I’ve had sauna on my radar for years. My dad recovered from his chronic toxicity illness decades ago and attributes much of his recovery to sauna. A little over three years ago I built an infrared sauna in my bathroom but it was very uncomfortable and I only used it a handful of times. After getting an infrared burn on my legs and having the lights crash down on me (separate occasions), my enthusiasm diminished a lot.
Fast forward a couple years and I realize I’m still copper toxic and go back to reading and researching copper again. I remember that my father showed me some research which claims sweating is one of the most effective ways to reduce copper burden.
My dad is a scientist and he does much better research than I do. He actually goes to the library and gets the full text of those research reports you can only see abstracts for online. So a few weeks ago he gave me his stack of sauna heavy metal detox research. I read it for second time. I still don’t understand entirely whether sauna pulls out more copper than other toxic metals or whether sauna is one of the best ways to detox copper. Subtle difference. Read the paper here:
Page one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen
Anyway, I’ve had quite a few blog readers tell me sauna has been instrumental in their recoveries. And I want to get really serious about my copper detox. So, I built myself a sauna in the basement that would be comfortable and purchased one more infrared bulb, to make Dr. Wilson’s 4 bulb sauna.
It was important to me not to use any plastic materials in the construction, so I ended up using steel and muslin painters cloth (costs roughly $350). It may be a little bit larger than Dr. Wilson’s version, which makes it a little harder to heat, but I’m pretty happy with it. Mine measures 48 inches wide by 60 inches deep by 60 inches tall and I use a space heater inside to get the temperature higher faster. The max temperature is 127 and I would use a higher temperature if I could, but this is what I have.
I just completed my 15th sauna and for the first time, I sweated profusely, easily producing twice as much sweat as on any prior occasion. I have proceeded every sauna with one minute of jump rope and the last three saunas with increasing amounts of niacin (20 mins prior). I’m up to 400 mg of niacin which produces a very intense flush. I read a book sitting in the sauna so the time passes quickly.
The combination of exercise and heat is very difficult for me, but I’m remaining productive during the day. Evening is another story though… but, as hard as it is, I’m managing and don’t see myself giving up this time.
They say that you get better at sweating the more saunas you do. I don’t know if that is what happened on my 15th sauna, or if it’s related to the niacin or the fact that I just finished a DMPS chelation round before the sauna, my first chelation in several years.
Yes, I restarted chelation!!!
I had just completed my second week of cholestyramine when I was forced to stop by terrible constipation and I felt so defeated… In my depression, I started rereading my old copper toxicity post and in particular about the copper chelators. The more I read, the more it seemed like I should give the DMPS another chance. I really wanted to throw some big punches.
Have a look at what Dr. Klinghardt says:
Even though DMPS has a high affinity for mercury, the highest affinity appears to be for copper and zinc2, which are the metals that appear first in high levels in the urine . . . I firmly believe at this point in time that there are no alternatives to the DMPS treatment.
I’ve also increased my molybdenum back up to 3 mg. Taken all together this feels like a really serious program even if I only tolerate a tiny DMPS dose.
UPDATE: Feb 2018 – I upgraded to a more powerful sauna made by Michael Goldstein that runs at 130°F. Using it for 25 mins 5-6 days a week and I’m also wearing a grounding wrist strap in the sauna for EMF mitigation…