Healthy, Younger Looking Skin with a Far Infrared Sauna

Research has indicated that there are many significant health benefits associated with heat therapy from a far infrared sauna. One of the main benefits is healthier, younger looking skin.

The skin is the largest organ of the human body. Your skin is very important. It protects everything inside the body from infection and injury and holds everything together so muscles, bones and organs stay neatly in their place. The skin also helps keep the body at just the right temperature, and gives us our sense of touch.

The skin is made up of three layers - the epidermis or outer layer, the dermis which is the middle layer and the subcutaneous layer, the inner most layer of the skin.

The epidermis is the part of your skin you can see. New skin cells form at the bottom of the epidermis and travel to the top, a process that takes 2 to 4 weeks. As new cells arrive, old cells die and flake off. We lose approximately thirty to forty thousand dead skin cells every minute. The main job of the epidermis is to make new skin cells. It is also responsible for producing melanin which gives the skin its color and protects it from the sun’s ultra violet rays.

The dermis is directly below the epidermis and contains nerve endings, blood vessels, oil glands, and sweat glands. It also contains two different proteins - collagen and elastin. The nerve endings in your dermis give the sense of touch. The blood vessels bring oxygen and nutrients to the skin cells to keep them healthy and remove waste while the oil glands keep your skin lubricated, protected and waterproof. The sweat glands continuously produce a small amount of sweat that mixes with the oil on the skin to produce a protective film. Collagen and elastin together make skin youthful, pliable, elastic and supple.

The bottom layer of the skin is called the subcutaneous layer and is made mostly of fat. It helps keep the body warm, absorbs shock, attaches the skin to the tissue underneath and contains hair follicles.

Skin aging depends on a number of different factors. The genes, we received from our parents, has a major affect on how our skin looks as it ages. The lack of a healthy lifestyle also plays a major role in the aging of skin. Over indulgence in such things as smoking, alcohol or food can play a large factor in premature aging. Drugs, alcohol and petroleum based skin creams, excessive sun exposure and a lack of sleep and water can also affect the skin.

In Western medicine, doctors traditionally prescribe pharmaceutical drugs, creams and ointments to treat a host of different skin aliments. These products, while they provide what appears to be a quick fix, do not normally get to the root of the problem. Alcohol or petroleum based cosmetic skin creams, which are supposed to help keep skin moist and young looking, in fact can be very detrimental to the skin. The chemicals contained in pharmaceutical and cosmetic products are often not processed effectively by the body and can accumulate in fat cells, adding to the body’s toxic burden. These products can also strip the skin of its protective oils.

Naturopathic doctors often use herbal skin care products containing a combination of natural oils, plant based waxes, vitamins, coenzymes and antioxidants to provide the safest, healthiest treatment for all skin types. These natural compounds target the cause of skin problems, helping to heal the skin from the inside out, for more thorough and longer lasting results.

Daily use of a far infrared sauna is another very safe and natural way to improve the skin. Far infrared rays (FIR) penetrate the skin from 1.5 to 3 inches. In the subcutaneous tissues, these infrared light rays are converted to heat energy which causes blood vessels and capillaries to dilate. As blood vessels and capillaries expand, circulation improves and oxygen rich blood carries significant amounts of nutrients to the skin. In addition to improving the health of the skin, this increased blood flow is known to help heal acne, eczema, psoriasis, burns, lesions and cuts. Heat from far infrared saunas also releases toxins and waste from the cells so they can be removed from the body through blood and perspiration.

If healthy, beautiful skin is what you want, using a Far Infrared Sauna on a regular basis may be just what you need to get you there.