Biological activities caused by far-infrared radiation.

Contrary to previous presumption, accumulated evidence indicates that far-infrared rays are biologically active. A small ceramic disk that emits far-infrared rays (4-16 microns) has commonly been applied to a local spot or a whole part of the body for exposure. Pioneering attempts to experimentally analyze an effect of acute and chronic radiation of far-infrared rays on living organisms have detected a growth-promoting effect in growing rats, a sleep-modulatory effect in freely behaving rats and an insomiac patient, and a blood circulation-enhancing effect in human skin. Questionnaires to 542 users of far-infrared radiator disks embedded in bedclothes revealed that the majority of the users subjectively evaluated an improvement of their health. These effects on living organisms appear to be non-specifically triggered by an exposure to far-infrared rays, which eventually induce an increase in temperature of the body tissues or, more basically, an elevated motility of body fluids due to decrease in size of water clusters.