FIR saunas

Athletes use saunas to promote recovery from injuries or strenuous workouts. Saunas also increase heart rate without increasing blood pressure. But while FIR saunas can help your body bum additional calories at a rate consistent with fairly strenuous exercise, such as marathon running or squash, they are not an alternative to regular exercise. 

I love my FIR sauna. I use it daily in the cold winter months, when I am less active, and two or three times a week in the summer. A 20- or 30-minute sauna can keep me warm for hours, even in the dead of winter. More importantly, it gets me sweating profusely, allowing toxins to be excreted through my skin. Because you can also lose minerals this way (just as when you exercise too long and too hard), it is critical to drink an extra 2 cups of alkaline water for each sauna session and include foods high in minerals and vitamins in your diet. 

While a FIR sauna is not an essential part of the Ultimate pH Solution, I highly recommend trying one out if a health center or spa in your area offers it as a therapy. FIR sauna therapy generally runs between 20 and 50 per session, but many health centers offer package discounts for 10 or more sessions. If you can afford to purchase a FIR sauna (they run to 2,000 to 6,000, depending on the size and model you choose), it can be a great lifestyle addition. The units often look like small cabins constructed of cedar or oak. The dimensions vary, but FIR saunas typically accommodate one to six people. For more information, visit www.infiraredsauna.net. 

Fir and pine needle oils. General term for the "essential oils, obtained by steam distillation from needles (branch tips, young shoots) of various Pinaceae species of the genera Pinus, Abies, Picea, and Tsuga. They mostly possess a fresh, resiny odor and consist mainly of monoterpene hydrocarbons such as pi-nenes, phellandrenes (see p-menthadienes), cam-phene, myrcene, 3- carene, and limonene (see p-menthadienes). The component mainly responsible for the odor is (-)-bornyl acetate (C12H20O2, Mr 196.29) which can be present, as in Siberian pine needle oil, to more than 30%. The oils are used in the production of perfumes for men, for perfuming household articles like cleaners, bath products, sauna oils, and in pharmaceutical preparations such as anti-rheumatic oint-... 

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