Diet

The Road to Recovering Better Circulation, Stress Reduction, and Inflammation Support Using Multiple Therapies
The Road to Recovering Better Circulation, Stress Reduction, and Inflammation Support Using Multiple Therapies 1264 830 Recovery Lounge & Spa

If you live in metro Denver, you may have noticed that wellness isn’t just about gyms or doctor visits anymore. It’s becoming a connected system focused on recovery, science, and daily performance.

From contrast therapy studios to recovery spas, Denver is turning into a center for people who want to feel better every day, not just when problems arise. The key idea behind this change is that recovery is now about being proactive, not just reactive.

Denver’s Wellness Scene Wants Daily Optimization

Across Denver, more people want to experience a blend of science-backed methods into simple daily routines. Treatments like infrared saunas, cold plunges, compression therapy, and red light therapy, once reserved for elite athletes, are now available to anyone looking to feel and perform better.

Contrast therapy, which uses heat and cold, is a top trend in the area. This trend shows a growing focus on more intentional recovery, but why is that?

That’s because these services do more than make you feel good. They offer real health benefits like:

  • Circulation
  • Stress response
  • Inflammation levels
  • Sleep quality
  • Energy and focus

Where Recovery Meets Real Science

When you use these services, what’s happening in your body, and why is this important?

Circulation is at the Center of Everything

Infrared sauna therapy differs from traditional heat therapy by penetrating deeper into soft tissue to increase blood flow and cell activity. Circulation improves, promoting faster muscle recovery, delivering nutrients faster, and supporting heart function.

Cold exposure, such as cold plunges, causes blood vessels to constrict, then quickly dilate when you warm up. This pumping effect helps oxygen flow and speeds up recovery. It’s especially helpful in Denver’s dry, high-altitude air.

Training Your Nervous System in Stress Reduction

Contrast therapy, also known as “intentional stress,” is a controlled way to train your nervous system to better handle everyday stress. Together, it helps:

  • Improve mental strength
  • Reduce anxiety and burnout
  • Increase focus and clarity

Heat relaxes your body and activates the parasympathetic rest-and-digest system. Cold exposure triggers a spike in adrenaline and endorphins, which trains your nervous system.

Inflammation Support is the Silent Game-Changer

Inflammation lies at the root of many common discomforts. Fatigue, soreness, and brain fog can cause long-term health risks. Cold Therapy does:

  • Reduce inflammation
  • Relieve pain
  • Improve recovery speed

Therapies like compression and lymphatic drainage help move fluids through your body. These therapies reduce swelling and support detoxification, and mark the shift from reactive to preventative recovery.

The Role of Recovery Lounge & Spa in the Ecosystem

What sets Recovery Lounge & Spa apart is its ability to combine multiple therapies into a personal experience that goes beyond simple relaxation to support your body on a deeper level:

  • Infrared Sauna – supports detoxification, circulation, and inflammation reduction
  • Lymphatic Drainage and Massage – improves fluid movement, reduces swelling, and boosts immune response
  • PEMF Therapy – stimulates cellular repair and energy production
  • CranioSacral Therapy – calms the nervous system and relieves tension patterns

This aspect is where the idea of a “wellness ecosystem” really comes to life. Instead of focusing on just one solution, you support several systems at once:

  • Circulatory
  • Nervous
  • Lymphatic
  • Cellular

The ‘Consistency Beats Intensity’ Paradigm

You don’t need extreme routines, just consistent ones. Recovery Lounge & Spa memberships encourage regular visits because recovery results depend on how frequently you practice:

  • One session seems great
  • Consistent sessions produce measurable change

If you do recovery consistently over time, you notice that you get:

  • Better sleep
  • Less daily soreness
  • Enhanced mood and energy
  • Faster recovery from workouts or stress

How This Improves Daily Health Metrics

Here’s where it all connects to improve:

  • Circulation – better oxygen and energy
  • Stress response – better focus and mood
  • Inflammation – less pain and faster recovery

You’re not just “recovering,” you’re improving your overall health. That means:

  • You wake up feeling better
  • You recover faster from workouts or long workdays
  • You handle stress without burning out
  • You maintain consistency in your lifestyle

Recovery as a Lifestyle

Denver’s wellness scene is growing as more people realize that feeling good is a daily habit, not just an occasional thing. Recovery Lounge & Spa is shifting the mindset from “Fix it when it breaks” to “Support it every day,” where real, lasting wellness happens.

If you’re in metro Denver and want to feel better physically, mentally, and energetically, the path is simple. It’s all about consistent, science-backed recovery.

When your circulation improves, stress decreases, and inflammation stays in check, everything else in life feels easier. Take advantage of our Introduction to Recovery Lounge & Spa Special, where you choose three services from Sauan, PEMF, Foot Detox, Neurofeedback, and pay only a total of $99 for all three services.

You can also access more specials to connect with our great team and start your recovery path. Contact us at info@RecoveryLoungeandSpa.com or 303‑242‑6938 to share in our recovery wellness ritual to achieve your recovery and wellness goals.

3 Steps to Detox & Heal from Parasites
3 Steps to Detox & Heal from Parasites 1080 1080 Recovery Lounge & Spa

How to Detox & Heal from Parasites

If you suspect that you are struggling with parasites, the first thing to know is that parasites are very common. They can enter the body by ingestion of undercooked meat, raw fish, drinking contaminated water, walking barefoot on infected soils or swimming in infected waters. When a person’s immune system is functioning properly, it eliminates most of these before they have a chance to build up in the body tissues. Parasites can overrun the body’s systems during times of stress, major illness and with concussions.

9 Common Symptoms of Parasite Infection are :

  • Digestive Challenges – bloating/gas/constipation/nausea
  • Chronic Fatigue or Exhaustion – leading to mood changes/depression/personality changes/headaches/ memory issues/ brain fog
  • Skin Issues – unexplained rashes/hives/eczema/rosacea, etc. This occurs from an increase of  IgE in the system.
  • Muscular/ Joint Pain – that does not improve with other interventions
  • Anemia
  • Feeling Hungry Even After Eating
  • Itchiness – may be localized under the skin or can cause anal itch
  • Bruxism – grinding teeth while sleeping
  • Insomnia – parasites are nocturnal and lunar sensitive, during the full moon in particular.

If you are experiencing several of these symptoms or one symptom that is not responding to typical courses of treatment, it is possible that you may have parasites.

What Can I Do?!

Step 1: Open your Detox Pathways

As you are considering a parasite detox, it is important to understand that parasites absorb heavy metals while living in the body. This protects them like armor while they are alive and when they die, they release the heavy metals back into your body. This can cause a person to feel unwell and experience a variety of “detox” symptoms or a “herx response” as the parasites die. It is important to get the body’s lymphatic system moving properly so that when the tissues and organs release parasites and heavy metals, the body can eliminate them more easily. Regular use of Infrared Sauna, ionCleanse Foot Detox and Manual Lymphatic Drainage will aid your body with this process. Adding a 3rd party tested Chlorella supplement to your daily routine during this time will help your body to release the heavy metals and “disarms” the heavy metal armor that parasites hides behind.

Step 2: Modify your Diet

Avoid simple carbohydrates in your diet – refined foods, fruit, juice, dairy products and all types of sugar, except honey.  Parasites love sugar. 

Add – pumpkin seeds, pomegranate, carrots, beets, raw garlic and cilantro.

Increase your water intake – to help flush them out of your system.

Eat more fiber – this helps the bowels move regularly

Add Pre/Probiotics and Digestive Enzymes  – this will help your intestinal flora to rebalance, making it an unwelcome place for parasites.

Step 3: Work with a Healthcare Provider to Guide you in a Parasite Cleanse

Once your body is detoxing with ease and you are experiencing minimal to no “herx response”, you can safely begin a more aggressive parasite cleanse.

woman getting lymphatic massage

Lymphatic Drainage Massages Will Tell Your Hangover to Take a Hike
Lymphatic Drainage Massages Will Tell Your Hangover to Take a Hike 1707 2560 Recovery Lounge & Spa
by Lizzy Hill
Sourced from SheKnows

 

After a night of hitting the sake a little too hard in a Tokyo alleyway aptly nicknamed “drunkard’s alley,” I woke up in my tiny hotel with one of the worst hangovers of my life. I was traveling with one of my best friends, who’d just woken up too — only annoyingly, he was bright-eyed and chipper that morning. Somehow, he appeared totally unaffected by the fact that we’d been pounding tall tumblers full of sake the night before, convincing ourselves we could speak Japanese to the unfortunate locals we crossed paths with.

“What do you want to do today!?” he said eagerly, rattling off a list of places we could walk to.

“I want to move as little as humanly possible,” I said bitterly. Seeing his crestfallen face and realizing that we had a limited number of days to explore Tokyo, I realized I had to get myself together. I was desperate and would try literally anything to murder this hangover, so I booked a lymphatic drainage massage at a Shibuya spa called Natura that promised to remove toxins from my body — and man did they ever deliver. As it turns out, lymphatic drainage massages were the best hangover cure I’d never heard of.

Generally, I don’t go for woo-woo promises about toxin elimination, but positive reviews online made me think that there might be something to lymphatic drainage massages. These massages are huge in Asia, but still haven’t become mainstream in North America, though people are increasingly aware of them with many hailing them as the reason French women allegedly don’t get cellulite. Though in my experience, they have way more important benefits (because honestly, I’m just so tired of caring about cellulite).

But first of all, what in the world is a lymphatic drainage massage? As it turns out, it’s a special massage technique that focuses on your lymphatic system and helps trigger the natural movement of lymph, a clear fluid that gives waste products a ride out of your body.

My massage therapist lightly pushed and stretched my skin with her fingertips, focusing a lot on places other massage therapists generally skip — where your lymph nodes are located — like my armpits, back of my knees, face and chest. Though it felt kind of weird at first to have someone poking and prodding at me, I quickly relaxed and actually fell asleep on the table. When the massage was over, I felt like a million bucks, was light-headed and was shocked to notice my morning-after face looked different as the massage actually reduced fluid retention. My puffy eyes were gone and my cheeks actually looked more chiseled. I felt miraculously fresh and ready to take on my day, despite the fact that I’d drank like a fish the night before.

The scientific world is just catching up to the health benefits of lymphatic drainage massage, but research into its effects on the body appears to take a positive bent. For instance, a study in The Journal of Neuroscience on 32 male subjects found that this form of massage “was effective in reducing the activity of the sympathetic nervous system.” Translation? Lymphatic drainage massage will calm you the eff down as it slows down the fight-or-flight part of your nervous system that triggers adrenaline when under stress.

Part of the reason you feel so crappy when you’re hungover is because your sympathetic nervous system goes into overdrive. When alcohol dials up your sympathetic nervous system, symptoms can include “increased systolic blood pressure, rapid heartbeat (i.e., tachycardia), tremor and sweating,” according to research by Dr. Robert Swift and Dr. Dena Davidson. And that’s just the physical symptoms!

The mental symptoms can include: “ dizziness; a sense of the room spinning (i.e., vertigo); and possible cognitive and mood disturbances, especially depression, anxiety and irritability.” So this could partially explain why I felt so ridiculously good after my lymphatic drainage massage, as my massage therapist was actually slowing down my overtaxed sympathetic nervous system.

Natura Spa also claims that their lymphatic drainage massages can boost blood flow and are great for those with poor circulation, and I totally believe it. As it turns out drinking to excess also messes with your blood circulation, and these negative effects can be seen in as little as two drinks. Dr. John Floras, director of cardiology research at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre, studied the impacts of drinking on blood flow, and found that “two or more drinks would seem to turn on systems that stress the circulation.” But let’s be real here, sometimes most of us are going to have more than one glass of wine, and when we do, getting a lymphatic drainage massage that will help improve our circulation the next day may not be a bad idea.

That all being said, you should definitely avoid getting a massage if you’re still drunk, as most massage therapists seriously advise against doing that. And while a lymphatic drainage massage worked like a charm for me and cured my hangover, it’s important to be aware of what your own body needs. Communicate with your massage therapist if you are hungover and be sure to let them know if anything they’re doing feels uncomfortable in a bad way.

Of course, lymphatic drainage massages aren’t just for hungover messes — they can also help you stay healthy during cold and flu season, boost your immune system, help people who feel low energy, aid in your recovery from surgery and the list goes on. Why haven’t I been getting these my whole life?

If you don’t live in a big city or have extra cash to blow on massages, don’t fret! I was pleased to discover there are plenty of self-massage videos on YouTube for people hoping to try lymphatic drainage massages at home. So if you’re wondering what I’ve been up to lately, you’ll find me home curled up on the couch and self-massaging my lymph nodes while watching Mr. Robot — I highly recommend it!

Woman relaxing in spa

The Link between Detox and the Immune System
The Link between Detox and the Immune System 2560 1707 Recovery Lounge & Spa

How DOES detoxing improve your immune system?

  You may have heard from friends and trusted sources that detoxing or cleansing helps your immune system. But have you ever wondered why or wanted more of an explanation? Here at Recovery Lounge and Spa, we are curious people and like to seek out more information to answer these frequently asked questions.
  Our immune system plays an important role in protecting our body from toxins and other harmful substances. When toxins enter the body, our immune system recognizes them as foreign invaders and triggers an immune response, releasing antibodies and other chemicals to fight them off. This immune response can result in inflammation and other symptoms, depending on the type and frequency of toxins you’re being exposed to.
  Traditionally, health care providers have told us that eating a healthy diet, getting plenty of rest, and exercising regularly builds a strong immune system. Lots of people take it one step further and reduce exposure to environmental toxins by eating organic and replacing toxin household chemicals with nontoxic alternatives.
  Recently, we’ve heard some holistic health experts say that where diet and a healthy lifestyle used to be the key to a healthy immune system, lately and increasingly, improving your diet and lifestyle just doesn’t seem to be enough. This sparked our interest and we wanted to learn more.
  First, we wanted to know what are toxins exactly and where do they come from?
  Let’s start with toxins. When most of us think of toxins and limiting exposure to toxins we are actually thinking about “toxicants.” Toxicants are synthetic or manmade substances that we’re exposed to from beauty products, pollution, pesticides, and household cleaners. Those of us who jumped on the nontoxic bandwagon and have already swapped out the chemical based beauty products and household cleaners for natural and nontoxic cleaning products ask, haven’t I addressed that already?
  Reducing your exposure to toxicants in your household is a great first step. But, as the pandemic restrictions recede, we are spending less time at home and more time out and about. When we are out and about, we are exposed to commercial cleaning products and (since the pandemic) high levels of toxic pesticides in commercial disinfecting products intended to kill infectious viruses and bacteria like COVID. So, even when we reduce our exposures at home, we have very little control over what we are being exposed to in public spaces AND the amount of toxic substances being used to clean and disinfect those public spaces has increased exponentially over the past 2 years.
  Now, I am not advocating that we stop disinfecting in the face of COVID, that would be an unhelpful solution. And, at Recovery Lounge and Spa, we use commercial-grade nontoxic disinfectants so we’ve already taken extra steps to reduce your exposure to toxicants when you come to see us. But, in this climate of higher than ever exposure to toxicants through commercial disinfectants, we are suggesting that there might be a new and increased need, to help our bodies get rid of all the toxicants that we are exposed to on a daily basis out in the community and that’s where detoxing or cleansing comes in.
  Before we move on to solutions though, I want to talk more about toxins. When most of us think of toxic substances, we are thinking of the manmade toxins or “toxicants.” But there’s a whole other variety of naturally occurring toxins that are produced by living organisms, such as bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungi, and mold. These types of toxins are left behind in our bodies every time our immune system fights off a virus, cold, or flu and COVID in particular, leaves behind a high toxin load.
  So, if your family feels like they can’t get a break this cold and flu season, there might be a good reason why. As we’ve all heard on the news, the viruses might be particularly more contagious this year or our immune systems may have been weakened by wearing masks and social distancing. But another contributing factor might also be that our bodies are struggling under the high toxin load left behind from COVID and RSV. That, in combination with a constant exposure to toxicants from the physical environment taxes our system to rid the body of all the toxins from the last illness and rebound fully before getting hit by another. This can have a compounding effect with each illness and be particularly difficult for kids with immature detoxification pathways and for pregnant people or people with already compromised immune systems.
  This is where detoxing and cleansing can help. When you have lingering fatigue after an illness or symptoms that just don’t seem go away, these can be signs that your body is struggling to break down toxins left behind by the virus or bacteria that caused the illness.
  Our Detox and Immunity Boost day spa package was designed to help rid your body of toxins at every level, so your body doesn’t have to work so hard to get rid of them and you can feel better faster.
  We’ll start you off with Infrared Sauna and PEMF Therapy. The Infrared Sauna detoxes your body on a cellular level, helping your body to release toxins stored in the cells. PEMF Therapy increases circulation to help open up detox pathways so your body can move the toxins. You’ll finish with our IonCleanse Footbath which helps your body to release toxins through pores in your feet and starts a 2-3 day full body detox process.
  If you really want to take your immune system to the next level, combine our Detox and Immunity spa package with a Lymphatic Massage. Lymphatic Massage helps to physically move and flush the lymphatic system which is responsible for removing toxins and pathogens from your blood and it increases lymph circulation 1000% for up to 32hrs after your massage.
  For those of you who can’t seem to get better and stay well this winter, we recommend Sauna & PEMF followed by Lymphatic Massage and Foot Detox for the ultimate immune system flush and reset.
  If you really want to take your immune system & resilience to the next level, detoxing and cleansing monthly, as a part of your regular healthcare regimen helps to reduce the toxic baseline inside your body. So when you are exposed to bacteria or a virus, your body can have a swift and targeted response to a single invader, rather than a systemic level immune response, reacting to all of the toxins in your body at once.
  This may be one factor playing a role in why some people get sicker than others when exposed to the same illness or why some people have more trouble recovering from illness than others.
  Here at Recovery Lounge and Spa, we know that not everyone’s body functions the same. And, in some cases, more detox is not better. So, for those of you who are struggling with autoimmune challenges, Lyme and mold, be sure to consult our suggested modifications before scheduling multiple services in one day.
  In our next blog post, How Detoxing can Change your Life, we’ll share stories from some of our guests and ask one of our community health partners why they recommend detoxing to their patients.

The Role of Diet in Chronic Inflammation & Pain
The Role of Diet in Chronic Inflammation & Pain 2560 1709 Recovery Lounge & Spa
I haven’t had any white sugar in over a year. People tend to respond with shock and/or disbelief, and will say things like, “I couldn’t do that,” or “Wow. You really have willpower,” or “That’s amazing!” The long and short of it is that sugar makes me feel really bad. I wish it didn’t. I wish I could indulge occasionally and have it be okay, but time after time my body shows me that it’s just not for me. I even have to limit the alternatives that I am able to tolerate: coconut sugar, agave, honey, and very occasional maple syrup. If I feel a rush or have a crash, I know it was too much. I have a slew of chronic health issues, most stemming from a mild traumatic brain injury I sustained a decade ago, and I have had to learn through trial and error what works for me and what doesn’t. When I started researching to try and gain an understanding of what was happening to me, I learned that inflammation was likely at the root of most of it. This article from Nature explains: “Although intermittent increases in inflammation are critical for survival during physical injury and infection, recent research has revealed that certain social, environmental and lifestyle factors can promote systemic chronic inflammation (SCI) that can, in turn, lead to several diseases that collectively represent the leading causes of disability and mortality worldwide, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and autoimmune and neurodegenerative disorders. In the present Perspective we describe the multi-level mechanisms underlying SCI and several risk factors that promote this health-damaging phenotype, including infections, physical inactivity, poor diet, environmental and industrial toxicants and psychological stress.” It was really fascinating to learn about, because as I moved out of the acute injury phase, one way that I described what was happening was that I felt stuck in fight or flight, and also, “It’s like my whole body went haywire.” Super technical terms, I know, but as it turns out, my whole body really DID go haywire. Early on I figured out that gluten was very inflammatory for me, and eliminating it from my diet had a huge positive impact. I also discovered which foods were causing allergic reactions and eliminated those as well. A lot of the experts say that dairy is inflammatory for everyone. I have found that organic, full fat dairy in moderation is okay for me. However, I can’t tolerate soy. Every body is different! Even though at the time I didn’t have this excellent advice from Dr. Mark Hyman, this is essentially what I did: 1. Eat a whole food, high fiber, plant-based diet which is inherently anti-inflammatory.⁣⁣ 2. Eat healthy fats from olive oil, nuts, avocados and omega 3 fats from small fish like sardines, herring, sable, and wild salmon.⁣⁣ 3. Exercise.⁣⁣ 4. Learn to actively relax to engage your vagus nerve, the powerful nerve that relaxes your whole body and lowers inflammation, by doing yoga, meditation, deep breathing or even taking a hot bath.⁣⁣ 5. If you have food allergies, find out what they are and stop eating them.⁣⁣ 6. Take probiotics (“good bacteria”) daily to help your digestion to improve the healthy bacteria in your gut which reduces inflammation.⁣⁣ 7. Take a multi-vitamin and mineral supplement which helps reduce inflammation.⁣ The holidays are a difficult time for needing to be on a specialized diet, whether that’s due to allergies, inflammation, preference, or other reasons. Over the years after letting go of the foods that are inflammatory for me, I’ve had to learn how to adapt. That often means I’m making and bringing my own food to gatherings, but over time I’ve gotten used to it, and I really have fun experimenting with making new versions of well-loved treats. I’ve had success creating an alternative recipe for my favorite ginger molasses cookies, and my next experiment is going to be homemade eggnog, as that is something that I definitely miss this time of year. What works for me is not going to work for everyone. Health is a very individual experience. However, if you are dealing with chronic health issues, taking a close look at diet, limiting or eliminating inflammatory foods, and optimizing your nutrition as you’re able can really help overall health. From there you can adapt traditions or create new ones! Learn more about anti-inflammatory foods from Harvard Health. In addition to diet changes, having access to our detoxifying and vagus nerve activating modalities (particularly NeurOptimal® and the infrared sauna) here at the Denver Recovery Lounge has also been key for me in attaining an anti-inflammatory lifestyle. I continue to see improvements and feel better and better each day!    
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