Red Light Therapy Just Went From Wellness Trend to Real Medicine — Here Are 13 Studies That Prove It

ByCaroline Bogart Updated on
Megelin Red Light Therapy Mask Review 6
This post might contain affiliate links. This is not medical advice. Read my disclosures and disclaimers.

Red light therapy just went from “wellness trend” to “real medicine” and most people missed it.

Here’s what the science dropped in the last 12 months:

  • UT Austin + University of Porto combined near-infrared LED light with tin-oxide nanoflakes and killed 92% of skin cancer cells in 30 minutes. Healthy cells? Untouched. (Published in ACS Nano.)
  • University of Pittsburgh found red light lowers blood clot risk. They’re now building red light goggles for clinical trials.
  • A 2026 meta-analysis showed repeated low-level red light therapy significantly slows myopia progression in kids. Over 1,000 children studied.
  • Transcranial photobiomodulation is in active Alzheimer’s and TBI trials. Early results: reduced neuroinflammation, improved cognition, increased cerebral blood flow.
  • 21 international experts published a consensus in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology: PBM is safe for adults. Red light does NOT cause DNA damage.
  • A head & neck cancer trial (ASTRO 2025, 85 patients): PBM cut severe oral mucositis by 36% during radiation and by 70% at two weeks post-treatment. 98% treatment adherence. Zero device-related adverse events.
  • An obesity study found red light increased resting energy expenditure by ~9% in women with obesity. (Non-obese group saw no change.)
  • Kala Therapy was named Official Wellness Recovery Partner of Team Canada for the 2026 and 2028 Olympic Games.
  • A University of Utah + BYU study tracked 26 NCAA Division I football players across a 16-week season. Players who received transcranial PBM (810 nm, 3x/week) showed zero brain deterioration on post-season MRI. The sham group? Increased neuroinflammation and reduced white matter integrity. The lead researcher’s reaction: “There’s no way this can be real.” A 300-person DoD-funded follow-up trial with veterans and first responders is now recruiting.
  • A randomized controlled trial in Brazil gave infrared PBM to long COVID patients who’d lost their sense of smell. 68% of the infrared group responded, compared to just 26% of controls. 37.5% of infrared patients recovered to fully normal smell. Controls who recovered to normal? Zero percent.
  • Researchers from Brazil and the University of Pennsylvania ran a double-blind RCT on 62 allergic rhinitis patients. Eight sessions of intranasal red + infrared light over 4 weeks significantly improved nasal airflow (p < 0.001) and symptom control scores. The mechanism appears to act on mucosal inflammation rather than sensory neurons.
  • A double-blind pilot trial gave 43 adults with long COVID brain fog daily 20-minute transcranial PBM sessions for 8 weeks. The active group showed significant gains in visual attention and pattern recognition — with the strongest effects in participants under 45. Published in eClinicalMedicine (The Lancet family).
  • A multicenter RCT across three hospitals in China studied adults with acute cervical spinal cord injury. Seven days of PBM (810 nm) after decompression surgery led to significant improvements in motor scores and quality of life at 3 and 6 months versus surgery alone.

This isn’t fringe anymore. Stanford, UCLA, UT Austin, and the NIH are all publishing on it.

The mechanism: red/near-infrared light hits cytochrome c oxidase in your mitochondria, boosting ATP production, reducing oxidative stress, and modulating inflammation at the cellular level.

We’re watching a therapy move from “biohacker hobby” to clinical standard in real time.

What’s the most surprising finding on this list to you?

References

Caroline helps people find comfort and relief using red light therapy, pain relief devices and mobility scooters. She understands how challenging chronic pain can be and so is passionate about introducing people to tools that can make a real difference.

Similar Posts