depressed today and tonight. Hope it’s just PMS. So tired of feeling tired and down. Such an effort to climb stairs, feel so heavy, never want to play with Harry. Concerned now about emfs again. Sunlight Saunas say their saunas put out 30-50 milligauss on contact. But my back is an inch from the solocarbon heaters. On Wednesday, an emf expert guy will give me a phone consult about the electromagnetic situation in my house and sauna. I found him online. And soon my 35 dollar gauss meter will arrive, hopefully in time for our talk. He recommended that I get this one, from lessemf.com. It measures elf, like from computers and power lines. I just feel in my bones and gut that my work environment is wrong. Wifi is wrong. So soon I'll know levels. I should have done this a while ago. Won’t worry now until I know levels. 1mG is considered safe for constant exposure.

How could a sauna company that's intent on helping sick people make saunas with 50 mG radiation? People are in there for an hour sometimes, day after day.

12.21

I sold my sauna. When we get back from England Noah will help me build a near infrared lamp one like Dr. Wilson recommends. Dr. Mchaney says to use four near infrared bulbs, not three. Looking forward to that. I wrote a letter to Sunlight Saunas, describing, with references to emf studies, why I’d like to return it, even though I loved every other aspect of it. They said no. So I sold it. A 50 mG field for each hour session day after day is no good for me.

5.25

Lots of pimples on face. I think it’s from three straight nights of 30 minutes of infrared lamp sauna that I set up a few months ago (Dr. Wilson's design - works well). Last night I skipped it, too tired and it was too late. Tonight it's late but going to do it. The sauna does make me tired though.

8.29

Sauna: didn't do it today because of exhaustion yesterday. It gets really hot in there, which of course I love because I sweat more, but maybe it's too hot? Way over 120 degrees. Dr. Mchaney says to keep it at 110, that too much heat zaps your energy. It's just so hot in my house that the sauna heats up quite easily! Today it was 90 degrees in here.

9.2

I did 35 minutes of sauna yesterday. Then I felt great the whole rest of the day - happy and great. In the back of my mind I kept thinking - is this the beginning of a healing crisis, where I feel great and then sink down for the next two days or so? And today I'm tired and not as happy.

9.5.09

Did sauna for 32 minutes. Was hot tonight. I love how great blood circulation makes me feel so good after that shower - flexible, fit, revived but calm. Oh and warm, love it.

9.16

Here's what Dr. McHaney wrote about my fungal skin infection:

I consulted with Dr. Wilson about your rash, he suggested to cut out all sugars such as fruit, fruit juice, and other sugars. The sugars feed the fungus. He said that you are getting well and that this is probably a healing process. If you can, put up with it until it goes away. He is not against you seeing a dermatologist, but thought that oral medication might cause other side affects. Keep doing your sauna's they are very beneficial.

10.22

McHaney and Wilson recommend 2 saunas a day, 40 minutes. It’s hard to take that much time. I've been doing 30 minutes once a day so my first step is getting back up to 40 minutes once a day.

12.4

Still doing 40 minutes of sauna a day but hope to increase that to two times a day after this work project is done. I get hit by extreme fatigue at times and have to lie down and take a quick half hour nap. I always wake up after the same amount of time, like my body just needs some serious hard-core rest for 30 minutes and then it can go on.

ADDENDUM, A FEW YEARS LATER: I continue to use this homemade near infrared lamp sauna. I love that it's portable and bare-bones. I used Dr. Larry Wilson's design. I still feel great after using it, definitely calmer. I do sauna session of about 30 minutes and try to sweat as much as I can. Sometimes I take hot tea in with me to facilitate this. I rotate, as he suggests, every five or so minutes so that more blood moves more. If I were to use it more often than once every few nights, I would probably experience fatigue.  But I don't, so I don't. I highly recommend adding sauna therapy to your detox arsenal!