🔗 Share this article

Light-based treatment is certainly having a wave of attention. You can now buy illuminated devices designed to address skin conditions and wrinkles along with muscle pain and gum disease, recently introduced is a dental hygiene device outfitted with tiny red LEDs, marketed by the company as “a significant discovery in personal mouth health.” Internationally, the sector valued at $1bn last year is expected to increase to $1.8bn within the next decade. Options include full-body infrared sauna sessions, which use infrared light to warm the body directly, your body is warmed directly by infrared light. As claimed by enthusiasts, it’s like bathing in one of those LED-lit beauty masks, boosting skin collagen, easing muscle tension, alleviating inflammatory responses and persistent medical issues and potentially guarding against cognitive decline.

Understanding the Evidence

“It sounds a bit like witchcraft,” notes a neuroscience expert, a scientist who has studied phototherapy extensively. Of course, some of light’s effects on our bodies are well established. Sunlight helps us make vitamin D, essential for skeletal strength, immune function, and muscular health. Natural light synchronizes our biological clocks, too, triggering the release of neurochemicals and hormones while we are awake, and signaling the body to slow down for nighttime. Daylight-simulating devices are standard treatment for winter mood disorders to elevate spirits during colder months. So there’s no doubt we need light energy to function well.

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, such as Chazot’s investigations into the effects of infrared on brain cells, identifying the optimal wavelength is crucial. Light is a form of electromagnetic radiation, extending from long-wavelength radiation to short-wavelength gamma rays. Therapeutic light application utilizes intermediate light frequencies, including invisible ultraviolet radiation, then visible light (all the colours we see in a rainbow) and finally infrared detectable with special equipment.

Ultraviolet treatment has been employed by skin specialists for decades to treat chronic skin conditions such as eczema, psoriasis and vitiligo. It affects cellular immune responses, “and suppresses swelling,” notes Dr Bernard Ho. “There’s lots of evidence for phototherapy.” UVA penetrates skin more deeply than UVB, whereas the LEDs we see on consumer light-therapy devices (typically emitting red, infrared or blue wavelengths) “tend to be a bit more superficial.”

Safety Considerations and Medical Oversight

The side-effects of UVB exposure, like erythema or pigmentation, are recognized but medical equipment uses controlled narrow-band delivery – meaning smaller wavelengths – which decreases danger. “Therapy is overseen by qualified practitioners, so the dosage is monitored,” 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 – 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

Red and blue LEDs, he notes, “don’t have strong medical applications, though they might benefit some issues.” Red LEDs, it is proposed, improve circulatory function, oxygen uptake and skin cell regeneration, and promote collagen synthesis – an important goal for anti-aging. “The evidence is there,” comments the expert. “However, it’s limited.” Regardless, given the plethora of available tools, “we don’t know whether or not the lights emitted are reflective of the research that has been done. We don’t know the duration, ideal distance from skin surface, the risk-benefit ratio. There are lots of questions.”

Treatment Areas and Specialist Views

Initial blue-light devices addressed acne bacteria, a microbe associated with acne. Research support isn’t sufficient for standard medical recommendation – despite the fact that, says Ho, “it’s commonly used in cosmetic clinics.” Certain patients incorporate it into their regimen, he observes, however for consumer products, “we just tell them to try it carefully and to make sure it has been assessed for safety. If it’s not medically certified, oversight remains ambiguous.”

Cutting-Edge Studies and Biological Processes

Simultaneously, in advanced research areas, researchers have been testing neural cells, identifying a number of ways in which infrared can boost cellular health. “Virtually all experiments with specific wavelengths showed beneficial and safeguarding effects,” he states. The numerous reported benefits have generated doubt regarding phototherapy – that claims seem exaggerated. But his research has thoroughly changed his mind in that respect.

The scientist mainly develops medications for neurological conditions, however two decades past, 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 remained doubtful. This particular frequency was around 1070 nanometers, which most thought had no biological effect.”

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

Mitochondrial Effects and Brain Health

Growing data suggested infrared influenced energy-producing organelles. Mitochondria are the powerhouses of cells, creating power for cellular operations. “Every cell in your body has mitochondria, particularly in neural cells,” says Chazot, who concentrated on cerebral applications. “Studies demonstrate enhanced cerebral circulation with light treatment, which is consistently beneficial.”

With 1070 treatment, mitochondria also produce a small amount of a molecule known as reactive oxygen species. In limited quantities these molecules, explains the expert, “activates protective proteins that safeguard mitochondria, preserve cell function and eliminate damaged proteins.”

All of these mechanisms appear promising for treating a brain disease: oxidative protection, swelling control, and pro-autophagy – 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 reports, several hundred individuals participated in various investigations, including his own initial clinical trials in the US