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By Pertti Olavi Jalasjaa

Utilized properly, the far infrared sauna can be a mighty weapon in the fight against heavy metal and chemical toxicity. That such an effective detoxification tool exists should be welcome news to anyone suffering the ill effects of excessive lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic or aluminium in his or her body.

Not everyone may believe they have sufficient reason to worry about heavy metal and chemical toxicity, but many experts are urging the skeptics to think again. According to Dr. Joseph Mercola, “If you’ve eaten fish regularly, had amalgam fillings, received vaccinations, drank contaminated water, or done industrial or agricultural work or pharmaceutical manufacturing, there’s a good chance that you have a fair amount of toxic metals in your system.”

One heavy metal that has attracted significant scrutiny in recent years is lead. Lead is a highly toxic substance, exposure to which can produce a wide range of adverse health effects. In adults, lead can reportedly increase blood pressure and cause fertility problems, nerve disorders, muscle and joint pain, irritability, and memory or concentration problems. Research has also linked lead exposure to Alzheimer’s disease.

Because their brains and central nervous systems are still being formed, young children under the age of six are especially vulnerable to lead’s harmful health effects. For them, says the U.S. National Safety Council (NSC), “Even very low levels of exposure can result in reduced IQ, learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders, behavioral problems, stunted growth, impaired hearing, and kidney damage. At high levels of exposure, a child may become mentally retarded, fall into a coma, and even die from lead poisoning.”

Sources of lead contamination include soil (especially around major highways and old homes); household dust; water; lead paint, and some imported canned food. Lead can also be found in automobile exhaust, pesticides, hair dye, ink, and some glazed dishware.

Mercury, a ubiquitous environmental pollutant that can be found in tuna and swordfish, latex paint, dental amalgams, vaccines, cosmetics, contact lens solution, fabric softener and tap water, has also been classified by researchers as posing a grave threat to human health. In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared that no level of mercury can be considered to be safe, as it is the most toxic non-radioactive element on Earth.

In their book What Your Doctor May Not Be Telling You About Autoimmune Disorders, Dr. Stephen Edelson and Deborah Mitchell write that “once it is in the body, mercury affects both the immune and nervous systems by damaging neurons and the transmission of signals in the brain, causing symptoms such as loss of sensation, vision problems, muscle weakness, loss of coordination, loss of memory, chronic fatigue and tremors.” The authors further state that mercury toxicity has been linked with rheumatoid arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease, autism, depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and many other conditions.

As for the chemical element cadmium, which is used for batteries, industrial paints and solder, it is toxic even in low concentrations. Like so many other heavy metals, cadmium can be found in air, water, soil and food.

Noting that the highest contributor to cadmium toxicity is cigarette smoke, the Center for Environmental and Integrative Medicine (CEIM) in Knoxville, TN, states that “cadmium can weaken the immune system and allow bacteria, viruses, yeast and parasites to proliferate. Cadmium may also promote skeletal demineralization and increase bone fragility and fracture risk. Symptoms of cadmium toxicity include sore joints, decreased appetite, slow growth, zinc deficiency, and kidney stones.”

“There are no known good effects from taking in cadmium,” says the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). “Breathing air with very high levels of cadmium can severely damage the lungs and may cause death. Eating food or drinking water with very high cadmium levels severely irritates the stomach, leading to vomiting and diarrhea, and sometimes death. Breathing air with lower levels of cadmium, or eating lower levels of cadmium, over long periods of time can result in a build-up of cadmium in the kidneys. If the levels reach a high enough level, the cadmium in the kidneys will cause kidney damage and also cause bones to become fragile and break easily.”

Inorganic arsenic (arsenic combined with elements such as oxygen, chlorine and sulfur) has been recognized as a human poison since ancient times, and while it’s widely known that swallowing large doses of it can result in death, inhaling arsenic can lead to devastating health problems as well.

According to the ATSDR, “An important concern is the ability of inhaled inorganic arsenic to increase the risk of lung cancer. This has been seen mostly in workers exposed to arsenic at smelters, mines, and chemical factories, but also in residents living near smelters and arsenical chemical factories. People who live near waste sites with arsenic may have an increased risk of lung cancer as well.” The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) have all classified inorganic arsenic as a known human carcinogen.

Since arsenic is found naturally in the environment, humans risk exposure to it when they eat food, drink water, breathe air, or come in contact with contaminated soil or water. The same can be said for aluminium compounds.

People may also be exposing themselves to aluminium compounds when they ingest medicinal products like certain antacids, laxatives and buffered aspirin or have skin contact with aluminium metal, antiperspirants, or other substances that contain aluminium or aluminium compounds. Mercola asserts that aluminium has been linked to serious illnesses such as osteoporosis, extreme nervousness, anemia, headache, decreased liver and kidney function, speech disturbances, and memory loss. He also contends that people who have died from Alzheimer’s disease have been found to have up to four times the average amount of aluminium accumulated in the brain’s nerve cells.

Offering its view on the subject, the ATSDR states that exposure to aluminium is usually not harmful but notes that some people who have kidney disease store a lot of aluminium in their bodies. “The kidney disease causes less aluminium to be removed from the body in the urine,” the ATSDR reports. “Sometimes, these people developed bone or brain diseases that doctors think were caused by the excess aluminium. Bone disease has also been seen in children taking some medicines containing aluminium. In these children, the bone damage is caused by aluminium in the stomach preventing the absorption of phosphate, (which is) required for healthy bones.”

Lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic and aluminium are just five of an intimidating number of toxins capable of severely compromising your health. Among the other heavy metals most often found at unacceptable levels in the body, according to Edelson and Mitchell, are nickel and tin. And the pair lists benzene, chloroform, dichlorobenzene, DDT, formaldehyde, toluene, and xylene as a few of the other toxic chemicals to which people are exposed every day.

Cynics might argue that there’s no way of repelling these potential poisons that infiltrate their way into your body’s fat cells and neighboring connective tissue, but anyone who would so easily surrender to unnecessary suffering knows far too little about the powerful detoxification device known as the far infrared sauna.

In her comprehensive book Detoxify or Die, Dr. Sherry Rogers writes, “The lungs, urine, stool and sweat are the main vehicles the body has for getting rid of nasty chemicals, but by far sweat is the most efficacious. And Mayo Clinic studies show that (utilizing) far infrared energy is the safest way to induce healing sweat… Far infrared sauna technology is the only proven, most efficacious way of getting rid of stored environmental chemicals.”

A far infrared sauna has been cited as the best place to sweat because, whereas bathing in a conventional hot air sauna produces perspiration that is composed of approximately 97 percent water and three percent toxins, soaking in a far infrared sauna has been shown to produce sweat composed of about 80 percent water and 20 percent toxins. As well, far infrared saunas can produce up to three times the sweat volume of a conventional hot air sauna while operating at a considerably cooler air temperature range of 110 to 130 degrees versus 180 to 235 degrees for hot air saunas. It’s worthwhile to also note that, according to author and sauna historian Mikkel Aaland, a 15-minute far infrared sauna session can execute the same heavy metal excretion that would take the kidneys 24 working hours. In other words, sweating in a far infrared sauna can be a very efficient method of detoxification.

Even though sweating is a natural function of the human body, many people do not perspire properly because their skin has been damaged or deactivated by, among other culprits, chemicals in bath water, lotions, soaps and deodorants. Fortunately for these people, far infrared sauna therapy can greatly help to restore the skin’s eliminative powers. It’s just one more way far infrared saunas work to heal bodies compromised by harmful chemicals.

If you are concerned about how harmful chemicals and heavy metals can affect your health, consider the many benefits of owning a far infrared sauna. As well, be sure to discuss your concerns with a qualified health professional who can provide you with reliable medical information and advice on heavy metal and chemical toxicity and far infrared sauna detoxification therapy.