🔗 Share this article

Light therapy is definitely experiencing a moment. You can now buy illuminated devices for everything from skin conditions and wrinkles along with muscle pain and gum disease, the latest being a toothbrush outfitted with small red light diodes, described by its makers as “a breakthrough in at-home oral care.” Worldwide, the market was worth $1bn in 2024 and is projected to grow to $1.8bn by 2035. There are even infrared saunas available, where instead of hot coals (real or electric) heating the air, the thermal energy targets your tissues immediately. According to its devotees, it’s like bathing in one of those LED-lit beauty masks, boosting skin collagen, relaxing muscles, reducing swelling and persistent medical issues and potentially guarding against cognitive decline.

Understanding the Evidence

“It sounds a bit like witchcraft,” observes a Durham University professor, professor in neuroscience at Durham University and a convert to the value of light therapy. Certainly, certain impacts of light on human physiology are proven. Sunlight helps us make vitamin D, essential for skeletal strength, immune function, and muscular health. Sunlight regulates our circadian rhythms, too, activating brain chemicals and hormonal responses in daylight, and winding down bodily functions for sleep as it fades into night. Sunlight-imitating lamps are standard treatment for winter mood disorders to boost low mood in winter. So there’s no doubt we need light energy to function well.

Different Light Modalities

While Sad lamps tend to use a mixture of light frequencies from the blue end of the spectrum, most other light therapy devices deploy red or infrared light. During advanced medical investigations, like examinations of infrared influence on cerebral tissue, determining the precise frequency is essential. Photons represent electromagnetic waves, extending from long-wavelength radiation to high-energy gamma radiation. Phototherapy, or light therapy uses wavelengths around the middle of this spectrum, the highest energy of those being invisible ultraviolet, then visible light (all the colours we see in a rainbow) and then infrared (which we can see with night-vision goggles).

Dermatologists have utilized UV therapy for extensive periods to treat chronic skin conditions such as eczema, psoriasis and vitiligo. It modulates intracellular immune mechanisms, “and dampens down inflammation,” explains a skin specialist. “There’s lots of evidence for phototherapy.” UVA reaches deeper skin layers compared to UVB, while the LEDs in consumer devices (typically emitting red, infrared or blue wavelengths) “typically have shallower penetration.”

Safety Protocols and Medical Guidance

Potential UVB consequences, including sunburn or skin darkening, are well known but in medical devices the light is delivered in a “narrow-band” form – meaning smaller wavelengths – which decreases danger. “Therapy is overseen by qualified practitioners, so the dosage is monitored,” explains the dermatologist. Essentially, the devices are tuned by qualified personnel, “to ensure that the wavelength that’s being delivered is fit for purpose – different from beauty salons, where it’s a bit unregulated, and we don’t really know what wavelengths are being used.”

Commercial Products and Research Limitations

Colored light diodes, he explains, “aren’t typically employed clinically, but they may help with certain conditions.” Red wavelength therapy, proponents claim, help boost blood circulation, oxygen utilization and skin cell regeneration, and activate collagen formation – a primary objective in youth preservation. “Studies are available,” says Ho. “However, it’s limited.” Regardless, amid the sea of devices now available, “it’s unclear if device outputs match study parameters. Appropriate exposure periods aren’t established, ideal distance from skin surface, if benefits outweigh potential risks. There are lots of questions.”

Specific Applications and Professional Perspectives

Early blue-light applications focused on skin microbes, bacteria linked to pimples. Research support isn’t sufficient for standard medical recommendation – even though, notes the dermatologist, “it’s commonly used in cosmetic clinics.” Individuals include it in their skincare practices, he observes, though when purchasing home devices, “we recommend careful testing and security confirmation. If it’s not medically certified, standards are somewhat unclear.”

Advanced Research and Cellular Mechanisms

At the same time, in advanced research areas, scientists have been studying cerebral tissue, identifying a number of ways in which infrared can boost cellular health. “Nearly every test with precise light frequencies demonstrated advantageous outcomes,” he says. Multiple claimed advantages have created skepticism toward light treatment – that it’s too good to be true. But his research has thoroughly changed his mind in that respect.

The researcher primarily focuses on pharmaceutical solutions for brain disorders, but over 20 years ago, a physician creating light-based cold sore therapy requested his biological knowledge. “He designed tools for biological testing,” he recalls. “I was quite suspicious. This particular frequency was around 1070 nanometers, which most thought had no biological effect.”

The advantage it possessed, however, was its efficient water penetration, meaning it could penetrate the body more deeply.

Mitochondrial Impact and Cognitive Support

Growing data suggested infrared influenced energy-producing organelles. Mitochondria are the powerhouses of cells, generating energy for them to function. “Every cell in your body has mitochondria, particularly in neural cells,” says Chazot, 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, cellular power plants create limited oxidative molecules. In limited quantities these molecules, notes the scientist, “activates protective proteins that safeguard mitochondria, look after your cells and also deal with the unwanted proteins.”

These processes show potential for neurological conditions: antioxidant, inflammation reduction, and cellular cleanup – 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 states, several hundred individuals participated in various investigations, incorporating his preliminary American studies