‘It seems like sorcery’: is light therapy truly capable of improving your skin, whitening your teeth, and strengthening your joints?
Phototherapy is certainly having a moment. Consumers can purchase illuminated devices designed to address dermatological concerns and fine lines as well as aching tissues and gum disease, recently introduced is a toothbrush outfitted with miniature red light sources, marketed by the company as “a breakthrough for domestic dental hygiene.” 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, the infrared radiation heats your body itself. According to its devotees, it’s like bathing in one of those LED-lit beauty masks, enhancing collagen production, relaxing muscles, alleviating inflammatory responses and long-term ailments and potentially guarding against cognitive decline.
Understanding the Evidence
“It feels almost magical,” observes Paul Chazot, professor in neuroscience at Durham University and a convert to the value of light therapy. Naturally, certain impacts of light on human physiology are proven. Sunlight helps us make vitamin D, needed for bone health, immunity, muscles and more. Natural light synchronizes our biological clocks, additionally, activating brain chemicals and hormonal responses in daylight, and signaling the body to slow down for nighttime. Sunlight-imitating lamps are standard treatment for winter mood disorders to boost low mood in winter. Undoubtedly, light plays a vital role in human health.
Types of Light Therapy
Whereas seasonal affective disorder devices typically employ blue-range light, consumer light therapy products mostly feature red and infrared emissions. In rigorous scientific studies, like examinations of infrared influence on cerebral tissue, determining the precise frequency is essential. Photons represent electromagnetic waves, which runs the spectrum from the lowest-energy, longest wavelengths (radio waves) to short-wavelength gamma rays. Light-based treatment utilizes intermediate light frequencies, the highest energy of those being invisible ultraviolet, followed by visible light encompassing rainbow colors and then infrared (which we can see with night-vision goggles).
UV light has been used by medical dermatologists for many years for addressing long-term dermatological issues like vitiligo. It affects cellular immune responses, “and reduces inflammatory processes,” says a skin specialist. “Considerable data validates phototherapy.” UVA reaches deeper skin layers compared to UVB, in contrast to LEDs in commercial products (which generally deliver red, infrared or blue light) “generally affect surface layers.”
Risk Assessment and Professional Supervision
UVB radiation effects, including sunburn or skin darkening, are recognized but medical equipment uses controlled narrow-band delivery – indicating limited wavelength spectrum – that reduces potential hazards. “Treatment is monitored by medical staff, so the dosage is monitored,” explains the dermatologist. And crucially, the light sources are adjusted by technical experts, “to guarantee appropriate wavelength emission – different from beauty salons, where it’s a bit unregulated, and we don’t really know what wavelengths are being used.”
Home Devices and Scientific Uncertainty
Red and blue light sources, he explains, “aren’t really used in the medical sense, but could assist with specific concerns.” Red LEDs, it is proposed, improve circulatory function, oxygen uptake and skin cell regeneration, and promote collagen synthesis – a key aspiration in anti-ageing effects. “The evidence is there,” states the dermatologist. “However, it’s limited.” In any case, given the plethora of available tools, “we’re uncertain whether commercial devices replicate research conditions. We don’t know the duration, ideal distance from skin surface, the risk-benefit ratio. Numerous concerns persist.”
Specific Applications and Professional Perspectives
Early blue-light applications focused on skin microbes, bacteria linked to pimples. The evidence for its efficacy isn’t strong enough for it to be routinely prescribed by doctors – despite the fact that, explains the specialist, “it’s often seen in medical spas or aesthetics practices.” Some of his patients use it as part of their routine, he says, but if they’re buying a device for home use, “we just tell them to try it carefully and to make sure it has been assessed for safety. If it’s not medically certified, oversight remains ambiguous.”
Innovative Investigations and Molecular Effects
Simultaneously, in a far-flung field of pioneering medical science, Chazot has been experimenting with brain cells, discovering multiple mechanisms for infrared’s cellular benefits. “Pretty much everything I did with the light at that particular wavelength was positive and protective,” he says. It is partly these many and varied positive effects on cellular health that have driven skepticism about light therapy – that results appear unrealistic. Yet, experimental evidence has transformed his viewpoint.
The researcher primarily focuses on pharmaceutical solutions for brain disorders, though twenty years earlier, 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 was pretty sceptical. This particular frequency was around 1070 nanometers, that many assumed was biologically inert.”
The advantage it possessed, though, was its efficient water penetration, allowing substantial bodily penetration.
Mitochondrial Impact and Cognitive Support
Additional research indicated infrared affected cellular mitochondria. Mitochondria produce ATP for cell function, producing fuel for biological processes. “Every cell in your body has mitochondria, including the brain,” notes the researcher, who prioritized neurological investigations. “Research confirms improved brain blood flow with phototherapy, which is consistently beneficial.”
With specific frequency application, mitochondria also produce a small amount of a molecule known as reactive oxygen species. At controlled levels these compounds, explains the expert, “triggers guardian proteins that maintain organelle health, protect cellular integrity and manage defective proteins.”
All of these mechanisms appear promising for treating a brain disease: free radical neutralization, anti-inflammatory, and cellular cleanup – self-digestion mechanisms eliminating harmful elements.
Current Research Status and Professional Opinions
The last time Chazot checked the literature on using the 1070 wavelength on human dementia patients, he states, about 400 people were taking part in four studies, incorporating his preliminary American studies
