🔗 Share this article

Light-based treatment is clearly enjoying a surge in popularity. Consumers can purchase illuminated devices for everything from skin conditions and wrinkles to aching tissues and periodontal issues, recently introduced is a toothbrush enhanced with small red light diodes, described by its makers as “a significant discovery in personal mouth health.” Worldwide, the market was worth $1bn in 2024 and is projected to grow to $1.8bn by 2035. Options include full-body infrared sauna sessions, which use infrared light to warm the body directly, 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, soothing sore muscles, alleviating inflammatory responses and persistent medical issues as well as supporting brain health.

Understanding the Evidence

“It sounds a bit like witchcraft,” observes Paul Chazot, professor in neuroscience at Durham University and a convert to the value of light therapy. Certainly, 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, additionally, stimulating neurotransmitter and hormone production during daytime, and winding down bodily functions for sleep as it fades into night. Daylight-simulating devices are a common remedy for people with seasonal affective disorder (Sad) to boost low mood in winter. So there’s no doubt we need light energy to function well.

Types of Light Therapy

Whereas seasonal affective disorder devices typically employ blue-range light, consumer light therapy products mostly feature red and infrared emissions. In rigorous scientific studies, including research on infrared’s impact on neural cells, identifying the optimal wavelength is crucial. Light is a form of electromagnetic radiation, spanning from low-energy radio waves to high-energy gamma radiation. Therapeutic light application employs mid-spectrum wavelengths, with ultraviolet representing the higher energy invisible light, followed by visible light encompassing rainbow colors and then infrared (which we can see with night-vision goggles).

UV light has been used by medical dermatologists for many years to treat chronic skin conditions such as eczema, psoriasis and vitiligo. It modulates intracellular immune mechanisms, “and dampens down inflammation,” notes a skin specialist. “Considerable data validates phototherapy.” UVA reaches deeper skin layers compared to UVB, while the LEDs in consumer devices (which generally deliver red, infrared or blue light) “typically have shallower penetration.”

Safety Protocols and Medical Guidance

UVB radiation effects, including sunburn or skin darkening, are understood but clinical devices employ restricted wavelength ranges – signifying focused frequency bands – that reduces potential hazards. “Therapy is overseen by qualified practitioners, so the dosage is monitored,” explains the dermatologist. Essentially, the devices are tuned by qualified personnel, “to confirm suitable light frequency output – unlike in tanning salons, where oversight might be limited, and we don’t really know what wavelengths are being used.”

Home Devices and Scientific Uncertainty

Red and blue light sources, he explains, “don’t have strong medical applications, but could assist with specific concerns.” Red wavelength therapy, proponents claim, help boost blood circulation, oxygen uptake and dermal rejuvenation, and promote collagen synthesis – a key aspiration in anti-ageing effects. “Studies are available,” states the dermatologist. “Although it’s not strong.” Nevertheless, given the plethora of available tools, “it’s unclear if device outputs match study parameters. Appropriate exposure periods aren’t established, ideal distance from skin surface, the risk-benefit ratio. There are lots of questions.”

Treatment Areas and Specialist Views

Early blue-light applications focused on skin microbes, microorganisms connected to breakouts. Research support isn’t sufficient for standard medical recommendation – despite the fact that, notes the dermatologist, “it’s often seen in medical spas or aesthetics practices.” Individuals include it in their skincare practices, he says, however for consumer products, “we recommend careful testing and security confirmation. Unless it’s a medical device, the regulation is a bit grey.”

Innovative Investigations and Molecular Effects

At the same time, in advanced research areas, 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 reports. The numerous reported benefits have generated doubt regarding phototherapy – that it’s too good to be true. However, scientific investigation has altered his perspective.

The scientist mainly develops medications for neurological conditions, but over 20 years ago, a GP who was developing an antiviral light treatment for cold sores sought his expertise as a biologist. “He designed tools for biological testing,” he says. “I was pretty sceptical. This particular frequency was around 1070 nanometers, which most thought had no biological effect.”

The advantage it possessed, though, was its ability to transmit through aqueous environments, allowing substantial bodily penetration.

Cellular Energy and Neurological Benefits

Additional research indicated infrared affected cellular mitochondria. These organelles generate cellular energy, producing fuel for biological processes. “All human cells contain mitochondria, particularly in neural cells,” explains the neuroscientist, who prioritized neurological investigations. “It has been shown that in humans this light therapy increases blood flow into the brain, which is consistently beneficial.”

Using 1070nm wavelength, mitochondria also produce a small amount of a molecule known as reactive oxygen species. In low doses this substance, explains the expert, “activates protective proteins that safeguard mitochondria, protect cellular integrity and manage defective proteins.”

All of these mechanisms appear promising for treating a brain disease: antioxidant, inflammation reduction, and cellular cleanup – autophagy being the process the cell uses to clear unwanted damaging proteins.

Ongoing Study Progress and Specialist Evaluations

When recently reviewing 1070nm research for cognitive decline, he states, approximately 400 participants enrolled in multiple trials, incorporating his preliminary American studies