An Introduction To Far Infrared
What is Far Infrared?
Imagine it is a typically cold and cloudy day. You feel the chill in the air then suddenly, the clouds part for a moment revealing and the sun. The sunshine breaks through the clouds and beams down onto your skin, you feel a pleasant surge of warmth and heat. This feeling is the far infrared band of light penetrating your skin.
Infrared light makes up part of the spectrum of sunlight. Unlike visible rays, which make up the seven colours of the rainbow, infrared light is classed as an invisible light. Isolating this light wave for therapeutic use ensures all the natural healthy benefits of sunshine omitting any of the harmful effects of solar radiation.
When infrared light penetrates our skin, it causes the molecules to vibrate which produces heat causing a rise in our bodies core temperature. These rays deeply penetrate the skin helping our bodies to metabolise toxins, restore your cells and ease tension in the body.
This type of infrared light wave provides the most effective and penetrative form of therapeutic radiant light. Any sauna you decide to purchase should have far infrared light as its main emitter, as this is the true powerhouse of any therapeutic light/heat therapy.
Why Choose Far Infrared?
An infrared sauna heats up your body directly using a far infrared light source, without heating up the atmosphere around you creating a more pleasant environment. A traditional sauna will heat up the air around you, water is poured onto heated sauna stones to create steam and increase humidity.
Some people find infrared sauna heat to be more comfortable as the air stays cooler and drier by comparison to a traditional sauna, but the infrared sauna still retains the same ability to effectively raise your core body temperature allowing for all the associated therapeutic benefits.
A huge advantage of sauna usage is their ability to cause the body to react in the same way it would do to moderate exercise, for example an increased heart rate and sweat production. Infrared saunas produce this result at lower temperatures which make it far more accessible for people who find it difficult to tolerate the heat of a traditional sauna.
Comparing Far Infrared Saunas
Traditional Saunas
A traditional sauna will heat up the air around you, water is poured onto heated sauna stones to create steam and increase humidity. Traditional saunas are not as efficient as the far infrared type, with the heat being distributed unevenly throughout the sauna.
Ceramic Saunas
The heat produced by a typical ceramic sauna is considered a shallow heat. This targets a limited area and does not provide the overall feeling of warmth associated with other types of sauna. Heat retention is also less efficient.
Far Infrared Saunas
Far infrared saunas provide large wavelength and invisible light energy which penetrate deep within the body, unlike other types of sauna which create surface heat. When infrared light penetrates our skin, it causes the molecules to vibrate which produces heat causing a rise in our bodies core temperature. These rays deeply penetrate the skin helping our bodies to metabolise toxins, restore your cells and ease tension in the body.