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Phototherapy is clearly enjoying a wave of attention. You can now buy glowing gadgets designed to address complexion problems and aging signs along with aching tissues and periodontal issues, the latest being a dental hygiene device equipped with miniature red light sources, marketed by the company as “a significant discovery in at-home oral care.” Internationally, the industry reached $1 billion in 2024 and is forecast to expand to $1.8 billion by 2035. You can even go and sit in an infrared sauna, where instead of hot coals (real or electric) heating the air, the thermal energy targets your tissues immediately. Based on supporter testimonials, it’s like bathing in one of those LED-lit beauty masks, boosting skin collagen, relaxing muscles, relieving inflammation and persistent medical issues while protecting against dementia.

Research and Reservations

“It sounds a bit like witchcraft,” notes a Durham University professor, a scientist who has studied phototherapy extensively. Of course, some of light’s effects on our bodies are well established. Our bodies produce vitamin D through sun exposure, crucial for strong bones, immune defense, and tissue repair. Natural light synchronizes our biological clocks, as well, stimulating neurotransmitter and hormone production during daytime, and preparing the body for rest as darkness falls. Sunlight-imitating lamps are a common remedy for people with seasonal affective disorder (Sad) to boost low mood in winter. Undoubtedly, light plays a vital role in human health.

Different Light Modalities

Whereas seasonal affective disorder devices typically employ blue-range light, most other light therapy devices deploy red or infrared light. In rigorous scientific studies, including research on infrared’s impact on neural cells, identifying the optimal wavelength is crucial. Light constitutes electromagnetic energy, which runs the spectrum from the lowest-energy, longest wavelengths (radio waves) to short-wavelength gamma rays. Light-based treatment uses wavelengths around the middle of this spectrum, with ultraviolet representing the higher energy invisible light, then the visible spectrum we perceive as colors and then infrared (which we can see with night-vision goggles).

UV light has been used by medical dermatologists for many years for addressing long-term dermatological issues like vitiligo. It affects cellular immune responses, “and dampens down inflammation,” notes a skin specialist. “Substantial research supports light therapy.” UVA reaches deeper skin layers compared to UVB, in contrast to LEDs in commercial products (which generally deliver red, infrared or blue light) “tend to be a bit more superficial.”

Risk Assessment and Professional Supervision

Potential UVB consequences, like erythema or pigmentation, are understood but clinical devices employ restricted wavelength ranges – indicating limited wavelength spectrum – which decreases danger. “Therapy is overseen by qualified practitioners, thus exposure is controlled,” notes the specialist. And crucially, the lightbulbs are calibrated by medical technicians, “to ensure that the wavelength that’s being delivered is fit for purpose – unlike in tanning salons, where regulations may be lax, and emission spectra aren’t confirmed.”

Commercial Products and Research Limitations

Red and blue LEDs, he explains, “aren’t typically employed clinically, but could assist with specific concerns.” Red LEDs, it is proposed, improve circulatory function, oxygen absorption and skin cell regeneration, and promote collagen synthesis – a key aspiration in anti-ageing effects. “Research exists,” says Ho. “However, it’s limited.” Regardless, given the plethora of available tools, “it’s unclear if device outputs match study parameters. We don’t know the duration, proper positioning requirements, whether or not that will increase the risk versus the benefit. Numerous concerns persist.”

Targeted Uses and Expert Opinions

Initial blue-light devices addressed acne bacteria, a microbe associated with acne. Research support isn’t sufficient for standard medical recommendation – although, notes the dermatologist, “it’s commonly used in cosmetic clinics.” Individuals include it in their skincare practices, he mentions, though when purchasing home devices, “we recommend careful testing and security confirmation. If it’s not medically certified, oversight remains ambiguous.”

Innovative Investigations and Molecular Effects

Simultaneously, in a far-flung field of pioneering medical science, researchers have been testing neural cells, revealing various pathways for light-enhanced cell function. “Pretty much everything I did with the light at that particular wavelength was positive and protective,” he states. It is partly these many and varied positive effects on cellular health that have driven skepticism about light therapy – that it’s too good to be true. Yet, experimental evidence has transformed his viewpoint.

Chazot mostly works on developing drug treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, however two decades past, a physician creating light-based cold sore therapy requested his biological knowledge. “He designed tools for biological testing,” he recalls. “I was pretty sceptical. This particular frequency was around 1070 nanometers, that many assumed was biologically inert.”

The advantage it possessed, nevertheless, was its ability to transmit through aqueous environments, enabling deeper tissue penetration.

Cellular Energy and Neurological Benefits

More evidence was emerging at the time that infrared light targeted the mitochondria in cells. Mitochondria are the powerhouses of cells, generating energy for them to function. “Mitochondria exist throughout the body, including the brain,” notes the researcher, who, as a neuroscientist, decided to focus the research on brain cells. “It has been shown that in humans this light therapy increases blood flow into the brain, which is consistently beneficial.”

With specific frequency application, energy organelles generate minimal reactive oxygen compounds. At controlled levels these compounds, explains the expert, “stimulates so-called chaperone proteins which look after your mitochondria, protect cellular integrity and manage defective proteins.”

These processes show potential for neurological conditions: oxidative protection, swelling control, and pro-autophagy – autophagy being the process the cell uses to clear unwanted damaging proteins.

Current Research Status and Professional Opinions

The last time Chazot checked the literature on using the 1070 wavelength on human dementia patients, he says, approximately 400 participants enrolled in multiple trials, incorporating his preliminary American studies