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Transcript
- 10:11 Why detox?
- 12:25 Why near infrared?
- 17:24 Risks to Far Infrared
- 24:35 Benefits of Near Infrared Saunas
- 31:13 Near Infrared Sauna and Cancer
- 40:25 Frequency of Use
- 42:00 Contraindications for Near Infrared Sauna Use
- 45:36 Near Infrared Saunas and Children
- 46:41 Different Types of Saunas
- 52:17 Shipping & Delivery
- 55:12 The Most Pressing Health Issue Today
- 59:24 More About Michael Goldstein
Wendy Myers: Welcome to Live to 110 Podcast. I’m your host, Wendy Myers. You can find me on myersdetox.com. Here is my co-host, General Leigh Lowery.
Leigh Lowery: Hi, everybody. Glad to be here.
Wendy Myers: You can find her on generalleigh.com. And today, we’re going to be interviewing Michael Goldstein, maker of Long Life Saunas, what I think are the best near infrared saunas on the market today. I’m very proud to offer them for sale on the Live to 110 store.
Today, we’re going to be revealing all the benefits of near infrared saunas. So if you’ve been curious about what they are and how they can improve your health, this is the show that you should be listening to.
Sweating is one of the best ways to get out many of the chemicals and heavy metals that are present in our bodies today because unfortunately, due to industrial dumping and polluting, this has resulted in us harboring on average 700 chemicals in our body. Even babies are being born with many, many chemicals in their bodies. Really they’re starting out very toxic today.
Common sense tells us this cannot be good for us and is very likely going to lead to health issues and disease. Our bodies do not know how to process all of these chemicals.
Also, advances in our technology have allowed us to take detox one step further with the advent of infrared saunas. They penetrate far deeper than a regular sauna, thus providing deeper detoxification. So we’re going to be talking today about which saunas are the best and how they differ the typical Finnish or Swedish dry heat sauna that you find in your gym or spa.
But first, we have to do the disclaimer…
Leigh Lowery: That is right. Please keep in mind that this program is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or health condition and it is not a substitute for professional medical advice. The Live to 110 podcast is solely informational in nature. Please consult with your health care practitioner before partaking in any treatment that we suggest on this show.
Wendy Myers: So you have a new newsletter, is that correct?
Leigh Lowery: It’s actually this week – I believe this week. I’m really excited about it. It’s just going to be great information for all of the listeners on a weekly basis to find out more about what I’m doing some a nutrition and online training standpoint. And again, like I said, you can also find out more about my online training if you go to my website, which is facebook.com/generalleighfitnessandnutrition or generalleigh.com.
But in the newsletter, what’s really cool is that I’m going to be giving away free tips and advice before you decide to come along and train with me.
Wendy Myers: Nice! Yeah, I have some exciting news. I am just starting the Modern Paleo Cooking Show with moi, Wendy Myers. I’m going to be teaching everyone. Every week, I’m going to have a new recipe. It’s going to be on YouTube, on my YouTube channel at wendyliveto110. It’s basically going to be all about how to cook healthy, real food, modern paleo food – modern paleo is my version of paleo where I believe that you can include foods that are not on a traditional strict paleo diet like some gluten grains, some dairy, potatoes, some grains if you tolerate them. Not everyone should be eating those foods, but there are many people that tolerate them and should not have to exclude some of these very nutritious food from their diet.
So it’s really a cooking show for everyone. We’re going to be having a lot of fun on there. I’m excited. I’ve got a shoot coming up pretty soon. I’m going to be filming about four different recipes. So look forward to that on the blog, the new recipe and the new TV show.
Leigh Lowery: That is so cool. And aren’t you going on a cruise soon?
Wendy Myers: I am! I’m going to be on Jimmy Mores’ Living La Vida Low Carb Cruise. We’re going to be leaving from Orlando and going to the Coco Key in the Bahamas, St. Martin and the Dutch Antilles and to the Virgin Islands.
Leigh Lowery: The biggest question I have as you get ready to go on this cruise is, “Is the menu on the cruises…” – because cruises are synonymous with eating. It’s like pizza party, donut party. It’s like a carb festival. The first thing I found out is that’s a very interesting combination, low carb and cruise. Usually, those two don’t go together. It’s not synonymous.
Wendy Myers: Well, unfortunately, the low carb cruise is low carb, but the crew ship itself is going to be a carb fiesta because even though it’s a low carb cruise, there’s only about 200-250 people on the low carb cruise, but it’s within a regular cruise. It’s a royal Caribbean cruise line.
So I’m going to be speaking on the cruise. I have a speech called ‘Obesegens: Chemicals That Make You Fat’. It’s a little off-subject, the low carb matter, but it’s still about how to lose weight by thinking about what you’re putting on your body.
And so unfortunately, there is going to be a lot of carby things that are going to be tempting to the low carb cruisers.
Leigh Lowery: We’ll change the name to Wendy’s Will Power Cruise then. You can tell us how you did.
Wendy Myers: Yeah. Our guest today, Michael Goldstein of nearinfraredsauna.com is a nutritionist and owner and founder of Long Life Near Infrared Saunas. He became interested in infrared sauna therapy in 2003 as a detoxification method for his clients doing nutritional detoxification. Initially, he just began constructing saunas for his clients, but in 2009, decided to make saunas full-time.
So Michael, I’m so happy to have you on the show.
Michael Goldstein: Thank you, Wendy. I’m happy to be here. Thanks for having me.
Wendy Myers: Yeah. So I have your infrared saunas for sale on my site on myersdetox.com in the store. I’ve been researching near infrared saunas for many years. I wrote several blog posts about them. I definitely researched all the manufacturers out there. There’s not very many, but I researched all of them before choosing that I would be proud to have on my store and be proud to offer to my clients and to my readers on myersdetox.com because you make the finest infrared saunas – or near infrared saunas available on the market.
Michael Goldstein: Thank you.
Wendy Myers: Yeah.
Michael Goldstein: It’s been many years in the making. We are a small business and definitely constantly striving to make the best product out there.
Wendy Myers: Yeah. So why don’t you first tell the listeners a little bit about yourself and how you found your way to becoming a nutritionist and why you started making near infrared saunas.
Michael Goldstein: Yeah. Well, I got into nutrition for my own personal health reasons. That started back – oh, 20 years ago after having some bad experiences with the medical doctor in terms of trying to figure out what was going on with my body and not getting any information at all about food and nutrition, which sparked my interest to learn.
From there, I started studying on my own. Eventually, I went back to school. I just studied nutritional science. I have a degree in nutritional science, which is mostly food biochemistry. It’s pretty much been the focus of my life since then. I began working one-on-one with clients to do nutrition counseling and we focused primarily on detoxification. That’s where I learned about infrared saunas in general.
This was in about 2001 when I first started learning about them. They seem to be really, really good way to slowly detoxify the body. It’s a gradual and very effective and even gentle way to detoxify the body. And it’s easy because you just sit in there and enjoy the warmth.
In 2003, I decided that I really wanted to make this available to my clients. I have come across near infrared and studied that pretty intensely and decided this was a better approach than far infrared.
Far infrared is very popular. They’re easy to find. They’re really not the best thing out there. I wanted to go with the best, so I got into near infrared. They’re not technically complex to make and so I was able to make my first one for myself and try it out and I just loved it and decided this was totally the way to go.
I began making them individually for my nutrition clients. I was doing hair mineral analysis and we were finding all kinds of heavy metals in people’s bodies and using the sauna as part of a comprehensive nutrition program to help these people get into better health.
Wendy Myers: So why is it in your opinion so important to detox today?
Michael Goldstein: Well, basically, we are living in a toxic soup. There isn’t anyone who doesn’t have daily exposure to harmful toxins whether they are heavy metals or chemicals, pesticides. These types of toxins are in the air, they’re in the food, they’re in the water. So we’re unfortunately getting them pretty much from everywhere.
These all different kinds of toxins, all of them, regardless of the type they are, they can all be eliminated through sweat, which is why saunas are the premiere way to detoxify.
We really need it. Some people who are able to tolerate a fair amount of this stuff in their body, but for most of us, it’s sort of a slow decline in our function, a little bit here and a little bit there until it gets to the point where it starts to compromise our health or contribute to the body not being able to heal from some other condition.
Detoxification is really just a baseline strategy just to stay healthy and to deal with any health challenge you might be having that may be compromised by toxicity.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, it’s really amazing to me how there’s so much knowledge out there, it’s going more mainstream, but there’s so many people, they fall ill, they have all different kinds of health issues and diseases and they go to the doctor and there’s no mention of, “Are you toxic?” or it could be from toxicity. For the most part, a majority of medical doctors and even naturopathic doctors are not getting it or communicating it that the underlying cause of most diseases and health conditions and vague symptoms like fatigue and brain fog is heavy metal and chemical toxicity.
Michael Goldstein: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And you’re right, there’s not enough awareness. It’s growing, but more people really could benefit from any kind of basic detoxification.
Wendy Myers: So why near infrared? Why are you making near infrared saunas rather than far infrared saunas?
Michael Goldstein: Well, near infrared has a wider range of health benefits. That’s really the main reason. Both saunas are good for detoxification. Both saunas are good for heating up the body, raising the body temperature, which has its own health benefits, but near infrared had a specific healing quality that far infrared doesn’t.
Our bodies actually have a specific cellular response in near infrared. There’s structures inside the cells, inside the mitochondria that respond directly to certain wavelengths of near infrared light. So we have an adaptive response. We have actual structures that’s evolved to process near infrared light. There’s nothing like that in the body for far infrared. Far infrared is basically heat. We don’t have a biological response to the wavelength itself.
So that tells me that we’re supposed to get near infrared, otherwise we wouldn’t have these structures in our body. So it has that healing quality and near infrared light leads to an improvement in the energy synthesis inside the cell, which in turn leads to self-healing and rejuvenation.
The other reason is that near infrared is a powerful anti-inflammatory. We talked about toxins being behind or contributing to many diseases today. Inflammation is the other big problem. It’s a part of almost all pathologies.
So if you have a daily therapy that brings down inflammation and you’re addressing it in your diet, you really are going to be making a big difference. You’re going to be in better shape.
So real infrared has these advantages over far infrared.
The last reason is that the technology is very simple. They’re easy to make and for the consumer, they’re really easy to maintain. You can keep this thing going on your own without any special tech to come help and fix the breaks or fine-tune it. The far infrared are a little more technically complex, which for the consumer can be a bit daunting if something breaks. They’re not so easy to fix.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, I experienced that. About a year before getting my own near infrared sauna, I was going to different spas and health centers here in Los Angeles that had far infrared saunas. People aren’t aware of them, but they’re all over the place. In most large cities, they’re tucked away in saunas, a little workout areas and things like that. They were constantly having problems with different aspects of the sauna. The one they had had a computerized control panel and it was always breaking. It was kind of a pain.
Michael Goldstein: Yeah, I hear that a lot from people who call and ask me about it, about our saunas. They tell me about the problems they’ve had. That’s one. I always found it interesting. The far infrared doesn’t generate any visible light, so you can see it. So here in the sauna that has say six or eight heaters and one of them starts to go on the fritz, there’s no way to know until enough of them go out to where the sauna doesn’t get hot anymore.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, yeah. That’s a good point, yeah. And for any of you listeners out there that aren’t really sure what a far infrared sauna looks like, it looks like a black sauna and it’s got black panels inside. They can be made of ceramic as well. They look like big, black fabric panels that surround the entire sauna. But a near infrared sauna has light bulbs. They have near infrared – they’re also called heat lamps.
Michael Goldstein: Yes. Yeah, and they give off – most of them, what comes out of them is not in a visible wavelength, but they do give off some red light, so if one of them goes out, it’s obvious because it goes dark. It’s so easy to see. And then you just reach over, unscrew it and put in a new one. Whereas with the far infrared, if one of your carbon panels burns out and you do realize it, you have to go to the company. A lot of these things are integrated into the wall. You need a tech to come out and replace it. And if for some reason your company that you bought it from is no longer in business, well then you’re out of luck.
With the near infrared, none of the near infrared sauna makers actually manufacture the bulbs. Those, you can get anywhere, so 25 years down the road, you can still go get a new bulb and just put it right in.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, it’s at every hardware store and online, on Amazon.
Michael Goldstein: Pretty much. Online, yeah. They’re easy to get online.
Wendy Myers: And they are like $10. They’re called heat lamps. They’re like a red bulb.
Michael Goldstein: Yeah, you’re going to pay anywhere from $7 to $15. You never need to pay more than that.
Wendy Myers: So what are some of the negative or harmful aspects of far infrared saunas, which would make it more prudent decision to use a near infrared sauna?
Michael Goldstein: Well, in terms of the harmful aspects, the one that most people point to is the electromagnetic radiation. Far infrared saunas, especially the older ones, many of them have a high EMF reading inside the sauna – the old carbon ones and ceramic ones.
Electromagnetic field radiation is not good for you. It’s especially bad for your immune system. In the far infrared sauna, you literally sit right up against the heater where the field strength would be at its strongest. If you sit five feet away from them, it wouldn’t be a problem. But if you sit right next to it, it’s sort of like putting your head next to a big bank of flourescent lights. It’s got that sort of buzzy feel to it. That is not good for you.
The newer units, they are shielding the wire and they’re definitely better, but not all of them. You have to go and you got to really look around and even test it yourself to see. So that’s the first problem.
The second (and this is a matter of opinion), some people think far infrared is just a little close to microwaves and heating the tissues with far infrared is unhealthy. I don’t know if that’s – I haven’t seen any definitive science on that, but there are some people who believe that’s the case.
And then in terms of negative effects, there’s two I can think of. All the commercial far infrared saunas seem to have a thermostat built in, which is really dim-witted in my opinion because we all know what happens to a thermostat when you set the heat in your house and it reaches the temperature you set. The heat goes off.
Wendy Myers: Yeah.
Michael Goldstein: That’s what a thermostat does, it shuts it off. Well, if you’re in a far infrared sauna and you set it, say, for 140° and it reaches 140°, the infrared goes off. Now, you’re just sitting in a stuffy closet. The point of using the sauna is to get the infrared on your body, so there should never be a thermostat because it’s going to make the infrared come off and on, off and on, off and on throughout the sauna, so the reality is as much of the time you’re in there, it’s not even on.
Wendy Myers: Wow! I never even thought of that aspect. It never occurred to me.
Michael Goldstein: No, some of them, you can just set to be on all the time, but with a thermostat, setting the temperature to anything other than maximum is a waste.
And then the second thing that I think is negative is that because of the way those saunas are built, the far infrared, it’s like all of your electromagnetic energy, it travels in a straight line. If you’re leaning against a wall that’s all carbon panels, the only infrared that reaches your body is what’s really right behind your back. If you’ve moved over a foot to your left or your foot to your right, that infrared is coming straight out the panel and going straight across the sauna into the wall on the other side. It never reaches your body.
I have a blog post on my blog with some pictures explaining what I mean by this, but much of the infrared that comes out in a sauna never reaches your body. That’s just a design flaw. With the near infrared, you really get much more in your body because we stack all the heaters on one side and they’re directional. They point the heat forward right at your body and then the interior of our cabins is reflective, rather than absorptive. So any stray infrared that doesn’t landed on your body the first time bounces around off the walls and can come back to you on another pass.
So you get a lot more bang for your buck, a lot more of that infrared reaches your body, which is exactly why you’re in that sauna.
I do think that is a big design problem with far infrared saunas.
Wendy Myers: I am so glad I had you on the show because you’re making so many distinctions for me even with so much research that I’ve done that I just really was not aware of. I’m frankly kind of upset that I spent a year in a far infrared sauna and I was probably kind of wasting my time.
Michael Goldstein: Yeah, I’m not getting as much as you could have. You know, what’s interesting to me is that despite this, there are many people who had great experiences with far infrared therapy and what that tells me is that there’s a profound need for detoxification because despite all those problems, you can still sweat profusely in a far infrared sauna, which means you’re detoxing. I think that is the reason that people still have some good experiences of a far infrared. They just could be better with near infrared.
Wendy Myers: Oh, yeah. I mean, I definitely got a big benefit. I was sweated like crazy. People are definitely benefiting from far infrared saunas. So listeners out there, if that’s all you got, you’ve bought a far infrared sauna, then you’re still having a tremendous amount of benefit.
Michael Goldstein: Correct, correct. Yeah, I don’t want to say that they’re all bad and have all the people out there using them get mad. They still do have benefits. I just think that there is something even better.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, and so you mentioned electromagnetic fields or EMFs. I think there’s a lot of people that aren’t aware that they have sensitivities to them. A lot of people have headaches or they have fatigue or they just don’t feel well when they get around them because we’re so surrounded by EMFs and wireless Internet technology and electrical cords, all these stuff plugged in. I think there’s a lot of people that aren’t aware of that and going into a far infrared sauna and having additional exposure can cause them problems.
Michael Goldstein: Yeah, I agree – especially in the units where it’s high, you’re really in the thick of it because you are leaning right up against the heater.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, I know. When I was in my far infrared sauna, I’d actually lay down in it. My head would be right against the panel.
Michael Goldstein: Right. Right, right. Right.
Wendy Myers: It’s probably not a good idea.
Michael Goldstein: No. No, probably not.
Wendy Myers: So I probably fried my brain a little bit.
Michael Goldstein: Yeah, generally speaking with any of the infrared saunas, you don’t want the heater directly next to your head. That’s a general contraindication, not to heat your head directly. I just want to say that in order to actually have a problem with that, you would have to intentionally misuse the sauna. It’s fine to be in the sauna. It’s fine for your head. It’s fine if your head is in front of a panel for a minute or two or even a few minutes. You’ll see those warnings though not to heat your head directly because your brain is more sensitive to temperature changes than the rest of the tissues in your body. So it’s not the infrared, but it’s the temperature.
Wendy Myers: Ah!
Michael Goldstein: So having the temperature in your brain go up very high would be not good for you.
Wendy Myers: No.
Michael Goldstein: But like I said, in order for that to actually happen, I imagine you would have to spend an hour and a half or two at least with your head right on the heater. I don’t really see people doing that though.
Wendy Myers: So why use a near infrared sauna? What are the benefits?
Michael Goldstein: Number one is detoxification, which we already talked a little bit. The necessity is there. And the sauna, because you’re sweating, you can eliminate toxins that are water-soluble and fat-soluble. That’s really important because it spares a lot of work for your body to get things out through your kidneys.
Water-soluble toxins come out in the urine and fat-soluble toxins, your liver actually has to biochemically convert into a water-soluble toxin, so it can come out through the urine – and that’s hard. Your liver is very good at doing it with things it recognizes like toxins and byproducts that are just from everyday living, but all of the novel chemical compounds that humans create, well our bodies have no idea what they are. Your liver kind of struggles to figure out what to do with some of these compounds.
And when you sweat, it doesn’t matter. They can just come right out through the skin, so it saves a lot of work on your organs of elimination.
So that’s the first reason.
The second reason specific to near infrared, that’s reduced inflammation. This is really important. Inflammation has an underlying factor in so many health conditions that if a passive anti-inflammatory exercise like sauna use is going to yield long-term benefits in terms of disease reduction and overall health maintenance and health improvement. Any type of specific inflammatory condition like rheumatoid arthritis is really going to benefit quickly from near infrared sauna use.
The third reason is that inside the sauna, you spend 30 minutes in there, you can pretty easily raise your body temperature 2° to 3°F. Two degrees is sort of the magic number to where you start to get hormonal changes. What happens is that increase in temperature – well, it does two things. First, it increases your immune function, enhances your immune system, which is really good, but it causes your body to release growth hormone which is very rejuvenative as an adult.
It’s a really good thing especially if we’re over 40. It helps with bone density. It helps maintain muscle mass. I have customers who are using the saunas as part of their weight-lifting program and that reported a beneficial impact on their muscles, which we attribute to that heat impact on growth hormone.
Wendy Myers: Doesn’t it help recovery quicker off of a worker?
Michael Goldstein: Absolutely, absolutely. The near infrared, the sauna effect, the heat stimulates your circulation. The near infrared helps your body release nitride oxide, which is a vasodilator, which is going to be helpful for all manners of workouts as well as recovery. So those are some specific benefits to the near infrared sauna.
Wendy Myers: Doesn’t it kill parasites as well?
Michael Goldstein: Absolutely! That’s the heat. When you reach your core temperature 2° to 3° – and you can raise it more. That’s something I would talk about with people on an individual basis and recommending work with a health practitioner if they want to do that, but it’s the heat. The heat stimulates the immune system and at a certain temperatures, a direct antagonist to parasites and viruses and bacteria. I’ve seen people with different types of parasites and candida and lyme – I heard a lot of people using it as part of their lyme protocol – all of them, they benefit from raising their body temperature.
Wendy Myers: Yes, I know because on my reading and studies and what-not, I’ve read that all of these viruses and parasites and fungi, candida, even weakened cells (cells weakened by radiation), they are very intolerant of heat – even cancer cells, very intolerant of heat. They just die on mass when you’re consistently doing your infrared sauna.
Michael Goldstein: Yes, you hit upon an important. And just to be consistent, you don’t get that benefit by using the sauna once every two weeks. Really, you want to be in there at least five times a week. And if you have a health condition you’re dealing with, you may consider being in the sauna seven times a week.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, and I think really important point to make about parasites because these are going to be very frustrating to treat. And even if you – like for instance, I was at odonomy at one point. Maybe I should figure out if I have parasites. So I went to my naturopathic doctor, ran a few test and I thought, “Well, how would these three tests are we really going to figure out which parasites I have.” I felt like it wasn’t comprehensive. I went to a gastroenterologist or typical MD. He tested me for five parasites in my stool and found nothing. I thought, “Everyone has parasites. I know I have parasites.”And I thought, “How can you test me for five parasites,” and like, “You’re free and clear.” They gave me a clean bill of health. I think there are so many thousand if not millions of parasites. There aren’t tests for all these things.
Michael Goldstein: I think you’re right about that.
Wendy Myers: So you just need to go fry them in a near infrared sauna and just call it a day. You don’t need to do testing. You don’t need to do some protocols, herbs or whatever. You can just kill them all just by consistently using infrared sauna.
Michael Goldstein: Yeah, make your body a place that’s inhospitable for them. We have the exposure to these things. And in many cases, our bodies can tolerate a small amount of this in the body. They just exist in harmony with other critters that live in our body. It’s only when things get out of balance for one reason or another (like taking a course of antibiotics) that things become a problem.
So the sauna will decrease the bad bugs. And hopefully, at the same time, you’ll be on a program that increase the good bugs and make your body, like I said, a less hospitable place for parasites and fungi and yeast.
Wendy Myers: And what about cancer prevention and treatment? I think this is a huge, huge area of interest for many people because there’s a 40% cancer rate. One in three women get cancer. One in two men will get cancer in their lifetime in the United States. I’m sure the stats are similar around the world. So how can infrared sauna or near infrared sauna help to prevent cancer and even kill cancer tumors?
Michael Goldstein: First, I would just say as the manufacturer of the sauna, I’m going to dance around with the language a little bit in terms of what kind of terms I use to describe how we work with cancer.
First, for people who do not have cancer, the regular raising of the body temperature along with the detoxification will stimulate the immune system and make the body a place inhospitable for cancer cells to grow along with sweating out chemicals that cause cancer. You do those things and your likelihood of developing cancer goes down significantly. You’re eliminating risk factors right there and that’s really important.
So we get the toxins out. There are toxins that are shown/proven to cause cancer. We want those out of the body. We want to keep the body primed in a way that makes it unfriendly for cancer cells to grow.
And for people who had cancer, we kind of want to do the same thing. You want to remove any possible triggers, any kind of toxins that are causing things or contributing. Any toxins that are contributing to your immune system not running optimally. And then you want to create a condition in your body that’s inhospitable for cancer. That includes raising the core temperature. In that case, you’ll be looking at 3° or 4°, something you would do with your health practitioner as part of your comprehensive program.
This is easy to do because all you have to do is turn the sauna on and go in it. It’s the most relaxing, passive type of therapy because really, you just sit there. Occasionally, you rotate your body, but really, you’re just sitting there. So it’s not hard. It’s not complicated.
For people looking to prevent and people looking to recover, it’s really worth doing the same thing pretty much, just using the sauna.
Wendy Myers: One of the reasons I’m using it is because my father passed away from esophageal cancer. So for me, it really hit home. What do I need to do to prevent it? What do I need to do to prevent cancer? So in my research, I just hit home on near infrared saunas, using them. I just feel really, really good about that choice that I don’t want to be one of the statistics.
Michael Goldstein: No, nobody does. Nobody does. And until you become, if you do, people don’t think about it. People don’t think about it until the doctor gives them some bad news. So it’s really good to keep ahead of things and take care of yourself. No one is going to do it for you. It’s really your personal responsibility to do so.
Wendy Myers: And that’s what I really urge all the listeners and my readers of the website on what not to do is. Be proactive and take responsibility for your own health because no one else is going to. You’re going to get 50 minutes with your doctor and he just doesn’t have the time to really dig down and figure out what’s wrong and what you need to be doing.
And also, an ounce of prevention is a pound of cure. You have to think about prevention in today’s toxis cesspool of a planet.
Michael Goldstein: Yeah. Unfortunately, it’s true. It’s a sad state. We have our latest assault on the environment, the meltdown of Fukushima spewing radiation all across the Pacific. It’s not being reported by the mainstream media. But the sauna is going to be useful for that too. You’ve got two things. One, when people are exposed to radiation, there’s the radiation and then there’s whatever it is that is radioactive. So in the case of cesium, for example, if that enters your body, you can sweat it right out and remove it from your body, in which case, it’s not going to be damaging tissues anymore. It’s only if it gets absorbed and it stays there that it damages tissues.
The second component is the nitric oxide, which we are now finding out is incredible for protecting tissues from radiation damage.
Wendy Myers: So people should be taking viagra?
Michael Goldstein: No! No.
Wendy Myers: Because that increases nitric oxid.
Michael Goldstein: But actually, viagra is a PD5 inhibitor, so it just makes the nitric more effective and it prevents it from being metabolized and broken down. The best thing for increasing your nitric oxide is organic beats bits. Bits have a food-based nitrate, which is very good and the bacteria both in your mouth and in your gut convert it to nitric oxide. It’s quite good for you and it has this protective effect.
In the fifties, the Russians figured out that bit fiber has a protective effect against radiation, but I don’t think they knew that it was because of the nitric oxide. Recently, they found out that nitric oxide has a protective effect against radiation. That’s actually the factor the play in the bits.
Wendy Myers: So you got to eat your bits and go in the sauna.
Michael Goldstein: That’s right, exactly right.
Wendy Myers: The infrared sauna, it kills radiated cells as well. Not only do you sweat out the cesium, but it will also destroy cells that had been exposed to radiation. A lot of people aren’t aware of – forget Fukushima, we’ve got all kinds of radiation that we’re exposed to in our environment when we fly on planes and do dental x-rays, yada-yada-yada, but these cells are weak and they aren’t killed by the sauna, correct?
Michael Goldstein: Yeah, it helps turn over those tissues and get them out of the body, so you can rebuild something healthier and new.
Wendy Myers: Back to cancer for a minute, I have one thought that occurred to me. When someone does elect to go under the traditional standard of care and undergo chemotherapy and radiation, these do damage the liver to varying degrees. I think it’s really imperative also. The chemo adds more toxicity to a body already completely overburdened with toxins, which is why they develop cancer in the first place. And unfortunately because they have damaged their liver to a degree, an infrared sauna is even more imperative to take some of the burden off of the liver and sweat all the chemicals out in their skin, so that their impaired liver is not even more burdened.
Michael Goldstein: Yes, it’s a really useful adjunct. If you’re taking that approach and doing chemotherapy, you can do the sauna right along with it. I do have a long testimony on a website from a woman who did just that. It was interesting because she had already done one round of chemo when she bought the sauna. She used the sauna throughout her whole second round of chemo. So she had two experiences to compare.
She said the second round, while using the sauna, she didn’t get sick at all in the chemo, which is a night and day experience compared to her first day. Those things, they’re completely toxic. They’re supposed to be toxic and it takes a while to get out of your body. And if you have a compromised liver, you’re exactly right, it’s going to take even longer and be harder to get out. With the sauna, you can sweat them out in your skin and get them out a lot faster and have an easier time dealing with the chemo.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, I think that’s one of the reasons why chemo patients, any cancer patients, they end up relapsing down the road, because the chemo treatment, while it destroyed the tumor or goes into a remission, they never address the underlying cause, which is toxicity in the body – and mineral deficiencies and destroying their liver to a degree that they’re much more likely down the road to get cancer again.
Michael Goldstein: Yeah, yeah. The chemo is so toxic that it just kills everything and hopefully, the tumor will die before the host. It’s not a very evolved philosophy, but that’s how it works.
Wendy Myers: So how long and often does one need to use a near infrared sauna to benefit?
Michael Goldstein: To benefit, I would say, you want to be in there at least two or three times a week to really see some benefits. That’s for someone who doesn’t have a specific health condition. If you have a health condition, you probably want to be in there give times a week, maybe seven. Some people will even go in there every day twice a day. And if you want to do a course of detoxification, let’s say you buy [inaudible 00:40:59], you want to do some detox work initially, you want to do it every day. The real benefits come using it at least five times a week. That’s when you really start to notice the difference.
I really just tell people to take it slow. Start with 10 or 15 minutes at a time. Treat it like a form of exercise. You don’t just go run a marathon if you have never jogged before. So you have to condition your body to deal with the heat and the response to the heat. And usually, it might take people anywhere from six weeks to three months before they’re able to sit in there 35 minutes a day every day.
And as a general precaution, if you are fit and athletic, then it’s not going to be an issue. You could jump in there a half hour a day every day, but that’s not most of my customers. A lot of people who buy these have health conditions. So we teach them to start slowly and let your body acclimate to this type of therapy. And then once you do, the sky is the limit. You can certainly be in there seven days a week and really have a good time with it.
Wendy Myers: Why don’t we talk about some of the contraindications for near infrared sauna use? Are there any cautions regarding them or are there any people that should not be using the sauna?
Michael Goldstein: Well, first, I always say, if you have a health condition, you want to check with your practitioner. Make sure that they don’t disagree with me because I’m going to say they’re good for just about anything.
The one standard contraindication is pregnancy. That is not to do with the near infrared. It has to do with the heat. I think all saunas are contraindicated for pregnant women. We, of course, recommend couples that want to conceive to do a course of detox work before and while the woman is pregnant, I think it’s not a good idea to be in the sauna.
Other than that, there really aren’t a lot. There may be some individual conditions. There are some conditions like lupus or multiple sclerosis where some people are heat sensitive. And again, it’s so much the near infrared as the heat. I have seen one or two people with an eye condition that makes them sensitive, even intolerant to bright light. I mean, the sauna is bright. It’s not too bright for regular people. So if you have that kind of condition with your eyes, you can just wear sunglasses and then it’s fine.
But that’s really about it. I haven’t come across any other contraindications. People who have any kind of medical implants, it’s fine for that. [Inaudible 00:43:44] I even have a plate in my arm, it’s totally fine.
Wendy Myers: What about breast implants?
Michael Goldstein: Also fine. I would say definitely check with your doctor, but my experience is that it’s totally fine.
Wendy Myers: And what about your eyes? Is the infrared sauna okay? Is it safe for your eyes? Is it safe to look at the bulbs while they’re on?
Michael Goldstein: Yes, it’s totally fine. This is a question I get a lot. It’s safe. A small amount of near infrared is actually good for eyes. There are some pilot studies going on right now using near infrared light to treat diabetic retinopathy where they’re literally shining the near infrared light right into the eye. So not only is it not harmful, it’s good. The sauna is bright. In my experience, it’s not pleasant to stare the bulbs, but it’s certainly not harmful.
There are some information out there about some possible problems with near infrared and vision. I do get some questions about that, so I just would like to address that. Those studies showing some negative effects of near infrared (who have nothing to do with their use in the sauna), they were for occupational exposure to welders and glass blowers.
So this is a question of proper use and proper application. Anything and everything has a proper dosage. Every nutrient, every vitamin, every mineral is useless with too little, wonderful at just the right amount and dangerous with too much. It’s the same thing with the sauna. If you sat in any sauna for 48 straight hours, you will be in big trouble. That does not make the sauna harmful. It’s all about proper application. So as the sauna is used, it’s good for your eyes.
Wendy Myers: Are there any contraindications with children? What is the cut-off age? What age a child should begin using one?
Michael Goldstein: Yes. I’m glad that you mentioned that. With children, the cut-off age is whether or not they are old enough to be sweating regularly. The issue with children is they can get overheated. Little children (five, six, seven years old), they don’t sweat like adults and sweating is the means we use to regulate our body temperature. So a child in a sauna can get overheated quickly.
If your child is 12 or 13 and is starting to sweat more, then it’s going to be fine. They’ll just sweat the way adults do that we find. But if you have a child that is younger, you want to put them in a sauna, there’s a couple of things to do. One, you leave the door open so that it doesn’t get hot in there, but they get benefits of the near infrared light or you use a thermometer or take their temperature before they get in and then every five minutes or so. And when your body temperature start to go up, it’s time to get out.
Wendy Myers: And so, can you explain the different types of sauna that you manufacture. I had two on my website. I have the EcoSauna, which is a frame-type sauna and then the fully wooden sauna that you manufacture. Can you explain the differences between those two?
Michael Goldstein: Yeah, the first model you mentioned, the EcoSauna is a lightweight frame sauna. What it is, the walls are kind of like window frames where you have wood around the outside and you’d have glass in the wall. We don’t use glass, we have a reflective lining. The point there is that this is not a solid wood sauna, it’s frames. It’s very lightweight. It comes on assembled so we can really ship that one anywhere in the world pretty easily and you put it together at home. It’s a wonderful product, they really hold the heat in wonderfully and they direct a lot more infrared to your body. That’s a very good product. It’s affordable and it’s definitely our bestseller. It’s been our number one product over the last few years.
This year, we have a new product. That’s the other one you have on your site. That’s the lightweight wood sauna. It’s not that different from the EcoSauna, but it does have a solid wood wall. It’s also a lightweight sauna. It’s a little taller, a little bigger than the EcoSauna and it’s beautiful. I really like this. But it functions the same way. It has the same heater, the same reflective lining. It delivers all the same health benefits in just a cosmetically more attractive package.
We also have a third model, which is a heavy wood sauna. Those are the most sophisticated in terms of the carpentry or the cabinetry that goes in them, so they are very beautiful. They also run on the same heater and have the same reflective lining.
One thing we wanted to do with our products, we wanted to offer them across different price points to make them as affordable as we can. We wanted to make sure that every product we have has the best therapeutic application possible. So they all run on the same heater. That’s one area we would never skimp on. They have to work, otherwise there’s no point in using them.
Wendy Myers: And now they come on different types of wood?
Michael Goldstein: Yes. Yeah, we offer the frames in pine, which is sort of our base model. It’s very nice. It has a light pine scent. Personally, I really like the pine. We offer poplar or vastwood depending on what we have available. They are very much interchangeable and poplar and vastwood are woods that have no oil content at all. So they’re hypoallergenic. They’re for people with chemical sensitivities. Those are also nice woods.
And then we do do some units in cider. We don’t really sell a lot of those, but we have it available if cider is what you like. I always tell people, “Don’t buy a cider unless you already know you like cider because when that thing heats up, the scent is very strong.” We don’t want someone to get it and then realize after the fact that they don’t like it. We offer cider though. It also is very beautiful.
Wendy Myers: Yeah. And another concern a lot of people have when they’re searching for a sauna and ready for a purchase is does it come constructed with materials that are non-toxic and are not going to contribute to their issue with chemical sensitivity.
Michael Goldstein: Right, right. That’s obviously extremely important. You do not want to do detoxification work with toxic products. We don’t use anything like that and we don’t use any toxic products. We don’t use any wood finishes. We use a certain type of glue inside of our joints that is FDA-approved for indirect food contact. That’s the kind of glue you’d find in a cutting board. It has no solvents. It cleans up with water and is completely non-toxic.
Since we manufacture here in Main ourselves, we can guarantee it is what it says. It’s not going to have any of that.
The new product, the new lightweight wood sauna also has a different kind of glue in it that’s made from soy beans, which is also has zero [inaudible 00:51:03] and is completely non-toxic. It took us a while to find these proper solutions, but it’s important. The last thing you want to do is get into your infrared sauna and find out that it’s off gassing or you’re breathing in something nasty.
Quite frankly, I would be wary about some products coming from out of the country especially from areas that have a bad reputation for product toxicity. When you buy one of our products, you can be guaranteed that it’s not going to have anything like that in it.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, it’s amazing to me that there are so many manufacturers – there’s a lot of stuff coming from China…
Michael Goldstein: Yes.
Wendy Myers: I’m certain that some of these saunas at Sam’s Club and these saunas priced at a thousand dollars, there’s no way. I know that they’re probably made with toxic solvents and all kinds of funky construction materials. And then when you get in that sauna, it heats that up, you’re just breathing that in.
Michael Goldstein: That’s right. You’re breathing in the fumes. You’re sitting in a high electromagnetic field. The products you see at Costco and Sauna, those are the worst of the worst in terms of the quality and the construction and the toxicity. They’re not worth your time. I wouldn’t go anywhere near those.
Wendy Myers: And so how long does it take to get one of these babies delivered. I’m going to get one soon. I have one – the one that I made that I have in my store where it’s just a little 3-bulb little carrying case near infrared sauna, but I’m looking to upgrade because I want to get the full enclosure where you can just close it and you get much more heat. I’m having some issues with – you know, I just want it to be hotter. It’s hard to see seal off my shower, but it works very well, very well, but it’s challenging for me to generate the heat that I’m desiring.
Michael Goldstein: Well, two things about that. First of all, your question, how long does it take. It can take anywhere from 2-6 weeks depending on how busy it is because we do make everything here. We used to make them to order. We’re switching over to making batches of certain products, so hopefully they’ll be some times where we actually have some products on the shelf. If not, you’re looking at anywhere from 2-6 weeks because like I said, we make everything by hand here.
And then the other thing I wanted to mention about your sauna about not getting hot enough, one of the things we have in our design now that no one else is doing in any infrared sauna is that the heat lamps are in a track light fixture. So if for some reason, you were to find the sauna wasn’t hot enough for you, you can just add extra track heads and bulbs. There isn’t any other sauna in the market where you can so easily add more heat.
All the far infrareds with carton panels or ceramic heaters, you can’t just add an extra carton panel. It doesn’t work that way. You can’t do it at all actually. And the other near infrared saunas that are all hardwired, you can’t do that also. You can’t just add another bulb without taking the thing apart, drilling some new holes, wiring something in. But with ours and the track lights, you just get another track head from us and just pop it right in the track and you’re good to go.
So that could come for someone who puts their sauna in a cold basement and they find it’s not quite getting as hot as they want, but it’s really a unique feature. In your case where it might not be getting hot enough, if that is the case with one of our units, we could fix that for you no problem.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, I have a space heater in there, but unfortunately, to have the cords coming out, you know there’s like a little gap, the heat escapes very easily. But I do have a heater in there and it’s great. Majority of the time, it’s awesome.
Michael Goldstein: Yeah, yeah. No doubt, you’ll enjoy one of our models.
Wendy Myers: Oh, I got it coming. Oh, yeah. I told my husband that’s the first I want. My problem is I spend all my money on my website helping everybody.
Michael Goldstein: That’s not a bad thing. Not a bad thing, you’re helping a lot of people.
Wendy Myers: So I have a question that I like to ask all of my guests. What do you think is the most pressing health issue in the world today?
Michael Goldstein: Oh, that’s a great question. I have a couple. Physically, I would say inflammation is the most pressing issue. There might be things that cause inflammation such as toxicity or diet (diet is a real contributor), but I think that’s something that is part of just about every health condition out there, particularly cardiovascular diseases and cancer. So I think that’s an associated syndrome with just about everything. I think that’s the real problem. And yes, the near infrared sauna does deal with that. It’s strongly anti-inflammatory.
So that’s physically. I would say they’re a big health problem. In my opinion, it’s a combination of ignorance and apathy. And people who are looking too much for someone else to fix it for them. You need to get out there. You need to read. You need to learn. And then you need to do something about it. Just like with exercise, your doctor can’t exercise for you. No health practitioner can exercise for you. So you got to get out there and you got to do it. You got to spend a little time figuring out what it is that you need to do and then spend your time doing it. It’s not that complicated, but to think there are too many people right now who just aren’t doing it.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, and I agree with you. That’s such a huge problem. They’re so many sick people and they’re just blindly doing what their doctor tells them to do. But ultimately, no one is as invested in your wellness as you are.
Michael Goldstein: Right!
Wendy Myers: No one is going to do the work for you. I have so many clients come to me and so many clients I hear of that the doctor says, “Oh, there’s nothing more we can do” and it’s BS.
Michael Goldstein: BS, right.
Wendy Myers: There are so many things you can do once removing the toxic body burden and see if it helps you get better.
Michael Goldstein: We’ve seen so much this year about the ObamaCare and the new health insurance and how it’s going to be so good for people, but it’s the same thing. It’s the elephant in the room, it doesn’t address people’s actual behavior. And quite frankly, I would be really thrilled and impressed instead of doing this insurance if the president was on the TV on the morning at 6 a.m. working out with everybody in the country the way [inaudible 00:57:48] used to do in the fifties. That would be really impressive.
Wendy Myers: Yeah.
Michael Goldstein: I’d like to see that. Every morning, the president is on the treadmill and in the gym live, inspiring people to get up and move.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, we need an ObamaCam.
Michael Goldstein: Exactly! Talking to people and working out. That would be pretty fun. Instead, we have this monstrosity of legislation, which I don’t think is going to make a difference in people’s actual well-being.
Wendy Myers: Yeah. So yeah, listeners out there, I urge you, if you have been told by a doctor or any health practitioner that there’s nothing more you can do, uh-uh. Get on the Internet. Get on myersdetox.com. Go to Michael’s site, nearinfraredsauna.com. There is so much you can do that is not mainstream medicine, that your doctor has not learned in medical school. What doctor has learn in medical school is diagnosis, medications and surgery. There’s so much more to health care other than that.
Michael Goldstein: Absolutely.
Wendy Myers: But it’s an amazing, amazing aspect of health care. If I’m trying to figure out what’s wrong with me, I want to go to a doctor, but there’s lots of other diagnostic tools like hair mineral analysis, but it’s not a diagnostic tool to figure out exactly what your disease label is, but it can definitely take you what path you need to take to heal yourself. Definitely get out there and get proactive. Do not take no for an answer.
Wendy Myers: So Michael, why don’t you tell the listeners a little bit more about where they can find you and what you’re up to these days.
Michael Goldstein: Well, you can find me online. The website is www.nearinfraredsauna.com. The company is Long Life Saunas. You can google them and you’ll find me there. We do have a blog. It’s called the Near Infrared Sauna Experience. It definitely needs to be updated. I haven’t done much on there because we’re so busy actually building the saunas, but there are some really good articles explaining some of the common problems with other models including this idea of reflective interiors and thermostats. There are some good posts on there.
That’s where you’ll find me. My email address is [email protected]. You can find out on the website too and feel free to call or email if you have some questions about this kind of sauna. I’ll be happy to talk to you and I’d love to see you get in one!
Wendy Myers: And so you can ship anywhere in the world, right?
Michael Goldstein: Yeah, we can ship anywhere in the world. The EcoSauna is the easiest thing to ship internationally, but we’ve shipped wood saunas internationally. We go on an individual basis. And I’m talking overseas shipping, not Canada or Mexico. We sell a lot of products in Canada. That’s easy. It’s the overseas that’s a little complicated, but it’s certainly doable. If you are listening and have some interest in that, definitely contact us and we’ll get you a quote.
Wendy Myers: And you can also wire the sauna for whatever voltage in each country, right?
Michael Goldstein: Yeah, we’ve got products in fourteen different countries. We’ve got them wired to 110 or 220 (230 is usually what it is) and it’s the plug type. There’s a different plug type for England, for Europe, for Australia. So we can get all those. And since we make them here individually, we will wire it so that it works wherever you are in the world and so it has the right plug type, so when you get it, you can just plug it right in and you’re good to go.
Wendy Myers: Well, that’s handy.
Michael Goldstein: Yeah, yeah. It’s convenient. We want you to be able to get in there right away, no obstacles to getting in the sauna.
Wendy Myers: Yeah. I don’t imagine the typical travel converters are going to work too well.
Michael Goldstein: You can’t. You can’t. No, those things aren’t good for the amount of electricity these use.
Wendy Myers: Well, Michael, thank you so much for coming on the show and thank you for spreading the word about the dire importance of detoxification and using near infrared saunas. I think you make the highest quality near infrared saunas in the market. I’m just really proud to offer them for sale on the Live to 110 Store.
Michael Goldstein: Oh, that’s great, Wendy. I appreciate you doing that. I really appreciate it you having me on today and giving me the chance to talk about it.
Wendy Myers: Alright! Thank you so much.
Michael Goldstein: Alright, Wendy, thank you.
Wendy Myers: If you want to learn all about the modern paleo diet and watch my cooking show, you can find it on myersdetox.com and on my YouTube channel, wendyliveto110. You can find me on Facebook and Twitter @iwillliveto110.
Leigh Lowery: And I am the General Leigh. You can find me at GeneralLeigh.com or on my Facebook page, which is generalleighfitnessandnutrition or follow me on Instagram. My IG name is genleigh. And of course, if you like what you heard on the show today, please give the Live to 110 Podcast a review on iTunes. We need your reviews. We love those positive reviews. So please get on there and give us a great review.
Wendy Myers: Please, we are begging you… please. We need reviews. Everyone, thanks so much for tuning in. Remember, you got to get your butt in a near infrared sauna and sweat out those chemicals. It is essentials for your health. This is one of my main messages I talk about on Live to 110. You must detox to live a healthy life and live to 110 and a near infrared sauna is one of the best ways to do that. Thank you so much for listening to the Live to 110 Podcast.
