Join the discussion below
Dr. Sharon Stills, a licensed Naturopathic Medical Doctor with over two decades of dedicated service in transforming women’s health has been a guiding light for perimenopausal and menopausal women, empowering them to reinvent, explore, and rediscover their vitality and zest for life. Her pioneering RED Hot Sexy Meno(pause) Program encapsulates... Read More
Tess Harris is a sauna specialist at High Tech Health International and has a B.S. in biochemistry. She previously worked in laboratory research on the development of antimalarial drugs, then in pesticide analytics. Most recently, with High Tech Health, she has gained a deep understanding of sauna therapy, and developed... Read More
- Environmental factors in health. – exposure to toxins that bioaccumulate and the health implications related to menopause
- Sauna therapy to support detoxification
- Sauna therapy for weight loss, sleep, skin health
Related Topics
Aging, Chemicals, Detoxification, Endocrine Disruptors, Environmental Toxicity, Infrared Sauna, Menopause, Sweating, Toxins, Womens HealthDr. Sharon Stills
Hello, hello, welcome back to Mastering the Menopause Transition Summit. I am your host, Dr. Sharon Stills. This is so fun. I love bringing you all these experts and education about all the important knowledge you need and tools you need to really master your menopause transition. And today, we’re gonna combine the two. We’re gonna have some knowledge and we’re gonna have a tool that can help you, and that is going to be the infrared sauna, which in my over 20 years of practice has always been a huge tool that I’ve used personally that I use with patients that I constantly find myself prescribing, because it has so many far reaching benefits. And so today we’re gonna really dive in and talk about, what does this mean for you, what does this have to do with hormones, and learn all there is about sauna therapy. And so, my very special guest today is Tess Harris, and she is a sauna specialist at High Tech Health International who happened to be one of these sponsors of our summit.
And I invited them to sponsor the summit, because I personally have been working with them. I had their sauna in my clinic when I had my clinic open, and I’ve been referring patients to them for 20 plus years. I’ve been working with them since the beginning of my practice. And so, I’m thrilled that they came to sponsor, that they’re here to share their knowledge, and let you know about the sauna and how you can use it. So we really appreciate you sponsoring and being here and spreading sauna love. And so, like I said, this is Tess Harris. She has a BS in biochemistry. She has previously worked in laboratory research on the development of anti-malarial drugs and then pesticides analytics. And most recently with High Tech Health, she has gained a deep understanding of sauna therapy and developed a great passion for environmental medicine. She loves learning and sharing about how environmental factors affect your health and how saunas can positively impact your health and how to live a cleaner lifestyle. So welcome, Tess. I’m so excited for this conversation, because I am sauna obsessed.
Tess Harris
Thank you so much. I’m thrilled to be here today.
Dr. Sharon Stills
Before we even start diving in, how did you find yourself getting in the sauna business with your background in science?
Tess Harris
Sure. So I’ve always loved science and research and biochemistry and really that scientific aspect of medicine. I was a professional athlete for a while, and so it was into fitness and recovery utilizing saunas. My husband is also in fitness, so had used saunas and started to learn a little bit about them through him and just through going to saunas at gyms. Found High Tech Health really when I was just looking for some other avenues to share my scientific experience, but working more with people and outside of the laboratory setting. It seemed like such a great fit, and I have hit the ground running in terms of learning about the science behind sauna therapy and really delving into the environmental medicine aspect of it, which has always been an interest, but that’s really sparked a lot of my knowledge in this direction.
Dr. Sharon Stills
I love it. We talk about, we hear a lot of the speakers when we’re talking about how toxins affect your hormones and how you need to detox and use a sauna. And so that’s why I’m so excited that today we’re really gonna dive in, so you listening at home can really understand. I think knowledge is such power, and when we really understand, then we’re more apt to get naked and go sweat. And I always say sweating is one of my favorite, favorite activities for good health. And if you’re not sweating, you’re not healthy. And so inducing a sweat every day is so crucial. So let’s dive in. So first off, most of us are familiar with saunas, and as you mentioned, there’s the sauna at the gym, but what’s the difference? Why can’t I just go to the gym? Why do I have to have that looks like a little playhouse? What is an infrared sauna?
Tess Harris
Sure. So an infrared sauna, we’re using infrared light or infrared energy, which is actually part of the energy we get from the sun. And it has a direct heating effect on our body. So a good example, it’s the same reason the sun feels warm on our skin, even on a cold day. So we’re experiencing this direct heating from infrared. Typically an infrared sauna operates will max out somewhere between 120 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit, and that really depends on the user and your comfort level, but the hot air isn’t the only mechanism for heating. We’re getting this direct heating from the infrared as well, and the way it directly heats our body can actually help mobilize toxins. And there are even some non-thermal effects, so effects we get from infrared in addition to the heating. So there’s a lot that’s unique about infrared saunas.
Dr. Sharon Stills
So what you’re saying is you can go to the gym and sweat, but it’s not gonna mobilize the toxins like an infrared sauna will?
Tess Harris
Correct, the sweat as a whole is a really effective pathway out of the body for certain toxins, and I can go more into that, but infrared saunas in particular are uniquely well suited for detoxing, and some studies do show that infrared saunas in particular help our bodies excrete certain toxins.
Dr. Sharon Stills
Yeah, go more into it. So tell us what are the toxins. Let’s learn about them.
Tess Harris
Lots of factors, right? So it’s estimated in production there are over 85,000 chemicals in production in the US right now. They can range from, not even just things in production like metals, right? So things in our water, lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury can have effects on our bodies and lot of organic pollutants, things like that, so pesticides, plasticizers, PDVE, which is used in flame retardants and polyfluoronatedalkyl substances, or PFAS. Those can all have effects on our body. There are numerous toxins and some organic things or sort of naturally occurring like mold is another toxin that can affect our body, and that’s when that specifically infrared sauna studies show there’s a big increase in mold excretion with sauna use.
Dr. Sharon Stills
That’s interesting, because often when you’re hearing about mold detoxification, you just hear take some binders. And so that’s another unique… ‘Cause I think at least in the naturopathic world, it’s kind of well known that if you wanna get heavy metals out, infrared sauna is a good way to do it, but I don’t think we talk about the mold aspect of detoxification as well. So can you talk about why infrared? Why is it different? What is it doing that’s mobilizing the toxins rather than just going to the gym?
Tess Harris
Sorry, go ahead. So some of it we know well, and some of it is more observational in terms of these are the results we see and the difference in terms of the actual biochemical mechanisms or what’s actually happening. But in terms of the biggest body of studies that we know about saunas look at how we can compare… Well, let me go back. Let me backtrack a little bit. So the way they directly heat our body can actually change like intracellular fluids and things like that and that can actually support it, but also we see through studies comparing blood, urine, and sweat and concentrations of heavy metals and pesticides and various compounds in our sweat, we see higher levels in sweat than blood and urine. And so those that’s really showing that sweat is a very effect effective pathway out of the body. And then in terms of the infrared saunas, we’ve seen in some of the studies the biggest spikes in detoxification in urine and in sweat post infrared versus other types of saunas.
Dr. Sharon Stills
Mm, which is why it’s important to stay hydrated. And so the infrared is penetrating the skin differently, deeper?
Tess Harris
Like I said, a lot of it is more observational in terms of how we see the results versus understanding all the mechanisms. There is some research in Washington being conducted looking at how that intercellular fluid can change to a different structure, and that can actually help with excreting certain toxins especially fat soluble toxins, but mechanism is not as well known as we would like, but it’s more observational in terms of how we see the results.
Dr. Sharon Stills
Gotcha. So, menopause, hormones, environmental toxins, how does that all play together, and then what’s the role of the sauna?
Tess Harris
Sure, absolutely. So, like you said, we have a lot of exposure to toxins throughout our life. In particular, a lot of toxins will affect brain and the endocrine system. Many are called endocrine disruptors. So they can either bind to hormone sites and increase or block normal hormonal activity. And a lot of these are chemicals that we can’t naturally metabolize and excrete from our body. When looking at menopause, there’s actually a very recent review looking at many studies, looking at how endocrine disrupting chemicals affect menopause, and across the board, it shows earlier onset menopause and earlier onset of certain symptoms like hot flashes and also looking at how early onset menopause can actually contribute to increased risk of cardiovascular disease, decreased lifespan, increased depression risks. So there are a lot of factors, and, of course, these chemicals are all playing a role in sort of our normal aging and our endocrine system and how that changes throughout our life in aging. So, sauna therapy can be very powerful as a tool for helping us eliminate these toxins. And there’s a really interesting group of studies, like I said, the blood urine and sweat studies, that show this active transport. So compounds that aren’t even detectable in blood, we see high levels excreted in sweat.
Dr. Sharon Stills
Hmm, well, what I find interesting is I do a lot of toxicity testing on patients, and I do the GPL tox test from Great Plains Laboratory frequently, which looks at organophosphates and plastics, and no matter what the toxin is, the solution is always an inference sauna. I would call the lab, ’cause there’s about 22 different toxins we’re testing. We don’t have the ability to test the large amount you mentioned yet, but I would call the lab, ’cause I’d be like, okay, well they have number one, five, and seven. Do I need to do something different for detox? Nope, infrared sauna. Glutathione and infrared sauna, and that is gonna be the solution. And so in a world, whereas we’re learning throughout this summit where toxicity and especially environmental toxicity is rampant and unfortunately unavoidable to me in including and having sauna therapy, whether you have high levels or you don’t, it’s either a treatment, it’s a prevention.
I always say it’s not a matter… Maybe at some point we used to ask, are you toxic? Now it’s just a question of how toxic are you and are you eliminating your toxins that you’re being exposed to? And so, to me personally, infrared sauna is this powerful medical tool that we really need. Detoxifying is not a five day cleanse. It’s not something we do for a month. It’s not something we don’t have to think about. It’s something that needs to be part of our life. So I see it as a daily event, a weekly event, a monthly event, a quarterly event, a yearly event. And the sauna is just so key in that. We have to really be sweating. You can take a hot bath, you can get a good workout, but it’s not the same. You’re not getting the medicinal results from actually utilizing and harnessing the power of infrared. So, let’s talk about, because there are other benefits other than detoxing like burning calories and improving your cardiovascular system. So let’s talk about some of the other benefits as well.
Tess Harris
Sure. One of my favorite topics is the cardiovascular health. There are numerous studies and benefits linked to cardiovascular health with infrared saunas and saunas as a whole, everything from lowering blood pressure, lowering your risk of cardiovascular disease, improving the endothelial lining, the elasticity of the endothelial lining it. Sauna therapy is also shown to mimic cardiovascular exercise. So I’ll go more into that in a moment. One of my absolute favorite, and this is a very well known study that was conducted over 20 years, so a long term study looking at regular sauna users and then broken into categories of people who use sauna once a week, two to three times a week, or four to seven times a week, and looking at their long term health outcomes. And across the board, all of the sauna users saw lowered risk of sudden cardiac death, fatal cardiovascular disease, fatal coronary heart disease, and lowered risk of all cause mortality, meaning death from any cause. So across the board, regular sauna users saw a reduction of risk in all of these categories. And the most frequent sauna of users saw the biggest reduction in risk. So, basically regular sauna users have better longevity outcomes and lowered risk of all types of cardiovascular disease, which is prevalent in our country, in the world for aging.
Dr. Sharon Stills
And in women, it’s like huge. We talk about bioidentical hormone replacement as prevention for cardiovascular disease, which also lowers the overall mortality, but coupling it with sauna, you’re just like, ooh, we’re gonna live to 130. So it’s got a benefit of so we talked about detoxification. It’s got a benefit of cardiovascular health. What else? You mentioned exercise. That’s one of my favorites.
Tess Harris
Yes, exercise and weight loss. So like I said, mimicking cardiovascular exercise. Regular sauna use also improves our exercise tolerance, meaning how much exercise can we do, delay onset muscle soreness so that soreness we can get after a hard workout. In terms of weight loss, there’s a really interesting study looking at sauna compared to exercise, and then the combination. So a group of subjects were subjected to heat therapy, sauna therapy. Another group was doing treadmill running. And then a third group was combining the heat therapy and the treadmill running. So similar, about 40% reduction in body fat mass for both the heat therapy group and the exercise group. And then the combined group was a 72% reduction in body fat mass.
Dr. Sharon Stills
Wow.
Tess Harris
A significant improvement or a significant finding in terms of we’re all trying to lose weight, and we know that gets harder as we age. I mean, that’s just remarkable that difference that the combination makes, but even pretty remarkable that sauna is on par with exercise in terms of the-
Dr. Sharon Stills
And it’s all fun while you’re sitting on your butt. I mean, hello.
Tess Harris
I mean, I’m reading my books. I’m like catching up on all sorts of things in the sauna or meditating. Like it’s a great time to just like have some time to decompress or put your phone away. Like there are so many reasons I look forward to using the sauna beyond the sweating and like all the benefits I know I’m getting, It’s just such a nice retreat.
Dr. Sharon Stills
Absolutely. At the end of the day, I’m like in my sauna after seeing patients and I’m decompress… Just what you said, it’s like, , it’s the end of the day. And I think a lot of us are like, oh, it’s the end of the day, I’m gonna go to the couch and watch TV. And I’m like, not that I don’t like to watch a good Netflix series, ’cause, trust me, I do, but before that I’m like, ugh, the sauna and just the stress reduction of just sweating and sitting and feeling the heat and breathe. I have done everything from pay bills in the sauna. I’m dating myself back, because when I used to have the sauna in the actual clinic when I had a brick and mortar, I would take the big checkbook in there. This is before like computers and paying online. And I’d pay my bills at the end of the day. And my younger son, he struggled with heavy metal toxicity when he was younger. And so we would go in the sauna together, and I have such fond memories of singing Linkin Park with him in the sauna and just rocking out, and you can listen to music or podcast. It’s such a like me time. So what other benefits? Wait, you’re…
Tess Harris
There I am, sorry about that. So in terms of also boosting metabolism, so similar to the study and reduction of fat, so exercise versus sauna versus the combination, we saw about a 35% increase in mitochondrial activity, so cellular energy, cellular metabolism, 35% increase with just the heat therapy, 31% increase was just exercise, 62% increase with the combination of sauna and exercise.
Dr. Sharon Stills
We’ve talked about how important mitochondrial health is. So what about immune system function?
Tess Harris
Yeah, absolutely. Sauna therapy can really help with the robust immune response. I’m not as familiar with all of that research off the top of my head, but I know a lot of the findings show like more robust immune response, lowering inflammation and oxidative stress on acellular level and throughout the body, which also can help us to fight off infection and boost our immune response.
Dr. Sharon Stills
It might be easier to ask the question, what doesn’t sauna therapy help with?
Tess Harris
Even benefits for sleep and mood, right? So lowering cortisol, which is a stress hormone that directly inhibit sleep and then boot elevating endorphins, which are the feel good hormones, both clinically shown with sauna therapy And like the higher your cortisol, the more of a reduction you see post infrared sauna..
Dr. Sharon Stills
That’s fantastic. And what about skin and skin health?
Tess Harris
Some really cool benefits with that, so suppressing the photoaging damage we get from ultraviolet, so really neutralizing some of that, improving skin micro circulation, so just the vascularization throughout our skin to help maintain the health of our skin as a whole, improving water holding capacity and just elasticity of our skin. So those are all findings that are associated with saunas and infrared saunas specifically.
Dr. Sharon Stills
So so far we’ve got detoxification. We’ve got hormone balance, skin health, weight loss, exercise, cardiovascular, immune health. Am I producing any of the other big ones?
Tess Harris
Just like the cardiovascular health, lowering your risk of neurodegenerative diseases.
Dr. Sharon Stills
Mm, that’s the huge one.
Tess Harris
Yeah, that’s a huge one.
Dr. Sharon Stills
To me, I always think of health. I have my favorite hashtag that I created, not all medicine comes in a bottle. And so how we heal is multifactorial, and it has to do with what we put in our mouth, both food and liquid and supplements. And it has to do with the thoughts we think and the lifestyle we live and the tools we use and the actions we take. And just as we’re having this conversation, I’m just seeing how two of the things, and I never really thought about it before this, but how bioidentical hormone replacement and sauna therapy are two of the things, you get my patients in a room and they’re like she might have done different things for us, but, yes, she has definitely told us we have to get a sauna. And if we’re a woman on a journey, we’re on bioidentical hormone replacement. And they just have so many similar benefits for the cardiovascular system and for the immune system and for neurodegeneration and brain health. And so what a beautiful marriage of really taking care of yourself through the menopausal transition. I love it. We got a dog excited in the back too.
Tess Harris
Sorry about that.
Dr. Sharon Stills
Do you put your dogs in the sauna?
Tess Harris
Oh no, because they don’t sweat. So thermoregulation is different, but surprisingly, we hear from folks all their time, their pets want to get in the sauna with them.
Dr. Sharon Stills
Interesting.
Tess Harris
We don’t recommend it.
Dr. Sharon Stills
So let’s talk about your sauna and why it’s important to get the right sauna.
Tess Harris
Absolutely, yeah, this is key. There are a lot of factors that go into obviously making a good sauna that’s supporting detoxification, the materials, the types of heaters, et cetera. So let’s start with materials first, because we’ve been talking about our environmental exposure, and obviously we don’t want to be adding more chemicals to our environment, and, of course, with heat, outgassing of certain materials. So for example, plywood is full of formaldehyde, which is a known carcinogen. That’s volatile. It can outgas. Certain types of woods also are high in terms of the compounds naturally occurring in the wood that can outgas and really trigger a lot of sensitivities for folks and sort of contribute to exposures in wood glues. So specifically our saunas, we use a very specific Poplar wood from Europe that is known for having almost no wood smell, very, very low outgassing. It is the number one wood for environmental medicine clinics, for anybody already experiencing sensitivity, and even before you’re experiencing sensitivity, just having something in your home where you know you’re optimizing all the benefits. You’re not gonna have any cheap materials. They’re a 100% a single wood, and they’re built with tongue and groove joinery to eliminate glues and materials that are gonna be outgassing. So that’s an important part of it.
Dr. Sharon Stills
As you’re detoxing, you don’t wanna be in something that’s detoxing you and retoxing you. So that is super, super important, which it goes to speak, I mean, why it’s important to get an infrared sauna and not rely on your gym sauna, which I know may be a bummer, and I hear patients say, well, I don’t have room for sauna. And I’m like, yes, you do. It’s just like we always find a place. It’s just like a little playhouse. There’s always a place. Look, yours is right there.
Tess Harris
It fits in the corner really well. You can put it close to a wall, really versatile. It can go on any type of flooring. They’re extraordinarily efficient to run, at least with the technology at High Tech Health. We have a very unique type of heater, really designed to optimize the benefits. So they’re very ultra power efficient to run. We estimate it’s about $2 a month to use our two person sauna every single day.
Dr. Sharon Stills
So talk about what is special about the High Tech with the heaters. And do we need to be worrying about EMFs? And speak to that please?
Tess Harris
EMF, it’s a really important part of this, So our heaters are all designed by High Tech Health, have been since the beginning of the company. And I know you’ve known for a long time, but EMF, or electromagnetic fields, which happen when anything is running on electricity, they can radiate from the source of where the electric current is coming in, and high EMF can cause a lot of cellular stress, in particular, it affects heart and brain cells, but it affects all of our cells. And unfortunately, a lot of infrared saunas out there are known for very, very high EMF, sometimes thousands of times higher than these thresholds for causing biologic effects. The High Tech Health saunas have our own patented technology on how we mitigate all types of EMF, and that’s all independently tested and thorough lab testing. And so our saunas, as a whole, are lower in EMFs than most household appliances, and that is a big factor in terms of getting the most benefit, not adding stress to your body, really allowing yourself to detox. And in our experience, a lot of folks experiencing environmental sensitivity, whether it’s chemical sensitivity, mold sensitivity, or have sort of these hyper reactions may also be experiencing electro hypersensitivity or EMF sensitivity. So it is a really big piece of what makes a good infrared sauna that you can really benefit from is this low EMF technology.
Dr. Sharon Stills
Huge piece. So we we’ve got the Poplar non-formaldehyde, non-offgassing wood. We’ve got low EMFs. Anything else that stands out to you that you wanna share?
Tess Harris
Yeah, some numerous things about our saunas. So the EMF mitigation is, of course, part of that. We add a fresh air fan in our sauna, which keeps some fresh air flowing through the sauna. That really makes it a lot more comfortable for a lot of folks. So sitting in this chamber, yes, it’s designed to allow some air flow, so you don’t get like this stuffy feeling and you just build up of CO2, and that makes them much more comfortable experience. You can breathe deeply. You can really enjoy the sauna experience. So that’s another really important feature of our saunas.
Dr. Sharon Stills
Hmm, now do you have tips for sauna use, any contraindications, anything you should do before and after?
Tess Harris
Hydrate? That is certainly key. Hydrate before, hydrate after, maybe hydrate during the sauna if you’re comfortable with it. That is a key, replenishing minerals as well. We sweat out a lot of minerals as well. So, replacing magnesium, calcium, sodium, potassium, that’s important. In terms of, is there one right way to use the sauna? Not necessarily, because everybody’s different, and everybody’s tolerance levels can be different, I would say average 30 minute session. We actually do provide protocols for use to get people started pretty slowly, because you can detox too quickly with a sauna, and that can feel uncomfortable. You can feel a little lousy if you’re going too fast. So you start slow and then you basically work your way up in terms of duration. And as you go, you learn what feels right for you. And so it may be daily sessions for one person and twice a week for another person or somewhere in between. We guide you through all of that, and the product specialists, we’re all sauna experts, we all use saunas and understand the research. We guide our customers through that process as well in terms of like helping you learn as a new user and a new owner what’s right for you and answering all of those questions.
Dr. Sharon Stills
Right, yeah. I’ll just reiterate hydration. And I have patients utilize glutathione before their sauna sessions. Certainly replenishing the minerals electrolytes, so, so important. You wanna be not draining yourself. You want the sauna to be supporting you. And so it’s really important that you take care of yourself. And so when you are partaking of sauna therapy, it’s like hydration is so important, and this kind of gets you in that, oh, I’m gonna stay hydrated, ’cause if I don’t, I’m not gonna feel good when I use my sauna, and I wanna use my sauna, because I wanna burn calories while sitting on my butt and strengthen my cardiovascular system. Talking all these wonderful things. And even just sitting in the sauna as the panels are heating up, you get benefit. And so we, like you were saying, I often work patients up, and everyone is different. And ultimately I like to get patients to a half hour at 120 or higher if they can tolerate it where they’re getting a good sweat. A big sign of toxicity to me is when a patient says, “I don’t sweat.” And when they come in for an intake, if that comes up in the intake, because I ask every patient, that becomes a priority for me.
If someone’s not sweating, that jumps to the top of something we need to handle and get happening. When we’re sweating, we’re allowing our lymph to move. An there’s just so many benefits as we were talking about not only with the infrared, but the actual act of sweating. And so it’s crucial. I always tell patients, I’m like, all right, you got the sauna, now you gotta use it. Now you’ve gotta use it. If you have it in your house, it’s hard to make excuses. If it’s at the gym and you’re not even getting the same benefits at the gym, but it’s like, oh, I didn’t make it there, I’m tired, I don’t wanna leave my… But when it’s in your house, and I have some patients who set up TVs outside of it, and there’s so many ways you can incorporate it into your evening or afternoon or morning routine that it can just be a part of your detox life.
Tess Harris
It’s so easy to incorporate. I utilize there’s a delay start function, so I can set a timer. So like if I’m going to a yoga class, it’s on, it’s ready for me to get right in when I get home. So there are lots of ways to work it in and really make it your own, have a TV outside or have it be your quiet time or the time where you and your spouse just sit and talk. Like, I hear lots of great stories from folks on how they love to use their sauna.
Dr. Sharon Stills
That’s awesome. We would have patients call and be like, “I’m on my way, turn on the sauna. “I’m coming from a session.” And I wanna emphasize that it’s a birthday suit. Obviously when I was in the sauna with my son, we’d covered a little, but if you’re with your partner or you’re alone, you don’t wanna be wearing anything. You wanna get full exposure to your whole body. And can you talk about, should you shower right after, should you be wiping the sweat? Can you just speak to that?
Tess Harris
Absolutely, yeah. So dry brushing or brushing your skin either with a brush or even just take a towel and wipe off sweat as you go will actually help your body to sweat more. So that is absolutely recommended. I’m sitting on a towel in my sauna, and I’ve always got an extra towel or two, so I can be wiping off sweat as I go, and then obviously wash those towels right away. And yes, you should shower after the sauna. We know there are a lot of toxins and metals and all sorts of things coming out in our sweat. So obviously we wanna wash our towels and we wanna wash ourselves as well.
Dr. Sharon Stills
Right, you don’t wanna reabsorb what you’re sweating out.
Tess Harris
Exactly.
Dr. Sharon Stills
Anything else that we didn’t touch upon that’s important for the listeners?
Tess Harris
Yeah. I talked a lot about the importance of sauna therapy and far infrared therapy. It is important to note that this is specifically far infrared, which is long wavelengths of infrared. There is no clinical foundation for near infrared in sauna. Sometimes you see that’s kind of a trend out there these days to have the full spectrum of infrared. There are risks with near infrared. So in the sauna where we’re spending more time and we’re using it regularly, far infrared is where all of the clinical research, and it’s extremely well established and safe. And so that’s-
Dr. Sharon Stills
I was gonna ask you about near infrared. So what are the risks, I’m curious?
Tess Harris
Cataracts. It can cause cataracts, damage to both the cornea and the retina. It can actually accelerate skin aging just like ultraviolet, so the opposite of what far infrared can do. It activates certain proteins that can break down collagen, and it can actually increase other risks from ultraviolet. So it can actually increase risks of certain cancers. So near infrared really has a place in targeted localized therapies, so devices that are lasers and LEDs that are very specialized in terms of how they are calibrated and the wavelength and the intensity of the light, and they’re very focal treatments. Long term regular use in a sauna, we cross over to where these risk factors come into play. And any research showing those benefits with the focal therapies is also a benefit we already get with far infrared.
Dr. Sharon Stills
Interesting, and I was just thinking of one other. What about pain reduction?
Tess Harris
Huge. I’m sorry I missed that earlier. That’s a huge topic. Lots of studies showing reduction in chronic inflammation, acute inflammation, reducing oxidative stress. There’s far infrared study looking at lowering pain or pain management for folks with fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis and showing really good outcomes for both of those groups. So they’re really effective tool for so many, so many health factors.
Dr. Sharon Stills
I just thought of it, ’cause I was thinking I have this dream and this mission of transforming health and transforming all of you who are listening, your experience of your hormonal journey and your lives. And I was thinking, wouldn’t it be amazing if every house had a sauna and rather than reaching for the Advil when you have pain, you just strip and get naked and get in your sauna. And that’s why I thought about, oh, pain, we need-
Tess Harris
I’ll be honest, that actually was a big transformation for me having a sauna in terms of what is my first response when I’m not feeling well? Maybe I’m coming down with a cold or I’m a little sore or something, sauna, not the medicine cabinet, and that’s been really life changing.
Dr. Sharon Stills
Yeah, that’s such a good point too. When you’re first getting sick, what does mama say? She says, you got a sweat, right? Drink some hot tea or hot chicken noodle soup. And so the sauna, I’ve seen in the sauna personally and professionally avert serious illnesses, because you just sweat out the toxins. You sweat it out and then you feel better. You get a good night’s sleep. So it really is. There’s not many things… I always say there’s the myth of the magic bullet that there really is no magic bullet for healing. It’s multifactorial. But if I had to pick a tool that was gonna come the closest to being a magic bullet to me, it would totally be the infrared sauna.
Tess Harris
Absolutely, yeah. The more I learn and the more research comes out, just the more excited I get. Every time I read a new paper and a new finding, I’m like, all right, I’m getting in the sauna. I have another reason to get in the sauna, not that I need more, but yeah, it’s just remarkable.
Dr. Sharon Stills
Yeah, and I just see it clinically. I’ve seen so many of those things, whether it be weight loss or patients who are injured or have illnesses where they can’t exercise yet, the sauna helps their cardiovascular system, so they’re not missing out on that training or helping with chronic illness or helping to detoxify. I work with a lot of patients dealing with cancer. It’s one of my other specialties, and the sauna’s always involved. It’s like, if you’re gonna work with me, you gotta be doing infrared sauna therapy, ’cause I want you to get better, and we need this tool. So I didn’t have a huge clinic, and we carved out a spot and stuck a sauna in there. Like I’m gonna make it work. We didn’t have a private place. I hung a pole and we had curtains, so people could have privacy. We made it work, because that’s how important it was for me to be effective with my patients. So that’s why I wanted to have you here.
And that’s why I’m so honored you’re sponsoring, because I feel so passionate about this as a tool, ad it really does change when you are a sauna owner. It’s like it changes how you view health and what you do and how you heal. And I believe it’s one of the greatest prevention tools for aging healthily. We know that toxins are such a huge part of… There’s yet to be a cancer that doesn’t have a toxicity component. And so it it’s just crucial, as I said before, that we become chronic detoxifiers, that we’ve become chronically involved and actively involved and passionately involved in tools to detox and sweat. So, thank you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for sharing the studies. I tend to be… I’m a clinician. I’m in on the ground. I see it with patients. I see women losing weight. I see them aging backwards. I see their skin just changing in front of my eyes. I see their brain fog going away. I see their sleep being enhanced. I just see so many benefits from it. So, I appreciate it, ’cause it makes my job easier.
Tess Harris
Thank you so much for having me. It’s been wonderful.
Dr. Sharon Stills
You’re welcome. And for those listening who are interested, I know we have a special gift for them if they’re interested in learning more, purchasing a sauna. What do they need to do and say to get a discount?
Tess Harris
Absolutely. You can visit hightechhealth.com or give us a call and mention Dr. Sharon Stills. Mention this Mastering Menopause Summit, and you will be eligible for a special discount.
Dr. Sharon Stills
Mm, thank you for doing that. Thank you for helping me to spread sauna love. It’s so key, so, so key. So I hope you all are like I gotta sweat. I’m like, I gotta go hopping my sauna. That’s how I’m feeling now. That’s one other thing too. We talk about it addictions, and we think of addictions as bad, but I think there are some good things to be addicted to. For me, I’m addicted to the sauna. I’m addicted to sweating, but I think if you’re gonna… I have overcome many bad addictions and not healthy addictions, but if you’re gonna have an addiction, at least let it be a healthy one. And so, join my sweat addiction and start to think about how sauna can change your life, because, trust me, it can. So thanks for being here. Happy to answer any questions. High Tech Health is a wealth of information. I was fortunate enough to meet of a founder when I was still in medical school and I was traveling around the country teaching at different health conferences. I was teaching European biological medicine, and I ran into the sauna and I was like ooh. So I got educated very early. So it became part of what… As soon as I like, even before I graduated, I was using it. And so it just became something that I’ve used. And I definitely credit sauna therapy to being a big piece of why I have such good success with my patients. So thank you, thank you, thank you. And everyone, get your sweat on. We’ll see you soon, be well.
Downloads
Download Transcript
