‘It seems like sorcery’: is light therapy truly capable of improving your skin, whitening your teeth, and strengthening your joints?

Light-based treatment is certainly having a moment. There are now available illuminated devices designed to address dermatological concerns and fine lines to sore muscles and gum disease, the latest being a dental hygiene device enhanced with tiny red LEDs, promoted by the creators as “a major advance in at-home oral care.” Worldwide, the sector valued at $1bn last year is expected to increase to $1.8bn within the next decade. Options include full-body infrared sauna sessions, which use infrared light to warm the body directly, the infrared radiation heats your body itself. Based on supporter testimonials, it’s like bathing in one of those LED-lit beauty masks, stimulating skin elasticity, relaxing muscles, alleviating inflammatory responses and persistent medical issues and potentially guarding against cognitive decline.

Understanding the Evidence

“It sounds a bit like witchcraft,” observes a Durham University professor, a scientist who has studied phototherapy extensively. Naturally, certain impacts of light on human physiology are proven. Sunlight helps us make vitamin D, needed for bone health, immunity, muscles and more. Sunlight regulates our circadian rhythms, as well, activating brain chemicals and hormonal responses in daylight, and winding down bodily functions for sleep as it fades into night. Artificial sun lamps frequently help individuals with seasonal depression to elevate spirits during colder months. Clearly, light energy is essential for optimal functioning.

Various Phototherapy Approaches

Whereas seasonal affective disorder devices typically employ blue-range light, consumer light therapy products mostly feature red and infrared emissions. In rigorous scientific studies, including research on infrared’s impact on neural cells, finding the right frequency is key. Light is a form of electromagnetic radiation, extending from long-wavelength radiation to high-energy gamma radiation. Light-based treatment uses wavelengths around the middle of this spectrum, with ultraviolet representing the higher energy invisible light, followed by visible light encompassing rainbow colors and infrared light visible through night vision technology.

Ultraviolet treatment has been employed by skin specialists for decades for addressing long-term dermatological issues like vitiligo. It affects cellular immune responses, “and suppresses swelling,” says Dr Bernard Ho. “There’s lots of evidence for phototherapy.” UVA penetrates skin more deeply than UVB, in contrast to LEDs in commercial products (typically emitting red, infrared or blue wavelengths) “typically have shallower penetration.”

Safety Considerations and Medical Oversight

UVB radiation effects, including sunburn or skin darkening, are understood but clinical devices employ restricted wavelength ranges – meaning smaller wavelengths – that reduces potential hazards. “Treatment is monitored by medical staff, so the dosage is monitored,” says Ho. Most importantly, the light sources are adjusted by technical experts, “to confirm suitable light frequency output – as opposed to commercial tanning facilities, where it’s a bit unregulated, and wavelength accuracy isn’t verified.”

Commercial Products and Research Limitations

Colored light diodes, he explains, “don’t have strong medical applications, but could assist with specific concerns.” Red LEDs, it is proposed, enhance blood flow, oxygen uptake and skin cell regeneration, and activate collagen formation – 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. Appropriate exposure periods aren’t established, proper positioning requirements, whether or not that will increase the risk versus the benefit. Many uncertainties remain.”

Targeted Uses and Expert Opinions

Initial blue-light devices addressed acne bacteria, a microbe associated with acne. Research support isn’t sufficient for standard medical recommendation – despite the fact that, notes the dermatologist, “it’s often seen in medical spas or aesthetics practices.” Individuals include it in their skincare practices, he says, but if they’re buying a device for home use, “we recommend careful testing and security confirmation. Without proper medical classification, oversight remains ambiguous.”

Innovative Investigations and Molecular Effects

Meanwhile, in advanced research areas, scientists have been studying cerebral tissue, discovering multiple mechanisms for infrared’s cellular benefits. “Nearly every test with precise light frequencies demonstrated advantageous outcomes,” he reports. It is partly these many and varied positive effects on cellular health that have driven skepticism about light therapy – 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 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 recalls. “I remained doubtful. It was an unusual wavelength of about 1070 nanometres, that many assumed was biologically inert.”

What it did have going for it, though, was that it travelled through water easily, meaning it could penetrate the body more deeply.

Cellular Energy and Neurological Benefits

Growing data suggested infrared influenced energy-producing organelles. Mitochondria are the powerhouses of cells, producing fuel for biological processes. “Every cell in your body has mitochondria, even within brain tissue,” 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, cellular power plants create limited oxidative molecules. In low doses this substance, 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: oxidative protection, anti-inflammatory, and cellular cleanup – autophagy being the process the cell uses to clear unwanted damaging proteins.

Present Investigation Status and Expert Assessments

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