Infrared heat therapy uses the same far infrared technology heat that comes from our planet’s most abundant and natural source of heat, the Sun. Here’s an example of how infrared heat is different than other heat sources: Typically, when we heat our bodies, whether in a sauna, a hot yoga class (quite popular now), or even in our homes, we heat the air surrounding our bodies to increase our surface and ultimately our core temperatures. With infrared heat, it’s the exact opposite. The objects in line with infrared waves of heat are being warmed while the air temperature remains the same.
For instance, if you have ever been out on a nice, warm, sunny, dry day and for a moment needed to cool down, you might go into a shaded area under a tree. If you stay there, you will cool down and once you want a little more warmth again you return to the sunny area. This is exactly how infrared heat works. Remember how the sun gives off these infrared waves of heat. Well, by stepping in and out of the sun’s waves, you are directly moving in and out of your exposure to its infrared spectrum. Meanwhile, the entire time the air temperature has remained the same.
How infrared heat therapy works as an effective health modality is that it creates vasodilation in the body, the expansion of the blood capillaries. This has a beneficial effect on muscles, joints and soft tissue by helping to increase the supply of oxygen and nutrients to the body and help it eliminate carbon dioxide and metabolic waste. When the blood vessels widen, blood pressure decreases and our circulation increases!
Dr. Mehmet Oz points toward the infrared sauna as a tremendous alternative health tool. He states: “It makes the same rays that come from the sun and filters out the UV radiation, so it only gives you the infrared radiation. That radiation that’s infrared goes a little bit into your skin so, without heating you up and the external environment too much, it heats the body up.”
Infrared heat is now being used in modern yoga studios on Long Island and the New York area as an alternative heat source for hot yoga classes. Not to be mistaken for the heat generally used in most studios where the air is cranked up in combination with humidity to create extreme temperatures up to 120 degrees, infrared heat is a far more subtle, gentle and visionary approach to detoxifying in a hot yoga class.
Source: Greg Fine, owner of Fuel the Soul yoga studio. Location: 188 Merrick Rd., Merrick. For more information, call 516-379-0810 or visit FuelTheSoul.com.
