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Light-based treatment is clearly enjoying a surge in popularity. Consumers can purchase glowing gadgets for everything from skin conditions and wrinkles to sore muscles and gum disease, recently introduced is a toothbrush equipped with miniature red light sources, described by its makers as “a major advance in personal mouth health.” Globally, the industry reached $1 billion in 2024 and is forecast to expand to $1.8 billion by 2035. You can even go and sit in an infrared sauna, that employ light waves rather than traditional heat sources, your body is warmed directly by infrared light. As claimed by enthusiasts, it feels similar to a full-body light therapy session, stimulating skin elasticity, soothing sore muscles, relieving inflammation and persistent medical issues while protecting against dementia.

Understanding the Evidence

“It feels almost magical,” notes a neuroscience expert, who has researched light therapy for two decades. Certainly, some of light’s effects on our bodies are well established. Our bodies produce vitamin D through sun exposure, 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. Artificial sun lamps are standard treatment for winter mood disorders to combat seasonal emotional slumps. So there’s no doubt we need light energy to function well.

Different Light Modalities

Whereas seasonal affective disorder devices typically employ blue-range light, the majority of phototherapy tools use red or near-infrared wavelengths. In serious clinical research, including research on infrared’s impact on neural cells, finding the right frequency is key. Light constitutes electromagnetic energy, extending from long-wavelength radiation to high-energy gamma radiation. Therapeutic light application employs mid-spectrum wavelengths, the highest energy of those being invisible ultraviolet, then visible light (all the colours we see in a rainbow) and then infrared (which we can see with night-vision goggles).

Ultraviolet treatment has been employed by skin specialists for decades to treat chronic skin conditions such as eczema, psoriasis and vitiligo. It works on the immune system within cells, “and dampens down inflammation,” says Dr Bernard Ho. “There’s lots of evidence for phototherapy.” UVA reaches deeper skin layers compared to UVB, in contrast to LEDs in commercial products (which generally deliver red, infrared or blue light) “typically have shallower penetration.”

Safety Protocols and Medical Guidance

Potential UVB consequences, including sunburn or skin darkening, are well known but in medical devices the light is delivered in a “narrow-band” form – indicating limited wavelength spectrum – that reduces potential hazards. “Treatment is monitored by medical staff, meaning intensity is regulated,” says Ho. Most importantly, the devices are tuned by qualified personnel, “to guarantee appropriate wavelength emission – as opposed to commercial tanning facilities, where it’s a bit unregulated, and we don’t really know what wavelengths are being used.”

Commercial Products and Research Limitations

Red and blue LEDs, he notes, “don’t have strong medical applications, but they may help with certain conditions.” Red LEDs, it is proposed, improve circulatory function, oxygen absorption and dermal rejuvenation, and promote collagen synthesis – a key aspiration in anti-ageing effects. “The evidence is there,” states the dermatologist. “But it’s not conclusive.” 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, ideal distance from skin surface, whether or not that will increase the risk versus the benefit. Many uncertainties remain.”

Specific Applications and Professional Perspectives

Early blue-light applications focused on skin microbes, a microbe associated with acne. Scientific backing remains inadequate for regular prescription – even though, says Ho, “it’s commonly used in cosmetic clinics.” Some of his patients use it as part of their routine, he mentions, however for consumer products, “we just tell them to try it carefully and to make sure it has been assessed for safety. Unless it’s a medical device, oversight remains ambiguous.”

Cutting-Edge Studies and Biological Processes

Meanwhile, in a far-flung field of pioneering medical science, Chazot has been experimenting with brain cells, discovering multiple mechanisms for infrared’s cellular benefits. “Nearly every test with precise light frequencies demonstrated advantageous outcomes,” he reports. The numerous reported benefits have generated doubt regarding phototherapy – that claims seem exaggerated. Yet, experimental evidence has transformed his viewpoint.

Chazot mostly works on developing drug treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, though twenty years earlier, a doctor developing photonic antiviral treatment consulted his scientific background. “He created some devices so that we could work with them with cells and with fruit flies,” he explains. “I remained doubtful. It was an unusual wavelength of about 1070 nanometres, that nobody believed did anything biological.”

The advantage it possessed, nevertheless, was its ability to transmit through aqueous environments, enabling deeper tissue penetration.

Cellular Energy and Neurological Benefits

More evidence was emerging at the time that infrared light targeted the mitochondria in cells. Mitochondria are the powerhouses of cells, generating energy for them to function. “All human cells contain mitochondria, even within brain tissue,” says Chazot, who concentrated on cerebral applications. “Studies demonstrate enhanced cerebral circulation with light treatment, which is consistently beneficial.”

With specific frequency application, energy organelles generate minimal reactive oxygen compounds. At controlled levels these compounds, says Chazot, “triggers guardian proteins that maintain organelle health, preserve cell function and eliminate damaged proteins.”

These processes show potential for neurological conditions: free radical neutralization, inflammation reduction, and waste removal – autophagy being the process the cell uses to clear unwanted damaging proteins.

Current Research Status and Professional Opinions

The last time Chazot checked the literature on using the 1070 wavelength on human dementia patients, he reports, about 400 people were taking part in four studies, incorporating his preliminary American studies