Why Do I Feel Worse After Infrared Sauna?

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Today’s question is why do I feel worse after using an Infrared Sauna?

This is all too common: folks hop in an infrared sauna in an effort to improve their health conditions, and whammo they feel like crap after.  “Hey wait a minute, I thought this hot box was supposed to help me”?!?!

I’ve had a lot of experience helping people with this, and usually, it comes down to a few very simple (but not well known) things to remedy this.  If you look at my sauna reviews, all the people who’ve purchased saunas, inquired about saunas, has questions about setting up their sauna in their home, all had unique experiences. Some had problems, some were fine, but the common denominator is something I’ll share with you that might change your life. (seriously)


The Real Reason You Feel Sick After Infrared Sauna Use

You may have lyme, you have no health troubles that you’re aware of at all. But there’s one thing happening when you first start using your infrared sauna, that neither your doctor nor the person who sold you your sauna educated you on: Binders.

Most people feel sick after using an infrared sauna, typically because of 1 of 3 potential scenarios:

  1. You’re dehydrated or don’t sweat well (or you’re overdoing it for your current level of heat tolerance)
  2. You’re stirring up toxins at a faster rate than your body can process (most likely)
  3. You’re not using detox binders and have some level of leaky gut

Yes, you do sweat out toxins to an extent like most sauna companies proclaim, but there’s also something else happening under the surface (especially if you’re using an infrared sauna).

Your lymphatic fluid is being encouraged to mobilize and exchange. Your fat cells are beginning to release stored toxins, many of which DO NOT get eliminated through the skin (despite popular belief).  Your gut is allowing re-circulation of toxins, since your gut wall is permeable.

There is also potentially another aspect that affects some, but not all of you in this situation. If your blood brain barrier is compromised, you can also get a redistribution of foreign particles attempting to relocate themselves, leading to brain fog, fatigue, vertigo, dizziness, anxiety, depression, etc…

How do I know all of this?  Because I painstakingly had to learn it when it happened to me. Functional medicine doctors couldn’t track it down, sauna companies selling you a bunch of bullshit upgrades on expensive saunas costing THOUSANDS of dollars didn’t have a clue, and supplement pushers of popular detox programs couldn’t help either.

At the end of the day, it’s super simple. But before I dive in to how to fix this, I don’t want to scare you: you should still keep your interest in using saunas, and you should not be afraid of this even though it’s currently wrecking your life.

Meaning, it isn’t the sauna’s fault, whether you’re using a cheap portable sauna, an infrared sauna, a traditional wood burning sauna, or a steam sauna. (with one exception… there are some super high EMF AC saunas sold on Amazon, Costco, etc… I would be mindful about long term use of those)

Your body is operating at it’s current capacity whether you use a sauna or not.  So don’t think you should never use a sauna again, because you felt worse after using it prior.

The Solution

Over 1,000 people have called and spoken to me over the phone about their sauna situation.  9 times out of 10, the one’s that felt worse after sauna use, could be alleviated in less than two more sauna sessions with a few modifications.

Several that were complaining of headaches, sensitivities, fatigue, brain fog, etc… were able to fix this in less than 2 days implementing these simple steps. (which involved continuing to use their sauna! The sauna will help eliminate the issues, even though it seems like it caused them in the first place)

  1. Stop preheating the sauna like you’re Superman.
    • You DO NOT need to heat the sauna to it’s max temp
    • You’re just starting out. If using infrared, low and slow is the way to go
    • Be gentle with your body. Hotter is NOT better
    • Newsflash, you can get just as good of a sweat at 130F as you can at 150F
    • 15-20 minutes max when you’re starting to overcome these issues
    • It takes time to build your heat tolerance, just like it would take time to get back in the gym after 5 years of not working out
  2. DO NOT USE YOUR SAUNA WITHOUT DETOX BINDERS

For those of you suffering from Lyme, have had Amalgams like I had, etc… this will make a huge difference. It is the missing link to solving this puzzle.

Simple really: you sauna, you activate re-circulation, your body cannot contain those for processing, some don’t leave through the skin but instead the GI tract, your gut wall doesn’t hold them, your BBB may be compromised, BANGO — every time you use the sauna, you feel like shit.

So what to we do? We line the gut with Enterosgel, this Bentonite Clay that I love, and occasionally Activated Charcoal to switch things up. It’s cheap, it’s not $400 dollars for some cleanse kit, and it’s life changing if you’re suffering from these type of problems.

You take 2 capsules 30 minutes before sauna, and 2 capsules after sauna. Drink plenty of fluids, if you don’t sweat well, make sure your electrolytes are on point, and you don’t have some other issue going on that’s compounding the lack of sweating.

There you have it folks: THOUSANDS of $,$$$.$$ spent figuring this out over a 3 year span, laying on the couch feeling like I as going to die, brain fog that felt like I couldn’t operate in the world anymore, anxiety like you wouldn’t believe, and fatigue worse than a cancer patient.

All because of one simple little problem, that none of the people in the sauna OR detox industry are accounting for.

 

3 thoughts on “Why Do I Feel Worse After Infrared Sauna?”

  1. Thanks Matt! This article was a great read and very relevant as I just bought a portable infrared sauna blanket to start using.

    The blanket said to have max EMF levels of 2.5 mG and is made out of PVC. Should I have any health concerns around using this blanket?

    Reply
  2. Hi Matt,

    huge fan of your youtube channel and all the information you have out there for FREE! You have taught me more so far than doctors ive spent thousands of dollars on. Im at 28 year old male dealing with problems for 2 years from living in a severely water damaged building. Do you know anything about binders that are good for mold toxins? Also I was going to purchase the MiHigh sauna blanket out here in Australia, doesn’t seem to much information on it so far, was that at all in your sights to do a review of? keep up the great work mate

    Brad

    Reply

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