The Infrared Therapy Breakthrough for Heart Health

Introduction to Connie Zack and Sunlighten 0:00

Well hello everybody. Welcome back to Reversing Heart Disease Summit 4.0 2026. And this is a superstar interview. Some of you who've been faithful to the summit for a few years will recognize Connie Zack from Kansas City, Missouri. A beautiful sunny day in Kansas City. We just learned and Connie is co-founder with her wonderful husband, Aaron, to a company that is so hot right now. And I don't think just for right now, I think it'll be ongoing for a very long time. And it has been for a very long time called Sunlight and Sun.

As I have a Google alert for anything new in the world on sun. And there's 2830 every day. It just like exploding. Even though you've been in the business, I'm going to throw out there about 20 years. Yeah, little bit more than that. But yes. All right. Well, you were, you know, you had visionary powers to predict a field in the wellness world that has done so well and has so much scientific support. So welcome, Connie. Thank you. It's so great to be here. Doctor Kahn, it's great to see you. It's an honor to be on the show and as you know, but the listeners may not know when I did integrative cardiology training, which is not very common training 15 years ago and still not very common training.

I learned a lot about the actual scientific background for the benefits of sauna, particularly infrared sauna. We'll talk about for heart patients, and that there was a lot of data, particularly out of Japan. But sometimes we gather all the information we need from the United States, and sometimes it's from other cultures. And they were using infrared sauna to treat heart patients. And I came back and said, I need to talk to the best manufacturer of infrared sauna in the United States. And maybe we can even say around the world and get myself one and start using it and teaching my patients.

So here we are 15 years later, and I think we can still say without a doubt, that one. There's huge scientific support for infrared sauna in the cardiovascular world. The topic of this summit. And number two, that you are indeed the best manufacturer of infrared sauna is that anybody would ever want. So tell us, I just I gave a shout out to it, but well tell us a little the history. Just two minutes on the history of the company. How many years ago did you start up? Started it in, early 2019 99.

Was actually the original founding date. And really started putting a lot of meat on the bones in 2002. It was started because my brother was extremely ill and he was diagnosed with heavy metal, heavy metal toxicity as diagnosed by his dentist because of his mercury amalgam fillings and his dentist felt like the mercury was leaking into his body

Origins of Sunlighten and the Infrared Sauna Mission 2:53

and causing chronic fatigue and vertigo and all of the different conditions that was leading to him being debilitated and not being able to work. And his sister said, I've read similar to you. I read some research about a wavelength of technology called infrared that could potentially help detoxify the body safely, naturally, and I think you should investigate it. He did. He bought an infrared sauna and it changed his life. And I watched the transformation. At the time, Aaron and I were in Saint Louis, and we watched this amazing evolution from my brother, from his, like literally on his deathbed to, you know, back to restoring and natural health.

And at the time, I was working so hard to believe I was that I was in pharmaceuticals. Now being in, you know, integrated into functional medicine. But I was in pharmaceuticals of Procter and Gamble and did my own research and found all the research that had already been done in Asia, specifically Japan, on infrared and found specifically in the cardiovascular arena. The really impressive results on how infrared can significantly help the heart function. And being in pharma, I was also working on antihypertensive drugs and so trying to help people lower their blood pressure without giving side effects, and it's just really hard to do is, you know, you know, more than I do.

And so I thought, well, maybe this is this is a different path. And I if I could help people make a difference in this world and help them be healthier without, you know, having to deal with side effects and all of these different things going on. And especially because nobody knows about this technology. So maybe this is the right path. And so I jumped off a cliff and left my great job. And Aaron did the same. And we spent the rest of our life dedicating ourselves to helping to bring light, hope, and happiness to the people everywhere and dedicated to we want.

Ultimately, our purpose is to help people feel better as a result of what we do. Be able to do more of what they love to do with the people they love to do it with and live their fullest life possible. That's quite a goal, and I'm sure everybody is going, oh, there is life possible for sure. And Sana actually sounds like hype, but, that's why we're here, because it's actually so scientific. Some of the audience, I'm sure the vast majority, have never heard the term payoff. And while on therapy, something that comes out of the Japanese medical community tell us a little bit about that term and, you know, a brief summary of what you learned from the Asian experience.

Yeah. So what on therapy stands for Soothing warmth Therapy out of Asia, specifically Japan and Japan has studied infrared so much that it is the gold standard with patients with congestive heart failure because it is noninvasive. And some of the benefits that we have learned from this therapy. And let me let me go back and just define it. So it's using infrared for 15 seconds, sometimes daily, sometimes three times a week, depending on the study that's specifically involved. And then that 15 minutes of infrared is followed by 30 minutes of resting in a warm blanket.

The results specifically on the cardiovascular system are astounding and extremely impressive. One of my favorite studies is one with 129 patients, and it's specifically looking back at a five year cohort. And essentially the summary is that comparing people who did the wound therapy, which is infrared, we'll just say is the emperor therapy versus the control group. There's a 50% reduction in hospitalization and death. So I mean, that's extremely significant with patients with congestive heart failure.

So, you know, and it also improved their quality of life, physical and mental scars. There's another study, another one of my favorites on exercise capacity. They tested people for a six minute walk as far as the distance and found that after using infrared, they were able to walk farther than the people that didn't use infrared therapy. And there's many more on the endothelial lining and on coronary artery disease. There's lots of different studies with using this type of therapy, but those are a few of the most impressive ones.

I mean, obviously reducing death and cardiac events and hospitalization is significant. And if you can do it in such a safe, natural way and just having the

What Is Waon Therapy and the Heart Benefits 7:10

technology, you know, sitting inside it, I just did the such an easy, effortless way to help your heart be as healthy as possible, right. And, you know, we're looking for natural therapies. I guess we're looking for unnatural therapies. We still know the statistics in 2026 as heart disease as the number one killer and stabler. And we need approaches. And this is such a great one. I just quickly went over to the National Library of Medicine online and to see if I had missed out on anything. And in fact, the term was own therapy shows up.

This is not a term that, Connie and I are making up, and they just published from Japan again, a pilot study in people so weak from heart disease they couldn't walk about 250 yards. Half of the group got infrared sauna like you just described, and half were a control group. And the increase in walking distance just just got published. I have not seen it until right this moment was dramatically higher in these elderly, sick heart failure patients. So if it will work for them, imagine how it's going to work for, you know, the average person who's trying to avoid heart disease at all.

So just lay out for us infrared versus read. Everybody's hearing about red light therapy, of which you also manufacture, top, top, top quality products. But just give us a little bit on the light spectrum. Yeah. So infrared comes a lot of people don't. They get confused and they don't understand how it relates to addition traditional heat and traditional heat. Essentially real quick is is heat that heats the air and you get hot because the air is hot. So that's how how that works. Infrared is a light energy that comes from the sun.

55% of the sun's rays are in the infrared spectrum. Within the infrared spectrum, there's four different, parts of the spectrum. And what's so powerful and impressive and healing about this spectrum, it's different than traditional heat is you're getting this light energy, and you feel it by heat and you fill it by light. And our bodies are natural solar panels that need light energy to activate our cells and to thrive. So infrared is that vehicle that is allows our body to be able to receive this energy and transform it.

So I'll really quickly go through because you brought up red light. And so I want to make sure I help people understand where does red light fit into this spectrum? Within the infrared spectrum, there's farm for red, which is the longest wavelength that's absorbed into our water molecules in our cells. That's the one that helps with detoxification. Mid-Infrared is a shorter wavelength. You also it's light energy, but it's felt by heat. It's a hotter experience than farm for red because it's a shorter wavelength.

It's great for muscle recovery or tissue repair, for reducing inflammation, for burning calories, and then right next to mid-infrared are the two light energy wavelengths that are actually so hot. If you were to give them by heat, you would burn yourself. So we have converted the energy into LEDs. Now, the interesting thing about these two wavelengths is near-infrared is the most powerful of the two. Between near-infrared and red light, near-infrared penetrates the deepest into the epidermis and provides the most astounding benefit.

However, it's invisible, so people have a hard time grasping on to the fact that this is so powerful and they can't see it.

Infrared vs. Red Light and the Light Spectrum 10:48

Thus comes the sister red light, who is right next door, but she's visible and near infrared is invisible. She she doesn't penetrate as deep into the skin as near infrared, but still equally as, you know, as powerful. When you combine the two, that's where you really get that magic. And that's what we've done. And in our impulse, smart Sana, we've combined red light near infrared, met mid-infrared, and farm red. So you're getting the entire light spectrum. Two of them you feel by heat, two of them you receive by LEDs, by light energy.

Don't really feel them because it's light energy. So that's kind of a very quick, very quick overview of the four wavelengths. But it's important for people to understand red light falls into the infrared spectrum. It's just not heat. So you're not going to detoxify the body. It's a surface level penetration really great for reducing inflammation on the surface. It's great for skin repair. It's great for boosting collagen and elastin, really great for fine lines and wrinkles and wound healing. I had a burn not too long ago that I was on my skin, and I every day I had, I'd like to change my calendar, like start off my day with red light in my sauna and meditation and just to really focus on trying to, you know, get those cells recharged and resurface to heal the wound because it was pretty bad.

So that's a that's a quick overview. All of the ones, what I love so much about this wavelength is spectrum of light. Energy is each one has its unique healing properties that impacts your systems at different ways. So that's different than your traditional heat. If you were to walk outside today in Kansas City, not quite hot enough to to break a sweat today, but you know, it's you still would get hot of it. The air was hotter. That's traditional heat, infrared. It's heating your body directly. So it's going to heat up your core temperature.

And that's the heat that that starts to happen is on the inside. How you feel versus the air that you're sitting in. Now know that was a tremendous overview. And I just want to go back to some of the profound statements you made, because people are listening and saying, well, well, well, there's do for me, of course. So you said inflammation a word that everybody now hears over and over. The middle word is flame. Some immune dysfunction that's constantly got your immune system usually attacking your own body.

So your M Paul's sauna that you're sitting in front of can lower inflammation. Yes, yes. There's a there's a gene that far infrared specifically activates that regulates inflammation. So that part the far infrared activates the one gene that regulates information. So it starts to ensure that you're controlling inflammation. Mid-Infrared helps to reduce inflammation at the joints muscle tissue level. So a different level. And then Nir and red light there is so is upon studies upon studies I mean Doctor Hamlin has written this massive massive handbook are not handbook but textbook on photo bio modulation PBM also known as near-infrared and red light and talking about reducing inflammation into the cells and excellent light producing more ATP and helping your mitochondria.

So I mean it is a perfect full body like inflammatory reduction product, right. Because you're you're addressing your entire body when you're in there. It yes, it's wonderful for your heart, but it's also wonderful for the rest of your body as well. And then you introduce the story about your brother. And now I use sauna to detoxify. Many people are concerned about metals and plastics and microplastics and endocrine disruptors. Pretty hard not to open the paper and read somewhere about his somewhat scary topic.

I think there's a documentary coming out right about as I interview about microplastics and the I'm having. So sitting in a ample sunlight and sauna can help us with this challenge of being bombarded with toxins and, well, literally sweat them out. Yeah, well, you'll not only sweat them, but it also helps to activate your other detox pathways inside your body because there's many different ways to, you know, remove toxins, you know, from the body, one of them being sweat. And we know from the US study the blood urine sweat study that compared traditional heat, infrared and exercise.

Compared the three of them, on removing toxins and infrared, showed a better removal of toxins than traditional and exercise.

Inflammation, Detoxification, and Toxin Removal 15:47

And specifically, I like to mention the mercury component because, they tested the, the participants for mercury and their blood, and they found that, you know, 15% had no levels of, mercury. However, 100% of those 15% had mercury in their sweat. So it shows you the power. The sweat shows the importance of removing toxins from. So I mean, I read you probably know this too. There's an article about, a study that was done on, microplastics in our brain. It said that there was a spoonful, like when they examined people's brain.

There's a spoonful of plastics that are in people's brains. It's just is scary. And so whatever we can do, we can't control. I mean, you have to live, like, totally secluded. I don't even know how you would do that to protect yourself from the chemicals that are outside. We can't really control that. But we can control the way that, you know, what we put in our bodies and what we do with our bodies, you know, while we are experiencing everything and try and, you know, nourish and detoxify and safe in natural ways.

And infrared is a great it's a great resource. Oh, so many exciting things. But I have to just circle back to one more thing you said, which was you talked about wrinkles, cellulite, skin quality. Now, I think you were talking about that when you were talking about red light panels. Yes. You have now built in are making red light panels. I have at home. I don't have it right there. Unfortunately, an amazing red light mask. That sunlight in makes and in your sana's your red light panel. So people have a multiple opportunities to get the benefits for, you know, cosmetic and vanity.

But we are open to the idea that looking young may help you in your lifestyle journey. You have to be young inside and outside, but there's nothing wrong with looking young outside too. So how's it going with that beautiful gold red light mask that sunlight now makes and that I enjoy? It's going great. I love that mask so much. I love it because it's cordless. So you can, like I can walk around the house and it it looks like you can't see out of it the way it's designed. It's gold. And and when you just look at somebody that's wearing it, it looks like you can't see, but you can.

Your eyes are there's like certain slots. There's slots for your eyes. And what I also like is extremely comfortable. We have this prismatic design that takes a light frequencies of near-infrared and red light. And disperses, disperses it in a 360 degree fashion so that your entire face is getting all of this light energy. And we've also delivered that most powerful frequency of near-infrared and red light, something it's different than other products on the market. And then we added yellow light, which also helps with with wrinkles.

And the entire spectrum of light has benefit to the skin and blue lights. Great for acne which we have blue light in there. And and then there's green light for just completely sheer relaxation. But it's really easy to use. The other thing I love about it, because I'm an efficiency girl and I like habit sag, you know, I sweat, sag, I like anything I can stack so I can do multiple things at the same time. I'm all in and the mask is great because you can stack it like by doing other things. It's quick.

The whole program to cycle through everything is only eight minutes, and if you just want to spend the time on just the near-infrared and red light combination, it's three minutes. So everybody has that amount of time to be able to, you know, put on the mask and receive the beautiful light energy into their face. And you feel great afterwards. Yeah, I wore mine on Halloween when people came to.

Red Light Mask, Product Options, and Where to Find Sunlighten 19:38

Because they did have The neighbor the Bionic Book. So. All right, this is captain Doctor Con. Okay. You know, people take the time to study your company's history and product line and quality and third party verification. And the reason that so many of us in the field, in the medical field fail, you know, you really are the best provider of infrared and red light therapy. Now that you've moved into that, where do people find the corporate website? Yeah, go to sunlight Incom, sun, LGD, Centcom. You can do that.

We have people who could chat. You can text us. We you can go to our social channels. We are on Instagram. We are on Facebook. You know, we are all over social. So you know can also I'm also on Instagram. You can reach out to me directly as well if you want. I'm happy to help. I'm happy to answer any questions that you have. I understand that infrared can be confusing, and there's a lot of a lot of misinformation out there. So happy to help. You can reach out to me directly. And, and our phone number is (877) 292-0020.

And somebody we have a lot of infrared consultants that are super passionate, to help people meet them where they are. We have lots of different collections. So you don't you know, there's plenty of choices out there. And we want to make sure you get the right fit for you and what you're looking for at this stage. Yeah, I agree with that. And I know I don't have I have one of your great, great honors that just fit into a space actually my bedroom, that is the perfect place like you do. I go and I meditate and I sweat and I then I rehydrate and I just, hide away, you know, multiple stacking therapy way.

But I know other people that have built custom homes, and you've actually gone in and designed for a person who has the capacity and the interest. You know, some they have it's just perfect in their home. So there's just no reason whether it's a ready made one or a custom one. Not to add this into your program. I mean, we're just we need it. I mean, we do need access to infrared sauna. So I want to thank you for taking the time. One. Thank you very taking the leap 26 years ago. And now, being an entrepreneur is a lot of sleepless nights and a lot of conversations with the bankers and all those, yeah, make it go.

But for all of us and enjoy it so much and understand the science. Thank you. Thank Aaron. And I always appreciate having a conversation with you here at, reversing heart disease Naturally summit. Thank you Connie. Thank you doctor Kahn