Infrared radiation offers many health benefits, such as lowering your stress levels, helping to detoxify your body, improving your skin and blood circulation, and may even help fight cancer.

But how can infrared radiation be so good for your health while many other forms of radiation are harmful? We will look at it below! A little hint: it all has to do with wavelengths.

Wavelengths: what are they?

First of all, it is important to know that radiation, just like light (visible light is a form of radiation) and sound, is emitted as waves.

The more energy the radiation contains, the more waves are formed and therefore the smaller the distance between two successive waves.

Of course, the converse also applies: the less energy radiation contains, the fewer waves are formed and the smaller the distance between two successive waves.

All well and good, but where is the explanation of wavelengths now? Well, you've actually just had that: the distance between two successive waves is called the wavelength. Below you will find an image to make it all a little clearer:

Wavelengths and the different types of radiation

There are different types of radiation. For example, you have UV radiation that is emitted by the sun, but also X-rays that are used to examine you in a hospital.

The differences in all these types of radiation are caused by the wavelength of that radiation. Each type of radiation has a specific wavelength. For example, infrared has a wavelength of 700 to 1,000 nanometers (1,000 nanometers is 1 millimeter). That may seem very short, but compared to other types of radiation such as visible light it is actually relatively long.

This long wavelength allows infrared to penetrate deep into your skin, reaching deeper tissues and muscles in your body and having a beneficial effect on them.

However, because 700-1,000 nanometers is a wide interval, it is possible to choose to use the infrared radiation with the shortest wavelengths to address health problems such as poor circulation or acne.

Different radiations with different energy contents

As we told you before, long wavelength radiation has a low energy content. When it comes to radiation, that is exactly what you need to have to improve your health.

High energy radiation such as X-rays and gamma rays can affect and change atoms in your body, causing cancers and other errors in your DNA. That is also the reason why it is recommended not to have MRIs or X-rays too often.

Infrared radiation: the healthy radiation with a long wavelength and low energy content

Now that you know a bit more about the energy content and wavelengths of radiation, we can explain why infrared radiation is so healthy. This type of radiation has a long wavelength, which allows it to penetrate deep into the body, but a low energy content, which means it cannot damage the atoms and cells in your body. In short: the perfect, healthy mix!

The benefits of infrared radiation

Infrared radiation provides heat. It is the infrared rays that make you feel warm when you walk in the sun. But don't worry, it is another type of radiation that can cause you to burn if your body is exposed to the sun for too long, namely: UV rays.

By creating heat on our skin and deeper in our body, infrared radiation offers many health benefits. Below we have listed the most important benefits of infrared radiation:

Accelerated muscle recovery

If you paid attention in your science or physics class, you know that heat creates energy. By creating heat, infrared radiation also increases the energy of many tissues and cells in your body, stimulating them, including the mitochondria.

You can see these mitochondria as the energy supplies of your cells. Thanks to infrared radiation, they are stimulated to release more energy, which makes processes in your cells run faster and muscle cells recover faster.

Cardiovascular health

The heat that infrared gives off increases the production of nitric oxide in your blood. Nitric oxide is very important for the health of your blood vessels: it relaxes the arteries and prevents blood from clotting, which in turn prevents strokes.

But that's not all: infrared also fights the free radicals that are naturally present in your body, counteracting oxidative stress and regulating your blood pressure.

Detoxification

If you expose your entire body to infrared light, your body temperature will rise briefly, causing detoxification in your cells.

Infrared may help fight cancer

You have probably heard that many types of radiation such as X-rays and gamma rays can cause cancer. As we told you before, this is because these types of radiation have a high energy and therefore short wavelength.

Infrared on the other hand has a low energy and long wavelength which means it does not cause cancer, in fact, infrared radiation can even help fight cancer. This video explains how.

Infrared improves your skin

Because infrared provides better blood circulation and detoxification, new cells and therefore skin cells are produced faster and better while old cells are removed. This is why infrared can help improve your skin and combat skin conditions such as acne.