Relax Sauna: 7 Massive Warning Signs (Buyer Beware)

If you’ve heard about a sauna company called Relax Sauna, then you’re most likely aware of their marketing lingo too: vibrating water molecules, resonating energy microns, and the poisonous gases in your cells.

I come across terrible and inaccurate sauna information every day: plastic booths posed as saunas, infrared sauna scams, perverse sauna preferences disguised as science… the list could go on and on.

But rarely do I find something as appalling as Relax Sauna (relaxsaunas.com) and their claims, most of which are obvious lies, such as their sauna having been studied by all the major universities and killing cancer.

Not only are Relax Sauna’s bogus claims so ridiculous that they can’t fool too many people (e.g., our cells don’t contain gases, let alone poisonous ones) but they also spread much more dangerous misinformation while charging insane amounts for cheaply made cubicles.

Let’s see why Relax Sauna is the worst offender I’ve seen so far and why you should get virtually any other sauna or save your money entirely.

7 Lies from the President of Relax Sauna

I learned about Relax Sauna through a YouTube video by Dr. Boz who is officially known as Annette Bosworth.

In the video she interviews the president of and spokesperson for Relax Sauna, Phil Wilson, whose claims I’ll be reviewing below.

Lie #1: Relax Sauna “oxygenates the body”

Infrared heat rooms and cubicles don’t oxygenate the body.

What a silly claim like this really means is that while your circulation improves, which is very typical in real saunas and happens to a lesser extent in infrared heat rooms too, oxygen is carried in the blood more efficiently.

This kind of localized increase in blood flow can raise muscle oxygenation in certain parts of the body, not just in a real sauna but also in a far infrared (FIR) sauna like Relax Sauna.

But does this mean you should get a sauna of any kind for oxygenating purposes? NO, it doesn’t.

Oxygenation doesn’t happen only through circulation but also through breathing. If you’re interested in significant oxygenation, you should exercise instead of just sitting in a sauna: heat exposure can make your heart beat faster, but it doesn’t really enhance oxygen utilization at cellular level like exercise does.

So, the pseudoscientific claim of “body oxygenation” is a magical and fancy-sounding way of saying that an infrared sauna can temporarily improve circulation.

Lie #2: Relax Sauna can kill cancer cells

This is where we enter the danger zone of misinformation.

Cancers can be treated with hyperthermia, which in this case refers to using heat to damage or kill cancer cells, but this is done in hospitals with very specific medical devices, NOT with cheaply made consumer-grade infrared saunas with zero proof of their efficacy in cancer treatment.

Besides, according to the National Cancer Institute, when treating cancer with actual thermal therapy, it can lead to many side effects, including burns, blisters, blood clots, and bleeding, while whole-body hyperthermia is commonly followed by diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting.

Is Relax Sauna saying their customers should expect these nasty side effects too, or is it more likely their FIR cubicles do diddly-squat to cancer cells?

The truth is that infrared saunas have never been proven to kill cancer cells. Infrared sauna research in general is very limited, often having very few participants (8–12) and short duration (~ two weeks) per study.

It’s once again Finland that has done the most actual research: they studied 2,173 men for 24 years and found that the Finnish sauna neither increases nor decreases the risk of cancer.

Where are Relax Sauna’s studies like this?

When has a real medical and research team studied a FIR sauna for decades and with thousands of participants? The answer is never: the alternative health world has never needed scientific proof; all they need is good vibrations, resonating wavelengths, and gullible victims.

Lie #3: Finnish sauna is bad, Relax Sauna is good

In the YouTube video, Phil Wilson says that the Mayo Clinic published a study in 2004 where they said heart patients should never use hot tubs or wooden Finnish saunas.

This is allegedly because they stress the heart too much, but no worries as Wilson has the perfect solution: how convenient for him that the same Mayo Clinic study said far infrared saunas are “extremely therapeutic” for heart patients!

When leaving this twisted fairy-tale and returning to reality, we find there is no such study, and what the Mayo Clinic really says about Finnish sauna is the opposite of what Wilson claims:

Published by the Mayo Clinic in 2018, the researchers conclude that:

“Emerging evidence suggests that beyond its use for pleasure, sauna bathing may be linked to several health benefits, which include reduction in the risk of vascular diseases such as high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and neurocognitive diseases […].

The beneficial effects of sauna bathing on these outcomes have been linked to its effect on circulatory, cardiovascular, and immune functions.”

In short, Finnish sauna does wonders for the heart. The leading researcher in this field and in the Mayo Clinic study above, Dr. Jari Laukkanen, is a cardiologist himself.

Although heart health is one of the most studied fields in regards to Finnish sauna, with promising results, it goes without saying that if your heart problems are not under control or you’ve recently had a heart attack, for instance, you shouldn’t sauna but should consult your doctor first.

Lie #4: Harvard & MIT have studied Relax Sauna

This is one of the claims Wilson makes when interviewed by Dr. Boz: he says he sent Relax Sauna (possibly under disguise) to Harvard and MIT who studied it in their physics lab.

I’d like to think that when hearing a claim like this, most people would instantly smell a rat, but if that’s not the case, here’s what everybody should know about university research:

🔶 revered universities such as Harvard and MIT don’t accept and test random consumer products just like that

🔶 even if a business owner was willing to pay for and sponsor the research (and the university accepted this), the research would still meet all academic requirements, be transparent about the sponsor, and the final paper would be published in a scientific journal for everybody to see

🔶 it’s practically impossible that institutions like Harvard and MIT would want their name and reputation attached to the worst infrared mumbo-jumbo out there, which is exactly what Relax Sauna represents

🔶 if Relax Sauna had been studied in these universities (which never happened), the testing probably wouldn’t have taken place in a physics lab: the departments of biomedical engineering or health sciences would’ve been much better fits

Lie #5: Relax Sauna values “research” [that’s AI-written]

The imaginary endorsement from Harvard and MIT isn’t enough for Relax Sauna that’s also pushing a book called Infrared Illuminated: A User’s Guide to the Science of Far Infrared Energy.

According to Wilson, the book has “150 research articles on far infrared energy, all documented.”

I’m a linguist and philologist by education, so it took me only seconds to see that the Amazon description for this book is 100% AI-written, confirmed by three AI detectors as well.

Normally with books, it’s the author, publisher, or a marketing representative in their team who writes book descriptions.

No legitimate author or publisher would ever use AI: they simply wouldn’t be able to accept and tolerate hollow, generic, and repetitive AI content when they themselves can produce much better text with their expertise, passion, own voice, and deep knowledge of the subject matter.

When the description is AI-written, it strongly suggests the book itself is also AI-written, which seems to be the case with Infrared Illuminated too: I read three samples from the book and also ran them through an AI detector, and once again, the content is 100% AI-generated.

Thankfully, this book has been able to get only four reviews in a year and a half, so it doesn’t seem many are interested in it.

The top reviewer also says that the book is only “regurgitating information” and selling jewelry while all substance is missing.

It’s likely this low-effort book wasn’t created in hopes of sales directly but as part of Relax Sauna’s sales pitch: they’re hoping a “real book” with “research articles” makes their whole infrared business look much more legitimate than it actually is.

Lie #6: Obscene price is justified

If you didn’t already know how much Relax Sauna charges for their miracle products, maybe you’ve seen similar infrared cubicles on Amazon for $150–$400 and thought that Relax Sauna also finds its place inside that price range.

Well, the silver-colored one costs $1,700 while the black one costs $2,300!!! Yikes!

(I must’ve had someone’s discount code activated when I took a screenshot as the current price really is $2,300 instead of $2,100.)

It pains to think that someone spends that amount on a fake sauna when they could spend less on a real sauna tent with a stove and sauna rocks that also last a lot longer than cheap electronics.

In Wilson’s worldview it’s a fair price, though: in the YouTube video, he considers the real value of his quilted shack a whopping $20,000.

That’s interesting, given the estimated manufacturing cost is $90–$165 (with ceramic heating elements instead of cheaper carbon fiber panels) per cubicle if it’s made in Taiwan like claimed, and even less if it were China-made.

Lie #7: Selling Relax Sauna as a sauna

A big selling point for Wilson in the YouTube video is made clear when he says this:

“Any person will get rid of 50-100% of their pain, guaranteed without sweating, with their clothes on, in 5 to 7 minutes, every time without fail.”

(I wouldn’t be so sure about pain relief as the price alone could make someone have a sudden seizure.)

Even though there are lots of bold claims made in that one sentence, almost certainly not shared by every single user and definitely not by science, I want to point out that what Wilson describes has nothing to do with saunas.

Whenever you’re instructed to enter your own home sauna with your clothes and shoes on, and not sweating is presented as a pro, it’s certain the item you bought isn’t a sauna.

Sauna is a loanword from Finnish and has never meant and never will mean a cheaply made box that doesn’t include any of the elements that make sauna a sauna: sauna heater, sauna rocks, and plenty of löyly.

Instead of clowning around for five minutes in your “sauna” fully clothed, this is how you sauna for real:

Even Dr. Boz Prefers Finnish Sauna over Relax Sauna

I was pleasantly surprised to see that although Annette Bosworth’s YouTube video is pure marketing for Relax Sauna, the truth still managed to come out.

While she’s interviewing Phil Wilson, she shares her own sauna experiences. She and her husband used to have a Finnish sauna and loved using it, and when they moved and couldn’t take the sauna with them, they tried to replicate the Finnish sauna experience in their new home by getting a steam cooker!

And get this: even nowadays when she has and supposedly uses her Relax Sauna, she and her husband go on sauna dates, meaning they go to a public Finnish sauna so that they can enjoy the sauna together.

This shows two things: once again she’s after the steam (löyly) that a FIR “sauna” naturally can’t give you, and secondly, it’s insane that after you’ve spent $2,300 on a home “sauna,” you still can’t sauna with your loved ones!

(Proper saunas are never 1-seaters but have room for at least three people.)

It was funny to me as a viewer to witness Bosworth’s love of the Finnish sauna specifically, and how she likes it hot and steamy, while she’s promoting a “sauna” that’s neither hot nor steamy. 😄

Final Thoughts

Throughout the interview, YouTube doctor Bosworth and Relax Sauna’s Wilson were concerned with how people don’t sweat in infrared saunas as it can take 40 minutes to start sweating.

That is, indeed, a real concern for many infrared sauna users. But when moving to traditional saunas with higher temperatures, nobody has that concern.

If you’re interested in a sauna, then get a sauna.

But if you’re interested in a warm booth that’s not a sauna, then consider getting one of those. Just think long and hard whether you want to buy it from a company that lies and fabricates information as much as Relax Sauna.

Even though Wilson’s claims are full of crap, infrared “saunas” can still have some benefits, such as relaxation, improved circulation, and pain relief, all caused by mild heat exposure. There is no magic behind it.

Should you have to pay $2,300 to get these benefits and to “unclump water molecules” as Wilson puts it? Absolutely not.