Longevity LexiconReference

Reference works on longevity practices

Everything known.
Including the weak parts.

Most writing about longevity practices is either marketing or a shrug. This is neither. Each entry is a full reference work: the mechanism from first principles, the peer-reviewed evidence graded honestly, the strongest counterargument given equal room, and the marketing claims checked against the physics.

The libraryEntries


Entry 01 · Live
Löyly & Light
Sauna and thermal therapy

Traditional and infrared sauna compared from first principles. Eight chapters covering heat-transfer physics, the full evidence base outcome by outcome, twenty-two thermal room types, a buying decision with real installed costs, design and engineering specifications, protocols, and safety including drug interactions.

~32,000 words 202 linked citations 8 chapters Updated 17 Aug 2026
In research
Cold exposure and contrast bathing

Cold plunge, contrast circuits, and the question the sauna literature keeps flagging as unanswered: the heat-plus-cold combination is the traditional practice and remains, in the reviewers' own words, poorly investigated. Includes the cold-after-lifting question.

In research
Red light and photobiomodulation

Wavelengths, irradiance, dose, and the gap between what photobiomodulation trials actually used and what a panel bolted into a cabin wall delivers. The dosing question that sauna marketing skips.

Planned
The self-experiment log

Does a PEMF mat do anything measurable. Does red light. Do the cheap versions work well enough. One person, one metabolic condition, documented honestly, including the null results.

How these are builtThe editorial standard


Six rules, applied to every entry. They are the reason these read differently from the rest of the category.

  1. Grade the evidence, and show the grade.Strong, moderate, weak or absent, with the sample size, effect size and confidence interval visible so you can reach a different conclusion than we did.
  2. Put the counterargument next to the finding.Not in a footnote. The Löyly & Light mortality section carries the reverse-causation critique on the same page as the headline hazard ratios, because that is what an honest reader needs.
  3. Never borrow evidence across interventions.Traditional sauna research is not infrared evidence and the reverse is also true. Almost every misleading claim in the wellness category comes from crossing that line.
  4. Quote the sample size with the effect size."Sauna improved endurance 32%" is true, and it comes from six runners. Both facts belong in the same sentence.
  5. Prefer the meta-analysis to the striking single study.Where a pooled estimate exists, that is the honest number, even when it is far less exciting.
  6. Check the marketing against the physics.When a vendor claims far infrared penetrates 1.5 inches, go and find the measured penetration depth. It is 0.2 to 2 millimetres.

No affiliate links, no sponsorships, no manufacturer relationships

Nothing here is monetised through product recommendations, and there are no referral links in any entry. If that changes, it will be disclosed at the top of the affected page rather than buried in a footer.

AudienceWho this is for


People about to spend money

Buying a sauna, a plunge, a light panel. You want to know what the evidence actually supports before a four-figure decision, and you have noticed that every review site is paid.

People designing facilities

Spa, hotel, gym, clinic. You need dimensional targets, heater sizing, ventilation schemes, capacity planning and code references, not lifestyle photography.

People who read the studies

You want the citation, the sample size and the primary source, and you want to be told when the one randomised multicentre trial missed its primary endpoint.