Are Heaters Above the Head in Saunas Dangerous? Near Infrared Causes Cataracts

You guys, I was putting this together. I think I’ve had this video for two months. It was a response video for a question from a member in the Facebook group, and I just wanted to do a short version. There’s a 20-minute video here.

He’s posting the article and asking questions, and I basically go through the cited research that shows it has nothing to do with the actual article from the company that is doing this or doing it. I don’t care about any of that stuff. The real thing is, are the heaters above the head dangerous?

Is it better to have them below the shoulders? Is it better to focus the infrared energy on the core, or does it make a difference? You guys, the short answer in less than three minutes is that both work. I’ve used both over the last eight years, six years, five years, four years.

I have both behind me. I have both in the other room. I have both in the other office. I have both in the other room.

I have preferences, but I don’t think that this research really backs out onto the claims that are being made. That’s what this long video is for. It’s 22 minutes long. It’s a thorough response video.

I’m not upset with anybody for posting any of these things, but it’s just like what referenced before with the near-infrared and the scare tactics from the other sonic company that has these blog articles. I don’t know where they come up with this stuff. They’re making it up out of thin air.

They’re saying that near-infrared is going to give you cataracts, and they cite the research and it shows the flashpoint of a glass blower and a welder. Have you ever been outside of a house and seen a flash through a window at night because somebody turned their sauna on, like they’re welding in a metal shop?

Never. Why? Because the equipment inside the saunas isn’t even close to being the same. So how could you take some research that says, oh, and I’m not saying that these guys are saying this.

This is just another instance, but these are, this is all the same stuff. People see a PubMed study and they don’t really understand it and they just stick it in a blog article and they say, see, you should buy our stuff because we don’t have these harmful things in there.

Wrong way to go about it. Wrong way to look at it. Wrong way to do business in my opinion, right? I don’t do that so I don’t expect other people to do that.

And when they do it to you, I get a little bit protective. Why? Because I have the equipment and I’ve had it for years. So there’s nothing that any of these sauna salespeople are going to be able to say to me that’s going to change my experience when I just walk in there, turn it on and get in it.

Right? Because I’m like, do you want to FaceTime me? Because I don’t see my eyes starting to bleed. I actually don’t see any light stress on my eyes at all.

And you know how I know that what I’m, what I’m sensing in my real world experience is congruent. Because I actually don’t like the product that they’re bashing. The products that are being bashed in these articles, I agree with them that they’re not cream of the crop. They’re not my favorite thing.

It’s not something that I would buy first. It’s not something that I would recommend over another option given the opportunity to, for my own, picking out my own equipment for my own use in my own house. Right? Yeah.

That’s a big difference. That’s a huge difference. Not only do I not like what they’re bashing, I’m just sticking up for you guys because you’re having the wool pulled over your eyes and you didn’t notice it because it sounds fancy. It sounds plausible.

You see the difference. But rather than just jump on that, that train and just bash the heck out of somebody for no reason, using false information, purporting or referencing false research in relation to what they’re talking about. The research itself wasn’t false. I shouldn’t.

said that, but misappropriating it toward this subject matter is a bad way to go because it just doesn’t match. You cannot compare the flashpoint of a glass of a welder or a glass blower’s torch or something like that to a patio heater. These guys are picking apart a patio heater, a quartz halogen emitter that has a peak output of 14 to 1500 nanometers if you look at it on a charted curve.

What does that mean? That means in no way, shape, or form is this sauna like the research they’re referencing at all, but it sounds good to you. Meanwhile, I don’t really like the sauna that they’re talking about either, but I’m not about to let somebody manipulate people like that, right?

Because it’s implanting in your mind that that wavelength is bad, and that I think is a mistake because those wavelengths have purpose and they have merit, and there are PubMed research studies that demonstrate the benefit, demonstrate the merit. They’re just being utilized in the wrong way for you to get it in this particular application.

But the huge mistake, because for the rest of your life, you’re going to think that’s bad if you go along with this. I think that’s the real crime here. It’s not about what sauna is good, what sauna is bad, this, that. Right?

I could go on and on about this because I’ve used them all. It’s easy for me. I know what they feel like. I don’t need to see a blog article, right?

And I’m here to tell you sauna heaters above the head, below the neck, below the shoulders, whatever. Choose what you like, right? I prefer above the head given the choice. Why?

Because it helps me loosen my traps and then the muscles that connect to the base of the skull here because I have the heat that goes up.

high enough. And it’s not wasted. There’s some convection in the saunas. You guys, come on.

There is some convection in the saunas. So yes, you have infrared coming out above the head where there’s no contact with the body, but it is still preheating the sauna, right? I’d much rather have an overabundance of heater coverage than not enough. And to me, something that stops here, if I’m a tall guy, is not enough, right?

I don’t like that. I like it. I want full coverage plus, right? That’s my take on it.

That is 100%. Both work. I don’t think you’re not detrimental. You’re not having detrimental effects because you have heat on your brain.

What do you think is happening when the 210 degree lolly, 210 degree air temperature, lolly, moisture, humidity, hits your head when you’re sitting on the top bench of a Finnish sauna? Yet all the research on Finnish saunas is pro, you know, all these gazillion health benefits. So how on earth would it be bad for anything above your shoulders to get heat?

Right? It just, it doesn’t make sense. And when you, right, when I can just talk to you like this, you’re like, oh, well, I didn’t think of it like that. Neither did I.

Neither did I. This has been years and years and years of hearing these messages going in one, going in the other, trying it, trying it against a traditional sauna. And then I’m like, well, what I’m feeling just doesn’t match what everyone is saying. What is the, what is the deal here?

Right? So at the end of the day, buy what you like. My recommendation would be more heater coverage than less if given the option, right? So I like taller heaters just because of that.

Not anything else. I’ve never experienced, you know, any ill effects from one way or the other. I just like more even heat.

As long as it extends up above my shoulders, that’s better for me. I’m showing you this long video in the background because I go through and I show you what these people are referencing when they talk about this stuff, which, just like the cataracts thing and, you know.

Those folks were bashing the heck out of full spectrum people, which I like to bash full spectrum people too. I’m not on board with it. But I’m not on board with making you think that it doesn’t work for false reasons. Because that’s not helping you.

That’s not helping you for the next 20 years to do the right things, to get the most health benefit, right? And so those people are just out to sell you their product and they’re just trying to one-up their competitor. That’s their whole game. They actually don’t care about you that much.

Because if they did, they would have integrity and they would change these articles. And they would update them so that they actually make sense. So that’s my take on it. If you have further questions, let me know in the comments.

We’ll see you in the next one.