Hyperthermia – A Boon to Your Health, Even If You’re Not So Healthy
You could call hyperthermia a planned fever. The term refers to heating the body above what we call “normal,” around 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. When you’re sick, you get a fever. It is a sign that your body is trying to fight off the virus or bacterium that’s attacking it. Induced hyperthermia is a fever without the illness, and it can be very good for you when it’s controlled.
Another thing you often do when you have a fever is sweat. Hyperthermia causes sweating, which is an effective method of detoxification. The heat causes the cells to release toxins into the lymph fluid. Sweat derives from lymph fluid and carries the toxins out of the body through pores in the skin.
For healthy people, this is great. But it’s also good for people who might have liver or kidney problems. They, too, can use hyperthermia to detoxify because the heat has little effect on their organs. So hyperthermia can be very helpful to people with some chronic ailments.
Saunas and steam rooms are used for hyperthermic therapy. In both cases, heat is used not only to detoxify the body but also to relieve pain, treat skin ailments and even lose weight. The question is which is better at delivering hyperthermic therapy, a sauna or a steam room? Even further, which kind of sauna is best at the job.
The answer really has only two parts. Steam rooms and traditional saunas deliver heat in essentially the same way. There has to be a heat source – a gas, oil or electric heater, or a wood stove. These heat sources are used to make the air warm. In a steam room, water is added to create the steam, but it’s still the air that is warmed.
In an infrared sauna, on the other hand, the air is not warmed first. Instead, objects within reach of the far infrared rays from the infrared sauna heaters are warmed. Thus, the air temperature inside a far infrared sauna can remain 60 or more degrees Fahrenheit cooler than the air in a traditional sauna or steam room.
“Far infrared” refers to light at the far end of the infrared spectrum. This is the infrared that warms and that you experience just about every day when you let sunlight touch you. It’s important to point out, though, that infrared is not the same as ultraviolet. UV rays are the sun’s burning rays. Infrared doesn’t burn you.
Heating the body to the levels required to generate a detoxifying sweat in a traditional sauna or steam room puts considerable stress on the heart and other organs. By keeping the surrounding air cooler, a far infrared sauna greatly reduces the stress level, making it a safer alternative for healthy people and people with many chronic ailments.
It’s always important to consult a physician before undergoing any kind of hyperthermic therapy. But more and more doctors and other health-care professionals are recognizing the benefits of the mPulse cONQUER sauna in treating a growing number of conditions.