BioMat Massage: Heat that heals
For sore, aching muscles and joints, few things are more soothing than a professional massage or a warm heating pad. At White Lotus Salon & Massage in Fayetteville, you can get both at the same time.
Massage Therapist Debi Lambeth uses a BioMat on her massage table. The BioMat is a specialized heating pad that uses amethyst quartz crystals. The crystals use a light wave technology to generate heat and negative ions, which can relieve pain, boost the immune system and improve circulation. The BioMat delivers heat without subjecting the body to electromagnetic waves produced by traditional heating pads.
Lambeth first learned about the BioMat from a client. “He mentioned that his dentist had this mat-thing in a relaxation room that he puts clients in to get them relaxed.”
She went to the dentist office to try it out. Lambeth says she went in really stressed out, but after fifteen minutes on the BioMat she was completely relaxed. “It really changed my attitude.”
Her clients love it. Client Ruthie Graen suffers from arthritis caused by scar tissue from three surgeries: back surgery for a shattered disc in her lower back and surgery on both knees damaged by running.
“In winter when it’s super cold I get achy all the time,” Graen says. “The BioMat relaxes me from head to foot. The heat lets you get rid of stress and if you have any type of arthritis, it helps.”
When Lambeth first got the information on the mat, it was so expensive, she talked herself out of it, but couldn’t get it out of her mind. She finally decided to get one when her boyfriend at the time was having hip replacement surgery and she thought it would help with his healing.
“It’s portable so during his recovery time I would pack it up and bring it home and have him use it over the weekend,” Lambeth says. “He had a very quick recovery. I think it helped reduce the pain and inflammation and swelling. It’s good in speeding up recovery time.”
That was three years ago. The BioMat has become an integral part of her treatments. “It helps put clients into a relaxed state, so they don’t fight me when I’m doing massage. They don’t tense up. It relaxes the muscles in a way that makes my job easier.”
Graen confirmed that just lying on the mat for a few minutes before her massage helps her relax and makes the massage more effective.
The mat has rows of amethyst crystals covered with quilted material. A clear plastic window down one side let you see the crystals. The mat uses three things to provide its benefits: the crystals, negative ions and infrared heat.
“How you feel at the ocean or just before a thunderstorm. It’s the negative ions in the air that causes that,” Lambeth says. “It increases the serotonin levels. That’s what puts you in a peaceful state of mind. It also increases the amount of oxygen flow to the brain and gives you mental energy.”
The ancient Greeks believed Amethyst crystals had healing powers. They believed Amethyst protected a person from the intoxicating effects of alcohol. Modern believers say it has a purifying effect on the body.
The crystals also give you the benefit of heat without the electromagnetic waves of electric blankets and heating pads, which use electric coils.
“The lack of electric coils protects you from having electromagnetic frequencies entering your body,” Lambeth says. “The BioMat receives signals through a computer system, which acts as an interceptor to prevent the electromagnetic frequencies from entering your body.”
“Clients comment on how relaxing it is,” Lambeth says. “How peaceful they feel. How good the heat feels on the muscles. I have lots of clients who have arthritis comment about how good the heat feels on the muscles.”
Lambeth says one client, who walked with a cane, said he had never been pain free since an old injury. “It really got his attention. During the time lying on the table, he was pain free.”
Graen was so impressed with the BioMat that she bought two for use at home. One full-length mat for use on her side of her bed at night, and a mini-mat designed to fit in a chair.
“I bought it for my husband to use in our RV,” Graen says, “but it’s light enough that at night we can throw it in the back and use it at night (when traveling).”
The mat has three heat levels. On the lower setting, power only, it produces negative ions, but no heat. On it’s lowest heat setting of 95 to 104 degrees, it’s safe to sleep on all night. The highest setting, up to 158 degrees is used for sauna level cleansing and detoxification.
“It speeds up your immunity even at 104 level,” Lambeth says. “At a certain degree, your body thinks it has a fever, so the elevated temperature makes your body thinks its getting sick, so it activates the immune system.”
The heat the BioMat produces is a type of infrared heat called far infrafred heat, energy produced in the form of light from the invisible area of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Lambeth says clients who come in with a heachache or joint stiffness say they leave not only relaxed, but with a peaceful feeling and sense of well being.
