Can a Full-Spectrum Sauna Damage Your Eyes?

A lot of people have been told that full spectrum or near infrared saunas can damage your eyes. But where did that idea actually come from? In this video, I dig into one of the “warning” articles being shared online — supposedly backed by science — and show why the comparisons they make don’t hold up.

The problem isn’t science itself. It’s how some sauna brands twist research on welders, glassblowers, and medical lasers to scare you away from competitors, then end by saying, “our saunas don’t have that risk.” That’s not honest, and it’s not how this industry should work.

I go through the actual studies, explain the difference between realistic exposure and industrial extremes, and talk about how fear marketing ends up confusing customers instead of helping them make good decisions. This isn’t medical advice — just straight talk from real-world testing and years of experience.

Read the transcript >

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Transcript

You cannot take the Kelvin or the intensity from a PubMed research study on welders, the flashpoint of a welder or a glass blower, and then say that a near-infrared sauna emits the similar output. I think it’s bullshit. This is something that I would never do. I would never present a study like this or even link to it when in fact the controls, the equipment, everything about the situation is completely different. It’s just far-reaching in a stretch. But most people don’t know any better. They’re just like, oh, wow, look at this. It was written by so-and-so, and they must really know what they’re talking about. I’m not saying that these people aren’t smarter than I. But I’m not seeing any real-world evidence in the majority of this that leads to some danger piece where it’s like, oh, we should stop doing that.

Now, I’m not suggesting that you should go and do this. I’m saying this is not what you’re supposed to do. I’m trying it. I don’t know what I think yet. This is not advice. This is not a recommendation or anything like that. You know, I used to have high-tech health saunas on the certified sauna list because they were one of the options that had ceramic heaters, which I always liked as long as the heater layout was good. But they had electric fields mitigated, whereas the health mate didn’t. So I preferred the high-tech health over, you know, the other options.

That said, over the years, I don’t personally know, like at the same time, I don’t have any control over what these sauna companies do. I don’t own them. It’s not like I dictate, you know, this, that, and the other, or the opinions or the stances or how they choose to do things or operate. If I did, I would have them do other stuff. And that goes for almost all the companies. Like I personally would change a couple of things, whether it’s product-based or whether it’s customer forward-facing like interaction-based. I would change how they do stuff. And that’s pretty much all the brands, even the ones on the certified sauna list. So please understand, I have no control over what these people do. I don’t know them personally. Some of them I get to know because they either have good products or they’ve taken care of, you know, customers really well for many years. So, you know, I like to have a relationship with them. If I have issues or somebody else has issues, I can just shoot them a text or an email and be like, hey, you know, can you help with this? That’s how we see the best results, really. Because otherwise, you’re just dealing with like no-name stuff from no-name people. Can’t get any help with anything.

Well, this is kind of the exact opposite of that, right? I don’t know what the deal is with these people. I’m not sure if high-tech health, you know, went through some type of transitional phase, but five years ago, I had a good experience with them until they started doing weird stuff with the pricing and treating people unfairly. Like if you called in, all of a sudden, I was saying for years in videos, you know, you could get this or a particular type of sauna for X price and everything was fine. Then all of a sudden they started doing this thing where they were, you know, screwing people over. If you would call in, it’s like, well, if you’re a part of so-and-so’s doctor network—which is part of our preferred blah, blah, blah—you could get a better price. They would tell you the price and then not honor it. And it’s like, I mean, I would send them an email. I tried calling. I was like, guys, you cannot treat people like this. It’s just weird. No one wants to be treated that way. So I don’t like that. I don’t buy from places like that. I didn’t like the complaints. No one really was quick to respond. I called the guy that I knew there, Tristan or whatever, and he just said something like, oh, you know, blah, blah, blah. There was no movement, no response that gave me confidence that anything was changing or that customers would do anything different. And I didn’t know any of the other people, so I just said to hell with it. I don’t want to be a part of this anymore.

The other thing that happened is this kind of shit, right? I think this is bullshit. And I’m going to show you why. I’ve done these videos just for Facebook group members in the past, but for some reason now Facebook doesn’t want you to find them. I just search for them myself and I can’t find them—even though I’m the one that posted and recorded them. So here we are on a Sunday, going to find the same information from several years ago. But when stuff like this starts happening, it’s kind of like, to me, this is misinformation.

When you talk about near-infrared sauna dangers, and you talk about things that can cause cataracts and an increased risk of skin cancer, and then reference PubMed studies, it becomes a far-reaching concept. Some of this stuff has been altered since the last time. I did this for somebody because there were direct links in here to the actual studies—basically what I chopped up and said, you know, this is complete bullshit. You cannot take the Kelvin or the intensity from a PubMed research study on welders, the flashpoint of a welder or a glassblower, and then say that a near-infrared sauna emits a similar output. Now, I see that it distinctly says there are no peer-reviewed studies on this—only near-infrared lasers and LEDs to target local areas—so this is much better at this point in time. In the past, it would have talked about, you know, other things like cataracts and everything else. People get really freaked out, right? People get super freaked out. So let’s see what it says: Friend or foe. This is UB, UVVA. Those aren’t emitting that at all. 760 nanometers and one millimeter. I don’t know about that. I don’t think red light therapy is premature aging the skin. I’m not going to make you guys sit through all these details. I just glance over them and see what the controls are, what the sources are—like infrared radiation and cataract formation. I mean, this is a hell of a thing to reference because the first investigation included 208 iron and steel workers and 208 controls. I mean, why do you think you wear a welding mask, right? Do you think anything is that bright in your sauna? Have you ever seen somebody welding in a warehouse at night? From like 500 yards away, you can see the whole skyline flashing. Do you see anything like that in a sauna? I question why somebody would position such a thing, other than just creating a hit piece or fear-mongering to rope you in and instill worry about taking an action that supposedly harms your health because of X. But oh, by the way, our company has something that doesn’t have that. See what I mean? This is disingenuous.

This was kind of the slippery slope of me not liking these people—though I don’t even really know who they are. It’s not like they were friends of mine or anything. As I said before, I don’t choose to act like this with friends or with people I don’t know. It’s very difficult for me to continue to stand behind a product or an organization that behaves in this way. I think it’s bullshit and nonsense. I really do. You can’t—I would never present a study like this or even link to it from an article about saunas telling you not to do something because it may increase your risk of cataracts when in fact the controls, the equipment, the exposure—everything about the situation is completely different. It’s just far-reaching in a stretch. But most people don’t know any better; they’re just like, oh, wow, look at this. It was written by so-and-so, and they must really know what they’re talking about. I’m not saying these people aren’t smarter than I—maybe they are—but I’m not seeing any real-world evidence in the majority of this that leads to some dangerous conclusion, like we should stop using near-infrared wavelengths forever. That’s insane.

On the flip side, you have people—look at the red light therapy podcasts—where folks are specifically doing the exact opposite of what they’re told, such as not wearing eye protection. You might notice that I have four red light therapy panels hanging from the ceiling, and I’ve been testing them myself without wearing eye protection. Just like those red light therapy podcasts, those folks healed things behind their eyes by not wearing goggles. Now, I’m not suggesting that you should go and do this. I’m saying this is not what you’re supposed to do. I’m trying it, and I don’t know what I think yet. This is not advice and not a recommendation. See the difference? That is the proper way to approach it.

But guess what’s not happening at the end of this video? I don’t have a product or own a company where I’m trying to sell you the opposite. That’s the part that I think is disingenuous. When people start behaving this way, I kind of think, you know, I’d like to separate myself from you. I don’t really care at what cost because whatever it is that you’re doing is not something that I would do. And so if you start down this path, where does it end? Now are you going to start making changes with the actual product, not just with the way you treat people, that align with this dogmatic way of thinking from these hit pieces? You’re showing me who you are by how you treat others, and I can see the writing on the wall. This isn’t my first rodeo—I’ve been through this with other companies. Typically, it starts with them using fear to rope people in by saying, oh, you shouldn’t buy a clear light or a sunlight sauna because it has harmful red light if it’s near-infrared or full spectrum. You should only use fire infrared. And then they add, by the way, our sauna doesn’t have any of that harmful stuff; it only has what you need. I’m not a fan of bait-and-switch tactics like that.

Now, I actually do agree with something here. If you have a GE lamp model—say, 250R, 5010, I don’t know if that’s a European model or what—I’m familiar with these bulbs. The heat output from something that has a peak wavelength of 15 to 1,600 nanometers is actually not something you would want aimed directly at your eyes from close range. The device transmits heat at a very high surface temperature at close proximity. You would be super uncomfortable and wouldn’t stay in that situation long because your body would immediately tell you to get out. I do believe that this is potentially damaging, with a high likelihood of causing harm, which is very different from sitting two or three feet away from a patio heater. A quartz halogen emitter may have a similar peak wavelength, though it may not have the same visible output because it isn’t an incandescent bulb. So there’s a bit of poor overlap there. But it’s something I would take more seriously and pay attention to. The problem is none of the saunas being discussed have this in them.

Immediately, I think this is something valid to keep in mind for further investigation, but not applicable to the equipment in question. Some of this has merit, and I’m quite certain that it’s not entirely worthless. Whether these concerns apply to particular saunas that are competitors of the people who wrote this article, I have no idea. But a lot of the references point to photoaging from sunlight. For example, temperature increased at 970 nanometers, light-emitting diode emissions at 80 kilowatts per centimeter squared measured at the DE junction as a function of time in minutes—if it’s 80 milliwatts per centimeter squared at the probe, that is incredibly high powered. And that measurement isn’t taken from six inches away or even a foot away; it’s taken from nearly behind the eye. Just imagine a Hydrosun 500—an ultra-high-powered device meant for specific treatment. In such cases, you would definitely need eye protection.

I don’t know if all this is accurate, but here we are, down a rabbit hole that has nothing to do with the saunas we’re talking about. There isn’t any device like this in a full-spectrum sauna, and certainly nothing with a depth gauge ensuring proper distance for safety. When a dermatologist does a laser treatment on your back, there are strict safety protocols in place so that you only get close enough to be effective without causing burns. But in these cases, if such dangerous wavelengths were found in a sauna, that would be a serious problem. Now, I see this—I didn’t pay attention at first—but now I understand the relevance of these particular heaters on the bench here. This GE bulb, this quartz halogen emitter, looks like it’s from a clear light sanctuary or something similar, with a rod tube (I’m not even sure if it’s a heater because the grill has been removed). But these are not going to produce what we just looked at. Sure, they produce something in that wavelength, but it is not spot-focused or extremely strong.

We’re getting a bit derailed here. Now I’m talking about a laser that a dermatologist uses to burn things off your back. We’ve been taken down a rabbit hole that is completely off course from what we should focus on today. And while maybe this will help a few of you who buy into the fear-mongering, really, here isn’t anything we should be doing to improve things. I’m not going to waste a lot of time making more videos on this stuff. I will talk about it if you guys have a specific bullet point you want me to compare—for instance, if you look at these studies and think, hey Matt, this seems to have some plausible merit or there might be something here, let’s take a look and talk about it. But if it’s just this crap where one brand creates a narrative to make themselves look better than another because their narrative is different, then that’s the kind of warfare that I’ve seen among sauna companies. We’re kind of stuck in the middle, with so much bullshit to sift through that it becomes hard to decipher what’s really what. Ten years ago, I was like, well, this is crazy—I’m going to go about my day and never revisit it. Unfortunately, that means I missed out on some potential health benefits. We pay the ultimate price then, which is why I don’t like this.

It’s also why I get, you know, irritable sometimes. I don’t like this; I don’t want to be associated with people who choose to operate this way. There’s a lot of fear-mongering out there. I myself have been part of the problem at one point—naively writing tons of articles about poor findings, some of which turned out to be wrong because the people who trained me weren’t as good as I thought. Years later, I had to go back and either fix or change things. My knowledge base is so much greater now than it was a decade ago, so I don’t make these simple mistakes anymore. But once I know something is off, how do you expect me to just stay silent? It’s a double-edged sword, and while I understand both sides, I have to do what I think is right in each situation.

In this particular situation, I don’t think it’s right to say that a glass blower, a welder, or a dermatology laser device is going to have a similar output as a full-spectrum sauna.