🔗 Share this article

Light-based treatment is clearly enjoying a moment. Consumers can purchase light-emitting tools designed to address skin conditions and wrinkles to aching tissues and oral inflammation, the newest innovation is an oral care tool enhanced with miniature red light sources, described by its makers as “a major advance for domestic dental hygiene.” Worldwide, 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, where instead of hot coals (real or electric) heating the air, your body is warmed directly by infrared light. As claimed by enthusiasts, it feels similar to a full-body light therapy session, boosting skin collagen, relaxing muscles, relieving inflammation and persistent medical issues while protecting against dementia.

Research and Reservations

“It feels almost magical,” notes Paul Chazot, a scientist who has studied phototherapy extensively. Certainly, some of light’s effects on our bodies are well established. Sunlight enables vitamin D production, needed for bone health, immunity, muscles and more. Natural light synchronizes our biological clocks, too, activating brain chemicals and hormonal responses in daylight, and preparing the body for rest as darkness falls. Artificial sun lamps frequently help individuals with seasonal depression to elevate spirits during colder months. Clearly, light energy is essential for optimal functioning.

Types of Light Therapy

Whereas seasonal affective disorder devices typically employ blue-range light, the majority of phototherapy tools use red or near-infrared wavelengths. In rigorous scientific studies, like examinations of infrared influence on cerebral tissue, finding the right frequency is key. Photons represent electromagnetic waves, which runs the spectrum from the lowest-energy, longest wavelengths (radio waves) to high-energy gamma radiation. Therapeutic light application 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).

UV light has been used by medical dermatologists for many years for addressing long-term dermatological issues like vitiligo. It works on the immune system within cells, “and suppresses swelling,” explains a skin specialist. “Considerable data validates phototherapy.” UVA penetrates skin more deeply than UVB, in contrast to LEDs in commercial products (typically emitting red, infrared or blue wavelengths) “tend to be a bit more superficial.”

Risk Assessment and Professional Supervision

UVB radiation effects, including sunburn or skin darkening, are recognized but medical equipment uses controlled narrow-band delivery – meaning smaller wavelengths – which decreases danger. “It’s supervised by a healthcare professional, so the dosage is monitored,” notes the specialist. And crucially, the lightbulbs are calibrated by medical technicians, “to guarantee appropriate wavelength emission – unlike in tanning salons, where it’s a bit unregulated, and we don’t really know what wavelengths are being used.”

Home Devices and Scientific Uncertainty

Colored light diodes, he notes, “don’t have strong medical applications, but they may help with certain conditions.” Red light devices, some suggest, improve circulatory function, oxygen utilization and dermal rejuvenation, and promote collagen synthesis – a primary objective in youth preservation. “Research exists,” comments the expert. “Although it’s not strong.” Regardless, given the plethora of available tools, “it’s unclear if device outputs match study parameters. Optimal treatment times are unknown, ideal distance from skin surface, the risk-benefit ratio. There are lots of questions.”

Targeted Uses and Expert Opinions

Early blue-light applications focused on skin microbes, bacteria linked to pimples. The evidence for its efficacy isn’t strong enough for it to be routinely prescribed by doctors – despite the fact that, explains the specialist, “it’s commonly used in cosmetic clinics.” Some of his patients use it as part of their routine, he mentions, however for consumer products, “we just tell them to try it carefully and to make sure it has been assessed for safety. Without proper medical classification, standards are somewhat unclear.”

Cutting-Edge Studies and Biological Processes

Meanwhile, in innovative scientific domains, Chazot has been experimenting with brain cells, revealing various pathways for light-enhanced cell function. “Nearly every test with precise light frequencies demonstrated advantageous outcomes,” he states. The numerous reported benefits have generated doubt regarding phototherapy – that it’s too good to be true. However, scientific investigation has altered his perspective.

Chazot mostly works on developing drug treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, though twenty years earlier, a GP who was developing an antiviral light treatment for cold sores sought his expertise as a biologist. “He developed equipment for cellular and insect experiments,” he says. “I remained doubtful. This particular frequency was around 1070 nanometers, that many assumed was biologically inert.”

Its beneficial characteristic, however, was its efficient water penetration, enabling deeper tissue penetration.

Mitochondrial Effects and Brain Health

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. “All human cells contain mitochondria, including the brain,” explains the neuroscientist, who concentrated on cerebral applications. “Studies demonstrate enhanced cerebral circulation with light treatment, which is always very good.”

Using 1070nm wavelength, mitochondria also produce a small amount of a molecule known as reactive oxygen species. At controlled levels these compounds, says Chazot, “triggers guardian proteins that maintain organelle health, protect cellular integrity and manage defective proteins.”

All of these mechanisms appear promising for treating a brain disease: free radical neutralization, 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, including his own initial clinical trials in the US