🔗 Share this article

Light therapy is certainly having a surge in popularity. Consumers can purchase glowing gadgets designed to address skin conditions and wrinkles to sore muscles and oral inflammation, recently introduced is a toothbrush outfitted with tiny red LEDs, promoted by the creators as “a significant discovery in personal mouth health.” Internationally, the industry reached $1 billion in 2024 and is forecast to expand to $1.8 billion by 2035. Options include full-body infrared sauna sessions, which use infrared light to warm the body directly, the infrared radiation heats your body itself. As claimed by enthusiasts, the experience resembles using an LED facial mask, stimulating skin elasticity, easing muscle tension, reducing swelling and persistent medical issues while protecting against dementia.

Understanding the Evidence

“It feels almost magical,” observes a neuroscience expert, a scientist who has studied phototherapy extensively. Naturally, we know light influences biological functions. Our bodies produce vitamin D through sun exposure, essential for skeletal strength, immune function, and muscular health. Light exposure controls our sleep-wake cycles, additionally, stimulating neurotransmitter and hormone production during daytime, and signaling the body to slow down for nighttime. Daylight-simulating devices frequently help individuals with seasonal depression to combat seasonal emotional slumps. Clearly, light energy is essential for optimal functioning.

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, determining the precise frequency is essential. Light is a form of electromagnetic radiation, which runs the spectrum from the lowest-energy, longest wavelengths (radio waves) to high-energy gamma radiation. Light-based treatment uses wavelengths around the middle of this spectrum, including invisible ultraviolet radiation, then the visible spectrum we perceive as colors and infrared light visible through night vision technology.

UV light has been used by medical dermatologists for many years to manage persistent skin disorders including eczema and psoriasis. It modulates intracellular immune mechanisms, “and reduces inflammatory processes,” says Dr Bernard Ho. “Considerable data validates phototherapy.” UVA goes deeper into the skin than UVB, while the LEDs in consumer devices (which generally deliver red, infrared or blue light) “generally affect surface layers.”

Safety Considerations and Medical Oversight

The side-effects of UVB exposure, like erythema or pigmentation, are well known but in medical devices the light is delivered in a “narrow-band” form – indicating limited wavelength spectrum – which decreases danger. “Treatment is monitored by medical staff, meaning intensity is regulated,” notes the specialist. And crucially, the light sources are adjusted by technical experts, “to ensure that the wavelength that’s being delivered is fit for purpose – as opposed to commercial tanning facilities, where it’s a bit unregulated, and wavelength accuracy isn’t verified.”

Home Devices and Scientific Uncertainty

Colored light diodes, he explains, “aren’t typically employed clinically, though they might benefit some issues.” Red wavelength therapy, proponents claim, help boost blood circulation, oxygen absorption and skin cell regeneration, and promote collagen synthesis – a primary objective in youth preservation. “Studies are available,” states the dermatologist. “Although it’s not strong.” In any case, with numerous products on the market, “it’s unclear if device outputs match study parameters. Optimal treatment times are unknown, proper positioning requirements, whether or not that will increase the risk versus the benefit. There are lots of questions.”

Targeted Uses and Expert Opinions

Early blue-light applications focused on skin microbes, bacteria linked to pimples. Scientific backing remains inadequate for regular prescription – even though, says Ho, “it’s often seen in medical spas or aesthetics practices.” Individuals include it in their skincare practices, he observes, though when purchasing home devices, “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 a far-flung field of pioneering medical science, 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 results appear unrealistic. Yet, experimental evidence has transformed his viewpoint.

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 says. “I remained doubtful. It was an unusual wavelength of about 1070 nanometres, that nobody believed did anything biological.”

The advantage it possessed, though, was its ability to transmit through aqueous environments, meaning it could penetrate the body more deeply.

Cellular Energy and Neurological Benefits

More evidence was emerging at the time that infrared light targeted the mitochondria in cells. Mitochondria are the powerhouses of cells, generating energy for them to function. “Mitochondria exist throughout the body, including the brain,” says Chazot, 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, energy organelles generate minimal reactive oxygen compounds. In low doses this substance, says Chazot, “stimulates so-called chaperone proteins which look after your mitochondria, preserve cell function and eliminate damaged proteins.”

All of these mechanisms appear promising for treating a brain disease: antioxidant, swelling control, and cellular cleanup – self-digestion mechanisms eliminating harmful elements.

Current Research Status and Professional Opinions

When recently reviewing 1070nm research for cognitive decline, he reports, approximately 400 participants enrolled in multiple trials, comprising his early research projects