A sit-and-sweat session in an infrared-heated sauna is one of the hottest new wellness trends. These sessions lower the temperature in a traditional Finnish-style dry sauna, warming you from the inside out. Couple that with the latest in red-light therapy and the health and wellness benefits increase, with the aim to provide a comfortable means to detoxify your body, relieve pain, lower insulin resistance, boost your immune system and enhance sleep. All while reducing stress.
While a number of sauna spas have popped up around Houston, not all are built alike. I asked Dr. Raleigh Duncan, CEO and founder of Clearlight Infrared Therapy and Wellness Solutions, a global leader in infrared sauna technology, red light therapy and wellness solutions for more than 28 years, about adding infrared and red light therapy and how it compares to a traditional dry sauna.
Four of the Clearlight Infrared Saunas installed at Houston’s Löyly Sauna Lounge. (Photo by Tia Ray)
“When our infrared sauna and the red light technology are used together, a synergy of healing is created,” Duncan says. “The infrared sauna works first by relaxing and opening the skin, muscles, and soft tissue. . . Our red-light rays utilize powerful light-emitting diodes to promote healing.
“These lights have been shown to reduce inflammation, promote wound healing, ease pain, increase collagen, and actually put energy into the mitochondria of the body’s cells in a process called photobiomodulation. The process works much in the same way we use sunlight to produce vitamin D in our bodies. More simply put, photobiomodulation is a way of increasing the life span of the cells in our body, which by its very definition causes longevity and anti-aging to occur.”
Skeptical about the science behind frequent sauna sitting? A Finnish study published in JAMA Internal Medicine by researchers at the University of Eastern Finland tracked 2,315 middle-aged men for 20 years. They divided them into three groups based on how often they used a sauna weekly. Each spent an average of 14 minutes per visit in the 175 degree heat. Those who indulged two to three times a week had a 22 percent lower risk of sudden cardiac death, while more frequent visitors going four to seven times a week had a 63 percent lower risk (each compared to sauna bathing once a week). Fatal cardiovascular disease was lowered to 48 percent for those four to seven times a week bathers (23 percent for bathers going two to three times a week), and a lower risk of all-cause mortality of 40 percent for participants who took a sauna four to seven times a week versus once a week.
Wonder how that works?
“The first thing that happens when infrared comes into the body is vasodilation,” Duncan says. “The blood vessels open up and oxygen-rich blood starts flowing faster through the arteries and down to the tiny capillaries and arterioles of the circulatory system.
“This vasodilation, in turn, increases the heart rate, and the result is that passive aerobic conditioning starts to occur.”
While installing an infrared sauna at home is gaining in popularity and costs in the range of $5,000 to $20,000, if that’s not feasible, memberships at saunas locally are available such as Löyly Sauna Lounge, Sudor Sauna Studio, and Perspire Sauna Studio, all of which utilize the latest in Clearlight infrared technology.
A home installation of one of Clearlight’s outdoor infrared saunas.
Plunging Into the Cold
Specializing in contrast therapy (combining the benefits of hot and cold therapies), you can book a session at Löyly ($45) or purchase a membership for $189 a month of daily visits. Named for the Finnish word for steam that rises from the sauna’s hot stones, Löyly founders Cindy and Dion Ruzicka began their wellness forary into contrast therapy when Dion was diagnosed with lymphatic leukemia in 2022. Three years later, Dion Ruzicka is cancer free and credits his recovery in part to this contrast therapy routine, where he experienced firsthand the inflammation in his body shrinking, a noticeable reduction in his lymph nodes, and the exhaustion that plagued him disappearing.
“Scientifically, the cold plunge was activating his brown fat, pulling glucose from his bloodstream, the very fuel that cancer feeds on,” Cindy Ruzicka says. “Otto Warburg published this in Nature almost 90 years ago.
“Cold water inhibits cancer growth, but no one talks about it.”
Löyly Sauna Lounge founders Cindy and Dion Ruzicka, began their wellness journey into contrast therapy when Dion was diagnosed with lymphatic leukemia. (Photo by Tia Ray)
Löyly’s director of operations Jess Peregoy advises you to start your circuit with a cold plunge in their custom saltwater communal tub equipped with sound frequency therapy set at a chilly 41 to 49 degrees,
“The goal is to immerse your body up to your neck for anywhere from 30 seconds to three minutes, however long you can sustain the soak,” Peregoy notes.
The combination of ice-cold water and gentle sound waves tuned to calm the nervous system provides a slight vibration that can reset the parasympathetic nervous system, reduce stress and anxiety, and improve focus. Next, to shake off the shivers, hop into the hot water plunge for at least five minutes to gently raise your body temperature. The mineral-rich saltwater soaking tub is maintained at approximately 104 degrees, which can aid detoxification and improve skin health.
“I usually stay in the hot tub until the tingles go away, because when you’re in the cold, all of your blood vessels constrict as blood floods your vital organs,” Peregoy says. “When you’re in the heat, that snap sends an opposite reaction. The blood vessels widen and your blood migrates back to your extremities.”
Be brave and take the cold plunge. Start your circuit at Loyly with a cold plunge in their custom saltwater communal tub equipped with sound frequency therapy set at a chilly 41 to 49° F, “The goal is to immerse your body up to your neck for anywhere from 30 seconds to 3 minutes, however long you can sustain the soak,” says Jess Peregoy, Director of Operations. Photo by Tristen Burrows.
The last stop on the circuit is to step into one of the four-person infrared red-light saunas for 15 to 20 minutes. Mind you, there is no need to wear eye protection. Full-spectrum saunas are heated to 150 to 165 degrees, where infrared wavelengths penetrate deep into tissue and muscle fibers, melting away tension and increasing circulation as the body releases endorphins, nature’s pain relievers.
Finally, for those looking to bump up the benefits of infrared technology, Hotworx is a chain of sauna studios that combine small exercise classes such as core, yoga, pilates, cycle, isometric compression postures, HIIT, barre and stretch, all within an infrared sauna. Dubbed 3D Training, each virtual instructor leads a class of three, lasting from 15 minutes for a high-intensity interval training workout to 30 minutes for an isometric session.
They claim the results can accelerate your metabolism, allow you to reach your target heart rate sooner, and force your body to acclimate to the heat, which can condition you for optimal performance. Although not coupled with red light therapy, Hotworx patented infrared saunas can strengthen and activate the regenerative processes in the body, helping to accelerate workout recovery.
It’s a whole new sauna world.
