Red Light Therapy Tesosterone Boost: Light Up Your Balls

If Tucker Carlson told you to shine a light on your balls, would you do it? Carlson might be right about using light to increase testosterone, but the evidence is a bit sparse.

Takeaways:

Red light therapy for testosterone (by shining a therapy light on your balls) is safe and possibly effective at raising testosterone levels. So, using a red light therapy lamp the right way might help. I will show you how to buy a red light, where to put it, and how long to expose yourself.

Shining Red Light Therapy on the Balls

Men using red light therapy on the balls are reporting anecdotal testosterone increases. Biohacker Ben Greenfield said red light therapy to the balls increased his testosterone levels. Red light therapy is safe; ultraviolet light from the sun is a trickier question. Ultraviolet light, however, is not a toy.

Get the Right Dose

Dosing is critical to getting the job done. Too little or too much light will ruin the experiment. I will show you some shortcuts to getting the dosage just right.

How to Use Any Device for Ball Therapy

I will show you how to use any red light therapy device for the balls. I will give you a shortcut to determine your dosing distance and time per session. You’ll need a device with the correct wavelengths and the “irradiance” from that device’s specifications.

Step 1: Get a Red and Infrared Device

The body absorbs light in the 630 to 660 nm (nanometers) red range and 810 to 850 nm infrared range. Get a device that has a wavelength in each of these ranges.

Step 2: Get the Irradiance for the Longest Distance

The irradiance is how much photon energy the light delivers at a specific distance. The manufacturer will have one, two, or three sample irradiances in the specifications. Get the one that has the longest distance. So, if it offers you irradiance at zero, six, and 12 inches. Get the value for the 12 inches. The irradiance will be stated in milliwatts per squared centimeter at a given distance so that a specification might say something like this:

• 100 mW/cm^2 at 0 inches
• 80 mW/cm^2 at 6 inches
• 50 mW/cm^2 at 12 inches

The farthest distance is 12 inches, and our milliwatts are 50. 12 inches, 50 milliwatts. You’ll plug them into a formula to get your time per treatment.

Step 3: Plug the Info into the Red Light Therapy Dose Calculator

Based on the literature, we’re going for a testosterone dose of 5 joules per treatment. You have everything you need to go to the calculator for instructions.

• Distance: 12 inches
• Milliwatts/cm^2: 50
• Target Joules: 5

Enter the 50 in the Milliwatts field and the 5 in the Target Joules field in my red light therapy treatment time calculator. The calculator will return the time per treatment. Note that the calculator takes a few seconds to load. When you enter 50 milliwatts and 5 joules, the calculator hands you back 100 seconds of treatment time. Yep, it’s that fast with a powerful device. Therefore, you will place the device 12 inches from the balls and run it for 100 seconds to get a dose of 5 joules.

A Dosing Guide

The LightpathLED Disel Large is a full-body red light therapy panel. You will position your boys about 6 inches away from this device, which has an irradiance of 116 mW/cm^2 at that distance. The LightpathLED is powerful at this distance, giving you 7 joules of photon energy in one minute. That is your starting point.

Red light therapy’s window of effectiveness is about 6 to 60 joules. Although many outliers exist, we know that major biological activity happens in the 6-60 joules dose range. You get irradiance from any device at a given distance from the product page.

Use the LightpathLED Pro dose as a guide. I’ll show you how to do that next. The goal is to get between 6 and 60 joules of light.

116 mW/cm^2 irradiance gives you 6 joules in one minute. That means a 58 mW/cm^/2 irradiance (half the 116) gives you a 6-joules dose in two minutes. It takes twice as long because it’s half as powerful.

To make this easier to understand, let’s calculate the treatment session time for a device with an irradiance of 100 mW/cm2 at a 6-inch distance. That irradiance gives you 6 joules precisely in one minute. In two minutes, you get 12 joules. In 5 minutes, you get 30 joules. If you have a device that outputs 50 mW/cm^2 (half the first example), getting the same energy will take twice as long. It’ll take 2 minutes to get 6 joules, 4 minutes to get 12 joules, and 8 minutes to get 24 joules.

To get the dosing information for this lamp, find the irradiance value, which is the one we just mentioned. The irradiance is 80 mW/cm^2 at 3 inches. You can get that off the LightpathLED website.

Our target photon quantity is 5J (joules).

• Enter “5” for the target joules from the 5J target.
• Enter “80” for the milliwatts from the 80 mW/cm^2 at 3 inches irradiance.
• Go to the red light therapy treatment time calculator

The calculator reports that your treatment time is 62.5 seconds to get 5 joules while the light is 3 inches away. That’s it. 62.5 seconds, or a minute and 2 seconds. You are safe to go to 60 J, which is 12 times this treatment time. 5 joules x 12 = 60 joules (your dose range is 5 J to 60 J)

• As we found above, the treatment time for 5 joules is 62.5 seconds. To get 10 joules, double the amount of time with the light. 62.5 seconds x 2 = 125 seconds (2 minutes 5 seconds).
• Treatment time for 20 joules is 4x our first calculation. 62.5 seconds x 4 = 250 seconds (4 minutes 10 seconds).
• The treatment time for 40 joules is 8x our first calculation. 62.5 seconds x 8 = 500 seconds  (8 minutes 20 seconds).
• In our first calculation, the treatment time for 60 joules is 12x. 62.5 seconds x 12 = 750 seconds (12 minutes 30 seconds).

So your treatment time is 62.5 seconds for 5 joules, up to 12 minutes, and 30 seconds for 60 joules. The hardest part of this is keeping the light at a 3-inch distance. It’s harder than it looks to hold a lamp steady for several minutes. You’ll be more comfortable putting it on a steady surface like the floor and holding it still. Use a ruler; it’s very easy to misestimate distance.

How to Do Red Light Therapy on the Balls with the Red Light Man Red-Infrared Combo Mini

The Red Light Man Combo Mini is another good light for this task. It outputs red light (620 nm, 670 nm) and infrared light (760 nm, 830 nm).  The Red Light Man website says the bulb irradiance is 200 mW/cm^2 at 5 cm (200 milliwatts per square centimeter at a distance of 5 centimeters), or if you want to go 50 cm distance, then the irradiance changes to 20 mW/cm^2. Choose 50 cm to get the lamp as far away from your body as possible.

This is important to avoid heat, as we only want light photons, not the lamp’s heat. The first thing to do for Americans like me is to switch cm to inches. 50 cm is 19.69 inches, so let’s say 20 inches for the remainder of this tutorial. Now, use the calculator to find the time per session. The target joules are 5; the milliwatts are 20 (from the 20 mW/cm^2 at 50 cm).

The Combo Mini (click to view the bulb on Red Light Man’s website) emits 620 nm, 670 nm red, 760 nm, and 830 nm infrared. The 760 nm is a bit of a question mark for our purposes, but it will not harm us. The page says the irradiance is 200 mW/cm^2 at 5 cm and 20 mW/cm^2 at 50 cm. Since 50 is the greater of the two, we’ll calculate its milliwatts of 20.

Go to the calculator with the “5” for the target joules and “20” for the milliwatts at 50 cm. The calculator reports that your treatment time is 250 seconds, or 4.17 minutes, to get 5 joules while the light is 50 cm away. By the way, 50 cm is 19.69 inches. You can view/buy the Red Light Man Combo Mini on the Red Light Man website.

How to Do Red Light Therapy on the Balls with the Red Light Man Red-Infrared Combo Light

The Red-Infrared Combo Light is a tabletop from Red Light Man. The page says the irradiance is 200 mW/cm^2 at 15 cm and 20 mW/cm^2 at 45 cm. Forty-five cm is 17.7 inches.

We already know how to get 5 joules with an irradiance of 20 mW/cm^2, as we did above for the Combo Mini. We’re using the same irradiance this time but putting the lamp at a different distance. Go to the calculator to see that entering “5” joules and 20 milliwatts yields a treatment time of 250 seconds or 4.17 minutes.

Use the light at 45 cm/17.7 inches for 250 seconds. You can view/buy the Red Light Man Combo Mini on their website.

How to Do Red Light Therapy on the Balls with the Red Light Man Combo Bodylight

The Combo Bodylight is Red Light Man’s red-infrared panel. It’s a massive 115 cm/45.2 inches tall. The page says the irradiance is 20 mW/cm^2 at 150 cm. We know from the other Red Light Man examples above that 20 milliwatts require 250 seconds or 4.17 minutes to receive 5 joules. This time, the distance is 150 cm, or 59 inches distance.

Do you have a distance between you and your panel that is less than 5 feet? If so, calculate the next closest distance: 100 mW/cm^2 at 20 cm. Twenty cm is equivalent to 7.8 inches. Go to the calculator to see that entering “5” joules and 100 milliwatts yields a treatment time of 50 seconds or 0.83 minutes. Use the light at 20 cm/7.8 inches for 50 seconds to get 5 joules.

Can Light Even Affect the Body?

Tucker Carlson told men to use sunlight and red light therapy to increase masculinity. It created interest and pushback because people will ignore science to get a dig in on someone they don’t like. Red light therapy is supported, but evidence is lacking for its use on male genitals. However, some men have reported good results when following proper dosing guidelines. Rather than worrying about who gave the advice, let’s look at the science to see if red light therapy can naturally increase testosterone.

Shining light on the skin to create a healthy change might seem weird until you think about Vitamin D. We use the sun’s ultraviolet light to make a hormone-like vitamin critical to every aspect of our health. The sun! Not a food or a supplement, but light triggers this essential process.

We make vital compounds when exposed to the right kinds of light. That vitamin-creating reaction only happens with a tiny sliver of the ultraviolet spectrum. The body does not create vitamin D if exposed to 280 billionths of a meter-wide wavelength of light. But if exposed to a 290 nm wavelength, it creates vitamin D. The ability to create vitamin D occurs when exposed to a small slice of the electromagnetic spectrum. That ultraviolet light that creates a life-affirming vitamin can also create a life-destroying cancer.  The universe is ironic. I’m just reporting the facts.

Red and Infrared Empower the Body’s Energy and Blood Flow

Unlike ultraviolet, red and infrared light exposure is safe. Certain wavelengths of these lights generate multiple healthy reactions at the mitochondrial (energy) and vascular (blood) levels. There is evidence of growth factors and healthy DNA responses, but the significant responses we care about are energy and blood flow. The sun also provides the red and infrared wavelengths we use in red light therapy.

The best time to get healthy red and infrared is in the morning and evening. “Red sky at night, sailor’s delight, and Red sky in the morning, sailor take warning” is a poetic way to remember that infrared light shines differently depending on the weather conditions. Most of the infrared range is outside our ability to see. But the warmth you feel through your clothing is the sun’s infrared wavelengths.

Rat Balls and Sperm Samples Say “This Might Just Work!”

Ben Greenfield said that shining red light at his balls boosted his testosterone levels. Does the science support his story?

Red Light on the Balls Studies

The 1939 Ultraviolet Rat Ball Study

In 1939, Myerson et al. used ultraviolet light on the chest or the genitals of Wistar rats to increase androsterone. Ultraviolet light to the genitals produced more serum testosterone than ultraviolet light aimed at the chest. This supports the idea that ultraviolet from the sun increases testosterone levels. The bad news is that ultraviolet is not a safe light. Red and infrared are safe, so let’s look at them.

The 2019 Red and Infrared Light Rat Ball Study

In 2019, Ahn et al. irradiated rat genitals with 360 joules of photon energy.  Did you happen to notice I capped the ball-light dose at 60 joules? 360 joules is a tremendous amount of photon energy. The complete dose parameters were:

• wavelengths: 670 nm or 808 nm
• irradiation: 200 mW
• time: 30 minutes
• length: 5 days

They found that 670 nm (red) but not 808 nm (infrared) light significantly increased serum testosterone with no negative side effects. Ahn JC, Kim YH and Rheel CK. The effects of low-level laser therapy (LLLT) on the testis in elevating serum testosterone level in rats. Biomedical Research 2013; 24 (1): 28-32 ISSN 0970-938X. Retrieved May 28, 2019, from http://www.mysciatica.net/uploads/1/0/7/0/10703895/lllt_may_increase_testosterone_levels.pdf

The 2014 Sperm Irradiation Study

In 2014, Yazdi et. al. used red light therapy on sperm samples from asthenospermic males (men with low sperm motility). They tested the samples with doses of zero, four, six, and 10 joules per centimeter squared of 830 nm infrared light. Testing times were zero, 30, 45, and 60 minutes. In the control groups, sperm motility significantly dropped after 30, 45, and 60 minutes. In sperm treated with 830 nm light, motility significantly increased after 30, 45, and 60 minutes of therapy. The best results occurred with four and six J/cm^2 with a treatment time of 60 minutes. The 45-minute treatment produced the second-best results. This study supports using 830 nm infrared light to increase sperm motility.

The 2022 Vasodilation Red Light Study

Red light therapy’s superpowers include vasodilation and increasing blood vessel diameter. The more nitric oxide in the blood dilating those vessels, the better the “erectile quality.” In a 2022 study, Keszler et al. irradiated mice hind limbs with red light. Of all doses tested, the 670 nm red light used for 5 minutes and delivering 50 mW/cm^2 of energy produced the most blood vessel dilation via nitric oxide triggering. Notably, after ten minutes of treatment, the nitric oxide began to fall, demonstrating one of the laws of red light therapy: too much light is not better. They said: “Our results strongly support that 670 nm light can regulate the dilation of conduit vessels by releasing a vasoactive nitric oxide precursor species.”

The Light that Grows Hair Might Boost Testosterone

Dr. Endre Mester accidentally discovered red light therapy in 1967 when he shone a low-energy laser on lab mice. He was confused when the experiment failed, not realizing the laser was low-energy. But he did notice the mouse hair growing back. The treated group had faster growth than the placebo group. It was just a broken laser, so why did this happen? After 55 years of research, we know what happened, but at the time, it was a happy mystery that led to thousands of research papers on how light affects biology.

Trillions of Energy Factories

Our cells are teaming with organelles called mitochondria. The mitochondria are stuffed with energy factories made from various enzymes. Each factory is an electron transport chain. Each body has trillions of cells and trillions upon trillions of electron transport chains. As we age, transport chains slow down, leaving us with less energy. As chains go offline, bodily systems slow down to crawl. When the chains stop altogether, we call that “death.” So, keeping the electron transport chains running is essential to life. That is where red light therapy comes in.

Light Powers Our Energy Factories

Little bits of copper and iron in the chain absorb the photons of light. Light absorption brings broken electron transport chains back online in a process that science has not yet totally defined. The electron transport chains output more energy for the body to use for hormone production, tissue repair, and mundane activities like breathing, walking, and talking.

Light Pushes Nitric Oxide to Trigger Wider Blood Vessels

When the photons are absorbed in the electron transport chain, they knock loose nitric oxide, which has created healthy breaks in the energy-creation process. The loss of nitric oxide allows the factory to speed up energy production.

Nitric oxide enters the blood supply, triggering vasodilation or the opening of the blood vessels. This allows blood to pass easily through clogged pipes, where nutrition and oxygen travel to tissue in need of repair. Now that the energy factory production is up, the cells have the energy and the nutrition to repair themselves. Viagra works by increasing nitric oxide because nitric oxide improves blood flow. Red light therapy also triggers nitric oxide to improve blood flow. Does that mean that red light therapy improves erections? The answer is “maybe.”

It’s only a theory at this point. But I would be surprised if it failed. Nitric oxide vasodilation is exactly how erection drugs work, and that is what red light therapy delivers. Are lasers better than LEDs? What wavelengths do you need? What kind of red light therapy device is good for ball therapy? How long should you do the treatment?

Are Lasers Better than LEDs?

Red light therapy evolved from an accidental discovery with a low-power laser. Scientists argued for years whether lasers were required to trigger a healthy response. Would other types of light also work? In 2002, NASA commissioned a study to test using light-emitting diodes (LEDs) as red light therapy devices. The LEDs worked, as did the low-power lasers, in wound repair and blood oxygenation.

Red light therapy does not need the high-power lasers can offer. When you use a later for red light therapy, you’re using a low-powered one that is not operating at full capacity. The body is just as happy to absorb light from an LED as from a low-power laser.

But there is such a thing as too little energy. If a device is underpowered, it will probably be the LED, not the low-power laser, that fails to deliver enough power.

Balls Do Not Like Heat

It is important to note that excessive red light therapy on your face may decrease extra collagen production, which is not harmful. However, using too much light on your testicles can cause them to heat up, and heat kills sperm. Since testicles are outside the warm body, they do not like heat, and if you feel warmth, it is advisable to reduce the exposure to light.

Use Distance to Reduce Heat

Use distance to reduce heat. Create more distance between the lamp and yourself. The closer a lamp is, the more heat it transfers to you. Back the lamp away to turn down the heat. It’s precisely like moving your hand away from the stove.

Greater Distance to Reduce Heat Means Greater Time to Get Light

Just as you lose heat with distance, you also lose photons, those packets of light absorbed by the cells. The easy fix for heat buildup is to move the light further away. The easy fix for photons lost to the distance is to use the light for more time. What you lose in distance, you gain back in longer exposure times.

How to (Possibly) Boost Testosterone without Damaging Your Balls

Based on what we discussed above, here’s how to get a proper testosterone boost without harming yourself:

• Keep the light far enough away not to generate heat at ball level.
• That distance will also decrease photon delivery per second
• And make up for lost photons by doing longer treatment sessions

Conclusion

Red light therapy dilates blood vessels using the same nitric oxide vasodilation mechanism as Viagra. So, there’s a good chance that red light therapy will increase testosterone and improve erections. It’s an educated guess but not a fact. Use distance to protect your balls from heat. Use the time to get more photons. Use the treatment time calculator to determine the time per session. Have fun!

References

• Myerson, Abraham. Influence of Ultraviolet Irradiation Upon Excretion of Sex Hormones in the Mail. Journal of Endocrinology, 1939. https://doi.org/10.1210/endo-25-1-7
• Sullivan ME, Thompson CS, Dashwood MR, Khan MA, Jeremy JY, Morgan RJ and Mikhailidis DP.  Nitric oxide and penile erection: Is erectile dysfunction another manifestation of vascular disease? Cardiovascular Research, Volume 43, Issue 3, August 1999, Pages 658-665, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0008-6363(99)00135-2
• Salman Yazdi R, Bakhshi S, Jannat Alipoor F, Akhoond MR, Borhani S, Farrahi F, Lotfi Panah M, Sadighi Gilani MA. Effect of 830-nm diode laser irradiation on human sperm motility. Lasers Med Sci. 2014 Jan;29(1):97-104. doi: 10.1007/s10103-013-1276-7. Epub 2013 Feb 14. PMID: 23407899.