Infrared vs. Traditional Sauna: Which Is Truly Better for Your Health?

Infrared saunas have become incredibly popular, even though they aren’t really saunas at all. To the untrained eye, they basically look the same as what you’d expect a sauna to look like—wood paneling, benches, some guy who just had to bring his phone inside—and both actually share a bunch of the same health benefits. But why does every gym, wellness club, and boutique HIIT workout studio suddenly seem to have these new-wave sweat boxes in their locker rooms? For one, it’s a matter of practicality. Infrared saunas give off way less heat, thus making the surrounding area a much more habitable place for those who’d prefer not to partake. But, more importantly, the wellness industry loves a shiny new thing—especially one that conveniently doesn’t give club members the tools to burn down the building. And, as it turns out, infrared saunas actually have some unique benefits of their own. (For one, they’re less likely to overheat your iPhone, not that we’d know anything about that.) Infrared vs. traditional sauna: What’s the difference? Technically, there are several variations of saunas, but they mostly tend to get lumped into two categories: traditional and infrared. A true traditional sauna, also called a Finnish sauna, uses a wood fire to heat stones, which in turn heat the air inside the sauna. Nowadays, you can also find electric saunas (these tend to get filed under “traditional”), which also use stones, but the stones are heated by electricity rather than fire. Traditional saunas can maintain temperatures between 150-220 degrees Fahrenheit. “These typically operate at higher temperatures with dry heat, inducing intense sweating,” says Sam Setareh, MD, MS, director of clinical cardiology at Beverly Hills Cardiovascular. Unlike traditional saunas, Infrared saunas do not have a central heat source. Instead, they utilize ceramic or metallic panels to emit far-infrared light. “An infrared sauna uses infrared light to directly heat your body, rather than heating the air around you like a traditional sauna,” Dr. Setareh says. Hence, infrared saunas are able to operate at much lower temperatures—between 100–165 degrees—while still giving you a similar, albeit decidedly less intense, sensation to sitting in a traditional sauna. According to Dr. Setareh, “both types of saunas share common benefits—like improving circulation, promoting relaxation, and encouraging recovery,” and studies have also found both to have positive effects on lowering blood pressure. That said, there are some important differences that may influence which type of sauna is ultimately best for your goals. Traditional saunas seem to be better for cardiovascular health Research, including a landmark 2015 Finnish study that surveyed 2,315 men over the course of two decades, has long associated sauna use with heart health and a decreased risk of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality. But it wasn’t until a recent study, published earlier this year in the American Journal of Physiology, that researchers have formally begun weighing the benefits of traditional saunas against their infrared counterparts. (This latest study also compared both types of sauna to a hot tub, which surprisingly emerged as the most beneficial of the three when it came to promoting heart health.) “The bottom line is that the far-infrared sauna, by far, showed the least [noticeable] rise in core body temperature—and therefore had the least cardiovascular impact,” says Christopher T. Minson, PhD, a professor of human physiology at the University of Oregon and the study’s lead author. “I'm not going to say that far-infrared saunas aren't healthy,” Dr. Minson says. “I'm just going to say that you're going to have to do it for a lot longer—months and months and months—to see [cardiovascular] benefits. It'll take more time, whereas I think it's more the traditional sauna and the hot tub that are going to have bigger impacts long-term than you would with a far-infrared sauna. That's what our data is showing.” Infrared saunas are likely better for your skin Traditional saunas might be better at raising your heart rate, but they don’t actually do much to complement your skin care routine. “Even if you sweat a lot, you're not sweating toxins out of your sweat glands,” says Dr. Minson, who explains that sweat consists almost entirely of water and salt. Infrared saunas, on the other hand, actually can help you detoxify your skin, as the energy they emit penetrates more deeply beneath the surface. “From a detoxification standpoint, if you have clogged pores or acne-type skin, then the deeper it penetrates, the better you're going to clear those pores out, reducing acne and blackheads and getting dead skin cells off,” says Dara Spearman, MD, FAAD, a board-certified dermatologist and the founder of Radiant Dermatology Associates in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Because of the way infrared light penetrates more deeply than heat alone, it can also help increase circulation and stimulate collagen production, which, according to the findings of a study published in Yonsei Medical Journal, can help improve skin elasticity and reduce hyperpigmentation along with the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. “If you're looking to improve collagen production and things like that, that definitely needs to be done at a deeper level, where the collagen tissue and the elastin fibers reside,” Dr. Spearman says. “[With an infrared sauna], you're going to increase blood flow more to that second layer of skin, and you're going to see more improvement there than you would with a traditional sauna.” Infrared saunas may be better at reaching the muscles, but experts are skeptical Based on infrared saunas’ ability to penetrate the skin more effectively than traditional saunas, it is often claimed that they’re therefore also better at reaching the muscles, which would theoretically aid muscle recovery. "Compared to traditional saunas, it is thought that the heat would penetrate deeper into the skin and the tissues,” Dr. Setareh says. “So, that deeper penetration could, I guess, target the muscles and the joints, making it more beneficial for chronic pain, relief, muscle recovery, and flexibility." But the fact is that there just isn’t any research to support this, and the benefits of infrared saunas may be, at least for the most part, skin deep. “I still think far-infrared saunas are healthy, but I also think that the claims from the far-infrared sauna companies are way outblown beyond the science,” Dr. Minson says. "We just published a study in which we put someone in a far-infrared sauna and saw that the heating or stimulus of far infrared didn't go as deep into muscles as they claim it does.” In any case, Dr. Setareh and Dr. Minson both agree that infrared saunas could offer the practical benefit of serving as an entry point for people who are new to saunas and may not yet feel comfortable with the higher heat of a traditional sauna. And, either way, according to Dr. Minson, it’s better than doing nothing at all. "I think, any time you're doing something that is aligned to some degree with better health, then it's worth the time.”