Inside The Healing Power Of Light And Heat

Welcome to the Summit 0:00

So a warm welcome back to the Reversing Alzheimer's Summit. I'm James Maskell. I'm one of the hosts here. And throughout this week, we are taking you to the most critical information that you need to know to reverse and prevent Alzheimer's cognitive decline. And I'm really excited today to get into a topic that's mission critical. If you have seen the data or if you follow some of the big podcasts, you will have come to understand the relationship between sweating and particularly around sauna and the incidence of cognitive decline.

And this might be the most important talk that you listen to on the whole summit, because ultimately the data is that compelling. And so I'm really grateful to have Connie Zach here to come and talk us through it. Welcome, Connie. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. I'm happy to be here. So I just want to start off by saying that, you know, this this whole event is about cognitive decline, and it's really valuable. But, when I, 20 years ago, I moved to America to work in the integrative medicine functional medicine world, and I work for a clinic in rural Georgia.

And it was a med spa, basically. So they had sort of functional integrative medicine being delivered by a doctor. And then we had massage and we had all these different therapies, because my family had been involved in, in the day spa industry before the functional medicine industry took off. And we had a sunlight and sauna in 2005, in one of the rooms.

Why Infrared Sauna Matters for Brain Health 1:29

And my I used to go, I used to sneak in after work on the nights that I would close up, my then girlfriend, now wife, I would say, hey, come over to the spa. We'd lock up the whole spa and we'd sit in the sunlight in a sauna for, you know, half an hour or 40 minutes or whatever. And it was kind of a fun experience because not only was was it healthy, but, you know, there's a certain intimacy that's created by sitting in a room that's designed for two people with one other person, and so I remember, you know, that to this day.

So I have you to thank for, my happy, but I love that story. That's a great story. And I love I mean, there's not a lot of people that, I get to here date back to 2005. So thank you for sharing that. Well, so many things that were sort of cutting edge then or bleeding edge are now sort of entering the mainstream. And I think sauna ING is, is one of those things. And we're going to specifically talk about, you know, red lights on on infrared sauna. So why don't we just, you know, start and obviously this, this, this summit is all about, cognitive decline.

And maybe we could just start there to just anchor this in on how critical a topic this is. And you know, why you guys are wanting to, you know, be part of this summit and why you think it's important to get the information out to this particular audience. Yeah. So thank you. So, I think one of the reasons that it's so important for people to understand the value of the infrared spectrum, and I use the word spectrum because I, a lot of people don't understand that there's, there's, 3 to 4 different parts of the spectrum, which is different parts of the different aspects of wavelength and different transfers of energy that impact your body and your cells and your systems in different ways.

So it's way more complicated than just a heat source that you sit in and sweat. Like there's so much more in detail. And one of the things that's super important to, to me, is to helping people understand the impact on the brain and the impact, that infrared can, in a very gentle, safe, place environment in the comfort of your own home. You know, you can go in and you can introduce your body to these three, you know, to have four different wavelengths, or you can just do one. So that is an option. Two, you don't have to do all of them.

So let me have a disclaimer. You can if you just did one I would do far infrared and you can and I can explain why if you want.

How Infrared and Red Light Work 4:06

But, you know, I like to start at ideal, right. Like what's, you know, what's what's the ideal situation? The ideal would be, you know, what's behind me, which is impulse, which has far infrared men, infrared, near infrared and red light therapy. And each one of those wavelengths impacts the brain in different ways. But to answer your question specifically, it's important because, there's there's so much data and research that people don't know about. Number one. Number two, the whole issue of mental wellness.

So the guest, you know, we're talking about cognitive decline. There's also the aspect of just people anxiety and and you know, people just getting so caught up and not able to think, you know, clear. And so I'll just, you know, chat about that as well. And that's really important because, you know, we've created our own sunlight and personal sanctuary where you have the space to give yourself the opportunity to heal yourself safely and naturally with using infrared energy, you know, with your brain, with your cognitive function to come out, what I call on the other side, like, literally, you come out stronger, healthier, more energy, head clear, happier, you know, than you did when you went in.

Beautiful. Well, I know like in the, in the so traditional Finnish sauna, there's a lot of data on the number of songs you have every week, and then the impact on your chances of getting, brain, related illnesses. You know, in these different four spectrum and these different light sources across the spectrum. Do you think there's there's extra benefits beyond just the sweating? Yes, I do, I, I'm sweating is big. Sweating is great. But for example, there's tons of, of data with near-infrared, which is an invisible part of light, infrared, spectrum.

It's invisible. And in order to receive it therapeutically, you have to convert it from heat into light energy. And so you have it you receive it by LEDs. And same thing with red light therapy. And there's lots, lots of data on Alzheimer's and brain function and cognitive function, with using those light energies on the brain, the majority specifically, while we're talking about that, is that near infrared is the most therapeutic of the two, between Nir and, red because near infrared penetrates, deeper than red does.

So, but then when you work them synergistically and combine them, then you get the best of both worlds. Yeah. I mean, I've seen actually, doctors on the cutting edge in, in this world use sort of helmets with the red light coming through. So it's sort of a combination of the sauna and something like that.

Mechanisms: Circulation, Detox, and Relaxation 6:54

Exactly. But the great thing is you can you can sit inside and you can literally you don't have to be. What we're learning this is kind of cutting edge news. I fact, I've never said this on a podcast before. But what we're learning from our medical advisor, Doctor Hamlett, who is, you know, the world's renowned expert on infrared is you don't have to when it comes to photo bio modulation, which is near infrared and red lines. And so somebody wanted to do more research. You could just you know, research photo by a modulation or PBM, which is a shortcut for that.

You don't have to be directly in front of it in order to receive the energy. So if you're inside the sauna, you're going to receive that transfer of energy, you know, into your body and get the transformational benefits. So which is an important, you know, data. We always thought we had to be right next, you know, to it. And, and it helps. But it's not a necessity, for the transfer for the body to receive it. Interesting. Okay. Well, yeah. Tell us, tell us a little bit about, you know, what you guys have been up to and what you've learned.

I know, you know, it's important to you to make a great product, but I also know that you have taken strides to really understand what's happening. So what's happening when you sit in a sauna and what's happening, what are the mechanism of action by which this helps the brain? Yeah. So we'll start with, we'll start with the heat source, which was the farm Fred, in the mid infrared. And those wavelengths, go and are absorbed into your cells. The deepest part is actually absorbed into your body. The deepest, and it works instantly with your water molecules and your mitochondria, and you start to see the change of structure in your cells.

So that you get this movement and flow. And I mention that because how that impacts your brain is you get this change where it starts to increase, you know, your heart rate, the blood flow, the oxygen throughout your body. So you're getting your nitric oxide, you're getting all of this, these different what I call happy chemicals, you know, start this this move around and change and all that comes up to your brain. So your brain like completely starts to go from a stuck like, can't think, can't function to a dysfunctional aspect and it starts to loosen up and lighten up.

You're getting more oxygen to, you know, to the brain. And, as a result, you think clear. You get rid of the, the mind fog, you know, and you feel better because you're, you know, you don't have that, that, stuck aspect. You know, also there's the aspect of stress that, you know, prevents the brain from functioning at optimal levels. And we know for sure that infrared energy, the way is working with your body helps to control you, know, your your hormones and helps to bring down the body, you know, from the fight or flight state into the relaxed state.

And when you do that, as you you know, you think clearer, you know, and you're able to restore function because your body is at a relaxed state. And when it does that, it's the domino effect. Because then, then you receive more improved energy into your body. You started to do more and you start, you just really start this biochemical cascade of, events that impact every single system. So yes, we're talking about the brain, but it really does. You need you need the flow, you know, change, you know, with your blood and your oxygen in order to impact the brain.

Right? You also need you you need, help with all of your, all of your organs as far as decreasing inflammation and promoting detoxification in order to help the brain. There's a definitely connection between your gut and your brain. We know that for sure. And if you're a God, if you have tons of toxins and, and, gut issues and, you know, microbial issues, you know, with your gut, then your brain, you're going to have dysfunctional connection. And with, sunlight and sauna, the infrared energy with that increase in core temperature is starts to produce a level of sweat.

Also, even as you're rising the core temperature, that movement is moving. Everything around. So it's helping aid with your liver's and your kidneys and getting things out of your body. I mean, there's, you know, there's a buzz study that just, really spoke to infrared versus traditional saunas versus exercise. And it talked a lot. The data showed the power of infrared through promoting really hard toxins, really, to get out of the body, such as mercury, cadmium, lead, arsenic. You know, it's a, you know, easy way to do that sitting inside there.

So are we getting rid of all those chemicals and all those toxins helps to promote, you know, better cognitive function for sure. Beautiful. So what I hear you saying is that there's some part of it that has the functionality of removing the toxins.

Cellular Repair and Cognitive Support 12:15

And that's probably a key mechanism of action, certainly an option yourself, where, you know, one of the six, pillars of, brain health or, sorry, one of the six, subsets, a root cause of what drives brain dysfunction are toxins. So there's that that element there's some element there from the red light, red light waves as well, that is penetrating and having a beneficial effect on the brain. And then you sort of mentioned there's this third thing too, which is that you're actually in a profoundly relaxing environment and you're giving yourself a sort of, an autonomic break.

Can you talk to that? I mean, you mentioned how you feel about, like, having a sauna in your house and what it means to be in there for a, you know, have a long minutes per day. What are your clients say about about the experience of being in, being in an environment that is dedicated to your healing? I guess the clients, they, they come out feeling a lot better than they went in. I mean, you know, Leann Rimes calls it her, you know, box and box of happiness because, you know, a lot of people are running around, you know, trying to, you know, manage everything, all the different balls in the air.

And it's very stressful, you know, and it's nice to know that there's a place where you can go to completely de-stress and not only are you, like, physically going inside so that you are physically away from everything, but you actually scientifically and energetically are doing something that's so good for you. That is not only helping all of your other systems, but you know it's helping to completely relax you so that your brain can think so much clearer. I mean, I can tell you all the stories that we receive from people about creativity that they receive after, you know, a 30 minute sauna session.

Because all of a sudden, like all these things, like every, every all your neurons and, your cognitive function is firing at such optimal performance that it's allowing your brain to think of, oh, gosh, I had that one, that one presentation I was going to do. Now you start to like, enter in the thoughts and ideas on on how to do that, you know, most effectively. I will also say, because we were talking about the different ways that infrared helps in addition to everything, that you did a beautiful job summarizing, there's also the aspect of, cellular senescence.

So the zombie cells. So we know for sure infrared helps with the, five hallmarks of aging. And the way I know we're not talking about aging, but one aspect that does of, hallmarks of aging that does lead to cognitive, you know, issues is when your cells are not able to repair, restore, or, regenerate, you know, in your brain, and the, you know, they're known as zombie cells, which stay, stay on inside your brain and they don't they don't move and they don't leave. And they just, like, cause distractions and, to other healthy cells, infrared acts as a zombie slayer or gets the zombie.

I'm really into the word flow. So you'll hear me say the you know, it kind of just helps. The blood helps. So like, I always think of traffic and and it's stuck and you just need, like, a magic wand, somebody to come and move everything out of the way. And infrared does that with those, those cells, the zombie, cells that are refusing to exit are refusing to to regenerate and, allows them to, to renew. And when that happens, then, you know, you're able to have, you know, more healthy cells enter because you need to have that, you know,

Sauna Practices for Mental Clarity 15:49

in order to have cognitive function at its optimal performance. Cool. What do you what do you recommend that people do in the sauna? Because I know, you know, some of have like a TV and then, you know, I've tried reading in there, but like the first ten minutes is fine and then your hands are so sweaty it gets all over the book. You know, you can listen to podcasts. Is it better? It's just to be in there with your own thoughts. What do you think, people should be doing in in the sauna? Yeah. I think especially for this summit, I, you know, that's an excellent question.

And I would really want people to tailor their sunlight experience to what they're trying to achieve on a cognitive level. So, you know, if it is to, you know, treating Alzheimer's or if it is, you know, you know, depression or different type of issues, then I would want to have it stack with the sunlight specifically in that regard and use it as a place to multi-task but not task. That's tasks like work. They are, venues to be able to provide better brain function. For example, meditation, breathwork.

I mean, we know we know for sure that doing different types of breath work, there's all sorts of different, you know, models out there, ones that people you know, subscribe to and do. And I have my, my own, like little arsenal as well, but it is 100% certain that when you take a moment and you pause and you do some deep breathing and some breathwork, your head and your brain is going to function, you know better. And that's something that you can do really easily while you're inside your, your, you know, sunlight and infrared sauna.

So that would be so breathwork, meditation, you know, journaling would be good just to get things that are in your head, out of your head, you know, writing down your goals because that's part of achieving the goals, you know, is, is making them, you know, more memorializing them and making them known. Maybe listening to another app for the for this group is I would really encourage listening to, I mean sound as a frequency as well, just like infrared. Right. So there's different frequencies of energy and sound is one of those.

So I'm a huge believer in sound therapy. And so I lean into into that as well. And get your brain disengaged. Because the more you can do that with other modalities, the more infrared energy you're going to absorb into your cells and you're going to heal your body faster. Then if if there's a conflict and if your brain's not able to to relax and to receive all this wonderful natural healing energy, then it's going to take your process longer. Beautiful, I love that. Well, you know, one of the things that that we're seeing as a best practice in, in, you know, creating healthy habits is habit stacking.

And as well as all of the things that are happening, the synergistic layers of impact that are happening through the sunlight. And if you can add in things that are healthy, as well, while you're in there, like some of the things that you mentioned, you have an extremely, healthy new habit. I wanted to ask you. And I know, you know, obviously most people are buying these saunas and having them in their home, and that's ideal. But there is a big, sort of growth in what I would call the social wellness movement, where there's a lot more, businesses that, putting in, you know, sauna and cold plunges and creating like, public spheres to do these kind of things.

Community Wellness and Social Sauna Spaces 19:38

And I guess I just love to see, like, what's been your take on that? And what do you think, do you think there's I feel like there's a, a social component that can be quite healthy as well. I completely agree, completely agree. And I would reference the blue zones and all of the data that I mean, one of the things that, was discovered when, you know, analyzing what type of people live longer and where do they live and what's important about where they live and what do they do and etc. is one of the most important aspects is a sense of community, you know, and being able and community in connection, heart to heart connection, acute when people are happier, they feel better and they live longer.

And if you can create an environment where they're happier and healthier and connect because people do get happier by through connections, and a lot of times with connections, you'd have to go to a social place. Like you said, there's there's so many now, and I, I love the fact that they're creating these places that are kind of a one stop right, with lots of different types of modalities and lots of different options and resources for people to come in, and then they can share their experiences, they can connect with somebody else.

Maybe there's somebody that's going through something similar that they are so they can share that connection, you know, and that that also helps people become happier and, you know, have a place where they could transfer their, their knowledge or they can receive knowledge, etc.. So I am a huge fan of, of those places and, and definitely with a sense of community. I love when my kids come in or when, Erin, my husband, my business partner or like, it's it, it's great to be able to share that experience with somebody else.

Yeah, I agree awesome. Well, look, tell us a little bit more. I know, you know, one of the things we are hoping that you might be able to do for our listeners was to offer a discount, make it easier for them to get started with sauna. What have you got? Is there anything that you can do to make this more accessible to, to people? I think you've done a great job in explaining how this could be the one thing that could, like, bring all of these ideas or many of the ideas that are coming in through the rest of the summit.

I mean, you will hear in the rest of the summit, you will hear about the role of toxins and dementia. You will hear about the role of stress in dementia.

Product Options and Summit Discount 22:08

You will hear, about, the brain function. So, you know, what can we do to, to make this happen? Because I feel like given the data that's out there around sauna and dementia, you know, this might be the number one thing that people could do to stave it off, get into a regular habit and, have it be part of their regular routine. Yeah. Access is very important to sunlight. And, as far as is, part one of our values is, is being able to really kind of be to to be true to our core. And, and being true to our core is how do we create access for as many people as possible.

And so we have four different collections. So I want to make sure I reinforce that, that, that there's different options. So people depending on where you are, you know, with a spending level we can find the right product. And if you, you know, are on a limited, the sunlight and so low is an excellent choice for, delivering a lot of the things we already talked about. In fact, on that note, there's originally a study done with doctor Mason on depression, with infrared, with only one session up to six weeks of relief from depression symptoms.

And now there's another study that's being done on the same type of device as the sunlight and solo. So the one I'm referencing it, which is showing, you know, similar results. So I bring that up because, we do have a discount, but I also want to make sure everybody knows that there's, there's four different collections to choose from. So you don't have to get, you know, all of the wavelengths, you know, because of is all of the wavelengths are more expensive. I'd rather have you instead of not doing anything.

So if you're listening to the summit, you're engaged and you want to make a change, then you do the sunlight and solo or the signature. It gets started because the far infrared is going to give you. I mean, that's that that's the that's the wavelength that helps to, activate and inflammation gene which activating inflammation gene you know, helps to like decrease inflammation which helps with your brain function. So just encourage you to not to not think, you know, one dimensional and think across the entire collection.

So that's the first thing. And the second is, yes, we are providing a discount up to $1,400 off depending on the collection. You just have to make sure you mention the reverse Alzheimer's Summit. So that's the key that gives you the discount. So, reverse Alzheimer's summit, up to $1,400 off from sunlight ten. And we really, really our team does want to help and provide all of the information and the resources to make people, feel comfortable, as well as, you know, get them ready for that next step in their and their cognitive, you know, journey.

All right. Well, I hope that thank you so much for being such a great partner and supporter here for, the Reversing Alzheimer's Summit. I hope that if you're the kind of person that is listening and watching and maybe feeling a little overwhelmed with all the different things that you have to do, having something that is practical, grounding that it's easy to add to your, program has the best, data

Closing Remarks 25:18

and also allows us to bring in a number of these things together. Is, is going to be, you know, something that will be good for everyone. So thank you, Connie, for being part of the summit. Really grateful for you. And, yeah, if you want to, get in touch with sunlight and you'll see them, on the emails that we send, you can go to it on the, on the site, get in touch with them and see, whether it's going to be possible for you to have this sort of experience as part of your, your regular, everyday living.

Thank you. Connie, thank you. Thank you so much for having me. Best wishes to everyone. Thank you. Yeah. This has been the Reversing Alzheimer's Summit. We've got more great talks coming up for you today if you enjoyed this one. If you, want to share this with people in your world that you think need to hear it, really appreciate that. Thanks so much for tuning in. And we'll see you next time.