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

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

Wavelengths: what is that?

First of all, it is important to know that radiation, like for example light (visible light is a form of radiation) and sound, is emitted as waves. The more energy the radiation contains, the more waves are formed and thus the smaller the distance between two following waves.

Of course, the opposite is also true: the less energy radiation contains, the fewer waves are formed and the smaller the distance between two following waves is.

We hear you thinking: where is the explanation of wavelengths now? Well you've actually just had it: the distance between two following waves is called the wavelength. Below is a picture to clarify it all:

Wavelengths and the different types of radiation

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

The differences in all these types of radiation are caused by the wavelength of that radiation. In fact, each type of radiation has a specific wavelength. For example, infrared has a wavelength from 700 to 1,000 nanometers (1,000 nanometers is 1 millimeter).

That may seem very short, but it is actually relatively long compared to other types of radiation such as visible light.

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

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

Different types of radiation with different energy content

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

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

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

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

The benefits of infrared light

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

Accelerated muscle recovery

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

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

Cardiovascular health

The heat given off by infrared increases the production of nitric oxide in your blood. Nitric oxide is very important for the health of your blood vessels : it relaxes the arteries and prevents blood from clotting, which in turn prevents the occurrence of strokes.

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

Detoxification

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

Infrared can help fight cancer

You've probably heard that many types of radiation such as X-rays and gamma rays can cause cancer. As we told you before, this is because these types of radiation have a high energy and therefore short wavelength.

Infrared, on the other hand, has a low energy and large wavelength so it does not cause cancer. Even better: infrared radiation can help fight cancer. This video explains how.

Infrared improves your skin

Because infrared improves blood circulation and detoxification, new cells and thus skin cells are produced faster and better while old cells are removed.

As a result, infrared can help improve your skin and fight skin conditions such as acne.