Connie Zack, co-owner of Sunlighten, shares her journey into the infrared sauna business and the benefits of infrared sauna therapy. Influenced by her brother’s health turn around, Connie left her job in pharmaceuticals to bring infrared saunas to the market.

Infrared sauna therapy has been found to have numerous health benefits, including detoxification, reducing inflammation, improving cardiovascular health, boosting brain function, and promoting relaxation. It also has positive effects on the skin, improving cell turnover, reducing fine lines and wrinkles, and giving a healthy glow. Connie shares her personal experience with sauna therapy as well as what she has learned about infrared therapy over the years.

She shares how infrared heat can improve cardiovascular health, enhance athletic performance, aid in weight loss, and promote relaxation.

Learn more about Sunlighten and be sure to mention Heal Nourish Grow to get an amazing discount.

Watch the episode on YouTube

Takeaways

• 
  
• Infrared sauna therapy has numerous health benefits, including detoxification, reducing inflammation, improving cardiovascular health, boosting brain function, and promoting relaxation.
  
• Infrared saunas can improve skin health by accelerating cell turnover, reducing fine lines and wrinkles, and giving a healthy glow.
  
• Sunlighten saunas are designed for efficiency and provide separate wavelengths of infrared light for maximum effectiveness.
  
• Infrared sauna therapy can be a proactive tool for maintaining health and preventing age-related issues.
  
• Using an infrared sauna can provide a relaxing and meditative experience, allowing for mindfulness and stress reduction. Infrared saunas can improve cardiovascular health by increasing blood flow, improving circulation, and promoting relaxation.
  
• Using an infrared sauna before or after exercise can enhance athletic performance, reduce muscle soreness, and aid in recovery.
  
• Infrared saunas can contribute to weight loss by increasing core temperature, burning calories, and boosting metabolism.
  
• Choosing a high-quality sauna that emits low EMF is essential for maximizing the health benefits and ensuring safety.
  
• Sunlighten offers a range of sauna models, including portable options, to suit different needs and budgets.
  

Episode transcript

Cheryl McColgan (00:00.814)
Hi everyone, welcome back to the Heal Nourish Grow podcast. Today I am joined by Connie Zach, who is one of the co -owners of Sunlighten. And she said such an interesting story and background about how she got into this business. Her brother was having some health issues and I think it would just really be great to share with everybody. Not only how you got into this, but obviously some of the benefits of sauna in particular, infrared sauna, because this is all of a sudden, I mean, I’ve known about it for years and have wanted one for many years.

but I think in recent podcasts and just internet, social media, everybody is all over infrared sauna, otherwise known as photo biomodulation, say that five times fast. And so Connie is going to obviously share with us a bunch of that information today. So welcome and would love to just have you share about what got you into all this. I think your brother had some stuff, so let’s hear about it.

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (00:56.034)
Yeah, thanks so much for having me. I’ve been super excited all day, so excited that it’s time. So this started over 20 years ago. My brother was chronically ill, had chronic fatigue and vertigo and fibromyalgia and a host of other conditions over general malaise and a lot of pain.

Cheryl McColgan (00:59.79)
Yay!

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (01:18.914)
He tried everything he could. It wasn’t until he went to his dentist where his dentist said, Jason, I think you are leaking mercury into your body from your fillings. And I would diagnose you with heavy metal toxicity without any like blood work. I think that’s what’s going on and you need to figure out how to get this out of your body. And the dentist had done some research on infrared and shared it with my brother and said, there’s technology. I’ve been reading some articles in Asia and

this wavelength can help detoxify the body and pull the mercury out. And I think you should try it. And so that’s what my brother did. He bought it in for its own at the time. It was really only one on the market and it was antiquated, but you know, it started to make a little bit of a difference. And I watched his transformation and was amazed. And simultaneously I started doing my own research. I was at Procter & Gamble on the pharmaceutical side and

I was really driven to make a difference in this world in the healthy aspect of life and thought I was doing that in pharmaceuticals, but I was really just putting a band -aid on everything. And once I started to do the research on infrared and the host of studies that had already been done specifically in the cardiovascular arena, I mean, it’s just, it’s still when I think about it, it was my blog only because my job at PNG, I was in the cardiovascular division and we were bringing anti –

We were working with all the big giants out there and trying to find a way to develop drugs that would help the body while providing as little adverse events as possible. It’s just really, really, really hard. First of all, it’s really hard to bring blood pressure down and stabilize that just in itself. Anyway, that’s a long answer to the story.

When I saw all the great science and I saw my brother’s transformation, I eventually left my wonderful job at P &G and brought sunlight into the market and the rest is history.

Cheryl McColgan (03:22.446)
That’s such an interesting way to hear about it that your dentist brought it up. So that’s very forward thinking of him at the time. I think we are all a little bit more in the health space, at least, aware of heavy metal toxicity and that it can be a real thing. But I’m sure at the time you must have heard that and thought, is this for real? Is this legit? And maybe your background gave you a little bit different perspective. But I also would have thought, you know, hearing about a light therapy at that time, before you dug into the research, I mean, you had to think like, this is a bunch of…

hokey, lumbo jumbo, right? What was that experience like?

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (03:50.178)
Yeah, no, 100%. I mean, yeah, my brother used to say, because I did that for years. I mean, I was just like, what, what, what, whatever, you know? I mean, especially coming from my corporate background, even though it was on the scientific side, I was on the medical and the MD side. I mean, it was just very, very different. And my brother kept saying, come over and see me and like see this and experience it for yourself. And I was like, I would remember the first time I got to the sauna.

I got in and I swear I got in for 10 seconds. I’m like, nothing’s happening. I opened the door, he screamed up and he’s like, close the door and sit. I did it for 45 seconds. I’m like, I’m not sweating, nothing’s happening. And he’s like, oh my gosh, you’re crazy. But I mean, I was so skeptical. I’m like, what? I just don’t get this. So it took me a while. The cardiovascular studies, especially with coronary artery disease and congestive heart failure and just seeing,

the markers, the key markers such as triglycerides and systolic and diastolic blood pressure and some of the endothelial pictures of changing in the lining. I mean, just with infrared, not with other, nope, not with drugs. I mean, and I was so, I mean, I had just been so trained in the pharmaceutical that I was like, and furthermore, on the side effects standpoint, there weren’t any side effects, right? These people were like getting healthier hearts and.

They felt great physically. It wasn’t changing because pharmaceuticals, antihypertensives, will typically affect, not typically, always affect something else in the body. It’s just pick your poison. Are you going to have to go to the bathroom more often? Are you going to have lower libido? Are you going to be fatigued? You’re going to have to alter something. Yes, it may be at a lower dose. It may not be significant, but it still changes your body. So yeah, I was blown away.

I loved the fact that this was natural, you could do in your own home, it was working with your body, and it was making significant changes without taking another medication.

Cheryl McColgan (05:58.318)
Yeah, I think that is what’s really exciting about it because people are becoming more aware of the negative side effects of pharmaceutical interventions and sometimes even have, you know, a lot of, um, you know, conspiracy theories with all of that stuff and, and do, does the industry really have, you know, our best health interests at heart. So it’s kind of nice to have this thing that has no side effects. Like you said, you can do it in your home. It’s really simple. Um, people that,

have cardiovascular disease can safely use it. So that’s all really exciting. So when you were first researching then, it seems like it was mostly focused on cardiovascular. Since then, there’s been even more and more research down the road and it affects so many body systems. So could you maybe just share some of your favorite sort of like a broad area of improvement, let’s say from the therapy and kind of what you could expect if you started to…

use this on a regular basis. And obviously with the caveat, as usual, that we’re not medical professionals and we’re just sharing information here. So yeah, I would love to just hear about what else you ran into after the cardiovascular stuff.

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (07:03.65)
Yeah, that is such a loaded question. So I, you know, when you said the word favorite that that because there’s so many benefits, but when you said the word favorite that just it drew me to where I just was. What is she? So like a couple last week I was in California at an amazing, amazing YPL Longevity Summit with like all the world’s leading experts and fields relating that kind of lead up.

Cheryl McColgan (07:05.742)
I’m sorry.

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (07:32.29)
into longevity such as sleep and Alzheimer’s and you know mental health and hormones and I mean just more depression I mean they just get list goes on anyway at this summit Dr. Hyman shared some great new information on longevity switches and how there’s really four key longevity switches.

in the bodies and ways, I won’t go into obviously all the science, and ways to be informed about that and how it works, and then how your take home, how to help either improve the switch or decrease the switch. And what was really interesting to me is two of the switches that he talked about that are so key, two of the four, heat therapy, such as sunlight and therapy.

it needs to be used as an option, not just a needs to be, but it’s an option for regulating and activating the switch to decrease the rate at which you’re aging. You can’t stop, obviously, the chronological clock, but you can impact your biological clock and you can slow down the rate at which your chronological clock ages. So that to me, just the whole concept of…

You know, being in control, I get really, I have little patience for just accepting, well, that just comes with aging. I just, I, and that like puts my whole body, I’m just like, oh, that makes me just heebie -jeebies. I just don’t like that. I’m like, I don’t, I don’t, I don’t believe it. I don’t buy it. I don’t believe it. And so I love this whole concept and, and infrared can really help. Cause so let’s break it down a little bit. So the way.

Cheryl McColgan (09:01.07)
I’m going to go to bed.

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (09:21.826)
you know, infrared can help one of the many different ways is by activating your heat shock proteins, you know, and that ultimately is going to slow down the rate at which you age. It’s going to decrease inflammation, otherwise known as inflammation, but now we’re in everybody’s calling it the aging because it’s the number one reason that you age. It’s also infrared is going to be able to help.

your brain function is by detoxing the body, by clearing up the mental fog and just the overall toxic load. Because I feel I bring up brain, because that’s another one of my favorite things lately is I feel that there’s so many things going on now, post -COVID, that everybody is running a million miles an hour.

they were overstimulated with our brain. We really need to make sure we’re stressed. We really need to make sure we’re taking control and taking care of ourselves and treating ourselves with kindness and great wellness tools and infrared, you know, sauna, sunlight, sauna is a great way to do that because it really helps to decrease cortisol and helps you stress less and manage the stress as well as…

the detoxification relief and getting purging all those toxic elements like my brother, you know, going back to, you know, having metal toxicity, but there’s, you know, lots of other toxins, you know, that can, that we were exposed to 700 ,000 chemicals every single day, you know, and, um, we need to get those out of our body. And it, so it shouldn’t be just a normal routine, right? It should be just corporate it part of your daily lifestyle. If you can only do it a couple of times a week, that’s fine, but just getting into your lifestyle versus doing it.

as a treatment for something once in a while.

Cheryl McColgan (11:17.55)
Yeah, and once it’s once your health has already been negatively impacted, I mean,

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (11:22.786)
Right, right. I’m not sure if you wanted to share your story, but I’d love to hear your experience and everything that you do. But once you’re having to respond, it’s a different path than using as a proactive tool to be healthy, to decrease inflammation, I’ll say it the right way.

to decrease inflammation, to detoxify, to de -stress, to allow the body to be in a parasympathetic state. These days, I just feel like that’s so needed and so good for us, is to just sit, breathe, absorb the healing energy, and have mindfulness. All things that…

Separately independently are good for us, but if we can do them all together, I mean wow what a wonderful experience What a great thing to do for our body mind and spirit

Cheryl McColgan (12:25.326)
Yeah, absolutely. And that’s probably one of the most underrated. You said, you know, maybe sharing a little bit about my experience, my experience with the sauna specifically. I think I mentioned, I mean, they’ve been on my radar for so long. I can’t even, for much longer than this whole, you know, recent kind of frenzy about the infrared. And part of that is just because of my overall, you know, interest in health and wellness, but also due to, you know, family history, there’s a lot of…

everything in my family, a lot of cancer. My mom had a heart attack at a pretty young age. She’s a smoker, so hopefully that’s not, hopefully that’s more related to that. But you know, learning about something that I could do that’s so simple. And it is, I mean, you know, if you get a full -size sauna, it’s a financial investment. But you know, if you can afford it, I mean, I’d rather do that and have my health than.

be dealing with cancer treatments and stuff like that down the road. So for me, it makes sense. I totally get that it can be, you know, cost prohibitive for others. But I think one of the most underrated benefits of the sauna is simply having this new ritual. I’m very into rituals in my life around health and wellness and going down in the morning and just, it’s almost, it’s almost like a meditation practice, right? So I just go in there and I stay for a pretty extended amount of time, but it’s my time to just.

not feel like I have to do anything else. Like I don’t have to be exercising and listening to my pod, you know, the other podcasts that I listen to to keep up on everything. I can literally just lay there and just soak in the healing, you know, basically, and get caught up on some of my podcast stuff or sometimes I’ll just, you know, listen to some nice music. But I think the most underrated aspect, this is a long answer to your question, is just the relaxation aspect of it. And because it’s in some ways it seems like it’s definitely a little bit intense, right? Like it’s the heat. And so you kind of have to

I find toward the end of my session, I have to focus a little to kind of, you know, stay in there, but it’s, that’s all really good. That’s all part of like a meditation practice. So I think the relaxation aspect is, is absolutely amazing. And, you know, I didn’t really cover this up, but you can see I’m a little red in my face right now, because I actually did my sauna before this, just kind of have it fresh in my mind. And, um,

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (14:36.642)
Awesome!

Cheryl McColgan (14:39.566)
The skin, like can we talk about skin benefits from red light and infrared? Because I think that’ll definitely interest people a lot too. So it’s a lot of your internal wellness, of course, but there’s also some external skin benefits as well.

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (14:42.178)
Yeah.

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (14:52.738)
Yeah, yeah. So I want to build on two things. I’m going to answer your question, but I want to also come back and tie into because I heard a talk from Peter Atia at the at the YPO Longevity Summit and I want to tie into something. Yeah, so I want to tie into something he said. I think you’ll I think you’ll enjoy it, but I’ll come back to what he said. So first, let’s take a talk to the skin, but let’s take a step back because I want to I want to break down the.

Cheryl McColgan (15:05.166)
One of the ones I’m usually listening to in there, by the way.

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (15:22.37)
infrared spectrum because that helps people understand the different parts because we’re bringing up we’re talking about photobiomodulation, we’re talking about infrared, we’re talking about heat, we’re talking about light. Let me break it down and let’s also let me explain the difference between the infrared spectrum and traditional heat. So I’ll start there and then we’ll kind of drill down and then just stop me if you want me to clarify any of the parts of that. So.

Cheryl McColgan (15:40.974)
Yes, love.

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (15:48.834)
What’s the difference between infrared and traditional? So traditional heat is hot air and you get hot because the air is hot. That’s simple. And typically when people think of traditional heat, they’re usually speaking of hotter temperatures because it takes hotter temperatures for you to get hot because you’re waiting for the air to get hot. So it’s just, you know, experience. So infrared.

is a spectrum within a spectrum. So it’s a spectrum within the spectrum of light that comes from the sun. The majority of the sun’s light is in the infrared. Let me say that a different way. Infrared constitutes about 55 % of the sun’s light. So within infrared, there’s, let’s call it four different parts, which is the far infrared spectrum. And that’s delivered to the body.

via heat, okay? So you’re feeling it. And then mid -infrared is also heat, but it’s a little bit hotter. That works on your joints and your tissues. Let me go back to far infrared and say where it works. So that is absorbed by your water molecules and it helps to heat up your core temperature. And by heating up the core temperatures where you get the myriad of different health benefits.

and next to mid -infrared is the near -infrared. Okay, so now we get into the light category. And this is one of the aspects of infrared that makes it special is that you get so much for one spectrum. I mean, it’s absolutely magical the way the heat works with your body and the light works with your body and they all, each part of the spectrum.

impacts your body at a different level and provides different benefits. So you can do just Far and Front. That’s what we studied for, like when we found out when my brother got well from detox, we really focused on Far and Front. It wasn’t until 10 years later that we discovered, you know, MID, NIR, and RED. Okay, now I’m back to NIR, which is part of the photobiomodulation category, but it’s also known as NIR and FRORET. So it has two different names.

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (18:04.194)
It is light. It can be delivered by heat, but it would be so incredibly hot that we would get burned. So in order to get the right frequency and the right quantity, you need to convert it to LEDs. You need to convert it to light. Near infrared is invisible light. So when you’re inside, for example, the sauna behind me, which has all four, there’s LEDs that are clear.

And then there is one light that is a different color, just so you can tell it’s on and it’s active. And it penetrates the skin, in which we’re going to talk about the benefits of why that matters in a second. And then right next to that is red light, which also penetrates the skin. The difference is two differences between red light and near and far. I get this question. It’s probably one of the most commonly asked questions to me out of everything. What’s the difference between red and near? The big, huge difference is two things. One is red is visible and near is not.

And the second is near infrared goes deeper into the skin than red light does. Do they have the same benefits? They pretty much have the exact same benefits. There is a benefit to delivering both together because you do have different depths of penetration into the skin. So you’re getting kind of twice the impact and there’s a benefit to that. So skin, get back to your question. So there’s two.

Um, things I always like to talk about with skin and benefits of, um, infrared in general. When I say in general, I’m talking about the entire spectrum. And I have a favorite saying we opened it, um, some light and day spa 2008, which is a day spa that’s downstairs in our corporate headquarters. And we opened it up so that to showcase our technology. And I spent, um, about a week down there and we had our saunas down there and I spent a week down there just in the, um,

what’s it called, not waiting room, but in the like, the, where you check out that area. What? Yeah, yeah, exactly. The lobby. Just sitting, we had like a bench and I just kind of sat over there away from everybody just to listen to people and kind of just hear the conversations without them knowing, you know, why I was there. And the common thread that I loved so much that I heard was people that use the sauna came out and they’re just, they were glowing and they,

Cheryl McColgan (20:03.214)
lobby kind of thing. Like the lobby kind of thing or just the yeah.

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (20:27.778)
just kept talking about how great they would feel and oh my gosh, I can’t wait to come back and do this again. So on the farm for red category with your skin, if you purify the body, the skin will follow, right? So you have this beautiful radiant glow because your body is cleaner and lighter than it was before because of the farm for red detoxifying the body and elevating the core temperature, increasing circulation, getting more oxygen to all of your tissues.

All of that provides such a beautiful glow to the body. And then the near and the red light have a topical, have a direct benefit to the skin. So they’re penetrating. They’re kind of like when you do exfoliation, but at a deeper level to your skin, and you’re just really, really working hard to get the dead skin cells off and just get it really purified and clean, but at a deeper level.

you were not able to do that. You’re not able to exfoliate as deep into the skin as red light and near infrared is able to. But when it does that, it accelerates cell turnover and so it eliminates fine lines and wrinkles. It boosts collagen. It helps with elastin. It just helps give your skin that younger looking healthy glow on the outside. And then far and far does it on the inside out. So I love the combination of somebody’s…

If skin is your goal, I wouldn’t stop at near and red. I would do near and red and I would do it all because there is nothing better than that just really clean looking. You can’t get that same kind of inner glow from detoxifying your body with red and near. You really need, you know, the sweat coming from from farm for red. So.

That is a long answer, but it helps with all sorts of different skin conditions too. So if you have different types of things going on it, because it just the way it gets your circulation going and it gets low. So often so many people I call it getting stuck. It’s just their body as far as, it’s like a car that is not operating fully.

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (22:46.434)
perfect way, our bodies that happens, and infrared is such a great way to get it back on track.

Cheryl McColgan (22:52.654)
Yeah, and I think the one thing that you mentioned that I like about the efficiency of is particularly some of the models that you have because it has all of those things in one container, which quite literally, right? But I guess one thing that I’ve heard, and I would love to hear your thoughts on this, that some people feel like that the infrared, well, not the infrared, but more the red light.

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (23:05.314)
Yeah.

Cheryl McColgan (23:18.382)
therapy for skin that it may not be as effective in a sauna setting. Because what you typically see they’re promoting is like standing in front of a panel or having the little mask on your face or something like that. So if you were to want to utilize the sauna in the most effective way possible, you’re already getting the far infrared, you’re getting the heat, all of those things that you mentioned, is there a way?

to more efficiently use the technology that’s in your saunas? Or do you feel that just having them in there, that that is actually enough? Because that’s the one thing I’ve kind of heard as a negative, is like, well, the panels don’t really do anything because maybe you’re not close enough to them or something like that.

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (23:56.834)
So I’m not sure I understand the question, but let me answer how I think you’re asking. But if you don’t, please stop me. So in the impulse, we have separate far infrared heaters, completely separate mid -infrared, completely separate near, and completely separate red. So.

Each wavelength is separated out independently. You can use it independently or we have six different programs, which we can talk about too, where we have done in the background, we have blended it all together based on science to accomplish six different health goals, such as relaxation, detoxification, weight loss, anti -aging, pain relief, and cardiovascular. So those are the six different programs. As far as efficiency, I don’t…

think there’s a better product on the market for efficiency than impulse because we have strategically placed all of the panels in the right location so that you can be close to them. I mean, I, for example, I just had my sauna and I get right up next to it. There’s no reason. I mean, it’s not, it’s not this massive. I mean, it’s, it’s nice size cabinet, but it’s not, it’s not like a room where you’re, you’re too far away. And what’s great is you don’t.

have to be standing. You can be comfortable while receiving the wavelength into your body. Because the way light energy works, there’s a certain distance. But as long as you’re within that distance and your body is receiving it, you’re getting the benefits. The other thing that I love is that

Light energy is a, how do I say this? It’s not temporary, it’s not the right word. It is a, like a short and sweet type treatment. Meaning that only so many joules of energy, of light energy, only so many, let me use a different word, only just so many doses, a different layman term, only so many dose, you can only receive so much into your body at a particular moment in time. And it,

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (26:12.162)
does not take very long. So, and while you’re in the sauna, you might as well check that box, right? You might as well like get that done. Okay, got my red light, got my near infrared light, done. Like I got my 10 minutes and I’m good. Now the rest of my time, I’m gonna sit here and I’m going to do breath work or I’m gonna do mindfulness or I’m going to meditate, or I’m going to journal.

Or my big thing my big new thing. Sorry I got so excited because I just got back and so I have all these new things I’m gonna try and I’ve been doing Focusing based on what I learned, you know in LA at the longevity summit was the importance of mobility and the endless how quick you can How quickly you can move your body

to increase your mobility. And one of the best ways to increase your mobility is doing it in a elevated, like heated environment, because it’s going to soften the muscles, it’s going to increase your flexibility. And so I can check my red light, my near and far light, get done. Now I’m going to spend the next 10 minutes doing, you know, some hip stretches and some shoulder stretches and these new things I learned. One of my favorite things I learned, can I share? Or not learn, okay.

Cheryl McColgan (27:29.678)
Yes, please. I was like, I already stretch in there, but I’m if there’s a new level, I’m ready for it.

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (27:34.05)
Well, so I love this exercise that he started us with. We did it. It was called a morning experiential workshop. I think we started like 6 45 before the conference started and we’re all in a circle. And he’s like, OK, so the first thing I want you to do is to squat down to the ground, but without using your hands. So get down to the ground and get into a seated position, but do not touch anything. And that sounds so simple.

You know, and but I kind of was looking around. I mean, like most people, you know, were not able to do that. And I just I made a mental image. I thought, OK, I am always going to be able to get down to the ground and get back up, by the way. You know, but that’s such a simple thing that that, you know, we always want to be able to do. Nobody wants to like be sitting down and be like, oh, no, I can’t get up. And so.

Cheryl McColgan (28:14.286)
I’m sorry.

Yeah.

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (28:31.842)
That’s something that the more you do it, then the more your body gets trained, right, to do that. And then you can get down, get up really easily, but not without, you know, without reaching for help. So that’s my newest thing is I’ll stand up and then get down to the ground and then stay down there. Cause they were talking about the importance of getting your body, you know, your hips sitting on the ground versus sitting in a chair. Cause we sit in chairs so much that it’s important to, you know, change the positioning for hip mobility.

So anyway, that’s just a new thing.

Cheryl McColgan (29:02.702)
Yeah, no, I highly recommend everybody stretching there. I used to teach hot yoga for many years. So when you say about loosening up in the hot room, I’m very familiar with that. And that is another great use of the sauna. In fact, I just had a really hard workout last week where he had me doing something that was like really tapped into my hamstrings in a totally new way. So the next morning when I got in the sauna, I was…

you know, doing some hamstring stretches and man, I could hardly straighten my leg at first, not even kidding. And then just within a, you know, couple of short minutes in the sauna, I was like loosened up again. So I can definitely attest to the benefit of that for sure.

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (29:45.09)
That’s the other thing that near infrared on that note, I forgot, I don’t think I mentioned this, but when we talk about being tight, specifically like with those, I call them the, I don’t know why I call them the hard to reach areas, but it just goes back to when I was training for a marathon, like my knees, my feet, the back of my neck, like those kind of just, those areas more like on the bone, near and red.

are really, really good for decreasing inflammation in those areas. I mean, there’s lots of studies even on fractures, you know, and like muscle loss and wounds. It just really helps to put the bone and body back together as well as decrease the inflammation that’s causing that pain on the body. I mean, I used to, my feet used to, and my knees, oh my goodness, after a long run, they used to hurt.

so badly, I was so tight. And then I would, barely would take me forever. My sauna is my basement, so I have to go down the stairs and it would take me forever to get down the stairs. You know, like, oh, I’m coming, I’m coming, sauna, like wait for me. I don’t know, I get in, I would put my feet and my knees, there’s a way you could put both of them right directly up against the LEDs. And literally, I would start to feel.

Cheryl McColgan (30:54.126)
Hahaha

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (31:11.746)
like it just start to like relax and I could feel the blood flow and everything starting to come back to normal. I’m like, oh my God. Cause when I would go down there, it felt like it felt tight, but also like pins and needles. Like it was just like glass. It’s about it. Like a glass was, you know, like located inside my knee and my feet. It was so painful. And when I was done, I could just run up the stairs. It was amazing. It was amazing. It was a key, key part of my recovery. Like I really credit, you know,

Cheryl McColgan (31:35.566)
It really is amazing.

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (31:41.346)
my sauna for helping me through that entire process. I can’t imagine going training for any athletic event or anything like that where you’re really putting a lot of stress on your body without having that as a solution at the end.

Cheryl McColgan (31:54.67)
Right, so that, okay, so there’s another great benefit. So we’ve talked about cardiovascular, we’ve talked about using it for training and sports related things, we’ve talked about several things already, but the one thing we haven’t talked about yet, and a lot of people that listen to this podcast happen to be interested in this topic, and that is weight loss. And you mentioned that that is one of the programs on impulse. So when I’ve gone digging around,

in the research before, I haven’t done like a whole research review, but it’s been more challenging to maybe find some good stats on what it really does as far as weight loss. Is it burning calories? Is it having a different effect, like balancing your hormones that make you not as hungry? Or is it maybe a combination of all these factors? So I would love for you to share some of the things that you’ve learned about that over the years, how you feel it impacts weight and…

Maybe, I don’t know if there’s, I’m sure there’s something around mood too. There’s like literally thousands of studies now at this point in time compared to 20 years ago. So we’d love to hear anything that you’ve read that you find of interest in those areas.

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (33:00.162)
Yeah, of course. So weight loss specifically, we’ll start there. So there was a study, oh my gosh, it’s been a long time ago. It was a great study done in Canada by Dr. Beaver using our sauna, using at that time it was a signature sauna. So that’s Far and Peret specifically. And he showed that the patients in the study were able to reduce their waist circumference.

which is really powerful because a lot of fat and, I mean, this can really, really alter your mood and alter how everything is mobilized when you start to have stuff stored there. So that was one clinical study specifically as far as how it works for weight loss. A lot of times this is easier for people to understand. So if you can remember, I talked about with Pharma for Red,

the way it’s absorbed into your body, it’s absorbed into your water molecules, and it starts to increase your body’s core temperature. So your core temperature elevates. And as that’s happening, your body is working to cool itself down. That energy is converted into calories. So you are burning calories while you are inside the sauna. So.

That’s another way to burn calories while, I mean, the great benefit is, you’re inside this wonderful environment and you’re burning calories. It’s like, that doesn’t suck. I mean, that’s a pretty great place to be. So then the other thing when you talked about mood, by being in there and by elevating your core temperature, you’re also increasing your energy levels.

Cheryl McColgan (34:32.59)
Yeah.

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (34:53.986)
And so that helps to change your mood in a positive way. I want to give the analogy. It’s really mimics exercise. So exercise is an active cardiovascular function. You’re actively cardiovascular conditioning your body, right? You’re helping to make the heart healthy, increase blood flow, increase oxygenation, increase circulation. Infrared does the same thing in a passive way.

So you’re getting, after I run or after a walk, your body is more alive and more awake and you increase your circulation or after hot yoga, what you used to teach me, you just feel so much better because you’re moving the body, you’re getting everything flowing, so you’re helping to get waste out and just get your body back to homeostasis and back to just normal flow.

And that’s what happens when you use infrared. So you just naturally feel better and feel like, oh my goodness, I’m so glad I did that and I can’t wait to do it again. And that’s one of my favorite parts. So the mood swing, there is a mood, definitely a mood swing. Leigh Ann Rimes, I always think of her when I think of mood because she has Arsenault and she has publicly shared, I’m not sharing anything private, she has publicly shared that.

She struggles with depression and she struggles with mental anxiety. And she said there’s times where she feels like the world is just all against her and she’s in a really, really dark place and she’ll go inside her sauna. And she’s like, all of a sudden, wow, everything is removed. And she’s like, I’ve totally got this. And she comes out in a totally different place. She calls it her happy place. And because when she’s done, she’s like, oh my gosh, I feel so much better.

Cheryl McColgan (36:45.166)
Yeah.

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (36:50.082)
And it’s because of the way it’s working with all of our body systems. So the light energy, I’m talking about that for a second, because this is really important, maybe visually, I’m such a visual person, maybe there’s other people listening better as well. It is needed by our bodies to function. Our bodies are really solar panels, right? And you activate a solar panel with light. And so we need light energy.

to activate our body’s solar panel. We need light to activate our mitochondria, which are all over our body and affect absolutely every single system of our body. And if our mitochondria are not healthy, then, I mean, it’s gonna affect everything. And it really affects energy. And so when we introduce, you know, PDM, near infrared light, you know, red light.

as well as infrared light that’s converted into heat. Well, you know, that whole spectrum, when we introduce this into the body and effective body systems, we’re activating all of our powerhouse cells and we’re getting the flow of our water. We’re increasing our core temperature. You know, we’re increasing the flow and oxygen. And you just kind of picture everything accelerating, you know, as far as the normal system, we’re just accelerating everything. And then if there’s anything that’s stuck, we’re getting it unstuck so that…

We are healthier when we’re done overall. It’s not one, that’s why, and I remember getting back to my brother, you know, when he was telling me all this, I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. And it does still sound like that all these years later. I’m like, yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. You can’t possibly do all that. But when you understand how heat and light energy works to the body, and it’s a natural, it’s a natural part that has been around forever. You think about the sun.

Cheryl McColgan (38:24.59)
you

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (38:43.522)
You know, it’s been around forever. And the way the sun works the body with their circadian rhythm, you know, when you wake up to the sun, you go, you used to go to sleep to the sun. And there’s, there’s a reason for all of that. There’s a reason that our body craves light and so much has changed over the years. We’re now inside all the time. We’re not outside working in the fields and we’re not getting all of that sunlight. And so we’re not getting, you know, this natural healing that we used to get.

But instead we’re exposing ourselves to all these different plastics and we’re exposing ourselves to where we’re not taking the action to get rid of what we’re being exposed to. So we need to get back to the root cause and getting everything out of our body.

Cheryl McColgan (39:26.574)
And I think for people that haven’t experienced a sauna yet, you can kind of think of it. I mean, because I think what you said and what a lot of thought leaders have been talking about lately is how we really evolved in the sun.

And so your body needs all that, which you just expressed. But if people can think of a day where they spend the day at the pool or on the beach, there’s so many reasons why that makes you feel better, including that you’re grounding, you’re getting rid of the negative or the, sorry, the positive ions in your body. It’s kind of the opposite. Like the positive ones are the bad ones, but you’re, you know, you’re doing that grounding process. You’re getting the light. So if people can just like, and imagine that every single day that you got, and if you live like right now, you,

PNG, I’m in Cincinnati, Ohio. So this time, yeah. I’m in Indian Hill right now, so kind of up north by 275, so yeah. Yeah, when you said PNG earlier, I figured you’d like, oh, you’ve got to know Cincinnati really well.

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (40:09.826)
in Cincinnati.

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (40:14.498)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I used to work at off. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I know it. I know it well. I used to live my home where actually we started the business in the basement. It was in Hyde Park. We used to walk to graders. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that’s so funny.

Cheryl McColgan (40:31.886)
Nice. Love it. That’s so good. Yeah, but so for people that haven’t experienced it, that’s what it’s like. And you can, so if you’re for here, weeks at a time with no sun, just imagine that you have a space that you can go into and while you’re not like seeing some light and you’re not outside having fun with your friends, you get some of the same sort of feelings. And I actually feel like there’s gotta be some endorphins involved. Probably if I, you know.

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (40:41.954)
What was this?

Cheryl McColgan (41:00.078)
went on to Pubman and put endorphins and sauna or infrared, I’m sure something like that would come up. So anyway, well Connie, this has been awesome and I want to be respectful of your time, but I do want to give you the opportunity to just follow up with anything that we didn’t touch on yet or anything about this. I mean, everybody knows, you know, well.

Not everybody, but anybody who watched my Instagram stories, they’ll have seen that I have this on it. I’m so happy to be back to it. I was away for a few months and I didn’t get to use it. And so now I’ve been in it every single day again. And yeah, just anything that you’d like to follow up with at the check. Oh, one thing I do want to touch on, because one of the whole, everybody knows I’m an obsessive researcher. And so, one of the reasons I landed on Sunlighten was.

due to some of the things about your materials, the quality, low EMF, which is really important. So I would love to just have you chat a little bit about the technology and the quality of Sunlighten, because I do think, you know, now you can go on Amazon and buy a sauna that’s like manufactured in China or something. And there are many, many reasons that you don’t want to do that. But I would love for you to chat about that part of this a little bit so that people don’t get sucked into a bad and potentially dangerous product if they want to go down this road.

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (42:12.002)
in.

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (42:17.986)
Yeah, of course. So the most important part is the quality of the infrared, so the quality of the heat that you’re receiving. And we have a patent on that. So the reason I bring up the patent is just the peace of mind that you’re getting the highest amount possible at the exact right frequency that’s going to be absorbed into your water molecules. Because…

I mean, there’s no way you can research the quality of infrared. I mean, because, you know, any, let me put it this way. Any sauna is going to have a level of infrared. Any sauna. You turn on, you go outside and you’re getting infrared heat. So it’s impossible for you to delineate between one infrared sauna and the next. And I would essentially…

What makes the difference with Sunlighten is that years and years and years ago, we started doing the research on the highest quality, how to develop the materials to deliver the highest amount of infrared into the body without fillers, so without anything else. We just wanted to take the spectrum and take out all the noise and just deliver the healthiest part, and that’s what we’ve done. So that’s what’s…

most important. The other thing is on the whole spectrum aspect, if that’s a route you want to go, where you want to get far, mid, near, and red in one place. So, Knightman has a patent on that. So, be very wary when people make claims that they’re giving you all of that because we have a patent on delivering two or more independent wavelengths or more in one place. So, if they’re making claims of that, there’s some compromised quality there.

So those are two technical aspects that make sunlight indifferent. As far as safety and the materials, man, we go through just extensive links to test our saunas for EMF, to test our saunas for all of our materials are tested. I mean, we use the highest quality wood. We use basswood, which is hypoallergenic and fragrance free. You know, our eucalyptus is sustainable and renewable. I mean, every,

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (44:40.13)
Our basswood comes from Wisconsin and an amazing company that we work with there. So all of our materials were extremely intentional on picking them out and sourcing them and vetting them to make sure they’re safe, healthy, high quality. And then we go through this extensive quality control process. When you put your sona together, every single part of it has a tag, not literally, like it has been checked.

So for safety and for quality control and something that’s just really super important to us. I’m happy to, if that’s ever a concern, I’m personally just reach out to me. I’m happy to answer any questions because we don’t take, I mean, we take that so serious that we do not take safety or efficacy, you know, or quality, I mean, we just take it so seriously. It’s really important to us because this is, this is about wellness. This is about developing the highest quality product.

and making you and this world a healthier place because of what we bring to market. I mean, we want everybody to be able to feel great so they can do as much as possible in this world. And we take it very seriously. So thank you for asking me that question because sometimes I forget about, because I take it for granted, but I mean, yeah.

Cheryl McColgan (45:57.966)
Well, sometimes I do too, because I’m quite obsessive about it. And I just know that I go down that road, but not not everybody has the time or interest to do that. And I think, you know, especially now you mentioned all of our environmental toxins, like we’re exposed to so many things. The last thing I want to do is get in a hot box that’s releasing a bunch of VOCs into the air and EMA and just, you know, really taking away any of the benefit that you could potentially get from this technology. So.

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (46:25.954)
Yeah, there’s not, oh sure, there’s not a lot of woods out there that you can heat without some type of toxic chemical or toxic substance being released. And I know this because we’ve been doing this for so long. And when we started this, we did not do everything ourselves. And so we bought from other, you know, from manufacturers and they…

Cheryl McColgan (46:26.478)
Yes, I really appreciate that about your company.

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (46:51.458)
told us, oh, this one is great. And then our customers would get like, oh my gosh, my eyes are itching or I’m sneezing or I’m having this reaction or this, I’m like, oh my goodness. And then I started doing research. Wood, there’s actually a toxic chemical or toxic, what’s it called? Toxic wood chart. I mean, there’s, then that just has to be, they have to report events that people have had with.

that type of wood and then, and that’s not being heated. That’s just regular wood. So imagine that heating it, you know, so you can be, you can rest, be rest assured that, I mean, the woods that we use are extremely safe. And, and when they’re heated, they’re completely, there’s, you know, there’s not a lot of things going on, you know, a lot of glues that are, you know, are lots of different materials. It’s very safe and it’s a great experience. And I mean, I highly, highly recommend it on that note.

You know, because it’s important to me that people have access at all levels. And so we do have other products. I’ve been talking a lot about the four different wavelengths and it is ideal. So that’s the bar. I mean, that’s for sure. If you can’t get there, that is okay. We have other products to choose from that it’s not a sacrifice. It’s a great starter place. The Solo is my personal way, favorite way to start. It’s a lie down portable model.

It’s what the study, it’s the product that all the studies were done with at the very beginning, 10, 15 years ago when we first started this. So it’s a great choice, easy to use, you can plug it in, plug and go. So that’s a great, great option. And if you have any questions about that, just email me. I’m happy to answer them, those questions. So I don’t want to seem as though it’s like just.

Because like you said, it’s a serious investment to get the product that’s behind me and you don’t have to do that. I would rather, in fact, I would rather you get started and get healthier and get on your road to recovery and taking care of yourself and then get impulse later than just wait.

Cheryl McColgan (48:56.846)
Yeah. And that’s a great point because that’s what I ended up doing. So I was moving around and things and whereas the solo, you can really take it with you. It’s not like a built -in thing. So it’s portable and it’s the least expensive one. So I think that’s an amazing point and why I wanted to bring that up because no matter what it is, I mean, you’re still a purchaser, still investing in your health, but there are like different levels that you can go to.

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (49:05.858)
Right.

Cheryl McColgan (49:18.638)
really take advantage of the same technology. It’s just like some of the other stuff is convenience, like it’s got the fun lights and it’s got, you know, like a little, it’s got speakers, which is great. But you know, that’s all kind of just extra fluff, right? It’s not, you’re still getting all the benefit from the other model that you mentioned. So Connie, well, thank you again so much. Can you, so sunlightin .com is the website. If you go to my website first.

heelnourishgrow .com slash Sunlighten. It’ll take you there. It’ll give you like a special discount. Or if you call in, if you have questions, just call in and ask them all the things. They’re really great. I went through this process myself when I was finally making the purchase and just mentioned heelnourishgrow and they’ll make sure that you get hooked up with that. But yeah, Sunlighten .com. Connie, if people do want to get in touch, do you mention emailing? Do they do that through the website or what’s the best way to kind of keep up with you and learn more about what you’re doing?

personally if you do that any social media or anything like that.

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (50:17.922)
Yeah, you could do, I mean, there’s so many different ways you can do it on social media. You know, you can you can tag me. You can reach out, you know, directly to me. My email is CZAC at Sunlighton dot com. I do want to mention for the for the discount just back to that, because that it’s really important. We’re giving up to six hundred dollars off for the listeners. The key to unlock that discount is to mention Hill Nourish Grove. So make sure that you mention that.

Otherwise, you won’t, it just, that it’s not something that we just offer. So just, it’s just really important when you said that. And I am here as a resource. I’m happy to answer questions and happy to do a deeper dive at some level too, that if you guys have a lot of questions, just ask your questions and I can come back and answer all of them. Whatever you need, I want to be a resource and enlighten everyone on infrared.

Cheryl McColgan (50:52.206)
I’m sorry.

Cheryl McColgan (51:17.966)
Yes, I like that turn of phrase there. So thank you again for joining us today. This was an amazing overview. And like you said, if you want to go down the rabbit hole, there’s a lot more technical stuff you can go into with all of this. I think this is a great introduction and I really appreciate you being here to share that with anybody. So thanks again, Connie.

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (51:20.066)
Hahaha!

Connie Zack – Sunlighten (51:34.434)
Of course.