🔗 Share this article

Light therapy is certainly having a surge in popularity. Consumers can purchase illuminated devices targeting issues like complexion problems and aging signs to aching tissues and gum disease, the newest innovation is a dental hygiene device equipped with tiny red LEDs, marketed by the company as “a major advance in at-home oral care.” 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, where instead of hot coals (real or electric) heating the air, your body is warmed directly by infrared light. Based on supporter testimonials, it’s like bathing in one of those LED-lit beauty masks, enhancing collagen production, relaxing muscles, relieving inflammation and chronic health conditions while protecting against dementia.

Understanding the Evidence

“It feels almost magical,” says Paul Chazot, who has researched light therapy for two decades. Certainly, some of light’s effects on our bodies are well established. Our bodies produce vitamin D through sun exposure, crucial for strong bones, immune defense, and tissue repair. Light exposure controls our sleep-wake cycles, additionally, activating brain chemicals and hormonal responses in daylight, and preparing the body for rest as darkness falls. Sunlight-imitating lamps frequently help individuals with seasonal depression to elevate spirits during colder months. So there’s no doubt we need light energy to function well.

Types of Light Therapy

Although mood lamps generally utilize blue-spectrum frequencies, the majority of phototherapy tools use red or near-infrared wavelengths. During advanced medical investigations, such as Chazot’s investigations into the effects of infrared on brain cells, finding the right frequency is key. Photons represent electromagnetic waves, spanning from low-energy radio waves to short-wavelength gamma rays. 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 to manage persistent skin disorders including eczema and psoriasis. It modulates intracellular immune mechanisms, “and suppresses swelling,” notes a dermatology expert. “There’s lots of evidence for phototherapy.” UVA goes deeper into the skin than UVB, in contrast to LEDs in commercial products (usually producing colored light emissions) “tend to be a bit more superficial.”

Risk Assessment and Professional Supervision

UVB radiation effects, including sunburn or skin darkening, 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, thus exposure is controlled,” explains the dermatologist. Most importantly, the light sources are adjusted by technical experts, “to confirm suitable light frequency output – as opposed to commercial tanning facilities, where regulations may be lax, and we don’t really know what wavelengths are being used.”

Commercial Products and Research Limitations

Colored light diodes, he says, “aren’t typically employed clinically, but they may help with certain conditions.” Red wavelength therapy, proponents claim, help boost blood circulation, oxygen utilization and cell renewal in the skin, and activate collagen formation – an important goal for anti-aging. “The evidence is there,” comments the expert. “Although it’s not strong.” Regardless, with numerous products on the market, “it’s unclear if device outputs match study parameters. Appropriate exposure periods aren’t established, proper positioning requirements, the risk-benefit ratio. Numerous concerns persist.”

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 – even though, says Ho, “it’s commonly used in cosmetic clinics.” Some of his patients use it as part of their routine, he says, though when purchasing home devices, “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.”

Innovative Investigations and Molecular Effects

Meanwhile, in advanced research areas, scientists have been studying cerebral tissue, identifying a number of ways in which infrared can boost cellular health. “Pretty much everything I did with the light at that particular wavelength was positive and protective,” he states. The numerous reported benefits have generated doubt regarding phototherapy – that claims seem exaggerated. However, scientific investigation has altered his perspective.

Chazot mostly works on developing drug treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, though twenty years earlier, a doctor developing photonic antiviral treatment consulted his scientific background. “He designed tools for biological testing,” he recalls. “I remained doubtful. This particular frequency was around 1070 nanometers, that many assumed was biologically inert.”

The advantage it possessed, however, was its efficient water penetration, allowing substantial bodily penetration.

Cellular Energy and Neurological Benefits

Additional research indicated infrared affected cellular mitochondria. Mitochondria are the powerhouses of cells, creating power for cellular operations. “Mitochondria exist throughout the body, particularly in neural cells,” says Chazot, who, as a neuroscientist, decided to focus the research on brain cells. “Studies demonstrate enhanced cerebral circulation with light treatment, which is always very good.”

With 1070 treatment, energy organelles generate minimal reactive oxygen compounds. In limited quantities these molecules, says Chazot, “stimulates so-called chaperone proteins which look after your mitochondria, look after your cells and also deal with the unwanted proteins.”

These processes show potential for neurological conditions: oxidative protection, swelling control, and cellular cleanup – self-digestion mechanisms eliminating harmful elements.

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