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Phototherapy is certainly having a surge in popularity. You can now buy glowing gadgets targeting issues like skin conditions and wrinkles to aching tissues and gum disease, the latest being an oral care tool equipped with tiny red LEDs, promoted by the creators as “a major advance for domestic dental hygiene.” Internationally, the market was worth $1bn in 2024 and is projected to grow to $1.8bn by 2035. There are even infrared saunas available, where instead of hot coals (real or electric) heating the air, the infrared radiation heats your body itself. Based on supporter testimonials, the experience resembles using an LED facial mask, stimulating skin elasticity, easing muscle tension, reducing swelling and long-term ailments as well as supporting brain health.

The Science and Skepticism

“It appears somewhat mystical,” observes a neuroscience expert, a scientist who has studied phototherapy extensively. Certainly, some of light’s effects on our bodies are well established. Our bodies produce vitamin D through sun exposure, essential for skeletal strength, immune function, and muscular health. Light exposure controls our sleep-wake cycles, as well, stimulating neurotransmitter and hormone production during daytime, and signaling the body to slow down for nighttime. Sunlight-imitating lamps are a common remedy for people with seasonal affective disorder (Sad) to boost low mood in winter. Undoubtedly, light plays a vital role in human health.

Types of Light Therapy

While Sad lamps tend to use a mixture of light frequencies from the blue end of the spectrum, the majority of phototherapy tools use red or near-infrared wavelengths. During advanced medical investigations, like examinations of infrared influence on cerebral tissue, finding the right frequency is key. Photons represent electromagnetic waves, extending from long-wavelength radiation to high-energy gamma radiation. Light-based treatment utilizes intermediate light frequencies, with ultraviolet representing the higher energy invisible light, then visible light (all the colours we see in a rainbow) and infrared light visible through night vision technology.

UV light has been used by medical dermatologists for many years for addressing long-term dermatological issues like vitiligo. It works on the immune system within cells, “and dampens down inflammation,” explains a dermatology expert. “Considerable data validates phototherapy.” UVA goes deeper into the skin than UVB, in contrast to LEDs in commercial products (typically emitting red, infrared or blue wavelengths) “tend to be a bit more superficial.”

Safety Protocols and Medical Guidance

UVB radiation effects, like erythema or pigmentation, are recognized but medical equipment uses controlled narrow-band delivery – meaning smaller wavelengths – that reduces potential hazards. “It’s supervised by a healthcare professional, so the dosage is monitored,” notes the specialist. Most importantly, the light sources are adjusted by technical experts, “to ensure that the wavelength that’s being delivered is fit for purpose – as opposed to commercial tanning facilities, where it’s a bit unregulated, and wavelength accuracy isn’t verified.”

Home Devices and Scientific Uncertainty

Red and blue LEDs, he explains, “aren’t typically employed clinically, but they may help with certain conditions.” Red LEDs, it is proposed, improve circulatory function, oxygen absorption and cell renewal in the skin, and stimulate collagen production – a primary objective in youth preservation. “The evidence is there,” states the dermatologist. “But it’s not conclusive.” Nevertheless, amid the sea of devices now available, “we don’t know whether or not the lights emitted are reflective of the research that has been done. Optimal treatment times are unknown, proper positioning requirements, whether or not that will increase the risk versus the benefit. There are lots of questions.”

Targeted Uses and Expert Opinions

One of the earliest blue-light products targeted Cutibacterium acnes, a microbe associated with acne. Research support isn’t sufficient for standard medical recommendation – although, notes the dermatologist, “it’s frequently employed in beauty centers.” Certain patients incorporate it into their regimen, he mentions, 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, standards are somewhat unclear.”

Advanced Research and Cellular Mechanisms

Simultaneously, in a far-flung field of pioneering medical science, Chazot has been experimenting with brain cells, identifying a number of ways in which infrared can boost cellular health. “Nearly every test with precise light frequencies demonstrated advantageous outcomes,” he says. It is partly these many and varied positive effects on cellular health that have driven skepticism about light therapy – that claims seem exaggerated. However, scientific investigation has altered his perspective.

Chazot mostly works on developing drug treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, however two decades past, a GP who was developing an antiviral light treatment for cold sores sought his expertise as a biologist. “He created some devices so that we could work with them with cells and with fruit flies,” he explains. “I was quite suspicious. This particular frequency was around 1070 nanometers, which most thought had no biological effect.”

The advantage it possessed, however, was its efficient water penetration, enabling deeper tissue penetration.

Mitochondrial Impact and Cognitive Support

Growing data suggested infrared influenced energy-producing organelles. Mitochondria are the powerhouses of cells, creating power for cellular operations. “All human cells contain mitochondria, particularly in neural cells,” explains the neuroscientist, who, as a neuroscientist, decided to focus the research on brain cells. “Research confirms improved brain blood flow with phototherapy, which is always very good.”

With specific frequency application, energy organelles generate minimal reactive oxygen compounds. At controlled levels these compounds, says Chazot, “stimulates so-called chaperone proteins which look after your mitochondria, look after your cells and also deal with the unwanted proteins.”

These processes show potential for neurological conditions: antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and waste removal – autophagy representing cellular waste disposal.

Ongoing Study Progress and Specialist Evaluations

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, comprising his early research projects