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Light therapy is definitely experiencing a moment. There are now available illuminated devices for everything from skin conditions and wrinkles along with sore muscles and oral inflammation, the latest being an oral care tool enhanced with miniature red light sources, promoted by the creators as “a significant discovery in at-home oral care.” Worldwide, the market was worth $1bn in 2024 and is projected to grow to $1.8bn by 2035. You can even go and sit in an infrared sauna, 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, soothing sore muscles, relieving inflammation and persistent medical issues as well as supporting brain health.

Research and Reservations

“It sounds a bit like witchcraft,” says a neuroscience expert, a scientist who has studied phototherapy extensively. Certainly, some of light’s effects on our bodies are well established. Sunlight enables vitamin D production, crucial for strong bones, immune defense, and tissue repair. Light exposure controls our sleep-wake cycles, additionally, stimulating neurotransmitter and hormone production during daytime, and signaling the body to slow down for nighttime. Sunlight-imitating lamps are a common remedy for people with seasonal affective disorder (Sad) to boost low mood in winter. Clearly, light energy is essential for optimal functioning.

Various Phototherapy Approaches

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, finding the right frequency is key. 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, then visible light (all the colours we see in a rainbow) and infrared light visible through night vision technology.

Dermatologists have utilized UV therapy for extensive periods to manage persistent skin disorders including eczema and psoriasis. It affects cellular immune responses, “and suppresses swelling,” says Dr Bernard Ho. “Substantial research supports light therapy.” UVA reaches deeper skin layers compared to UVB, in contrast to LEDs in commercial products (usually producing colored light emissions) “typically have shallower penetration.”

Safety Considerations and Medical Oversight

The side-effects of UVB exposure, such as burning or tanning, 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,” says Ho. And crucially, the devices are tuned by qualified personnel, “to ensure that the wavelength that’s being delivered is fit for purpose – as opposed to commercial tanning facilities, where oversight might be limited, and we don’t really know what wavelengths are being used.”

Consumer Devices and Evidence Gaps

Red and blue light sources, he says, “aren’t really used in the medical sense, but they may help with certain conditions.” Red wavelength therapy, proponents claim, improve circulatory function, oxygen uptake and dermal rejuvenation, and stimulate collagen production – a primary objective in youth preservation. “The evidence is there,” comments the expert. “However, it’s limited.” In any case, with numerous products on the market, “we don’t know whether or not the lights emitted are reflective of the research that has been done. Optimal treatment times are unknown, how close the lights should be to the skin, if benefits outweigh potential risks. There are lots of questions.”

Targeted Uses and Expert Opinions

Early blue-light applications focused on skin microbes, a microbe associated with acne. Scientific backing remains inadequate for regular prescription – even though, says Ho, “it’s commonly used in cosmetic clinics.” Individuals include it in their skincare practices, he says, however for consumer products, “we recommend careful testing and security confirmation. If it’s not medically certified, oversight remains ambiguous.”

Advanced Research and Cellular Mechanisms

Simultaneously, in innovative scientific domains, researchers have been testing neural cells, discovering multiple mechanisms for infrared’s cellular benefits. “Nearly every test with precise light frequencies demonstrated advantageous outcomes,” he reports. Multiple claimed advantages have created skepticism toward light treatment – that results appear unrealistic. But his research has thoroughly changed his mind in that respect.

The scientist mainly develops medications for neurological conditions, but over 20 years ago, a physician creating light-based cold sore therapy requested his biological knowledge. “He developed equipment for cellular and insect experiments,” he explains. “I was pretty sceptical. It was an unusual wavelength of about 1070 nanometres, that many assumed was biologically inert.”

What it did have going for it, however, was its ability to transmit through aqueous environments, meaning it could penetrate the body more deeply.

Mitochondrial Effects and Brain Health

Additional research indicated infrared affected cellular mitochondria. Mitochondria are the powerhouses of cells, producing fuel for biological processes. “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 generally advantageous.”

With specific frequency application, cellular power plants create limited oxidative molecules. In limited quantities these molecules, says Chazot, “stimulates so-called chaperone proteins which look after your mitochondria, protect cellular integrity and manage defective proteins.”

Such mechanisms indicate hope for cognitive disorders: free radical neutralization, anti-inflammatory, and waste removal – autophagy representing cellular waste disposal.

Present Investigation Status and Expert Assessments

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