Live Like a Girl with Dr. Mindy Pelz - Demystifying Infrared Saunas for Physical & Mental Health with Connie Zack

Episode Date: July 28, 2023

Connie Zack is co-owner of Sunlighten™, the global leader in infrared light therapy and infrared sauna manufacturing. After seeing how spending time in an infrared sauna transformed her brother's traumatic health issues, Connie and her husband committed everything they had to help others through the benefits of nature's healing infrared light. To view full show notes, more information on our guests, resources mentioned in the episode, discount codes, transcripts, and more, visit https://www.drmindypelz.com/ep188. Prior to Sunlighten, Connie held positions at Procter & Gamble ranging from Alternative Marketing Manager, District Pharmaceutical Sales Manager and Gastrointestinal National Manager.  During that time, she successfully joined the P&G Leadership Group, a collection of elite staff groomed for future executive positions.  Being a minority in her field, with very few women in managerial roles, Connie made a commitment to herself that when she received promotions, she would reach back and pull other women through the organization. Subsequently, Connie was a member of the P&G Women's Board - a mentoring program for junior-level female staff. Check out our fasting membership at resetacademy.drmindypelz.com. Please note our medical disclaimer.

In this episode of the Resetter Podcast, I am bringing you Connie Zach from Sunlight and Saunas. Now, this discussion has so many pieces to it. And I want you to think this through because what the Resetter podcast stands for is helping you make smart choices around your health. And as many of you know, so many of us, especially women, don't understand the mechanisms of how our bodies function and how our bodies heal. And when I look at a tool like an infrared sauna, and I've been studying infrared sonnas for over a decade now, we see that it has a very powerful detox effect and a very powerful parasympathetic effect. Now, for women over 40, having a tool that we can

use that will detox us in an easy way is a lifesaver. When we look at the conditions that are happening to the thyroid, when we look at menopausal conditions like hot flashes and depression, and when we look at cancers happening to women more in their postmenopausal years, this at the root of that are toxins. So we have to find something that we can do on a daily basis to start to detox. So that's one major piece you're going to hear us talk about of all the different ways you can detox and how an infrared sauna would fall into that. The second thing that I really want you guys to stay through and listen to is that so many of us are in this sympathetic fighter flight world. And Connie actually taught me something that I've been deeply thinking about. And I know many of you

are going to resonate with this. When we are under chronic stress, We get locked in a part of our brain that we call the amygdala or it's a fighter flight part of the brain. And when we are operating from fighter flight, we are not operating from our prefrontal cortex, which is the place of hope and possibility. And what you're going to learn, you're going to hear us both talk about strategies that we have used to pull ourselves out of fight or flight and why infrared saunas are a really quick way to move you into your prefrontal cortex. So you are in that place of creativity and hope and possibility.

And then the last thing you'll hear, and again, really phenomenal, which is what infrared can do for depression. And I know so many of you are struggling with depression, especially post-COVID. But my menopausal women, you'll hear my theories on why 42% of us are depressed as we go through our perimenopausal, menopausal years. This was such a deep, informative conversation. Those of you are trying to figure out the difference between an infrared sauna and a rock hot sauna. We dive into that. Those of you that are

looking for a tool that can really handle both improving your sympathetic or your parasympathetic nervous system, help you detox and help you overcome depression. Sounds like a rushing woman's lifestyle to me. This is what you're going to want to hear. So Connie Zach, and as all, always, I really hope this helps you and moves your health forward in a positive direction. Enjoy it. Hey, Dr. Vindy here and welcome to season four of the Resetter podcast. Please know that this podcast is all about empowering you to believe in yourself again. If you have a passion for learning, if you're looking to be in control of your health and take

your power back, this is the podcast for you. enjoy. Connie, I have to tell you I have so many questions because I have been following watching trying to understand infrared saunas and why they are so beneficial for years. So let me start off by just welcoming you to the resetter podcast. Super happy you're here. Thank you so much. Yeah. And I want to start off with like the elephant in the sauna room, which is why do we need to consider a sauna? Like, what is it about saunas that can change the direction of our health? Yeah, I think everyone should consider an infrared sauna because they make you feel so much better.

And there's lots of reasons why. But with so much going on in the world and just, you know, it feels like just coming out of COVID and so many things, you know, there's a lot of things we can't control. you know, there's disease and stress and, and, you know, job stuff and family stuff. And, I mean, there's just so much that what you can control is what you put into your body. You can control, you know, your habits. And I think this is, it's one of the best habits that is one of the easiest habits because you can have it stack. You can do multiple things while you're in there. So everybody should, you know, incorporate one into their lifestyle.

And you doesn't have to be, I know we can talk about this, but it doesn't have to be like a sauna that's behind me that can be intimidating because it's a large cabin. And they think, oh, where am I going to put that? And that looks expensive. And just all those things that go through your head, I mean, we have a small, tiny portable one too. So it doesn't, you don't have to sacrifice feeling great, you know, to have something that's super expensive. Yeah. And what I think, and this is sort of what I want to highlight for everybody listening, is that we're in this really interesting time in human history, where we are, I always say

women specifically, but I would even throw men into this. We're at an evolutionary mismatch with physical, emotional, and chemical stress. So if I go back and I look at like, I was born in 1969, you know, in the 70s and the 80s, health looked like eat right exercise, end of story. Like, I don't know, maybe take some supplements. But now, health has gotten so much more complicated. And when we look at biohacks like the sauna, my feeling is even five years ago, we looked at them as optional. And what I'm starting to see now in just interacting with so many people is that they

have now actually become this incredible preventative tool or healing tool much like fasting, much like exercise, much like eating well. And we need to bring this back in to our. are health habits. So talk a little bit about what is the mechanism behind infrared. I know what I feel. I know it from a hormone perspective. But if somebody was going to implement this on a day to day into their life, what is the mechanism behind how it heals us? Yeah, that's a great question. And it's important, too, for people to understand. So I'll answer both, hopefully, in the same, to understand the difference between infrared and what people think of when they think of a traditional sauna.

And infrared heats your body directly versus heating the air and then you get hot with the air being hot. Traditional or conventional or being outside, you know, hot rocks on a steam saunas. All of those we kind of categorize in the traditional sense because you're hot. When you walk in to that environment, the air is hot. And so you are instantly hot. So you're getting hot, you know, from that heat being in the air. When you walk into, you know, sunlight and sauna, you can breathe really easily. It is not oppressive.

You don't get like, like you don't, doesn't take your breath away. And that is because the wavelength, I'm going to get a little scientific here, but the wavelength is longer and farther. The surface temperature of the heat, the heater that's coming from, is cooler. So it allows the wavelength. If you just kind of think of these just like beautiful slow beach waves, you know, it can be absorbed and penetrated into the body, you know, and like captured by the cells and with the water molecules.

That's where the magic starts to happen is getting it inside your body versus having the heat stay in the air. So there's there's the effect, the cellular effect. of heat and then there's the sweating. Are those two to be considered to sort of therapeutically, those are going after two different mechanism in the body the way I see that. Is that correct? Correct. Okay. You're 100% correct. So what was interesting in what first attracted me to infrared was the fact that the way my brain understood this was that it simulated a fever. Would you say that that, and fevers heat the body from the inside out to burn

out an infection. Is that a proper way to look at an infrared? Correct. Correct. What we say all the time at sunlight, like back in 20 plus years ago, gosh, more than that now, I can't believe it. We did a study on does our product, does our heater increase the body's core temperature, which is essentially the exact same thing as you just said, right? Does it give the body, does it induce a fever and while still being safe, obviously. Like, I don't want to, you know, cause anybody to have an alarm. I'm like, I don't want a fever. Well, you know what?

You actually do. Yeah. When, you know, that's why a lot of pediatricians and, you know, most, you know, medical physicians when your, when your kid is small, will say, hey, let it run its course. You know, the best thing you can do for your kid is not medicate them. And because a fever is good, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, you know, it's, it's, changing the body. And whenever you change the body, which is what infrared does in so many different ways, which you can talk about, it makes the body stronger. I mean, the body's made up

of a bunch of muscles. And when you change, when you're sore, you know, I always, my kids come home, like, you know, I make them, I make them work out. And they come on, I'm so sore. I'm like, great. Yeah. That's what you're trying to do is you're trying to be sore. I don't want to be sore. Well, do you want to be stronger? Yes. Then you have to be sore. Oh, so well said. You can't, you know, you can't make a change unless you make a change. Yeah. I think that's a beautiful analogy because we have been taught by our health care system that any symptom that is a symptom other than I feel great is a bad symptom. And yet that is a perfect example. That of the body has to break down to build itself up higher. If we look at the fever,

example, what's really interesting in that one is if we all truly asked ourselves, as bad as a cold feels, when we come on the other side of a cold with a fever, we feel amazing. And I think a lot of times we think it's because I felt so bad. So in contrast, I would feel amazing. But your body just cleaned not only the infection out, but it detoxed you. It burned all the bad out. So you are literally a new person. So do we have any science or evidence of like what exactly infrared is burning out of the cell and moving and mobilizing out of the body? Yeah, there's lots of studies on toxin removal. There's a study that called the BUS study, which is blood, urine, and sweat study that measured a lot of different components such as, you know, the heavy metals, you know, pharmaceuticals, you know,

pharmaceuticals, et cetera, lots of toxins. And one of the main conclusions was that toxins that were not found in the blood and urine were found significantly in sweat. So we know that, you know, if you're not measuring, if you're not considering, let me say a different way, because people aren't going to measure it. There's sweat. But if you're not considering sweat. I don't know how you measure it. How would you? Well, you can just do a sweat analysis, but that's not, that's too complicated. And I love, I love your whole message.

I was listening to your YouTube and your, your, your, your, like everything is about making it simple, which I think, because people will follow simple. Yeah. Complicated is for a certain, you know, you know, different type of person. And I think today we need to make things simple. Agreed. You know, so when, you know, you're looking at sweat, what's important is that the sweat that's coming out of your body is making you feel better

because you're changing, the infrared is being absorbed. It's heating up your core temperature, right? So you are literally creating a fever inside your body without disease. So when you're sweating all that stuff out, you're, the reason you feel lighter, people always tell me, like, God, I feel so much lighter. I feel like my head's clear. I feel like I have so much more energy. That is another really significant difference between a sunlight and a

traditional steam or rock sauna is how you feel as far as energy afterwards. Like a lot of times in those types in the traditional form, people feel zapped. Like the day at the beach, like at the end of the day, you're just like, oh my gosh, you know, I'm exhausted. Yes, you know, you're exhausted because you have all that heat and that's in the air. And it takes a toll on, you know, on body. It's like years and years. Gosh, when we first started this business, there was a lot of evidence of you don't want a sauna if you are hypertensive or if you have any heart problems.

You don't want to get hot, you know. And we can talk about the change and all that later. Because reality is, you know, you want to get this powerful healing wavelength from the sun that's natural without any harmful properties. into your body with as much quantity as possible, with the right frequency. And that's really what sunlight, that's what we have focused on for the past 20-some years, is any sauna can be infrared. Like the traditional sonnas have a part of infrared in it because it's part of the wavelength, you know, of light from the sun.

But what you really want is you want to filter out all of the non-healing rays and you want to focus on the highest quantity possible of the right frequency of infrared and get that into your body, increase your core temperature, how those water molecules move around, transform, and change, push everything out and feel lighter, clearer, better, more energy, you know, and then you'll also get the detox. I mean, you get all these other benefits as well. So when we look at detox, there's a wide spectrum of detox. And I've spent a large part of my career figuring out what the best detox is, detoxing thousands of people. And one of the things I find about detox that's so difficult is that it can bring up some really adverse symptoms.

And what I love about the sauna, the infrared sauna is it doesn't typically do that. You go in, you feel yummy, you sweat, you come out, you feel good. So if this could truly be an incredible detox tool, it's so much easier to do than to go through a large supplement program. Do we have any studies showing, you know, how much it detoxes us? You mentioned heavy metals. Do we know if it detoxes glyphosate and plastics? Does it, for the women in the group, does it detox endocrine disruptors? Like, if we could use this as a tool on an every day or a weekly basis to detox these

things, especially for women, this would be a game changer without the suffering. Yeah, I totally agree. So that same study, the BUS study, yes, they measured plastics, all, you know, all of the heavy metals, oxycodone. I mean, all like all these, right. What was so powerful, and we were starting to talk about this when we got distracted, is that the sweat is so much more. Detoxing through sweat is so much more powerful than detoxing from blood and urine because you're going to get out so much more. So imagine this. We found, they found in the study that mercury was not detour, was not removed from the body in blood or urine.

But 100% was removed through sweat. Wow. So, again, like I was saying, you know, people aren't going to like measure that. But if you're not looking at that as a resource, as a way to rid your body of things that you don't want in your body. you're missing a very valuable and efficient hack for sure. So, you know, as far as some of the female aspects, we know that, you know, it definitely helps, you know, with your cortisol and your hormones. You know, has there been a specific study on detox with, you know, those types, you know,

I haven't necessarily seen something that focused, especially with an infrared sauna. but I will tell you anecdotally, and from, you know, I go to an integrative concierge physician and who's just amazing. She has a sunlight in sauna. She does it every day. She totally believes in it. And she would say, you know, that it definitely helps with your thyroid and, you know, with just removing, you know, all of the toxins in your body so that your body can then

accept and change, you know, the good things, you know, because it's all this beautiful orchestra and symphony when everything is working right, you know, and, you know, if something's off balance, then it's like, it sounds like a really bad violin or, you know, like, you know, it's not, it's not singing in concert, you know, and in order to sing in concert together, you have to have the thyroid and all of the, you know, organs working together. And that's one of the things that, one of the benefits that infrared does on your body by moving everything. Yeah, and when we look at things like thyroid, we look at, you know, the ovaries, we look at the brain, we learn living in the most toxic time in human history. So if you are, you don't

have a detox strategy in place right now, you are setting yourself up for chronic disease. It's just the way we, you know, the environment we live in. So one of the things, I don't, was somebody on your team years ago told me this hack and I love it, which is you get in the sauna and then knowing your detoxing and then when you get out, you can take some binders to bind to those toxins and you can also your skin is so open, what you put on your skin actually will be absorbed and more easily. So we started doing this in my clinic where we would have people put, women put probiotic lotion that we knew was really good on their abdomen after they got out of the sauna. Do you have any, I don't think there's maybe been any science on that, but is there a way

to use the sauna, post-sana to amplify a healing state like I just mentioned? The only, and it wasn't really a study from a sunlight and associate, then it's a little bit of a different, a little bit of a different angle, but it, it, it, It connects to the near-infrared in our impulse sauna. And she did a study. She had to have immediate gallbladder surgery. And she used our near-infrared LEDs to heal the wounds of her surgery. And they actually, they did a control.

Like they actually, she mocked it up and did ABCD, like the different, you know, incision points and showed. and they didn't use ointment or anything. It was literally just a near-infred light and completely healed the wounds with the near-infrared. And then she had one where she did not put the LEDs. So she removed the panel and was able to just put it on. Ah, interesting.

So a different answer, but that, that, there's a lot of signs. And that's, there's a lot, a very extensive because when we came out with impulse, what, 2009, 10, so what is that, 13 years ago, we relied on all the research that had already been done on the value of near-infrared photobiomodulation and on the skin and how does this really help the skin. And it's so powerful. Each wavelength, and we could talk forever about the power of the infrared spectrum as a whole.

And then you separate it out and you have far-infred, mid-infrared, near-infrared. and they all have their own, like, magical powers on the body, and depending on what you're looking for. If you're just looking for detox, far, you know, is good enough. Far will get, far will get to the increase in core temperature. It'll get you the increase, you know, the fever. It'll get you the vibration of your water molecules, the changing of your cells, that, you know, mitochondria, like impact.

All of that is good enough. But then if you want to add on benefits, the other. the two way links have great capabilities as well. And so this is interesting. Talk to me a little bit. So your sauna has all the wavelength. And I know there's a control and we can control all of it. But talk a little bit before I really want to also talk about parasympathetic nervous system

because a lot of our listeners are rushing women that are trying to lose to figure out how to slow down. But talk about those different wavelengths. Like what is it? because it's not just sitting in a box and like sweating, there is a whole therapeutic value that we can use. So just so I understand the difference. So there's three wavelengths far mid and near,

and it's really based on the surface temperature of the heater so that you know the quantity and quality of the wavelength. And all of this, the infrared spectrum, which is, again, comes from the sun, all natural healing. The far infrared is the longest wavelength. It's also the coolest wavelength of the three. So that's the wavelength that goes the deepest, you know, as far as absorption into the body, and that's the one that works with your water molecules, gives you the increase in core temperature. The second is mid. That's hotter. So when you increase,

heat, you decrease the absorption of the wavelength. So the mid is shorter and choppier, and you're going to feel hotter when you have the mid, you know, wavelength. It's great for inflammation in the joint and tissues. There's been studies done on flexibility, inflammation, muscle recovery. We're now working with so many different athletic facilities, professional athletes, because of the speed to get them back, you know, into their profession as quickly as possible. And then near, which is, I mean, that's just like, that's just show on its own. It's, it's complicated and my passion is working hard to make it as simple as possible to have people understand. So it's, there's invisible light that comes from it and there's visible.

light. And there is no heat that come, because it's that far is the coolest, then mid, then near. Near, if you were really to deliver, well, you can't. But if you want to theoretically, to deliver a high quantity of near infrared to the body, you would get burned because the temperature would have to be so incredibly hot. There's no way you could be anywhere near it. And the value of near is being close to it. So far, you don't have to be right next to it. And neither with mid, but near you, we don't want to be as close as possible. So we've converted the near infrared wavelength to LEDs. And so there is no heat. And, but they're so, they're super, super powerful. And they are amazing at skin rejuvenation, wound healing, inflammation on the surface.

You know, I used my near-infrared when I was going through running training and doing, when I was helping my husband, he wanted to do an Iron Man. So I did the running portion with him, who, you know, which is a lot. And, and, but I, that was sauna was my tool. I mean, after a long run, I would run downstairs in my basement. Well, actually, I wouldn't run downstairs. I would painfully walk very, soar it downstairs. But I would, you know, I could run upstairs after 30, 40 minute, you know, sauna session.

And I would place my feet and my knees, the parts that were hurting, my ankle, right up, right up next to the LEDs. And that way, you could feel, you can feel almost immediately the connection between the wavelength and, you know, the muscles and the area that's inflamed. You can just feel it starting to, like, go from the angry state to, okay, okay, I don't need to be this mad. So your sauna does all three wavelengths? It does all three. And then we also, well, that's the impulse. So we have four different series. We have a portable unit that has far infrared.

We have a wooden cabin has far infrared. Those two are like the same type. But one's portable and a lie down and one's a wooden cabin. And then we have Amplify that has a blend of all three in front of you. That's hotter. Some people want that they want that boost of heat. Far and behind you. And then we have Impulse, which has all three.

Now we just introduced, so this is cutting edge on your show, we just introduced a fourth wavelength in there, which is the red light LEDs. And so you have red, which crosses over. So there's invisible near infrared. And then once you cross over to kind of 660 nanometers and keep going to the left, you start to get into the different colors of light therapy. And red is right next to invisible. there's great benefits of that.

So now we have four different wavelengths, and we call it the smart sauna, because we also have a tablet, we have programs, and you're able to use it via an app. Which is amazing. Yeah. I mean, you guys have really tricked it out into this really healing modality, which is trying to make it easy, right? Because if it's easy, then people will do it over and over again. So you just press a button.

Go in there and press the cardio button, press the anti-aging button, you know, press the detox button, whatever, weight loss, and then you don't have to think anymore. You just sit back and relax. Talk a little bit about its benefits on the parasympathetic nervous system, because, you know, one of the biggest challenges I see specifically for women over 40 is that as our ovaries are going into retirement, our sex hormones are going away, the burden of making sex hormones lands on the adrenal glands. And I don't know. I mean, there's a handful maybe out there of 45,

43-year-old women that are stress-free, but for the most part, women in their 40s are so stressed out. And so this is a big piece that I see is causing so many perimenopausal and metapausal symptoms. And what I noticed in my clinic when we are using your sauna and what I've noticed with a few of my virtual clients

is that there's this relaxation that sticks with you after you get out of the sauna. Is that activation of the parasympathetic? Well, you know, I think there's a lot of different things. So because you're able, like infrared, we know for sure that it helps with relaxation with, you know, balancing your body's, you know, level of cortisol. So that's, and that's been proven forever. I mean, that was one of the first scientific elements that, you know, we found for years ago, you know, which is a stress hormone, right? And so,

yeah. So there's the cortisol, um, impact. There's also the whole heat benefit on your body to just instantly relax, you know, your body and just allows your, um, you know, shoulders and and your just entire body to like go from the just tense, you know, I'm going to go slay this dragon, you know, and, you know, I'm one of those women that I, you know, I like, will do it all. And I go in there and, I mean, really, it's almost instantly, you know, where you can just feel, you know, everything moving around the flow, you know, and that's the other thing that's been proven. And I mean, that was way back when we started. There was evidence over in Asia of increased blood flow, increased oxygenation.

I mean, significant benefits on the heart because of the increased blood flow, the thinning of, you know, all of the endothelial lining so that everything slows better. So more oxygen is getting to your cells, more oxygen is getting to your brain. That helps, you know, eliminate the mind chatter and the mind fog. And so when everything starts to flow, it's very similar. This is how I always, somebody has never been in one. It's kind of like how you feel. If you go for a vigorous walk or if you're a runner and, you know, go for a run.

And when you're done, you just, you feel like lighter and refreshed. Uphoric. For it. Right. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's how you feel. It's a passive cardiovascular benefit.

that you're getting that increased heart rate, you know, you're getting that blood flow while you're in there, you're getting that increased oxygenation, you know, you're helping with your cortisol, you're, you know, helping with your water molecules, which is so important, it's such a massive part of your body, you know, to release toxins that are trapped, get them out. Because again, that's the burden, that's heavy. And it's really hard. It's, you know, it's hard. It's hard. to get that stuff out of your body. Mobilized. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And so if you can do it on a daily basis and keep things moving, you know, it's like Dr. Hyman always says, just move. I don't care where you move to. I don't care how you move. I don't care if you do it. But if you move your body, that's so incredibly important.

And part of being inside the sauna is moving your body without moving your body. Yeah. Right. And I would also add to Mark Hyman's. move, we need to just relax. And when I look at every problem that's happening again to women as they go through menopause over menopausal age, humans in general, stress is at the core. But as a rushing woman, I can tell you I get to the end of the day. And it's like now there's no switch in my body that can just calm me down. And so it ends up being like a glass of wine.

Or now that I have a sauna, many times it's a sauna. Get in the sauna and there's this parasympathetic switch that takes over that now lets me move into a more relaxed state. And I really have come back in all my knowledge of hormones to you cannot heal a hormonally imbalanced body if it's stressed out. You have to master relaxation first. But as you know, you tell any overachieving woman that. And she's like, great, better said than done.

So I think that you guys are really on to something with this being a tool that switches us into a relaxed state that helps us heal. And one of the measurements of that is HRV, how quickly your body is able to relax. Do we know any studies on infrared that can show it changes at HRV? Yeah, there are a bunch. I don't have any off the top of my head, but I know, I mean, I've seen a lot of cardiologists that have looked at, and I know, like Dr. Khan, I'm just thinking now of all the different people who have talked about the value of, you know, changing your heart rate and increasing your heart rate and doing it, doing it in a non-invasive, non, you know, active, Way too, right? You're getting this soothing, you know, way on therapy. It stands for soothing, you know, warmth. And that's being proven for years over in Asia to help extend not only the quantity to live longer, but the quality of your life with only 15 minutes a day with infrared heat. And that's it. So that's the other thing is it doesn't take. This is not something you have to commit. That's been another change while we're on that topic. That's been another change I've made. in my life post-COVID, you know, during COVID, obviously easy for, you know, you can stay in there. I mean, because you're not going anywhere.

But I feel like, I don't know how you feel, but I strongly feel as though this last year, two-ish, it seems like it's so much busier and so much crazier than it was pre-COVID. Yes. And so, like, it's just, it's just crazy. And so therefore, your mind can play tricks on you and can say, can tell, you know, your body, you know, you don't have time. You don't have time to sound it. That sounds like a luxury. And you need to train your mind.

I, like, that's not an option. I absolutely have time and I have to. It is, it is not like a want to. this is something that I have to do. And so one of the things I've started to finish that sentence is just tell when my brain does it because I'm, I'm, I'm that mom, you know, I've got two kids. I've got a husband. I've got a business. I've got friends. I've got a community, you know, all that stuff. Like, you know, all that stuff. Just like I'm sure, all of your listeners. And when my, when my brain says, oh my gosh, what about this and this and this you have to? I'm like, you know what? I'm just going to go in there

and I'm going to get started and I'll do five minutes. 10 minutes. And that's okay. I mean, what happens is I end up staying in there longer because once I'm in there, I start to figure out how I can manage the rest of my day because I'm relaxed. Like my brain starts to become incredibly creative. I mean, I become, you know, I mean, I transform my brain into like, oh my gosh, why was I overthinking this? This is so easy. I just move this to here and this to here, you know, and I always leave paper in there, too. That's been another new things because I come up with all these great ideas. I think about, oh, I should, I should do that. And so I write it all down so that I remember, you know, but my point is, is don't think, don't not do it because

you don't have 30 minutes or you don't have 40 minutes. Or you do, you think, oh, you know, I can't, if I do it, then I have to shower and I have to do all this kind of stuff. You can wipe down. You can, I mean, it is better to do 10 minutes of healing infrared. You will thank yourself. Like, you will be so happy than not do it. Because what happens is it's all a momentum and a cycle. Right. So like, okay, you don't do it this day.

Well, now tomorrow you didn't do it. So you don't receive the benefits of it. So you don't know what you're missing. Yeah, you go to it every day. Right. I just started this with meditation. I had fallen off my meditation path. And I told a friend, I'm like, okay, hold me accountable.

I got to do it every day for 40 days. because I've been telling myself, oh, I'll do it tomorrow, I'll do it the next day. So you're right, there is something really rhythmic about doing it every day. And it just becomes part of your health habit. I never thought the creativity part. So I'm like, I'm going to write my book in there. I never even thought of that. You just gave that to me. And so you again, you will love, you will love that experience. I can't wait for you to do that. Like, you will see for sure. And there's, there's science behind the, especially the near-infrared light, but all of the different ones and the way they work with your brain and your body, just the stimulation of, again, going back to the flow.

And then the near-infrared on the brain itself, you know, helps to kind of unlock a lot of things that are stuck. And so you get that just beautiful release in your brain. And it always happens. I mean, I get more relaxed, but I also, it's a, just fascinating. I also get more creative, which gives me more energy. But it's not this stress energy. Yeah. You know, it's a just powerful energy where I'm like, it's a calm, calm energy, if that makes any sense. Where I'm like, okay, I totally, I totally have this.

Like, this is just another day. Like, I had never really thought through it through this lens, which is when we're in stress, we're locked in our amazing. which is our fight or flight brain. And I can tell you, because I'm currently writing my next book, and when I get locked there, I can't write. Because when you're locked in that fear part of the brain, all the brain wants to do is look for problems that it needs to fix. But for a lot of us, we get locked in the amygdala for a very, very long time. And so we need tools to pull us out of that. So if you're noticing more creativity, what my thought is, and I don't know if they've ever done a study on this, but my thought is what's happening is it's pulling you into your prefrontal

cortex because they work, they communicate with each other. They work, you know, when the amygdala is active, the prefrontal cortex is quiet. When the prefrontal cortex is active, the amygdala is quiet. So I'm wondering if, I mean, I, I, now you got me wanting to go look at the science, if there's some activation in the prefrontal cortex, and it could be the heat, because heat relaxes us. I feel like there's a brain switch. And when I get in one of those big barrel saunas, which are fun as well, I just count the hours until, or minutes till I can get out, my heart is pounding so bad. I'm sweating for sure, but that is me a totally different experience. it's actually one that's more stressful.

And what infrared does is actually create a more calm state. And that's why I think you're getting the creativity you've noticed. Yeah, that's a great way to sum it up. And I've heard that from many physicians that have, they've shared that with me. I write, they'll say that, you know, they'll write or they'll journal or, you know, because they find that their brain, unleashes a lot of things that they were wanting to do, you know, because you're relaxed and,

you know, it just, yeah, when you're stressed, you can't, you can't think, right? It's just like, yeah, when you're stressed and, I mean, and the brain is made this way, because when you're stressed, there's one focus and that's survival. So all your brain's going to do is figure out how to keep you alive. it's not going to figure out how to help you write your book, which is one of the things I've noticed. So there's some real primitive logic when we actually sit down and look at what stress does to us. And we know it shuts down our digestion. We know it brings all the circulation back to the heart and lungs.

I mean, there's so much chronic damage over time. So it makes incredible sense that just 10 minutes in a day would allow your brain to switch out or fight or flight. I just never thought of using it in that tool. So that was brilliant. So I appreciate that. You find like that 10 minutes will find you the time. Yes. In your day later so that you can stay in that moment longer.

Yes. That's what happens. It's so cool. I mean, it really is. It's kind of like, have you ever been looking like you're getting ready to go out and you're looking for an earring in your jewelry box and you can't find it and you're stressed? you're like, okay, I got to find it. And you can't find it because you're so stressed trying to move forward that your brain is actually constricted. That's how life is, is that we can't find answers

when our brain is locked in this amygdala. And then you come home and you're like, wait, the earrings right there. It was right here. How did I miss that? You missed it because the brain was jammed up. But what I'm hearing is really, really exciting and something I never really thought of it before we got to this conversation is that it is this tool for brain expansion because it relaxes you enough to pull you out of that fight or flight. Which leads me to the next question and what you talked about when we first started is depression. And I can tell you recently I've been doing a lot of research on estradiol. And estradial actually activates a serotonin receptor site in the brain that makes us happy. And for women who are going through menopause, as we go through menopause,

estradiol goes away. It's no longer necessary. So we're left with a serotonin receptor site that isn't activated. So we have to bring, makes us depressed. In fact, 42% of women that go through menopause hit depression, are clinically depressed. So one of my new cries to women is we need as many tools to help with depression as possible. So talk a little bit about the new studies that you're seeing on depression because I just see this sauna working from so many angles for menopausal women. And I think, you know, when we're depressed, we turn on ourselves. We don't think it's, you know, we don't think that, you know, there's anything we can do about it. We just live in it. And that's really a hard place to be when you're year after year after year after year.

So there is a, so two studies that I'll reference. So one is Dr. Reesons from Wisconsin, his original study that every time I say it, it just is mind-blowing because they studied depressed patients and put them in a heated, infrared heated device that was, is in Germany, but I mean, it was this $50,000. I mean a very, very expensive device. And their goal was to elevate their core temperature. So it kind of comes back to everything we talked about the very beginning. And the conclusion, without, you know, taking too much time, was that in one session,

that's the thing that it just blows my mind. In one session, they found the depression symptoms were relieved for up to six weeks. weeks, one session. And the mechanism, you know, was the elevation in core temperature, as well as the other thing that some other physicians studied in a different study is that the skin, and this is what's the value of infrared versus hot air, the skin really appreciates the heat. The heat makes the skin communicate with the brain that it's happy. So like there's this, there's this happy connection. It's like, oh, you know, and it's just this really interesting brain skin heated, you know, where it's not too hot, which is the value of infrared, right? Because you're not, you're not

uncomfortable. You know, you're, you should be. You should be enjoying the session. So that was Dr. Raysellon study, there's been other studies very similar that say the same results. But what's really exciting, well, that's exciting, but what's extra exciting is Dr. Ashley Mason is now doing a study in California that copies, that mimics what Dr. Rayson did, but she's doing it in a way to make it accessible for people in their home. And so she's using a portable lie-down model that looks just like the solo. That's infrared. And the goal is, you know, well, she's already done the first part, which is, will it heat up the core temperature?

You know, core temperature. One of the values is doing it slowly with depression. So that's another benefit of, you know, just, hey, get in. Don't worry about if you have time or not. You know, just get in, you know, even if it's not hot, you don't need it to be hot. It's about baseline with increase, right? So, you know, the longer you're in there, the better because it's going to elevate, but you don't have to wait until it's hot because the infrared will get into your body. It's actually better for your body when it's cooler because it'll be absorbed faster because it's easier to get in versus the hotter it gets, then it gets, you know, shorter, et cetera.

So it's really exciting because soon she's going to be able, you know, to give so far all the results and everything has been like really promising. but the issue with Dr. Rezaans is, you know, is in Germany, the accessibility, you know, I mean, how do people do that at home? So to be able to have a tool, which we have, you know, the solo, which we know we measure the core temperature years ago. We know we can increase the core temperature, which is the pointing question, you know, and that leads to happier people longer. And you don't need a lot of sessions in those studies. But, my thought is if it makes you happier, why not do it all the time? Right, right.

You know, I mean. Well, and then again, I'd always look this through a menopausal woman's lens. And that's, we need as many tools for happiness that we can find. So if 10 minutes in the sauna, it makes us happier. Yeah. You know, what a gift. It detoxes you. It balances your parasympathetic.

It's a lot. I mean, as much as I love a glass of wine, it's a lot. lot more healthy than a glass of wine in the sense. But it has that, and it also has that cumulative effect where once you start to feel a little bit better and then the next day you feel a little bit better and then, you know, weeks go by, months go by. And you're like, wait a second, I'm not even in the sauna now. Now I'm happy. And I think that's what we need is a building of happiness whereas the glass of wine feels good in the moment the next day, not so good. So I really, I'd be actually really interested in if you have those studies, seeing them.

Oh, yeah. We'll link them here. There's a lot and they're all great. It's to me, if you know about a tool that can help people kind of, you know, change that switch in the brain that, you know, like Dr. Rayson says, he's like, I think it's a thermoregulation. There's lots, there's lots of theories. one's a thermoregulation, you know, one is the skin aspect connection to the brain. I mean, I think there may be more than one thing that's going on, right? Yeah.

But the thermo regulation that switch is that it's been, it has been shown people with depression aren't able to naturally cool themselves down at night. Oh. And so if they can't, if they stay, if they stay. if their body stays warm and they're not able to, then they, you don't have that change, which your body needs that change in order to have a good night's sleep. And then as you're waking up, then things start to change. And your body's hormones start to change.

And your body knows, okay, now I wake up and you should be, you know, wake up happy, et cetera. Right. So infrared, the heat, that experience, that study, Dr. Husson would say helped change the thermal regulation in the body. So now when they measured them, they were able to, by unlocking that switch of, hey, I'm stuck, I can't cool down. Well, now I'm increasing your core temperature, which is now making the body cool down, you know, when you, when it's out.

It's like a hormetic stress. It's like a hormetic stressor. Yeah. Yeah. Just like fasting. Right. So now it can do it on its own. Yeah.

Right. Like I don't need that every single day, which is why that the results happen, you know, extended for six weeks. So, I mean, what a gift to be able to have a good night's sleep. Yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah. For every woman over 40s, like, yeah, sign me up for that.

So I absolutely. And, you know, that's the interesting thing about fasting is that your body becomes so reparative with a little bit of stress like that, that your results in the fasting window get better and better and better. It's not like you're just healing when you're fasting. what we've seen over time is that you're healing more and more and more with the shorter and shorter fast, which that's what the comment you just made. I was thinking, yeah, it's kind of the same concept where you flipped a switch where the body has now put itself into a healing state,

a more expansive state. And you're going to keep that state as long as you don't bombard it with more stressors. Would that be a way of looking at that? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, it's again, I want to say that I've watched the whole biohacking movement and I feel like tools like infrared went from optional to everybody's getting one. And then I also see this dilemma that a lot of people have, which is do I get the one that I put in my backyard and has rocks and I just sweat like crazy or do I get an infrared? And after experiencing both, they are totally different tools. That's the way, that's the way I look at it, and especially for a menopausal woman, because personally, and I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't want to upset anybody, but I will say that I think the extreme heat is too hard for the menopausal body.

I can just tell my heart rate is so high, I, I, when I go into those other saunas. So this is an another door in to healing, using heat in a different way. So, yeah, I just, it's fascinating to me. So with that, I always like to end my podcast on two personal questions. I always have a theme for the year. This year it's been self-love. So I would say your sauna is a daily practice of self-love. But outside of, yeah, outside of that, do you have a daily practice of self-love?

And my second question is, if you had, if you could describe one of your superpowers that you bring to the world, what would it be? Okay. So two come to mind. So one would be, I am intuitive, very intuitive. And when I lean into my intuition, I am never led astray. And it is, it's just so cool. Awesome. So, but you know, I have to consciously, of course, you know, because I do have a brain and the brain sometimes wants to think logically and blah blah. So, and then the other is this, and I think a lot of this has to do with sonning and just being intentional about what I put in my body and how I, you know, how I treat my body. But is just this positive intention, this positivity towards balancing and integrating all of the beautiful choices we have made in our life.

And I hear so much stress, you know, from women specifically. Men's stressed too. I have a husband. In fact, he's stressing a lot right now. Just finding a way to remind, you know, myself that for the most part, everything that I'm doing is a choice. And so it's within my own power and how I look at each lens. I've got my choices for my two kids and parenting them and the choices I'm making with work with my children and the choices I'm making with their choices and, you know,

and my husband and the company and my friends and saying no when you want to say yes to, you know, um, invitations, you know, on saying no is hard. It's really hard. Super hard. Especially if there's something you want to do. Right. Super, super, super hard. But I think if you stay, if you stay kind of focused on this beautiful circle that I kind of, it's kind of like to have a bull's eye, you know, and I just kind of just always stay in this kind of nuclear state of, you know, if my end game is making sure that, you know, my kids are making good choices, that my husband is happy as well as gets the partnership from me in our business. And, you know, if I, if I do all of that, you know, then it just came to becoming, it helps make the decisions, right? If you know what,

if you know what your values are and you're clear about them, then it is easier to say no. It's doesn't ever feel good. It never does. But like I tell my kids all the time, like a lot of times, it doesn't feel good to do the right thing at the time. Yeah. It will always feel good later. Yeah. You know. But at the time, it's painful. And but, you know, suck it up. Right. I love that.

So, and then you had another. Yeah, what's your self-love practice? Do you have a, like, a meditation practice? Anything you do every day to give back to yourself? Okay. So that's probably, I do a lot of stuff, but it's probably how I, in the morning before I get out of bed, you know, I like lie down and I like make myself tall and stress. before I get out of bed and I go through my intentions of that day and just it's the time

where I just, you know, say to myself, here's, here's how, you know, I've visioned this going and this is what I would like to have. And, you know, and I ask the universe for if there's some gaps in what I'm kind of setting out for and what I don't feel that maybe I have to be able to, you know, to get there. But then I always, always, before I put my feet on the gun, I always kind of just tell myself, you know what, you're enough. You got it. Like, you'll figure it out.

And if I can't, if I'm really struggling, then a lot of times I will run downstairs and I will get in the sauna or I'll go for a walk outside. I'm a huge believer in fresh air and like getting your eye. I mean, I'm in the light business. So it's like getting your eyes on the sun and, you know, just connecting with the elements outside versus being inside and just feeling the world. And it's like, okay, deep breathing, you know, it's hard. It's work.

I mean, taking amazing care of your brain is work. It's work. Yeah. And I think we just walk around with it in our head and we're like, oh, it's just this is the way it is. But the more I've learned, the more I'm like, it's work. It's totally work. Yeah.

But it's worth it. If you just take one day at a time. and you practice self-love and you get into yourself and you take care of yourself first, there is an end. You do come out on the other side, you know, in a beautiful place. But you have to embrace. You can't just go crazy. And you do have to find tools, find resources, find friends, find some support for yourself

to embrace the beautiful person that you are and the beautiful choice. that you make. And if you're not making beautiful choices, then change, then make different ones, you know, but find things that do make you happy because then it builds the momentum of those around you, right? You know? So well said. Yeah, yeah, I absolutely agree that when one person heals themselves, they just open up the door for everybody else to follow. So it takes that courageous leap to be maybe the first one in your friend group or the first one in your environment, which to your point means saying no and protecting yourself first. So, Connie, this was amazing.

How do people find you? How do they find all your products and dive into your saunas? They go to sunlightton.com. So, S-U-N-L-I-G-H-T-E-N.com. And we will always take care of people like yourself, you know, your customer. So we will also offer, you know, discounts. So we, you know, make sure the most important thing of people are listening is to make sure you mention, you know, you and where they heard about it because that is, you know, we believe in win-win relationships and we want to take care of, you know, our friends and our partners. And we want to take care of those people who take care of them.

And so just make sure everybody, you know, shares, you know, they listen to the resetter podcast or Dr. Mindy or however you have them, you know, reference you. And you can call too. You know, we have a toll free number 8727-292-0-0-20020. You know, I always offer my email, see Zach at sunlighten.com. You mentioned at the very beginning, and it just brought me back to 20 years ago when I started and people were so confused about like, I don't understand this whole infrared thing. And really, like, it sounds too good to be true.

And so I always offer myself, you know, if they're just really confused, you know, they can send me an email and I will help as much as I can, you know, myth bust and clear up any confusion, you know, in this simple way as possible. So this has just been so much fun. I have really, really enjoyed every minute. And, you know, I'm, like, sad that, you know, I've been looking so forward to it. But, like, I'm really excited. I'm excited to, you know, get to know your audio.

and however our people at Sunlight and can help, we're here. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate you all. And as you know, I'm on a mission to get women healthy and change the paradigm of health for women. And this is a part of it. This is key.

So thank you for making these products, getting these products out to the world. And just together, we're more, I mean, that's the feminine energy. In my opinion is women coming together, collaborating to heal each other and heal ourselves. So thank you for being on that journey. And your small little piece, like my small little piece, when we put a bunch of small pieces together, everybody wins. So thank you, Connie. Thank you.

Thank you so much for joining me in today's episode. I love bringing thoughtful discussions about all things health to you. If you enjoyed it, we'd love to know about it. So please leave us a review, share it with your friends, and let me know what your biggest takeaway is.