Detox Foot Baths And Why It's So Important
Foot detoxes are becoming more and more popular as a way to rid the body of any harmful toxins. I purchased one and have been using it since 2006 and since its popularity and patients asking about it I purchased one for the office now as well! Potential toxins can range from using aluminum foil , impurities in the air, to chemicals in your home and beauty products. If you're curious about what a detox foot bath is and if it can help you, here's what you need to know.
A detox foot bath is a specific machine that helps to pull toxins out of the body through the feet by putting ions in the water of which your feet are soaking in. These ions have a positive charge. The positive charge attracts the negatively charged toxins in your body. The ions in the foot bath water hold a charge that enables them to bind to any heavy metals and toxins in your body, similar to how a magnet works. This allows the toxins to be pulled out through the bottoms of your feet.
As one goes through a detox foot bath the water will change color depending on the toxins being pulled out. Water will change color even without your feet in the water due to the impurities in water but it will change differently. I have seen successive foot baths done on a number of people with the water all looking different as an end result. When you do a detox foot bath take a photo when you are finished so I can see what came out. It's helpful in determining other aspects of your detox program. Colors and effects of the water that one may see depends on what is being detoxed from the body:
Black or blue flecks - heavy metals
white flecks - fungus/yeast
color changing orange - toxins from joints
oily bubbles - toxins from lymphatic system
Most everyone, except for pregnant women and those with open sores or an infection on their feet, can benefit from doing a foot detox bath. Besides detoxing, it can be beneficial if you are experiencing athlete's foot, arthritis, allergies, chronic pain, chemical sensitivities, autoimmune disease, edema, inflammation and psoriasis. The number and frequency of foot detox baths varies for everyone and will be determined with your practitioner at Healing Arts.
There are quite a few detox foot bath machines. After all my research there are only two machines I have experience with and know get good results, KiScience Advanced Hydrogen Detox Foot Spa and EB Pro Foot Bath. They now have foot detox pads which I don't have experience with but if you do please share!
We now have a monthly membership for detox foot baths if you want to come in for an unlimited amount of times or you can pay per foot bath.
Salt Booth Therapy Memberships
If you don’t know this about me already I love Himalayan Salt rooms! The relaxation, the ambiance but most of all the health benefits of breathing in the salt. Yes there are health benefits of putting yourself in a room that is full of pink Himalayan salt. In the medical world it is known as halotherapy (dry salt therapy) and research has shown it is beneficial for lots of different ailments but especially healing for the lungs, skin and immune system.
Having had asthma as a child and my own healing journey of trying everything under the sun to help, I fell in love with halo therapy when I first tried it in 2016. Even though I haven’t used my inhaler since I was 17 and no doctor would say I have asthma now I still really enjoyed the benefits of spending 30 minutes in a salt room. Feet up and just breathe deep while meditating.
So with the new office and the 8 treatment rooms I wanted one of the rooms to be a Himalayan salt room but with COVID I was thinking shared space for halo therapy was not a great idea at the same time we needed the support for our lungs and immune system now more than ever so I was so grateful when I found a Himalayan salt booth. Best of both worlds, halotherapy with privacy!
Before COVID I was thinking halo therapy was great for 4 things: sinus and lung issues, skin issues, to boost up the immune system and to detox from crappy NYC air. Now with COVID I think halo therapy is a must to stay healthy. We can no longer just assume we are healthy but to take preventative measures to ensure we really do stay as healthy as possible. So we can add wellness care to the list of why one would get halo therapy.
Salt itself is known to be: anti-bacterial, anti-viral, mucolytic (loosens mucus & phlegm) and anti-inflammatory. For this reason I have suggested using a Neti Pot which is a specific container that you put warm salt water in to wash your nasal passages and sinuses with. Instead of just rinsing out your sinuses, which is wet salt therapy, halotherapy, or breathing in salt vapor takes the healing properties of salt deep into the body through the lungs and the skin. Breathing in the salt is super cleansing to the body because it’s full of negative ions. How can negative ions help your body? Well, back to Science 101, “A negative ion is an atom that has more electrons than protons, giving the atom a negative electrical charge.” Our bodies are full of positive ions from all the chemical reactions that occur and toxins we have in our bodies. Positive ions also come from electronic devices like computers, TVs, microwaves, and even vacuum cleaners and can often exacerbate problems like allergies, stress and sleep trouble. An ion having a charge is known as a free radical and causes oxidative stress in the body. That's why eating and drinking antioxidants is healthy for your body and now with the Salt Booth you can breathe in salt which acts like an antioxidant helping the body to heal. On a much smaller scale you can get a Himalayan salt lamp to have the health benefits at home. I would keep it at your bedside to get the most benefit of breathing in salted air while you sleep. The salt from the lamp automatically goes into the air from the humidity.
When you breathe in the salt or negative ions they neutralize positive ions by bonding to them. With less positive charge on the body there is less stress and inflammation on the body and the immune system is boosted. Negative ions occur more often in nature and they are often created by things like lightning storms, sunlight, waterfalls, and ocean waves. This is one of the reasons people often report feeling renewed or refreshed after a storm or at the beach. Other than walking along the ocean, or being outside immediately after a thunderstorm, it’s hard to expose yourself to as many negative ions as you can inside a halotherapy room or booth. It’s an enjoyable way to spend time literally recharging your body!
More than 40 years of research, conducted around the world, shows that treatment with halotherapy has beneficial effects for patients with:
Asthma
Chronic Bronchitis
Sinusitis
COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease)
Allergies
Ear Infections
Various acute or chronic respiratory diseases
Smoker’s cough
Viral infections
Coughs and colds
Chronic ear-nose-throat illnesses
Salt is so good at killing bacteria and viruses that there is new research showing how salt on face masks can decrease the spread of infection.
Salt is also extremely beneficial to your skin in treating:
Acne
Psoriasis
Hives
Eczema
In addition, negative ions have been shown to reduce:
Stress
Headaches and migraines
Lethargy
Depression
High blood pressure
And negative ions can dramatically increase your:
Immune system
Energy
Mental alertness
Overall sense of well-being
As you sit in the salt booth you really want to spend your time taking deep breaths to get the most of your salt treatment. The deeper the breath, the more oxygen can come in per breath. The amount of oxygen that we inhale through our breathing, influences the amount of energy that is released into our cells. On a molecular level, this progresses all sorts of chemical and physiological processes. Breathing is controlled by the autonomic nervous system. The part of our nervous system we don’t have to think about that makes our heart beat and digests our food. There are two parts to the autonomic nervous system, sympathetic and parasympathetic. These two parts control different things in the body. The parasympathetic controls the breathing, digestion, sleep and libido. This is the part of our nervous system that makes us feel relaxed and that is why breathing is so good to do during stressful times. It helps get us out of fight or flight mode. Breathing is also the easiest part of the autonomic nervous system to control and navigate. In fact, the way you breathe strongly affects the chemical and physiological activities in your body. It’s amazing what you can do when you can control your breath. I’m not just talking about how long you can swim under water for but Wim Hof has developed special breathing techniques that keep his body in optimal condition and in complete control in the most extreme conditions. The breathing technique is first and foremost premised on inhaling deeply and exhaling without any use of force! With his controlled breathing the heightened oxygen levels hold a treasure of benefits, more energy, reduced stress levels, and an augmented immune response that swiftly deals with all germs.
Wim Hof got his nickname “The Iceman” by breaking a number of records related to cold exposure. His feats include climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in shorts, running a half marathon above the Arctic Circle on his bare feet, and standing in a container while covered with ice cubes for more than 112 minutes. Patients who have used his method say that it helps with stress and it even helped one patient heal from his eczema and that’s even without the use of halotherapy! He has great youtube videos that I do twice a day to stay healthy and strong.
I’m so excited to bring personalized skin and lung therapy into the office. When I discovered the salt booth not only did I get excited about the booth for privacy during COVID but I also liked the idea that if someone had acne on their back or rashes on their thighs or chest that with the privacy they could expose the skin the air and get even more benefit from the salt treatment. The particles of salt are so small in the air that it won’t make you cough or irritate the skin. It is also super safe for children and even babies. I see a lot of babies with eczema and other skin irritations. I also love that with the salt booth unlike the salt room the concentration of salt particles can be adjusted to offer a more individualized and targeted salt therapy session. Because the concentration of salt is higher in the booth and your the only one breathing it sessions only take 10 minutes. There's nothing you need to do to prepare for your salt booth experience. There are no side effects and you can wear your street clothes in the rooms.
Since salt is a drying agent, I do suggest drinking water afterwards. I also recommend waiting to shower afterwards since rubbing the salt residue on your skin can help soften it and act as an exfoliant. If you stay away from having salt in your diet due to water retention or high blood pressure know that breathing in salt is safe to do and will not affect your water retention or blood pressure.
If that wasn’t enough the salt booth also does sound and light therapy. I love light therapy, which you may already know because we have chakra light therapy and chakra glasses in the office already as forms of light therapy but this is my first type of sound therapy in the office. Sound therapy has been shown to help relieve stress, help people have few headaches, increase focus and energy, have clearer thoughts, improve attention span and Relief from common ailments such as hypertension, stomach pain, depression, and joint pain.
Color therapy has been shown to reduce swelling and decreased inflammation in the body in this way it’s good for accelerating healing and pain relief. Color therapy is also good for:
Increased range of motion
Decreased muscle tension
Improved circulation
Anti-aging benefits,
improve sleep and
Regulated mood including seasonal affective disorder. I recommend full spectrum light bulbs for the middle of winter because we don’t get outside enough and the full spectrum light bulbs literally emit all the electromagnetic rays ranging from infrared to healthy ultraviolet rays which are the wavelengths that are useful to plants.
Now more than ever people are suffering from respiratory issues. I see it in my office now more than I have in the last 15 years. From air pollution to airborne diseases, pollens and toxins our lungs need help to detox. Not only does salt therapy help with the lungs but also the skin and immune system while decreasing the stress on the body. Plus the salt booth adds privacy, sound therapy and light therapy. A salt booth treatment is $30 or unlimited for the month for $70. Book here, you have to try it the next time you are at the office. You won’t believe the results!
Resources:
In a 2007 study people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) had fewer symptoms and improved quality of life after halotherapy https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18019972/. And in 2014 COPD patients were tested before and after halo therapy and even though lung tests before and after halotherpay didn’t show a difference, 65% of patients were satisfied with halotherapy and requested it again https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4153239/
Halotherapy triggers anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic responses in people with bronchial asthma or chronic bronchitis, according to 2014 research
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4391365/.
Himalayan Salt Lamps -https://healingartsnyc.blogspot.com/2016/06/health-benefits-of-himalayan-salt-lamp.html
Salted Masks - https://www.nature.com/articles/srep39956
Wim Hof - https://youtu.be/wFj6TOYpQG8
Chakra Light Therapy - https://healingartsnyc.com/chakra-light-bed
Sound Healing - https://www.healthline.com/health/sound-healing
What to Do With Seasonal Allergies
Do you experience:
Environmental allergies that make you dread seasonal changes?
“Food Allergies” that severely limit your diet (and nourishment)?
Sensitivities to things in your environment that restrict your quality of life?
Symptoms or unwanted health conditions that simply won’t respond, or only respond to treatment temporarily?
These symptoms could be signs of allergies. If you have allergies, there is an alternative to medication and the impracticality of avoidance…It is AACT, Accelerated Allergy Clearing Technique. Dr. Armitstead has been doing the technique since 2009 with great success.
Allergies are versatile. They can show up just about anywhere in your body and provide a variety of issues. They can affect your nose, eyes, throat, lungs, stomach, skin and nervous system. They can give you a bellyache, a rash and even bring on fatigue and headache.
In our experience, when major allergies, both food and/or environmental, are present and not handled, they are often interfering with the body’s normal function, repair, and self-correcting mechanisms. Autoimmune disease have risen dramatically due to high levels of pollution in the air. This represents a major health problem that experts now think affects one third of the whole population. And if they are not managed properly, people begin to deal with it by avoiding the modern world.
Food sensitivities, environmental allergies, and chemical sensitivities are afflicting more and more people and an individual can be allergic or sensitive to any number of substances including: foods, molds, pollens, animal dander, chemicals, fabrics, medications, MSG, food additives, etc. Allergy symptoms can be over-reactions of the immune system while and/or an imbalance in the body's nervous system. An imbalance in the body's energy can lead to decreased health, so clearing allergies and sensitivities is one way to improve the overall immune system.
The allergy clearing procedure is a gentle, painless, non-invasive way to relieve symptoms by utilizing acupressure, muscle testing, and nutrition to address underlying problems and bring balance to the body. It is safe on the youngest to oldest of patients. Most begin to notice improvement in just a few sessions, but the full benefit is seen as a patient's overall health improves with the combination of the clearing plus vitamin supplementation. Some common changes with the allergy clearing include: elimination of lactose intolerance, reduction or elimination of IBS, sinus relief, seasonal allergy relief, elimination of eczema and hives, reduction of fatigue, improvement of ADD symptoms, decreased gluten intolerance and bowel gas, and elimination of asthma, just to name a few.
The following are symptoms that may be related to allergies or sensitivities. If you experience any of these conditions and have not found relief, you may be a candidate for allergy clearing. Symptoms including: acne, canker sores, dark circles under eyes, eczema, hives, itching, constipation, diarrhea, gas, heartburn, vomiting, IBS, asthma, coughing, sinusitis, stuffy nose, bedwetting, joint pains, anxiety, fatigue, bloating, hyperactivity, learning disorders, arthritis, hay fever, post nasal drip, red ear lobes, red cheeks, ear infections, headaches, sore throats, and weight gain.
Besides AACT we also have very natural, strong anti-histamine supplements that can help reduce your allergy symptoms without the drowsy side effects of medication. One supplement in particular Dr. Armitstead developed called inflammation relief that can help.
Patients come to Healing Arts with all sorts of health concerns. Headaches, bloating, acne, constipation, insomnia, fatigue, infertility, eczema, brain fog, the list can go on and on. Our answer is always the same, muscle test the body to see what toxins the body is holding in order to reduce inflammation. Inflammation in the head is a headache or migraine. Inflammation in the joints is pain. Inflammation in the gut is bloating. You take a deep breath and if the body reacts to the dust or pollen in the air inflammation will increase in the body, causing your allergy symptoms. The root cause of all dis-ease is inflammation. What we find with the muscle testing is why. Is the reason for the inflammation heavy metals, heavy chemicals, bad flora, parasites, or a food sensitivity? We fell in love with the technique of muscle testing because it is so fast and noninvasive, giving me and my patients answers.
When starting to detox and supporting the body with the right nutrition it takes time to get the inflammation down and yet we wanted patients to get symptomatic relief as soon as possible and we have noticed throughout the years we would have to give 2-3 different anti-inflammatory supplements to do the job depending on how severe the inflammation or allergies were so Dr. Armitstead decided to make her own supplement, called Inflammation Relief, that contained everything to help lower the inflammation. It contains Curcumin, Pepperine (Black Pepper), Fenugreek, Gotu Kola, Quercitin, Boswelia, Bromelain, and Magnesium lactate.
You can also oil pull every morning to help clean out the lymphatic system and reduce inflammation especially in the sinuses. Oil pulling as we know it today, was introduced in 1992 by Dr. F. Karach, MD. He claimed that oil pulling could cure a variety of illnesses ranging from heart disease and digestive troubles to hormonal disorders. Dr. Karach’s method of oil pulling emphasis swishing, not gargling, the oil in the mouth. The oil is “worked” in the mouth by swishing and chewing it around the mouth and ‘swizzling’ it (pushing it through the teeth) for a period of 15 to 20 minutes. The best time is in the morning before eating breakfast, but can be done before any meal on an empty stomach.
At the Healing Arts Tea Bar we also have teas that can help with allergies that we can muscle test you for your own personal tea blend. For allergy symptoms we test for Cinnamon, Turmeric, Green Tea, Ginger, Sarsaparilla, Nettle, Holy Basil, Lemongrass, Peppermint, and Echinacea.
Also at the Wellness Center to help with allergies and get the inflammation down we have the nasal ozone treatment and salt booth therapy. For nasal ozone treatments breathe in microscopic organic olive oil (made in a glass jar to be Healing Arts approved because it can’t be in plastic or aluminum) treated with the extra oxygen from the ozone. Inhaling ozone this way helps to reduce allergy symptoms, sinus pain, headaches and inflammation throughout the body. The salt booth is where you take deep breaths of air with microscopic salt in it. The specialized salt goes into the sinuses and lungs breaking up mucus and reducing inflammation.
So if you are suffering from allergies this spring know that we can help and there are lots of different ways to help support the body.
The Benefits of Oil Pulling
Oil pulling was first introduced in Ayurvedic medicine. I finally decided to blog about it as I ask many of my patients to do it. Whether it's for oral healthcare, digestive health, to clear out the sinuses or an immune system booster I've seen it help many patients in many ways!
Oil pulling as we know it today, was introduced in 1992 by Dr. F. Karach, MD. He claimed that oil pulling could cure a variety of illnesses ranging from heart disease and digestive troubles to hormonal disorders. Dr. Karach’s method of oil pulling emphasis swishing, not gargling, the oil in the mouth. The oil is “worked” in the mouth by swishing and chewing it around the mouth and ‘swizzling’ it (pushing it through the teeth) for a period of 15 to 20 minutes. The best time is in the morning before eating breakfast, but can be done before any meal on an empty stomach.
Oil pulling instructions:
Use 1-1.5 spoonfuls of unrefined, high quality, organic sesame seed oil (non-toasted) and 'swizzle" in your mouth for 15-20 minutes. Sesame seed oil is the best oil to swish with. I love using Banyan Daily Swish
Once completed, spit the oil out (we recommend spitting in the trash as it can clog your sink or toilet over time).
Follow it by a thorough mouth rinse with water. Warm water with sea salt is best.
Never swallow the used oil because it is loaded with bacteria, toxins, pus, and mucous. It is a good idea to brush your teeth afterwards to really clean out any leftover toxins and wash the sink afterwards as well if you don't spit it out into the trash.
Benefits:
Strengthens teeth
Can help reverse gingivitis
Prevents tooth decay/whitens teeth
Strengthen immune system
Improve digestion
Reduce skin problems (acne, eczema, psoriasis)
Reduce allergies
Lessen headaches
Help hormonal imbalance
Clear out sinuses
Tips:
Be sure you are using a high quality, organic, non-toasted sesame seed oil.
Set timer for 15-20 minutes because it's going to feel like a long time and I don't want you to guess that it's been 15 minutes when it's only been 5 minutes.
Precaution:
If you are allergic to a particular brand of oil, then change the brand of oil.
DO NOT SWALLOW.
One of the first cleansing symptoms you will experience is an increased flow of mucous from your throat and sinuses. Mucous drainage is one of the body’s methods of removing toxins. While you are oil pulling mucous may build in the back of your throat. You may even have to expel the oil and clear the mucous from your throat before reaching a full 20 minutes. If so, take another spoonful of oil and continue swishing for a full 15-20 minutes.
I usually do oil pulling when I am feeling sick to help clean my lymphatic system and boost the immune system. Your lymph takes about 7 minutes to circulate through the body. It is important to do oil pulling for a minimum of 15 minutes so you can clean out all of the lymph at least twice. But if during the 15 minutes your mouth begins to tire or stomach becomes sensitive start with 5 minutes and work your way up to 15-20 minutes.
Ozone Sauna Therapy Benefits
Who doesn’t love to sweat out toxins for better health? Dry saunas and steam rooms have been used for centuries to help people feel better not just by the relaxation but by the heat allowing one to sweat out toxins and boost the immune system. When doing this type of therapy one always has to be careful to not detox too fast and cause a detox reaction or dehydration. To help prevent dehydration that’s one reason why I love using steam versus the dry heat. But even after spending time in a steam room you want to drink at least 64 ounces of water that same day to help flush out toxins that were brought up and out of the cells during the steam room time. Besides a steam room, hot showers always do the trick for me especially if I have tight muscles or feel like I need an immune boost. Now I can get the benefits of a steam room with ozone at Healing Arts (I just have to come to work early or leave later to have time for a treatment).
I love ozone. Having had asthma as a child putting ozone into the air saves me when I go to my mom’s dusty cabin in the Adirondacks. I also make ozonated water to drink 16 ounces daily, wash my fruits and vegetables in it to get the dirt and bugs off of it and I use it to wash my face. The ozo-pod makes that all possible, creating ozonated water at home. Washing my face with the ozonated water is amazing! I couldn’t believe it the first time I used it, my skin got tighter. More oxygen to the skin is only beneficial. So when I learned about ozone sauna therapy I couldn’t wait to try it! If I had amazing results with just washing my face, imagine if I did my whole body! Not only is it amazing for the skin but ozone sauna is therapeutic for the body as well. As the ozone gets absorbed in through the skin to the lymphatic and blood streams the extra oxygen gives the body the extra boost it needs to fight free radicals, fight infection, detox heavy metals, absorb nutrients, reduce inflammation, have better digestion and more! I knew I had to have one in the office so others could experience it and understand why I love ozone.
Ozone is a colorless gas made up of three atoms of oxygen (O3). The oxygen in the air is O2 so when ozone gets absorbed into the body the extra oxygen atom easy breaks off and bonds to where it is needed in the body. Your body can benefit in all sorts of ways if it has extra oxygen. To help detox the extra oxygen molecule bonds with sulphur compounds the way glutathione does. In this way ozone helps take the burden off the liver by binding to toxic substances making them neutral in the body and no longer a toxin.
Ozone sauna therapy is the combination of steam sauna and ozone gas. During an ozone sauna session you sit in a sauna pod that covers you from the neck down and induces sweating using steam from distilled water. This sweating opens up pores to allow the ozone gas to be absorbed by the skin. As you sit in the sauna pod, ozone gas is introduced at the same time. It’s important that the sauna allows for the head to stick out to prevent you from inhaling a lot of the ozone gas. Inhaling some ozone will only benefits the lungs as the extra oxygen is beneficial but too much can be irritating to the lungs and cause lightheadedness. You google ozone and there is a lot of controversy despite the research https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5674660/ that shows how therapeutic it is for the body. I’m not waiting for research to catch up to the results I see in my daily life.
So when you combine the wet and warm skin with the ozone gas the extra oxygen that goes in has such great anti-inflammatory and immune boosting effects. Ozone sauna therapy is believed to be a powerful treatment which may be comparable to IV ozone administrations just without the needle. Ozone therapy breaks up lactic acid, increases cellular respiration in muscles, speeds up recovery of damaged tissue and accelerates growth of muscle for those who have tight, sore muscles. Ozone therapy improves blood circulation, improves vitamin and mineral absorption, fights inflammation, and is wonderful at killing mold, parasites, candida, viruses and bacteria.
WHAT TO EXPECT:
You will sit in the Ozone pod with your head out of the top of the pod while steam and an ozone, oxygen mixture circulates inside the unit. The steam and heat trigger the opening of your pores. Ozone then enters your body through your skin into your lymphatic fluid, blood and fat cells. Toxins in your lymph, fat & blood are oxidized, the oxidized toxins are expelled out through your skin, sparing your liver and kidneys. Because ozone enters the body and pulls toxins out of fat cells it increases the body’s metabolism and can assist with weight loss
A treatment is usually between 20 or 30 minutes depending on your health. But we also offer 10 minute sessions to help prevent too much detox and if you just want to give it a try and don’t have enough time. You will sit naked on a towel inside the pod. You could also have a towel wrapped around you but the idea is the more skin that is exposed to the steamy ozone air the better. No jewelry, water bottles or foreign objects should be taken into the pod with you due to the wet heat.
You can expect to emerge from the treatment feeling relaxed, refreshed and energized. We provide towels to dry off. Remember to drink plenty of water and breathe deeply for the rest of the day!
What is ozone sauna therapy used for?
Ozone saunas are used for a wide array of conditions because of its potent anti-inflammatory, detox and immune system boosting effects. Ozone sauna therapy can be used for:
Joint pain
Multiple Sclerosis
Foggy Brain
As a complementary treatment to reduce side-effects of chemotherapy
Lyme disease
Rheumatoid arthritis
Auto-immune disorders
Lupus
Eczema
Injuries
Weight loss
Chronic viral diseases like EBV, hepatitis B and C
Bacterial infections
Fungal infections
Skin ulcers (diabetic, infectious, necrotic)
Allergies
Influenza, cold
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Fibromyalgia
Poor Circulation
Diabetes
Scleroderma
Asthma
and more …
Are there possible side effects of ozone sauna therapy?
Ozone saunas are one of the safest treatments in the alternative health field: They’re non-invasive, and relaxing.
The reported side effects are usually minor, transient, and can be easily remedied by using the sauna less. This is why I like to muscle test for how long a patient’s ozone sauna session should be. We have 10, 20 or 30 minute intervals. The longer the session the more oxygen can get into the body but we don’t want to detox too fast. Signs of detoxing too fast from the ozone would be a rash or fatigue. The body goes into fatigue because all of the body’s energy goes to detoxing and not towards daily output. If this happens just be kind to yourself for the day and it usually wears off with a good night sleep.
A rash can occur because the ozone has brought up too many toxins and the body is trying to get rid of toxins through the skin as you sweat. It can be itchy and it usually looks like small red pimples. It can occur on the abdomen, chest or back, or on the limbs. It is usually the itchiest the night of the ozone sauna therapy and dissipates completely in 3-4 days without any long standing damage to the skin. It’s a good thing because you know you detoxed a lot but there is no reason to overwhelm the body so if you get a rash I do suggest the next time you do it either a reduction of the ozone concentration or frequency of administration.
If you get itchy you can alternate hot and cold showers when you get home. 10 minutes hot shower 2 minutes as cold as you can stand and the water really only has to hit the area of the rash. You may also want to do a liver flush to help with the toxins. A lotion with oat can be really soothing. Bentonite paste on the rash can draw out the toxins helping the skin, and a high dose of vitamin B12 : up to 1500 micrograms at a time can help the rash too.
For those who just want to do steam sauna and not ozone it is possible to turn the ozone off and get the health benefits of just the hot sauna.
You are not allowed to do the ozone sauna if you have high blood pressure, worried about a stroke, have an organ transplant or have hyperthyroidism. If you are pregnant please do not partake in sauna ozone therapy, rather consider it for your post pregnancy protocol.
To know whether ozone sauna therapy is right for you talk to me or one of the other practitioners at Healing Arts and we can muscle test you for the best course of action. If your body would benefit we can test for the best duration 10, 20, 30 minute sessions and for how often. I do see for general detoxification and well being a schedule of four 30 minute sessions once every other week sessions is tested often. For chronic medical disorders up to 12 sessions or more are required but everyone is different and we want to personalize your care. So if you are thinking about it let us know at your next appointment so we can muscle test you for it.
Resources
Ozone Blog - https://healingartsnyc.blogspot.com/2016/04/benefits-of-ozone-water.html
Ozo-pod for ozonated water - https://healingartsnyc.com/shop/ozone-pod
Ozone therapy research - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5674660/