**1. Introduction**

#### **1.1. A far infrared ray (FIR) energy**

The power of the energy radiated from any material is dependent on the temperature. For example, the sun with the temperature of 6,000°C at the surface and ~15,000,000°C at the depths radiates the radio-magnetic ray with from the weak to the strong energy. The radiomagnetic ray with strong energy is absorbed before the arrives at the surface of the earth. But, if a human bathe in the ultraviolet ray even if it arrives only about 0.6% of whole ultraviolet ray radiated by the sun, the surface of skin is burned and strongly damaged. If the cell is poured the large quantities of ultraviolet ray, the DNA of nuclear is injured to induce a liver spot, freckles and aging of skin. Still more, it is thought that the immunity is inhibited and a cataract and a skin cancer can be induced by the ultraviolet ray. It was thought that the sunlight arrived at the surface of earth was finally composed of the ultraviolet ray (UVA, UVB) of 6%, the visible ray of 52% and the infrared ray of 42%. It was well known that the energy of these lights bring a lots of the good effects for living bodies. The other sides, the materials on the earth we are living radiated the narrow range of energy from 5 to 50**μ**m in FIR under 30°C by getting the energy of sunlight.

In other words, thought the radiating energy on the earth creating a life was only FIR of 5~50**μ**m by getting the energy of visual ray and FIR, the earth was filled with the energy of only FIR of narrow range. It was means that the energy of FIR may make contribution to the birth of a life. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) reported which ray indispensable for the maintenance of the life was FIR of 4~20**μ**m as the artificial sun in the space station. Therefore, it comes to a conclusion that the FIR is the raising ray for the living body (Fig.1). Recently, there have been many studies of the effects of FIR on health and food preservation. The available evidence indicates that whole-body FIR irradiation has

© 2012 Yamashita, licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2012 Yamashita, licensee InTech. This is a paper distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2012 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

biological effects [1-7]. Whole-body FIR irradiation is believed to improve human health and sleep by enhancing blood circulation in the skin [1, 2]. However, the effects of FIR on cells are not clearly understood. These thinking let me realize that there are a lot of natural materials radiating strongly the energy of FIR as a charcoal, stone, soil and tree. So, these natural materials were being used for our studies on the energy of FIR.

The Effects of the Far-Infrared Ray (FIR) Energy Radiation on Living Body 273

Black body Ryolite

**Figure 2.** The photograph of the rhyolite

Dis

p

ersio

n r

a

dia

tio

n (

W

/

・s

tr・μ

m)

m2

**Figure 3.** The radiation energy of the far infrared ray from the radiator

The powder of rhyolite showed the antibacterial action to the Staphylococcus aureus ATCC6538P at 1/5012. The adhesive sheet with the 15% powder of rhyolite showed at 1/1995. Still more, the paint containg the 10 % powder of rhyolite showed the antibacterial

Wavelength (μm)

action to the Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus MRSAIID 1677 at 1/5012.

**Figure 1.** The classes of the electromagnetic wave by the wave length μm
