Red Light Therapy Scam Alert! What Do 9,188 Studies Say?

Does Red Light Therapy Require Lasers?

The first red light therapy discovery used a laser accidentally set to a very low energy output. The researchers realized that the light, not the heat, did the healing. In 2001, NASA commissioned a study of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and whether they could substitute for low-energy lasers.

The LEDs helped Navy Seals heal faster from training wounds. LEDs were as effective as lasers at healing the body.

The difference between an LED and a laser is how the devices send light to the target. Lasers send a column of light that concentrates the light into a hot spot. LEDs send light out in a cloud of photons that do not create that hot spot. Since heat is counterproductive to light therapy, lasers have no advantage over LEDs.

How Does Red Light Therapy Work?

The electron transport chain in the mitochondria makes adenosine triphosphate, the energy currency of the cells. Mitochondria fail due to injury, disease, and aging. Red light therapy energizes the mitochondria that power healing and repair. It also opens the blood vessels, allowing nutrition and oxygen to support more healing and repair.

Red light therapy photons absorb in the electron transport chain, adding electron energy back to the energy factory. With the photon energy, the mitochondria can ramp up adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production, which gives the cells the energy they need to repair cells and tissues. In the skin, this produces collagen and elastin.

This produces fibroblasts in the bones. In the brain, it stimulates non-inflammatory immunity, which removes plaque and tangles and energizes neural repair.

How to Find the Science

Red light therapy is not pseudoscience, as thousands of studies support its use for healing. This is so hard to comprehend because red light therapy heals so many problems; it seems like it must be a gimmick.

Red light therapy heals better than some drugs. To find the science, you need to know the vocabulary. Red light therapy has over 70 names, which can make searching for it somewhat tedious. One of the least-used names in the scientific literature is “red light therapy,” compounding the research problem.

Out of the thousands of successful studies in the links below, I selected five at random to demonstrate that red light therapy is not pseudoscience.

Search for Photobiomodulation Science

“Photobiomodulation” is the use of photons (packets of light) to change (modulate) biology (bio). If you search the US government’s scientific database for photobiomodulation, you will find 2,233 results (as of July 2022).

Click here for a pubmed.gov photobiomodulation search (opens in a new window). You can read successful red light therapy studies, such as photobiomodulation (red light therapy) to: (these links open to pubmed.gov in new browser windows).

• reduce neck pain
• accelerated dental healing
• accelerated wound healing
• muscle atrophy recovery
• reduction of brain amyloid plaque deposits

Search for Low-Level Light Therapy Science

Click here for a pubmed.gov “low-level light therapy” search (opens in a new window). There are 7,247 articles as of February 2023. You can read successful red light therapy studies, such as using low-level light therapy (red light therapy) to: (these links open to pubmed.gov in new browser windows)

• reduced dental swelling
• reduced pain from receiving shots
• increased neural plasticity (brain health)
• prevention and reduction of oral mucositis
• reduction of melasma

Search for Cold Laser Science

Click here to view “cold laser” science (these links open to pubmed.gov in new browser windows):

• improved horse muscle function
• arthritic pain reduction
• Bell Palsy symptom reduction
• increase the success rate of vascular dilation surgery
• improved wound healing

Who Uses Red Light Therapy

Did you notice that the “cold laser” science includes horse therapy articles? Veterinarians were one of the first medical groups to adopt red light therapy. Chiropractors, always advocates of non-pharmacological therapies, were also early adopters of red light therapy. Veterinarians and chiropractors use red light therapy to speed wound healing and reduce pain. Spa owners were early adopters of red light therapy. They noted benefits to skin health and rejuvenation.

Studies show red light therapy triggers collagen and elastin. Biohackers discovered that red light therapy works on the mitochondria, the energy factories in our cells. They adopted it to recharge their bodies. Athletes and their trainers adopted red light therapy for injury repair and post-exercise healing. Red light therapy reduces delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS).

Ultraviolet (UV) light is therapeutic but not low-energy and is, therefore, not “red light therapy.” Dermatologists use UV light to treat psoriasis. UV is unavailable in home light devices because it is dangerous to the eyes and skin. Blue and infrared can harm the eyes but are available in home devices. UV is more dangerous.

Red Light Therapy Science

Aging Skin Studies

Low-Level Light Therapy (LLLT) is “possibly the ultimate non-invasive approach to treating the skin.” – Dr. Michael Hamblin Using infrared, red, and blue light therapy on the skin has many benefits, and no known negative side effects exist. Red light therapy increases collagen, reduces wrinkles, reduces sagging, evens skin tone, and smoothes pigmentation. Use red and Infrared on the skin to:

• reduce wrinkles
• reduce redness
• reduce inflammation
• reduce psoriasis and acne
• reduce fine lines
• reduce pigmentation*
• increase vitiligo skin pigmentation*
• reduce age spots
• reduce photodamage
• improve skin texture
• improve skin firmness
• increase lymphatic system activity
• heal non-melanoma skin cancer
• rejuvenate skin
• speed wound healing
• protect from UV sunburn
• treat UV exposure

*If red light increases unwanted pigment, ensure you are not getting infrared heat. If the light is cool and the situation continues, discontinue infrared light. Use Yellow/Amber/Orange Light Therapy to:

• reduce wrinkles
• reduce fine lines
• reduce inflammation

(source)

Red and infrared light reduce fine lines and wrinkles. They stimulate collagen and elastin, which fill out creases. In a study of 76 patients, researchers gave red, infrared, or a combination to one-half of each participant’s face. Wrinkles were reduced by as much as 36%, and elasticity increased by as much as 19%. The red, the infrared, and the combination group had similar gains. (source)

In another study testing red light in vitro, researchers found that red light alone reversed collagen downregulation, meaning that the skin produced more collagen than normal. Collagen reduces wrinkles and fine lines. (source)

A third study tested the effect of blue, red, and infrared on the lymph system. They found that stimulation with any of these lights increased lymphatic system activity. That activity correlated with reduced wrinkles, reduced hyperpigmentation, enhanced glow, increased collagen, and decreased acne. (source)

Acne Studies

Multiple studies using blue, red, infrared, or some combination of these lights show that light therapy heals acne. Blue light reduces inflammation and kills bacteria. The result is reduced oil and pimples. Green and blue light kill the bacterium P. acnes, one of the causes of acne. Red and blue combined significantly reduce acne symptoms.

In one study testing blue and red light, blue light, white light, and benzyl peroxide, researchers found that the combination of blue and red light had the greatest ability to reduce acne lesions. The group receiving blue and red simultaneously had a 76% reduction in inflammatory lesions. (source, source).

Another study included blue and red but treated patients with each color on different days. One day, they got red light treatment; the next session, they got blue light therapy. 22 patients receiving alternating red and blue therapy saw an 81% lesion reduction at 12 weeks. (source, source)

In a study of red and infrared without blue light, researchers found that red light significantly reduced acne, but that infrared light did not. (source) In one study, researchers treated acne patients with two wavelengths of red light: 635 nm and 670 nm. The patients got a very low dose of energy per session, but they got 112 treatments over two months (2 times a day for eight weeks). At the end of the study, the acne blemish count fell by 51%. (source) (source)

I’ve included more acne studies in the EMF Light Therapy Dose Database, which you can view at this link (opens in a new window).

Eye Studies

WARNING: Many vendors, enthusiasts, and researchers dismiss concerns about eye damage from light therapy. Blue light certainly can harm the eyes, and infrared light can cause cataracts over the long term. I err on the side of caution. Talk with your ophthalmologist before exposing your eyes to light therapy.

Red light therapy can enhance an older person’s ability to see color. Older eyes lose the ability to distinguish colors. This is not a disease but a normal body part that is tiring out with age. The part of the eye that perceives the color blue loses strength with age. Eyes lose the ability to make energy. The mitochondria are responsible for producing energy. The mitochondria in the eyes tire out.

Red light specializes in inducing the mitochondria to make energy. Therefore, red light therapy is a perfect fit for tired mitochondria in the eyes. In one study, patients received 670 nm red light in the dominant eye. One group was under 40, and the other was over 40. The young people did not experience vision changes. People over 40 gained back their ability to distinguish the color blue. (source) (source)

Pain Relief Studies

Red light therapy has an anti-inflammatory and analgesic effect on pain. The inflammation reduction reduces pain triggers. The analgesic effect numbs the pain. Researchers tested red light therapy on breast augmentation patients.

Doctors shined a 635 nm red light at the incisions while the patients were still on the table. The light doses were relatively low. Patients did a self-assessment 24 hours after surgery. 76% of the patients who had received red light treatment reported at least 30% less pain than the control group. These patients asked for less pain medication, too. (source) (source)

Hair Growth Studies

Red light therapy helps hair grow in many types of baldness, but not all types. In one study, researchers gave balding patients high doses of red light. They received three shades of red: 630 nm, 650 nm, and 660 nm. Each patient was treated for 168 days. By the end of the 24-week (6-month) period, all patients had grown hair. Their hair was thicker and denser than at the start of the study.

In another study, balding women were treated with one shade of 655 nm red light. Each patient received 60 treatments of high-dose red light over 16 weeks. On average, the treated women grew 37% more hair than those in the untreated control group. (source) (source) (source) (source)

Weight Loss Studies

WARNING: Note the protocol you have to do for this to work. It’s not an automatic freebie!

Red light therapy can induce cells to open micropores through which the triglycerides fall into the spaces between the fat cells.

If the user exercises immediately after treatment, she can shed the loosened fat through the lymphatic system.

The FDA allows this process in commercial treatments, a proven concept.

Think of it less like a red light therapy device for weight loss, but more fat and inflammation reduction.

It is often not as easy as it sounds. It helps not to eat before the session, and exercise after light therapy is required. If you point the red light at fat and it does not reduce, look at the eating and exercise schedule. In addition, drink water after therapy to flush the system.

In one study, researchers treated patients’ fat with 635 nm red light embedded in wraps around their arms. The dose was relatively low. After two weeks and six sessions, the patients’ arm size reduced from losing fat. Arm sizes dropped an average of 3.7 cm or 1.4 inches. In the original study showing how red light affects fat, researchers looked at treated fat cells under an electron microscope. They took pictures of the deflated fat cells that had just let go of their fat and water. It took only a relatively low dose of 635 nm red light to release the fat during a single treatment. (source) (source) (source) (source)

Conclusion

Red light therapy has overwhelming scientific backing from over 9,000 studies, proving it is not a gimmick or scam. It works by energizing the mitochondria and increasing blood flow, allowing it to treat a wide range of conditions effectively.

While the name is a misnomer since it utilizes various light wavelengths, such as blue, green, and infrared, low-level light therapy delivers therapeutic benefits without heat or lasers. These benefits span anti-aging, acne reduction, hair regrowth, weight loss, and pain relief, as the light triggers cellular repair and regeneration.

Use the right terms to find red light therapy science. Start with “photobiomodulation” and “low-level light therapy.” Red light therapy is a viable, noninvasive treatment option supported by robust scientific evidence across multiple disciplines.