Infrared sauna sits at an interesting intersection: heat, comfort, circulation, and the body's ongoing work of restoration. In this conversation, Dr. Raleigh Duncan presents sauna as more than a place to sweat. It is a way of giving the body a gentle thermal signal.
00: 640 - - > 00: 02. 750 align: start position: 0% so here at the longevity conference there's a lot of good information about nutrition and food to put into our bodies but the one important piece is that if you don't get the toxins out of the body and there's 80, 000 chemicals that we're exposed to that are grandparents weren't so if you can't get the toxins out then you have less of the nutrition that can come in so we see our purpose is to help people to detoxify and and relax Rel so the nutrition can come in I just got the the president's Council on cancer the president has a council of of learned uh doctors and scientists and they compiled a over 500 page report about cancer and if you read it basically what they talk about is how to avoid toxins in the workplace in the home in your life and there's so what they're saying is there's a direct correlation between the toxins in the air in our food in our water in our environment and health cancer and and many other diseases that we've found that you can directly relate a human body was never designed to handle the amount of toxins that were exposed to so the way that the body gets rid of toxins is through the liver and the kidneys and the skin but when we're overloaded with toxins and it can't handle it it has to store the toxins somewhere so it will put the toxins in usually in a fat cell so here's the body doing the best it can to get rid of the toxins and then it's storing some in the fat cells now the next day comes by and again inundated with more toxins it can't handle that it's already got some stored so it has to store more so then this level starts to build up until it's just overloaded and it's been postulated that the reason that many people can't lose weight is because they have so many toxins in the fat cells that they the
body can't give up the fat cells it can't take do anything with it until it addresses the toxins and so that's where we are and that's why we came up with a system of detoxification that's simple painless and actually feels good and when you use it on a regular basis then you can bring yourself in this journey back to health so what we did and what we've been doing for the past 14 years is to refine the wavelength of the far infrared heating device an apparatus and tune it to the human body so that it will optimally come into the body and it actually helps the cell to vibrate and cleave the toxin off and this is what we've found so we'll take someone with let's say heavy metal toxicity and by doing nothing different except using our infrared sauna within a few months time using the sauna for days a week let's say for 30 minutes a day they'll come back with a test that show tremendous mendous increase a decrease of uh chemicals toxins and heavy metals so what we'll find is that after uh regular period of time of using the infrared sauna that they will come back with a decrease of heavy metals in their system for thousands of years we've used saunas in in Russia it's called de uh in Morocco it's called the hamam and in the Native American culture it's called the sweat lodge so it's been used for many years but the red sauna is somewhat different in fact it's radically different the original sauna using uh let's say hot rocks to heat up the air heats the air to about 200 degrees Fahrenheit sometimes even hotter and the heated air becomes your medium that's what's heating you but it has one big drawback one you're breathing in super heated air and burning your lungs out two once you start to get a sweat going now you've got a layer of perspiration in between you
and the heating element the hot air now infrared works completely differently in that it's a wavelength so it travels through the air and it doesn't give up its energy until it hits and enters the body penetrating an inch inch and a half into the soft tissue so after the infrared comes into the body the first thing that happens is vasod dilation so that means the blood vessels open up soon as the blood vessels open up the body senses that and you get a passive aerobic workout as the body starts to coarse new oxygenated blood through the entire body bringing oxygen nutrition to where it's needed for healing and then the opposite taking away the toxins so that's what happens and so you'll get a Boos in immune system you get a a boost in metabolism and you get through this passive aerobic you'll actually burn calories in the process you will still get uh uh you will still get to toxins going out through the urine in the feces and you'll get toxins coming out in the skin but it's basically the entire system of moving the blood around and liberating the toxins and letting them uh go out and that's how it works Optimal Health comes through detoxification obviously exercise and good nutrition now those are just the three Basics so if you go in the sauna but you're still eating uh let's say a standard American diet and a lot of junk food you will get some benefit but not to the extent that you will get if you can start to supplement your diet with fresh fruits and vegetables uh maybe something radical like uh fresh juice in the morning uh take an apple to work instead of a Twinkie and then just see what happens we ask people to try this for one month to in their life really try to have maybe five servings of fresh fruits and vegetables every day and and use a sa at least four times a week and maybe make a little diary and see what
happens and and I've never had anyone come back and say that oh I didn't feel anything normally within the first week the skin gets softer as the toxins are coming out there's more energy or people will say gee I'm sleeping better or I'm not as grumpy uh one person told me I found out that food equals mood I like that so it's a total regimen but it doesn't have to be honorous because getting in the sauna is it's enjoyable it's relaxing it's uh it's like going to to the spot for me raw food living is an attitude for me it's not a religion so much as it's just incorporating to your level that you're comfortable a little at a time more fresh fruits uh bananas apples whatever you love and more salads and and just a way to get this is what our bodies uh lived on for years and years thousands of years as we were evolving and it has the enzymes and the vitamins and the nutrients in it that our bodies need so why not eat as much as you can so what we found is that people are habitual we're habitual animals and so we like to eat what we're used to eating so if I'm used to eating a a hamburger for lunch and a big steak for dinner and eggs and bacon for the morning that's kind of what I crave now if I start if I just somehow force my myself instead for let's say 3 days to have fresh fruit in the morning a salad at uh lunch and and maybe I still have that steak at night over just three days three or four days you will find yourself at least for me I'll start to Crave that in the morning instead of getting up and looking for those eggs I'm getting up and looking for that fresh fruit bowl okay and that's just how we are with uh with food and many other things the sa is the same way if we go in the sauna let's say before bed
every night at 9: 30 10: 00 then the body will start looking for that it looks for what it knows is good for it and and sometimes Foods taste good but they may not be healthy so this is how to sort of just bring yourself into greater health and see what happens see how it feels and you be the judge for yourself don't listen to anyone you be the judge probably one of the most important things that that happens when people get into the infrared sauna is that it's de-stresses and I I can't emphasize how important this is in our culture when we're stressed our bodies put out cortisol and we have the feeling that we're running from the tiger now if you I did this for a week I went around and I asked everyone I met I said do you feel stressed I did this for an entire week I did not have one person say well why no I'm not stressed all right so as a culture we're stressed out and when we're stressed it depresses our immune function it depresses our happiness it depresses just being alive all right because we all think that we're running from that tiger now when you get in the infrared sauna and that vasod dilation when the blood vessels open up you go into what is called the relaxation response or parasympathetic running from the tiger is a sympathetic response parasympathetic is the rest and Digest now healing only happens when we're in parasympathetic if the body thinks it's running from the tiger it says look we'll heal that later on but let's get rid of this tiger now that's a good evolutionary thing so when you go in the infrared sauna it's that that exhale the sanctuary and I this is one of the probably one of the biggest things besides the toxicity that everyone needs in their life is just to have that sometime during the day to
decompress no cell phones no kids no demands no email to enter so that's uh that's what we find we call it the urban nomadic sweat lodge and so it's a sanctuary that you can go into and and as you said there are no quick fixes not for health so I make a distinction between healing and curing curing is give me a pill I want the symptom to go away I want the pain to stop that's I want to cure this thing or I'll cut something out now after the curing ends then the body can start to heal healing is working with the body and supporting it so it can optimally be in the world and be feeling good happy healthy and vibrant two different worlds so about eight years ago We Came Upon A a new technology and heaters of a flat panel carbon heater that has a tremendous wavelength and potential for healing the human body and detoxification but it had major drawback and that was that it had a lot of what we call EMF or EMR electromagnetic radiation so we worked on that at first it was just a thought and then it became a reality so we spent about four years working on how to get that electromagnetic radiation out because it measured very high and we didn't want to put anyone in the sauna with with that EMR so it happened about a a year ago we were able to have a a big breakthrough and we were able to uh bring it down to just almost nothing and uh so this is we're very excited about bringing this to the healing world uh because now people can detox without worrying about having the this electromagnetic disturbance uh you just don't want to be in that so uh that's what we're doing now and it it's working great and the reception has been wonderful so it was our intention that we come out with the the very best technology and heating
system so when people get in our saunas that they have the best experience and Come Away with the greatest amount of Health that they could so by eliminating the electromagnetic radiation we know that when someone gets in our sauna that they will have the the best and healthiest experience that they can have in the sauna to get the toxins out relax their body remove the pain and uh and go on and live their lives because that's what it's all about
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The strongest version of that idea is not dramatic. Heat does not need to be punishing to be meaningful. A well-designed sauna session can invite circulation, relaxation, and a clearer transition out of the tension of the day.
When the body warms, blood vessels open, heart rate rises, and sweat becomes part of temperature regulation. The experience feels simple, but the physiology is active. Heat asks the cardiovascular system to adapt without the joint impact of exercise.
That is why sauna can feel restorative. The body receives a clear signal, then settles. The value is in the rhythm: warm, respond, recover.
Traditional sauna heats the air around the body. Infrared sauna uses radiant heat that many people experience as softer and more direct. The difference matters less as a competition and more as a question of fit.
For some guests, infrared makes heat work feel more accessible. Lower ambient temperatures can allow a longer, calmer session while still creating a meaningful thermal response.
The best sauna protocol is not the harshest one. It is the one your body can receive, recover from, and return to.
The word detox is often used too loosely. The body already has sophisticated systems for processing and removing compounds, especially through the liver, kidneys, gut, lungs, and skin. Sweating may support part of that larger process, but it should not be framed as a cure-all.
A better way to think about sauna is support. Heat can promote sweating, circulation, and relaxation. Hydration, nutrition, sleep, and medical context still matter. The protocol works best when it sits inside a broader foundation of care.
A sauna session should leave the nervous system quieter, not depleted. That means respecting dose. More time, more heat, or more frequency is not automatically better.
The felt marker is simple: you step out warmer, calmer, and more present. You rehydrate. You cool gradually. The session becomes a pause that helps the rest of the day function better.
Heat is a signal. Recovery is where the adaptation becomes useful.
Use sauna to support the body's systems, not to outsource the foundations of health.
Start gently. Choose a comfortable temperature and session length before increasing either variable.
Hydrate before and after heat exposure, especially if you sweat heavily or train on the same day.
Use extra caution with cardiovascular conditions, pregnancy, fainting history, heat intolerance, or medication changes. Clinical guidance matters.
