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Amagansett acupuncturist Sandy Geehring Foster of SGF Acupuncture enjoys seeing her Lyme patients walk out of her infrared sauna with their pain significantly reduced, if not completely eradicated. “Besides reducing pain, it gets rid of spirochetes and strengthens the body,” she says.

While it’s still considered a pioneering modality, there are plenty of emerging studies touting the apparatus’s health benefits. A session in one — where the temperature reaches 140 to 160 degrees — is said to relieve such ailments as rheumatoid arthritis, joint stiffness, muscle spasms, edema, soft tissue injury, sciatica and even cancer. “There have been accolades from cancer organizations,” says Foster.

After prodigious research, Foster chose a Sunlighten sauna for her practice. “Unlike a lot of other brands it doesn’t use glue that can emit toxins when heated,” she says. It is also full spectrum, meaning it emits near, mid and far infrared wavelengths, which each penetrate to different layers of skin, fat and muscle.

“It activates the immune system near and causes cellular regeneration the deeper you go.” It is also an effective detoxifier, loosening toxins deep inside tissues and encouraging them to exit the body through perspiration. Infrared saunas, which employ radiating heat, are considered more effective that regular saunas that work more like ovens — heating outside the body rather than inside.

Treatments are said to be effective against cancer because, according to Irvin Sahni, MD, the infrared radiation is harmful only to malignant cells, while healthy cells are immune to the heat. Such saunas are used in some German hospitals to reduce side effects of chemo.

Foster has successfully treated patients with everything from eczema to mercury poisoning. But illness is not the only reason to be treated by infrared. “Athletes use it for muscle recovery so they can run faster,” says Geehring. It is also used for weight loss. But perhaps the most popular use of infrared is for stress. “The whole body exhales; it just goes ‘ahh.’ ”  sgfacupuncture.com

My “job” is to “be like seaweed.” So explained Watsu practitioner Peter Balestrieri of (a)LIGHT Sag Harbor. I am immersed in his beautiful stone pool, which is covered by a lofty wood and glass ceiling. The water temperature is 96 degrees and there is no smell of chlorine, the soothing water kept hygienic by an ionizer.

Balestrieri gently takes hold of me and lightly swirls me around as all but my face is enveloped by the warm water. It’s an intimate dance as he holds me while rocking me softly. The feeling of being supported while being stretched and cradled is distantly familiar. I haven’t felt this safe since I floated in my mother’s amniotic fluid. I am kelp. Or possibly wakame. I play the role of seaweed well.

“My style of aquatic bodywork” he says, “is water shiatsu. I create a heart-opening space where you are able to deeply relax.” Amen to that. “I follow the rhythm of the body, where it wants to go. We’re basically water so when you’re in this pool you become one with the water.”

During his own first Watsu session Balestrieri was reduced to tears. He decided then and there to share the “powerful and profound” therapy with others. Proponents of the practice claim that it quiets the sympathetic nervous system and aids in rehabilitating patients suffering injuries, stroke, anxiety or chronic pain such as that caused by fibromyalgia.

“It allows you to surrender, to get to your true essence,” he says. “We’re all aiming to get into that state of mindlessness; that’s where the healing process begins.”

alightsagharbor.com