Infrared radiation has a lot of health benefits. For example, it lowers your stress levels, helps detoxify your body, improves your skin and blood circulation, and could even help fight cancer.

But how come infrared radiation is so good for your health while many other forms of radiation are harmful? We take a look at it below! Tip of the hat: it all has to do with wavelengths.

Wavelengths: what is that?

First of all, it is important to know that radiation, like light (visible light is a form of radiation) and sound, for example, 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 opposite is also true: the less energy radiation contains, the fewer waves are formed and the smaller the distance between two consecutive waves is.

We hear you thinking: all good, but where is the explanation about wavelengths now? Well you've actually just had it: the distance between two consecutive waves is called the wavelength. Below we'll show you a picture to make it all just a little clearer:

 

Wavelengths and the different types of radiation

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

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

That long wavelength allows infrared to penetrate deep into your skin, reach deeper tissues and muscles in your body and have a beneficial effect on them.

However, because 700-1,000 nanometers is a wide interval, infrared rays with the shortest wavelengths can be chosen to address health problems at the body's surface, such as poor blood circulation or acne.

Different rays with different energy content

As we told you earlier, long-wavelength radiation has a small energy content. When it comes to radiation, that's exactly what you need to have in order to improve your health.

Radiation with high energy such as X-rays and gamma rays can in fact affect and modify atoms in your body, causing cancers and other errors in your DNA. This is also the reason why it is recommended not to have an MRI or X-ray too often.

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

Now that you know a little more about the energy content and wavelengths of different types of radiation, we can explain why infrared radiation is so healthy. This is because this type of radiation has a long wavelength that allows it to penetrate deep into the body but a low energy content that prevents it from damaging the atoms and cells in your body. In short: the perfect, healthy mix!

The benefits of infrared radiation

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

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

Accelerated muscle recovery

If you used to pay attention in physics classes, you know that heat creates energy. So by creating heat, infrared radiation also increases the energy of a lot of tissues and cells in your body, stimulating them, including mitochondria.

Those mitochondria can be thought of as the energy supplies of your cells. Thanks to infrared radiation, they are stimulated to release more energy so that processes in your cells run faster and therefore muscle cells recover faster.

Cardiovascular health

The heat given off by infrared 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 clumping together, which in turn prevents the occurrence of strokes.

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

Detoxification

When you expose your entire body to infrared light your body temperature will rise briefly causing detoxification to take place in your cells.

Infrared can help fight cancer

You've 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 content and therefore a short wavelength.

Infrared, on the other hand, has a low energy content and a large wavelength which is why it does not cause cancer, moreover, infrared radiation can even help fight cancer. This video explains how.

Infrared improves your skin

Because infrared improves blood circulation and detoxification, new cells and thus skin cells are produced faster and better while old cells are removed. Because of this, infrared can help improve your skin and fight skin conditions such as acne.