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Light therapy is clearly enjoying a moment. You can now buy glowing gadgets targeting issues like skin conditions and wrinkles to sore muscles and gum disease, recently introduced is a dental hygiene device enhanced with tiny red LEDs, promoted by the creators as “a breakthrough 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, where instead of hot coals (real or electric) heating the air, the infrared radiation heats your body itself. According to its devotees, it’s like bathing in one of those LED-lit beauty masks, boosting skin collagen, easing muscle tension, reducing swelling and chronic health conditions and potentially guarding against cognitive decline.

Research and Reservations

“It appears somewhat mystical,” observes Paul Chazot, professor in neuroscience at Durham University and a convert to the value of light therapy. Certainly, we know light influences biological functions. Sunlight helps us make vitamin D, essential for skeletal strength, immune function, and muscular health. Natural light synchronizes our biological clocks, additionally, triggering the release of neurochemicals and hormones while we are awake, and preparing the body for rest as darkness falls. Artificial sun lamps 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

Although mood lamps generally utilize blue-spectrum frequencies, most other light therapy devices deploy red or infrared light. In serious clinical research, such as Chazot’s investigations into the effects of infrared on brain cells, finding the right frequency is key. Light is a form of electromagnetic radiation, spanning from low-energy radio waves to short-wavelength gamma rays. Phototherapy, or light therapy employs mid-spectrum wavelengths, with ultraviolet representing the higher energy invisible light, then the visible spectrum we perceive as colors and finally infrared detectable with special equipment.

Dermatologists have utilized UV therapy for extensive periods for addressing long-term dermatological issues like vitiligo. It affects cellular immune responses, “and reduces inflammatory processes,” explains a dermatology expert. “Substantial research supports light therapy.” UVA goes deeper into the skin than UVB, whereas the LEDs we see on consumer light-therapy devices (typically emitting red, infrared or blue wavelengths) “typically have shallower penetration.”

Safety Considerations and Medical Oversight

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 minimises the risks. “It’s supervised by a healthcare professional, so the dosage is monitored,” notes the specialist. 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 regulations may be lax, and wavelength accuracy isn’t verified.”

Consumer Devices and Evidence Gaps

Red and blue light sources, he explains, “aren’t typically employed clinically, though they might benefit some issues.” Red wavelength therapy, proponents claim, help boost blood circulation, oxygen utilization and skin cell regeneration, and activate collagen formation – an important goal for anti-aging. “Studies are available,” comments the expert. “But it’s not conclusive.” Regardless, given the plethora of available tools, “we’re uncertain whether commercial devices replicate research conditions. Appropriate exposure periods aren’t established, how close the lights should be to the skin, whether or not that will increase the risk versus the benefit. There are lots of questions.”

Specific Applications and Professional Perspectives

Early blue-light applications focused on skin microbes, a microbe associated with acne. The evidence for its efficacy isn’t strong enough for it to be routinely prescribed by doctors – even though, explains the specialist, “it’s frequently employed in beauty centers.” Some of his patients use it as part of their routine, he observes, but if they’re buying a device for home use, “we just tell them to try it carefully and to make sure it has been assessed for safety. Unless it’s a medical device, standards are somewhat unclear.”

Advanced Research and Cellular Mechanisms

At the same time, in a far-flung field of pioneering medical science, scientists have been studying cerebral tissue, revealing various pathways for light-enhanced cell function. “Virtually all experiments with specific wavelengths showed beneficial and safeguarding effects,” he states. The numerous reported benefits have generated doubt regarding phototherapy – that results appear unrealistic. However, scientific investigation has altered his perspective.

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 created some devices so that we could work with them with cells and with fruit flies,” he explains. “I was pretty sceptical. This particular frequency was around 1070 nanometers, which most thought had no biological effect.”

The advantage it possessed, nevertheless, was that it travelled through water easily, allowing substantial bodily penetration.

Cellular Energy and Neurological Benefits

Additional research indicated infrared affected cellular mitochondria. Mitochondria produce ATP for cell function, generating energy for them to function. “Every cell in your body has mitochondria, particularly in neural cells,” explains the neuroscientist, who, as a neuroscientist, decided to focus the research on brain cells. “Research confirms improved brain blood flow with phototherapy, which is always very good.”

With specific frequency application, energy organelles generate minimal reactive oxygen compounds. In low doses this substance, explains the expert, “triggers guardian proteins that maintain organelle health, look after your cells and also deal with the unwanted proteins.”

All of these mechanisms appear promising for treating a brain disease: free radical neutralization, inflammation reduction, and pro-autophagy – autophagy being the process the cell uses to clear unwanted damaging proteins.

Current Research Status and Professional Opinions

When recently reviewing 1070nm research for cognitive decline, he states, about 400 people were taking part in four studies, comprising his early research projects