#22 – Brian Richards: Heat and Light Can Reverse Disease

You’re at the intersection of wealth, health, and happiness. Welcome to the WealthyWellthy Life.

Hi, I’m Krisstina Wise, and welcome to this edition of WealthyWellthy life where I interview thought leaders who teach a counter-cultural approach to money, health, and happiness because truth be told great riches don’t matter if you’re sick, and optimal health doesn’t matter if you’re broke. Today, I tackle health wealth with Brian Richards. He’s the founder of Sauna Space. An exciting new brand specializing in near infrared sauna therapy. Different than far infrared, and different than traditional sauna. I have one of these saunas, and I love, love, love the near infrared. Brian’s a great story. He’s just suffered from severe insomnia and issues with his skin. Of course, doctors prescribed him chemical based drugs that failed him, and so he dove into alternative strategies like so many of us have delved into when we couldn’t find any sort of treatment, or protocol through the traditional approach. The near infrared sauna therapy proved to be the perfect solution, and it completely turned his situation around. His life around.

He started getting better sleep. Of course, his skin healed, more energy, more focus, and on and on. Now, he feels better than ever before, and he has decided to create a product to help other people heal. This is a fun story. We crossed paths because I won a sauna space from him at a conference last year, and before that I didn’t even really know anything about near infrared sauna. In this podcast interview we talked about the health benefits of sauna therapy from both heat and light. That’s the great thing about near infrared is that there’s as much light therapy benefits as heat therapy benefits. We talked about the new scientific evidence supporting the ancient practice of sauna therapy. We talked about the importance of detoxification, and how most of us are not detoxifying our bodies enough in this highly toxic world. We talked about the difference between near-infrared, and far infrared, and why it’s super important to know the difference, and we talked about light and its effect on our natural photobiology. Really a lot of new science here. You’ll learn a ton. It’s a fun conversation. I hope you enjoy.

All right Brian. It’s so fun to see you again. The last time I saw you was at the bulletproof conference in Pasadena, and when was that, 2015? A lot’s happened since then.

Yeah, I believe that was October of last year. A lot has happened since then. I always have a lot of really awesome product improvements. We’ve undergone some growth at our company. We’ve had more employees now. We actually just completed an expansion to another, just under 2,000 square foot space where we’ve moved all of our textile production just out of need. We just didn’t have enough space. So, we finally got that completed literally yesterday, and we’re doing quite well. We’ve got a lot of very special products, and a very special offering, and it starts with me, but it certainly a team of guys here now and gals made this with a passion. We’re healing the world one person at a time in our own humble way by empowering people to heal themselves. That’s what this is all about.

I love that. So, no one yet knows who you are really. So, we’ve met in Pasadena at the bulletproof conference, and it was really fun. I want to tell the story because I think it’s a great story, but I just visited you. You had your little sauna space there in the expo, and everybody was wondering what this thing was because more or less you had this tent in the expo center with the little seat and these lights underneath the tp tent almost. So, I think people were a little bit nervous like what is going on, what is that thing, and so I visited you, and sat in there, and learned a little bit more about what you do. This little sauna space, and then not too long that was the last conversation I go to the closing ceremony of the bulletproof conference, and there was a giveaway, and out of, I don’t know, 1,500 people I won your sauna. You had a giveaway, and I won one of your saunas. So, I was delighted, I couldn’t even believe it because I normally don’t win things. So, it was really fun, and anyway you sent me one in the mail, and I’ve enjoyed it ever since. In fact, so much I had an infrared sauna that was the big ones. The ones that are built in.

The far infrared type.

Yeah, the far infrared, and now I’ve basically traded that one in for yours. I love your sauna, but before we really get into that, and even in my story, sauna has been a big part of my – like you said your mission is to empower people to heal themselves, and that’s part of my journey, is that I got sick, and sauna was, infrared sauna, has been a big part of my recovery if you will. So, that’s why I’m very passionate about sauna, and I’m very excited to talk about it because I do believe it’s such a huge part of healing, but I know you have a story. So, what got you into taking on this crazy endeavor?

Well, I’m no different than anybody else. I want to live, and feel better. I think everybody wants that. We spend so much time and money at trying to achieve that whether it’s through conventional medicine, or going to the gym. We all want to live and feel better, and I wasn’t. I had some serious toxin-related health problems even as a young man, and I wanted to fix them, and I was very dissatisfied with the conventional medical approach. The dermatologist recommended toxic petrochemical drugs to treat my acne. I had bodily acne. It was quite strange. It was only on my torso. It wasn’t on anything else. I also had neurological issues, and I had mind racing, and pretty terrible insomnia. I never really had anxiety, or depressive issues at all. It was really, my mind was just on fire. I was always thinking of things, and wanted to do things, and build things. I lay in bed at night, and not be able to fall asleep, and then not have a restful sleep, which of course affects your entire day the next day, and in general negatively affects your health. So, everybody has their own problem, and they want to improve it, and I was no different.

So, I was unhappy with the advice of conventional medicine, and I started looking into natural solutions. I tried some herbal solutions, and some creams, and such for the acne as well as some other more superficial approaches to some of my problems, and I wasn’t getting any deep profound results, or any lasting results. I actually stumbled upon this guy Dr. Lawrence Wilson’s website, and it ended up leading to a conversation with him on the phone, and basically through my research, and his advice. I came to the realization that my problems were toxin related, and that people don’t. It’s more of a functional medicine perspective of health and of healing. We’re not stuck with these genetic conditions. There are no real diseases so to speak. What we have is a complex both physiological biochemical system, and a bioluminescence system that is our body that is either functioning optimally, or somehow compromised either by environmental and oxidative stress, or toxins, or heavy metals, or what have you. The system breaks down after a while, but before it breaks down it works less, and less optimally. Very similar to a car. You can’t just put gas in a car. You have to constantly repair they systems, and monitor the systems.

So, long story short my research led me to this near infrared lamps on therapy, and Dr. Wilson in his conversation with me said, “Look Brian, your problem is you’re toxic.” The most effective, and safest way to detoxify your body in the world is near infrared lamps on therapy, and that really peaked my interest because I heard about saunas before. I understood some of the detoxification benefits of heat therapy, but I had never heard of this particular type of sauna, much less this concept of light therapy. So, I’m a tinker. I built my own sauna. It was really ghetto. The first version. You can actually see the light panel on the web site. It had a chicken wire guard, painter’s cloth, where the enclosure. It had a four or five banana clips, and I used plastic plumbing pipe as the frame to make a little tent for myself that these lamps were in, and I built my own do it yourself sauna. I subsequently engaged in my near infrared sauna therapy with discipline, and frequency every day, and that, and a natural food diet. Let’s call it an ancestral diet, or a paleo diet. I got rid of the bread and the flour in my diet, and started eating as naturally as possible. The two together were absolutely my solution. It was 100% recovery that I had, in particular near infrared lamp sauna I felt those benefits immediately. The insomnia, which had been a problem for a long time was gone within a week, or a matter of days, it was literally gone. Then over time the acne resolved, and all my neurological issues resolved.

Then I noticed over time, over continued near infrared lamp sauna therapy I was improving in ways that I wasn’t even aware of initially. I had lower energy levels. All of a sudden I had boosted energy in the morning and the evening. I just felt cleaner, and more vital, and I had a clear mind. So, I clearly was experiencing some improved cognitive functioning that is absolutely associated with heat therapy, and other small effects too. My skin was not just acne free, it was looking more clear and more vital, and so forth. So, I had this fantastic incredible recovery with two ancestral healing modalities, and I was blown away that this was not mainstream, and that wasn’t accessible out there, and yet I didn’t engage in making a business out of it. I built this for myself, and let’s face it I selfishly built this for myself for my own problems, but people saw my improvement and I actually built a couple of saunas for some friends, and some family, and some others, and be grudgingly I solely got pushed into making these things until such time as Dr. Wilson talked to me. He said, “Look Brian, I want you to make a lot more of these, and I’m going to endorse you.” So, his endorsement was the beginning of making infrared lamp saunas as a business, and I looked at that, and I looked at this, and I looked at the potential here, and I looked at the product, and there was no good consumer product. Nobody had done the product development, and made it a consumer product. So, what you see today is the result of over five years of product development with my ear, and now my team’s ear.

All of sauna space’s ear to the ground listening to our customers, and every feedback they have positive and negative, and incorporating that into our design. It definitely stemmed from my personal story. I wanted to bring these ancient healing methods into my life in a way that was modern, or that was convenient and accessible. Everybody wants to look, and feel better, and they want that product that will do so with no side effects, and let’s face it no effort. People don’t have any time for anything anymore. So, the fact that you can sit in the sauna in your house, and have all these benefits with such convenience in your house that really is not just required, but really in generous the discipline of daily use that leads to the results. That was the goal. That was my mission, and that was five years ago. So, what you see today with our new curtain cover, and our custom made fabric, and our wheelchair accessibility, and it’s all natural, and the custom made hardware, and the affordable price point. That is my vision from five or six years ago that has really come into its own in the last year. We finally have the product, in particular, our updates that we’ve introduced in the last six months are the product of that vision, and a lot of hard work.

Not just from me, but all the guys here. It’s not just good enough to make a good product. You have to make something that you can make efficiently so people can afford it, and we actually handcraft, and we make all of our product in-house. Everything, which is unique nowadays where everything is cheap, and disposable, and imported. Here’s something that is both affordable, and its heirloom quality.

So, I want to circle back around, and talk about that here in a minute. Let’s delve into a little bit about detoxification because what you’ve said. You’ve said the word “toxic” several times in your conversation, and I think what most people don’t realize is how toxic our bodies really are through our food, through environmental toxins, what we put on our skin, what we breathe, and our poor systems aren’t designed to get rid of these toxins and detoxify because we’re toxic overload for so many levels. Then many people don’t even realize it, but they might have an MTHFR gene, which makes detoxification, and glutathione production that much more difficult. So, that was part of my situation, but we’re all a little bit toxic, and we don’t really have- and we’re not sweating as much as we use to. Lifestyle just isn’t allowing our bodies. We’re wearing all these aluminum deodorants that’s keeping us from the little bit of detox. Our bodies are trying to get rid of some of this bad stuff, but talk about your background with detox, and why it’s so important.

Toxicity, and having a toxic body is not just a part of why we’re unhealthy. It’s entirely the reason we’re unhealthy. We have environmental toxins, and environmental stress that is compromising our bodies and our minds, and every person has different symptoms. They have different manifestations of disease, but it’s all the same problem. And though our bodies are not designed to detox incredibly effectively in isolation. I do have to disagree with you, and say that our bodies are absolutely designed to detox incredibly upon the stimulus of visible red light, invisible near infrared light as well as heat. So, this goes back not just to the origin of the human species. This really goes back to the origin of the mitochondria, and of the incorporation of that into the animal cell. Let’s talk about the light therapy for a little bit because I think people – they don’t get that. How does near infrared light, invisible lights, –

Well, even back up a little bit. Yeah, so for you to talk about light. So, there’s traditional sauna, there’s infrared, and now there’s far infrared and near infrared. So, will you break those down a little bit for us?

Yeah, it’s actually quite straightforward. All the saunas provide heat therapy. It’s often called hyperthermic therapy, or heat shock therapy, or heat stress. Let’s just call it heat therapy whether it’s in a sweat lodge, or a steam, in a hot pool, or a sauna. It’s no coincidence that every human culture in the world has a tradition of heat therapy of some kind. The ancients understood this, and now with modern instrumentation, and modern studies, and modern approaches we are able to explain this at a molecular, and atomic level of why heat, and near infrared light, invisible red light are so beneficial to our bodies. So, all saunas give you heat therapy. Only near infrared saunas give you light therapy. The only light therapy – when I say light therapy I’m referring to photobiology. The fact that you have cell receptors in your body that are activated by light are called photoreceptors. The primary photoreceptor is an enzyme called cytochrome oxidase in the mitochondria. So, in short the only light that’s photo biologically activating is this visible red light, and near infrared light. Very specifically, 600 to 950 nanometers. It’s only that very tight bandwidth of light that activates all the photobiology in our body.

That’s a very fancy word for a basic concept. Mitochondria is activated by this red and near infrared light. So, it stimulates mitochondrial function. When you stimulate mitochondrial function you have three basic things that happen. You increase cellular metabolism. So, more ATP. You promote the release of nitric oxide, and you promote the modulation of this thing. This funny thing called the reduced oxygen species, and when all these three things happen in tandem without getting too lost in the details. All these things provoking biological pathway that leads to improving cellular metabolism, and promoting collagen production. Cellular, and tissue growth, production of inflammatory mediators that reduce cellular inflammation, and most importantly, and the nitric oxide leads to tissue oxygenation, and basic dilation, which is great because you need blood flow for any sort of healing, but the most interesting thing, and the least understood is this concept of anti-aging. It’s that not only does stimulating mitochondria help repair the cell, and the tissues, and regenerate them. It also positively corrects gene transcription, and goes in and repairs the DNA, and how the DNA is read. So, you can actually go in and – So, you actually have anti-aging effects systemically from stimulating our mitochondria continually with this light. It’s a very clear biological system that’s built into the mitochondria. So, every cell of your body, or almost every cell, has this mitochondria, and therefore, will benefit from the stimulus of this light. That only comes from this tight bandwidth, and the only sources of this light are the sun, incandescent bulbs. In other words, a tungsten filament light bulb, which is what we use, and also LEDs.

So, in general the only sauna that provides both the near infrared light therapy, and the heat therapy is the near infrared sauna. So, the typical infrared sauna product out there that most people have that you most likely have is what’s called a far infrared sauna. So, it’s a very energy efficient, ceramic emitter, or carbon-based emitter. It’s very efficient electrical device that produces far infrared light. Unfortunately, we don’t have any cell receptor for far infrared light. So, there’s no stimulation of mitochondrial function, and therefore, all this regenerative effect, and anti-aging effect, and repair effects, there’s none of that. It only provides heat. So, really a far infrared sauna is a glorified traditional sauna, which is still good. We haven’t discussed much of the heat benefits, but we will I’m sure later. They are tremendous, and again that goes back to every culture in the world having this tradition and it’s being so ubiquitous. It’s built into our basic biology to benefit from near infrared light, and heat although they’re very distinct biological systems. The effects are overlapping. They’re very similar. They’re all regenerative, cellular healing, wound healing, all these incredible almost miraculous effects. That’s just the light. There is another type of sauna out there called the full spectrum sauna. It uses far infrared emitters for the heat, and then it adds in usually an array of LEDs that are producing visible red, and near infrared light at the photo biologically active wavelengths. Usually there are a small panel on the side, or on the ceiling.

That’s great in what it provides, but it’s not enveloping you in near infrared light and red light. It’s not a large dose at all, and it doesn’t provide heat. So, you get very little light biology, or light mitochondrial activation, and it’s only in the side of the body that’s exposed to that, and it’s very minimal, whereas, our secret sauce here at sauna space is that hey, if we have all these benefits from near infrared red light, why not use an incandescent heat lamp, which produces that exact same spectrum of light and heat the body as well, and engage in the synergy of both therapies at once from one low EMF device, and the rest is just good product design. It is a smarter way to do sauna. The near infrared lamp sauna approach, and we’re seeing anecdotally from people it is more effective. It’s more tolerable, it’s more pleasant. So, it’s just a smarter way to do sauna in general.

Thank you, and that’s an excellent explanation. In fact, I didn’t realize that. So, the – I’m hearing a lot about light therapy these days. Light therapy for healing puts certain light pads on certain parts of the body. So, on and so forth, and so are we doing both at the same time in your sauna that we’re getting some of that light? That therapeutic effects of the light therapy as well as the heat therapy? The heat therapy more for sweating, I’m guessing. In true detoxification, and just the cleansing through sweating, and the other heat benefits, and then the light therapy like you said for increased mitochondrial function, but also are there additional therapies that come from the light?

Yeah, yeah, light has different effects on our body that is often referred to chromotherapy, or light therapy. It’s not just a red light, and invisible near-infrared light that has an effect on the body, but only red light and near-infrared light have a photobiological effect. Let’s call it only those two stimulate mitochondrial function. So, only those two results in regeneration, wound repair, and anti-aging or correction of the DNA, and the gene expression, and the things that I’ve discussed previously. It’s only visible red light, and the visible infrared. Of course, a lot of people know that visible light does have effects on the body. A simple one is blue light.

Blue light in the day shuts down melatonin production. I think I have that correct. So, when you are out in the sun in the middle of the day you get the blue light, and it’s basically telling your body to stay awake. It’s time to stay awake, it’s time to work. When the sun sets and you no longer receive blue light from the sun you begin to produce melatonin, and your body begins to prepare itself for sleep. It’s part of our basic circadian rhythm. So, clearly light has regulatory effects on the body, and even metaphysical effects.

Mood effects, and other effects that are very powerful. Having said that none of them have the degree, or the profoundancy of effect that red light, and near infrared light does because of this ancient connection to the mitochondria. So, I’d like to explain really quickly how light and heat interact together in a near infrared sauna, and why it’s better. I’ve touched on a lot of the unique effects of red light, and near infrared light. Let’s talk about the heat therapy for a second. What does heat do to the body? Heat has heat shock – so sustained heat stress in a sauna, not just a quick heat shock, but a sustained heat shock does a lot of things to the body. It increases blood circulation. It increases tissue oxygenation. It promotes the production of human growth hormone. It improves the body’s insulin sensitivity. So, it imulerates insulin resistance. It promotes cell and tissue growth. It improves motor excitability so the functioning of the nervous system is improved. As well as promoting the production of this thing called BDNF – Brain, derived neurotrophic factor.

It’s a crucial component of brain tissue, and repair the brain tissue, and heat shock promotes the production of that. So, it actually improves – there’s improved cognitive functioning associated with real long term sauna therapy, and performance enhancement in terms of a better functioning nervous system, and cognitive system, and then I saved the most interesting for last. One of the most fascinating effects of heat therapy is activation of the heat shock protein. The heat shock protein is basically this intelligent repairman in the cell, and he’s dormant in a resting state when our bodies are at 98.6 this enzyme is not active, but if we heat the cell up several degrees for a period of minutes. We activate this heat shock protein. Heat shock protein is – again this wonder protein. This repairman that goes around and fixes misfolded proteins, and reorders them, and corrects them, and also acts as a chaperone for immune bodies in the cells, which makes cellular detoxification more efficient, and it also has a role in promoting the positive gene transcription factors that result in repair of DNA.

Again, anti-aging. So, we’re seeing a lot of the same things from heat, and the near infrared light, and the red light effects on the body. They’re all promoting cellular regeneration, and repair of the cells, of the DNA, and then if you magnify that of the tissues and of the organism of the body. When you have all these effects of the cellular level there’s a number of things you see systemically that people – the results that people really want.

I’m curious too, but also you’re talking about the cellular rejuvenation, the growth, the repair, but there’s also this cell detoxification, right? Doesn’t this facilitate the cell –

Yes, I should probably I assume that I say it so many times that I’ve assumed that I already said it. Detoxification, the toxins, whether it’s oxidative stress, a heavy metal, a pharmaceutical residue, or a free radical. They are causing damage in the cell. We need to get the toxins out of our cells, and then out of our body to even have the groundwork for an optimal cell and an optimal system. So, these two stimuli are the most powerful, most effective, and safest means of detoxification on Earth, period. Regardless of where you get it from.

Whether it’s the sun, or these two things are wonderful. Again, what’s unique about our product is you’re getting both at the same time. We recognize you get both, you need both, why not have both in the same session? So, detoxification is a central role. People think of detoxification they may think it’s merely removing the toxins, but it is in fact repairing the cell as well. You remove the toxins, and you have to repair the damage that they’ve caused. So, cellular repair, and detoxification are really the same thing. It is crucial to get the toxins out. The fascinating thing about stimulating the mitochondrial function with this light, and doing it with the heat stress is that there appears to be a synergy between the two. The detoxification, and regeneration, and rejuvenative effects of the heat therapy is enhanced, and made profound, and made more of the atomic, and molecular level we are detoxifying, repairing everything in the most powerful way possible because we’re bringing in the mitochondria into detoxification repair. We’re not just relying on heat. We’re saying holy cow, there is this billion-year-old system, and every cell of your body that on the mere activation of the right wavelength of light goes to work, and really fixes everything.

What’s so important, and I really want everybody listening. When we’re not thinking of detoxification first especially because we do live in toxic environments. Toxic products, stress, oxidized stress, free radical. All our lifestyles, our bad diets, the products on our skin, the products in our home. The stressful life, and I go on and on. It produces these toxic bodies in cells that are holding on and creating disease over time. Like what you said, disease happens over time, and our body starts to break down, break down, break down. We don’t feel this. We don’t even know it’s happening until it’s almost too late, and some disease state appears out of thin air, but it’s been happening forever. So, I think so much as the importance of this is it’s really hard today for our bodies to detox. Even in ancient times like you said they had this sauna protocol, for example, as a better way to detoxify, and assist the body. It’s been around forever, so what I love about sauna, and why I really want – I’m so excited about you being on the show today is first really to emphasize the importance of detoxification, and then cell rejuvenation. You’re exactly right, but we have to, number one, try to eliminate all the environmental, and different toxins we put in our body as much as possible, and reduce stress and these different things.

Then that’s really not enough. We need now because of our lifestyle, and the world that we live in. We do need this additional help, and sauna was the one thing that really made a radical difference where all of a sudden I felt the difference. I started feeling better after being so sick, and no matter what I did, changed the food, did the supplements, did the detox shakes. I did everything I was supposed to do once we determined I had these lethal levels of heavy metal poisoning, and I was toxic, but man I’m just such a believer in sauna as a way. Number one, now for me it’s still detox of course, but now I’m starting to use it more on full – I feel regenerated. I know my body’s getting healthier. I know that this totally assists in producing energy, and vitality, and better moods, and all the things that you just talked about, but it’s just really to show – my belief is, and I think yours is too, that sauna is a really, and especially when you combine the sauna. The beauty of your sauna when you’re combining not just the heat therapy, but the light therapy, and you’re seeing that they just took effects of doing both at the same time. I’m not sure there’s a better way to really help our body detox, and rejuvenate, like you said, and what you’ve done that I’m so happy about is that to get a sauna in your house for most people. My first sauna, my far infrared. I don’t know, it was 12, $13,000, and yours is less than 2,000, and so you’ve made it accessible to everyone pretty much, and with this fundamental belief that we all have the right to be healthy, and I think I have a way to bring this to you. So, I just really wanted to thank you, and to have all the listeners really understand holy cow. I really maybe need to think about this because we have so much inflammation on our bodies, and this is a great way to start breaking down the inflammation, and letting the body do its job.

It is, as much as we have beautiful, and intelligent biological systems to take care of ourselves, and our body. We need these two stimuli, and the need is it was never greater than it is today. You hit the nail on the head. The problem is how do you detox even if you change your diet, and you begin to live a healthy lifestyle, and remove the sources of environmental toxicity, and stress from your life. What do you do with what’s already in your body? Not only that, when you detoxify how do you repair all that damage? This is the most safe, and powerful way of stimulating, and activating, and accelerating the body’s own healing systems. Not just to detoxify, but to repair, and rejuvenate, and I’m not just talking about at the cellular level. I’m talking about systemically what we’re seeing with the use of saunas, and light therapy, and particular near infrared lamp saunas are things like wound healing, tissue repair, reduction of inflammation, and edema, reduction and elimination of chronic pain. The mitochondrial stimulation can actually prevent cell death. So, we can go in and save cells that the body was going to destroy, and repair them. It’s improving people’s longevity. So, people are living longer. It’s improving people’s cognitive functioning.

It’s improving other very interesting things like nerve damage, you hear a lot about cellular rejuvenation, but conventional medicine, and conventional understanding is you can’t fix damaged nerves. So, neurological problems and conditions are things that you’re just stuck with, and there’s nothing you can do about it. That is not the case at all. That is absolutely not the case. Here is a scientifically proven, and biologically based system of nervous tissue regeneration. We have a number of studies on our site that you can read about. I think the most impressive one is what we call the three blind mice study. They blinded rates with methanol, which means they caused damage in the retina of the rats. It damaged the rods, and the cones in the eyes of the rats enough that they caused blindness. They then treated the rats with near infrared light, and red light therapy for a period of days and weeks. They promoted enough cellular regeneration, and nervous tissue repair and regeneration in the optic nerves, and the ocular tissue of the eyes of the rats that they repaired the cones and the rods enough that the rats were able to see again.

So, you have this obvious example that not only is this near infrared light not dangerous at all for your eyes. It promotes cellular regeneration in your eyes too, and not just in regular cells, but in nervous tissue. So, you’ve also seen studies now where you’re seeing incredible recoveries of victims of TBI. Traumatic brain injury whether it’s veterans coming back from the war, or it’s youth concussions, which is a terribly widespread problem nowadays, and what do you do about it? It turns out that you have a built-in biological system to, in fact, repair and rejuvenate nerve tissue, and so you can do it merely upon stimulation and activation of these special mitochondrial functions. That, for me, is so impressive because that’s something that is supposedly impossible, and here it’s built into our basic biology from day one. It’s been there for millions of years.

Well, and you’re hitting on a point, and that’s another thing I really love bringing forth is that our bodies are designed to heal themselves, and so with the right food. With the right practices, things like this when we assist our body and give it what it needs. It’s designed to repair itself, but when it becomes such a diseased state. Inflammation takes over and we get sicker and sicker. It goes the opposite direction, but I think that was a big aha for me when I was sick is that I was going through traditional conventional medicine saying please fix me. Just give me what I need. That was a disaster, but ultimately when I came around the functional medicine, and a grade of medicine side and actually found this source, and you’re right.

The source of illness is almost all the same thing despite what name we give the disease state itself, but what I realize is oh no, and you said this at the very beginning of our conversation is that I can heal myself. My body can heal itself, and if I assist it through these different methodologies, or different protocols, or the different things that I do, and my body did. It knows how to if we give it the right stuff that it needs, and so like you said. You’re empowering people to take their health back. To see how you phrase it, but –

You mentioned that before. I didn’t get a chance to respond to that. That’s absolutely what we’re doing here. After I decided that this works for me, and I’m making a commitment to make this for other people. I decided the founding mission of Sauna Space. My whole point of doing this is to democratize sauna access. A sauna in every home. A sauna for everybody. Really, and how do we do that? There’s a lot involved in making a product, designing a product.

Well, really quick before we go there let me address two more things before we get into that. Number one is I’m guessing there’s a little bit of skepticism, or fear maybe that this heat therapy, and or light therapy isn’t healthy, or maybe there’s some – it could be dangerous. So, what do you say about that? How do you address any sort of skepticism?

I refer people to our research archive. We have hundreds of scientific articles that are primarily focused on clinical studies focused on the effects of near infrared light, red light, and heat on cell cultures, on animal studies, and also on humans, and it’s an incredible body of research really. Some of the studies are understandably hard to read, but other ones are very accessible. One I’d like to recommend to everybody is a very simple article called Mechanisms of Low-level Light Therapy. You see in there this basic mitochondrial functioning. How it’s stimulate only by near infrared light, and red light, and what the effects are, and you see study after study thousands of studies now using near infrared light to, and visible red light to treat literally every condition under the sun. Everything out there, and there’s been no observed side effect. So, there is no side effect to near infrared light. How can that be? It’s not how can it be. Compare that to all the pharmaceutical drugs out there.

There’s a litany of side effects, and it’s four pages of side effects for one title head, and one benefit. There’s all these side effects, and the idea is that you minimize the risk. Think about near infrared light, and heat that when used properly in a natural context with natural guidelines. The natural context guiding our use. There are no side effects. In other words, there are no adverse effects. There are no negative effects. The only effects are positive, and beneficial, and healing, and amazing, and that doesn’t exist in a conventional medicine. I think that’s hard for people to appreciate, and I can understand the skepticism. How can that be? That’s not me, that’s thousands of clinical studies now. There’s no observed side effect, or mirror for red light, and again every indication. The more that we understand molecularly, and biologically, and even automatically, we are absolutely designed to get this light, and heat everyday. Just as important as getting good food, and good clean water. We need this light, and this heat every day. We are what’s called photo bio modulators. We use light for energy, and for cellular healing, and we use heat for cellular energy, and for cellular healing, and for energy. It’s incredible. People think that it only – it’s a part of our life, but it’s not.

It’s very essential to our life. The light and the heat, and I think there’s a nice balance here of modern instrumentation, and modern scientific studies showing us what’s going on at the cellular level. With the, again, the ancient understanding that this stuff works. Every culture in the world had this. They figured out a way to teach off their bodies either by a sweat lodge, or a pool or whatever. They figured out a way to do this, and of course had interaction with sunlight everybody. So, they got their near infrared light, and their red light every day, and we in the west were sitting in air conditioned environments. We’re out of the sun. Our food is toxic, our water is toxic. We’re not sweating at all, and if we are sweating it’s in an exercised environment, which doesn’t detox you. It stresses out your body further, and what people really need is to bring themselves out of sympathetic dominance, out of oxidative stress, and relax. So, it’s really a no-brainer that you have this in your house, and that you use it every day, and how easy is that to just sit on your lazy butt in the sauna, and heal your body, heal your mind, lose weight, look better, feel better, and –

Yeah, so what do you recommend as far as for busy lifestyles. Let’s say they have a sauna space that – it’s one thing I know when I was first starting it was – I did a lot of sauna because I was very sick, and so this was one of my treatments. Now, what do you recommend let’s say for regular practice outside of wanting to – for healing proposes, just daily, twice a day, three times a week?

It’s obviously user dependent, and people who are more immune compromise, or having firm beliefs in medical issues. They need to consult their healthcare provider, and such, and be more careful about it especially in the beginning. Basically slow and steady is the prudent approach. You need to detoxify, but to do it safely you do it slowly. You don’t want to overwhelm your detoxification organs, and your healing systems. So, most people start out with a 20-minute session at least once a day. At least three times a week with the idea that the duration is decided by when you start to sweat profusely. When you acclimate to the therapy, you become stronger, and your body heals, and detoxes. You’ll find that you’ll need to stay in longer to provoke a sweat. What you’ve done is you’ve heat tempered your body. You’ve made it more tolerant to heat stress, which makes it stronger in general.

So, you can really take it up to one hour sessions up to twice a day every day for the rest of your life with no side effects. Doing it according to protocol in a safe manner, which really goes back to our product design. How do you use it? Well, if you don’t have it at home you’re not going to use it every day. Even people that go to the gym. They don’t have near infrared lamp saunas at the gym, and it’s not a healing meditating environment. It’s sweaty, and dirty, and there’s a nice social aspect to it, but what I find is that there’s a third, or what I feel is that there’s a third therapy here involved too. So, light therapy, the heat therapy, and also let’s call it the metaphysical spiritual therapy. This is a chance to take 20 or 30 minutes, and not look at your phone, and not engage in any distraction. Not even reading. Literally, be present with yourself, and how hard is that for so many people?

For me it was impossible initially. Oh my God, what am I going to do? I started to think about what I’m going to do tomorrow. Anxiety is over, what’s happened earlier in the day, and it was really disappointing actually for me that I couldn’t even sit there for ten minutes without needing a distraction. What’s interesting again about the near infrared light is that it directly calms the nervous system. So, people are anxious, and don’t think they can stay in there that long to find it very pleasant, very tolerable, very Zen-like inducing the mood, the feel. So, take that for what it is. Take that time for yourself to heal your mind too and to train your mind to be present, and then that is the definition of meditation. That is a meditating experience.

It is, and I call it a date with myself. So, it’s honoring myself through an act of love. Like what we do for others is it’s through active love of other people feel love, and not necessarily for our words, and other things. So, I’ve really worked on my own life to have my own acts of love, but the dates with myself. To take care, and my sauna is one of those. It’s really a sacred time, and I don’t use the word sacred loosely, but it’s in there. I know there’s healing effects. I know my body. It’s happy. It’s changing, and it’s in there smiling, and saying, “Thank you Krisstina for doing this for me.” So, I really do encourage everyone to start having more dates with themselves, and especially in this type of environment, and I really revile in my meditation practice as well. It’s my other place where I have a date for myself. So, I totally agree. Well, we’re wrapping up on our time together, and I love your energy. I love how committed you are to this, and I just – seeing you you speak from your heart, and oh my gosh. It’s really incredible, and it’s an honor to be here with you. One thing final as we close is one thing I love about what you’ve produced is I saw you a year ago, met you for the first time. I won in a raffle of your sauna space. I’ve been using it religiously, and I love it. So, I’m a user, and I totally endorse – complete endorsement of your product.

Even over the products I was using before, saunas I was using before, and then I bumped into some of your team members at the paleo effects conference here a few weeks back. Number one I just wanted to share with you that whatever you’re creating is really magical and special because it’s one thing that you the founder, the owner are sitting there sharing the love of your creation, and want to tell the world about it, but your team members were just as excited, and they had me in there. I had them on a little Facebook live, and they spoke from their heart, and they’re so grateful to you, and they believe in the mission of this company, and there’s a name that it’s conscious business, and there’s not enough conscious business in my opinion. So, I really wish to highlight those that are conscious business. That their product, and what they’re offering to the world is heart based. It comes from a true sincere, and genuine desire to help the world be better one way or another, and so you’re growing. You’re building a conscious business.

Your teammates are so grateful to you, and they’re so grateful to have this opportunity to share what you’ve invented, and what you’re creating with the world. So, kudos, congratulations, and finally one thing that just I’ve noticed, and you said a little bit at the beginning, but man your commitment. The artisanship. The workmanship, the love that goes into your product. I’ve never seen it before from the stools to the cloth that you choose. The stitching on the cloth. You can see that every single unit is made with love, and care, and that’s so uncommon these days. So, very quickly would you mind sharing just a little bit of that craftsmanship that goes behind your product because I think it’s so important because it is so uncommon.

Yeah, this is again, this is the sauna that I wanted for myself. It took many, many years to achieve it, but yes I found in the course of development of the product, and the company that anything I don’t control in house, in my own manufacturing becomes problematic. So, I’ve worked very hard to in-source everything, and initially we didn’t even have sewing production. I actually trained myself how to sew, and then had my first employee trained by my outsourced textile production, and brought it in house, bought our own sewing machine. Literally, boots maybe the story of all the production, and the development of the product is completely like that. It’s a bootstrap day by day effort to get where we are, and I wanted it to be designed a certain way. Most importantly for the convenience, and good product design of the customer. It’s got to be useful, it’s got to be quality. I only want to buy it once. I don’t want to have to buy it again. I want it to last forever. I want it to be natural, and hypoallergenic, and I want it to be easy to use, and I don’t want it to be a pain in the butt to get out of the way if I need to. So, what we have is a lightweight product that is easily set up by even older folks with issues. Anyone could set it up on their own with no tools, and the unique convenience beyond the superior therapy.

The idea that if you need to you can break it down and just throw it in your closet, or give it to you friend to borrow, or it’s not this 400-pound word box that you’re stuck with forever. Just the design difference. That’s what I wanted for myself, and I came to realize that the only way I could do it was to do it all in house, and very carefully control every aspect of the process. I wanted the stool to be polished to a thousand grit, and to be comfortable, and not be a flat top. So, we have a robotic million machine that contours the top of the stool to make it comfortable. We have our patent pending canvas wrap free connector design, which you saw the first version of at bulletproof last year. That’s actually an invention that I patented many years ago, and only recently was able to produce it in scale. Every aspect of it has basically undergone constant improvement based on customer feedback, but also based on our own testing here, and it’s been very challenging, and yet we succeeded in creating a business culture here that strive for perfection, and every piece of the product, and every product that goes out the door. In manufacturing, there are always mistakes, and certain if you talk to any of our customers you’ll find that we bent over backwards to take care of them. Very often at our cost, and that goes back to what you just mentioned. I like that term a lot. Conscious business.

That’s the way I want to be treated in business. That’s the customer service I expect from every interaction I have. It’s certainly not that way most of the time, and the product experience too. We wanted to just – dammit, you wanted it to just last. You don’t want it to break after six months. Everything you buy, just oh well it’s so cheap and affordable I’ll just buy another. I would rather have something that last forever, and so we’d done that, and we’ve also made it affordable, and we’ve also make it really beautiful looking. In particular, our latest changes, which we just introduced six months ago, and now has a curtain cover on it. It looks like a traveling magician’s tent, or something like that. It’s very inviting, and welcoming on the outside, and when you get in on the inside people are always amazed. Wow, this looks small on the outside. How spacious it is on the inside, and how pleasant it is. So, you see the elements of wood, cotton, and steel. Those are things that are a part of our human experience. That connects us to the earth, and so you want those elements in your sauna that it’s more suitable for the purpose.

Wow, I totally agree. So, one final question before we wrap up is on each episode part of my goal with WealthyWellthy life is to do a little bit of myth busting, and to break us from conventional old traditional thinking that may be holding us back because a lot of that stuff just isn’t true, and if we believe it to be true, or acting it to be true it can really interfere with life. So, when it comes to your space, your domain of expertise, and maybe with sauna heat therapy, light therapy, what’s a myth? A myth that’s been around for a long time that’s mainstream wisdom that you want to bust?

Well, I think we’ve actually we busted a few myths during our conversation. I really think it’s the stimulated mitochondrial function, which is the best way to describe the effect of near infrared light and red light. It’s a myth that you need, and invasive risky, surgery, or pharmaceutical chemicals to heal your body. The truth is your body has everything it needs to heal itself except this near infrared light, and this heat. So, the truth here is that everybody actually has almost everything they need to improve their well-being, and their condition in life whether it’s some joint pain, or it’s some very serious health stuff, or whatever it is. Even just energy levels, or even people who are very successful, and they feel good in their health, and they want performance enhancement.

All of these things come very simply upon the stimulus of near infrared light, and of heat to the body, and really the rest is just the product design. So, our product offers that, and we see that now. Our success, and the fact that they’re now thousands of members of the pocket sauna community, and the near infrared lamp sauna community, and that light therapies in the cultural side has right now. It’s no coincidence. People are finally starting to realize that hey, our ancestors, and ancestral – what we call ancestral healing methods. They really do work, and they work much better than any sort of conventional medical approaches. Traditional approaches for these diseases of civilizations. The myth is that you’re stuck with those. The truth is that you’re not. You can heal anything.

I totally agree. Well, my personal practice is to eat a healthy, clean diet. Good food, paleo, and filtered clean water, and I’ve really worked to protect my physical, and other environment and spaces, and sauna, your sauna. So anyway you covered, you touched on each one of those, and thank you so much for your time, and for sharing your passion with me, and the rest of the world. I wish you luck, and that you hit your mission that everyone has a sauna space in their house.

Well, thank you for having me Krisstina. Yes, I enjoy every day I come to work. I can’t believe that it’s been five years now that I’ve been doing this. It’s really been a whirlwind, and we’re only going up from here.

You are, well thank you so much.

Take care.

I hope you had fun sitting in on my conversation with Brian. If you’d like to learn more about him, or Sauna Space, or sauna therapy be sure to check out the show notes at WealthyWellthy.life. Before I close I’d like to announce a special giveaway. I always love hearing your feedback so if you leave a review on iTunes with the hashtag WealthyWellthy at any time during the month of August. I’ll enter your name to win a free copy of my signature WealthyWellthy journal. The winner will be announced in September. Next up, is Klause Poomer, the creator of Semina Sleep System. I have the Semina Sleep System, and it’s completely changed my life. So, I’d like to talk about it. So, perhaps it can change yours too. Here’s to a WealthyWellthy life. I’ll you next time.