‘It sounds like witchcraft’: can light therapy really give you better skin, cleaner teeth, stronger joints?

Phototherapy is clearly enjoying a surge in popularity. You can now buy light-emitting tools targeting issues like complexion problems and aging signs as well as sore muscles and oral inflammation, the newest innovation is an oral care tool enhanced with small red light diodes, promoted by the creators as “a major advance in at-home oral care.” 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, the infrared radiation heats your body itself. As claimed by enthusiasts, it’s like bathing in one of those LED-lit beauty masks, stimulating skin elasticity, relaxing muscles, alleviating inflammatory responses and chronic health conditions as well as supporting brain health.

Understanding the Evidence

“It sounds a bit like witchcraft,” observes a Durham University professor, a scientist who has studied phototherapy extensively. Of course, some of light’s effects on our bodies are well established. Sunlight enables vitamin D production, crucial for strong bones, immune defense, and tissue repair. Natural light synchronizes our biological clocks, additionally, activating brain chemicals and hormonal responses in daylight, and preparing the body for rest as darkness falls. Artificial sun lamps are a common remedy for people with seasonal affective disorder (Sad) to elevate spirits during colder months. So there’s no doubt we need light energy to function well.

Types of Light Therapy

Whereas seasonal affective disorder devices typically employ blue-range light, most other light therapy devices deploy red or infrared light. In rigorous scientific studies, like examinations of infrared influence on cerebral tissue, identifying the optimal wavelength is crucial. Photons represent electromagnetic waves, which runs the spectrum from the lowest-energy, longest wavelengths (radio waves) to short-wavelength gamma rays. Therapeutic light application 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).

Dermatologists have utilized UV therapy for extensive periods to manage persistent skin disorders including eczema and psoriasis. It affects cellular immune responses, “and suppresses swelling,” explains a dermatology expert. “Considerable data validates phototherapy.” UVA penetrates skin more deeply than UVB, in contrast to LEDs in commercial products (usually producing colored light emissions) “typically have shallower penetration.”

Safety Considerations and Medical Oversight

The side-effects of UVB exposure, like erythema or pigmentation, are understood but clinical devices employ restricted wavelength ranges – signifying focused frequency bands – that reduces potential hazards. “Treatment is monitored by medical staff, thus exposure is controlled,” notes the specialist. And crucially, the lightbulbs are calibrated by medical technicians, “to ensure that the wavelength that’s being delivered is fit for purpose – different from beauty salons, where regulations may be lax, and emission spectra aren’t confirmed.”

Commercial Products and Research Limitations

Red and blue light sources, he notes, “aren’t typically employed clinically, though they might benefit some issues.” Red LEDs, it is proposed, improve circulatory function, oxygen absorption and dermal rejuvenation, and activate collagen formation – a primary objective in youth preservation. “The evidence is there,” comments the expert. “However, it’s limited.” Regardless, with numerous products on the market, “it’s unclear if device outputs match study parameters. We don’t know the duration, how close the lights should be to the skin, if benefits outweigh potential risks. Numerous concerns persist.”

Specific Applications and Professional Perspectives

Early blue-light applications focused on skin microbes, a microbe associated with acne. The evidence for its efficacy isn’t strong enough for it to be routinely prescribed by doctors – despite the fact that, notes the dermatologist, “it’s often seen in medical spas or aesthetics practices.” Certain patients incorporate it into their regimen, he observes, but if they’re buying a device for home use, “we advise cautious experimentation and safety verification. If it’s not medically certified, standards are somewhat unclear.”

Cutting-Edge Studies and Biological Processes

Simultaneously, in a far-flung field of pioneering medical science, researchers have been testing neural cells, identifying a number of ways in which infrared can boost cellular health. “Pretty much everything I did with the light at that particular wavelength was positive and protective,” he says. Multiple claimed advantages have created skepticism toward light treatment – that it’s too good to be true. Yet, experimental evidence has transformed his viewpoint.

Chazot mostly works on developing drug treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, however two decades past, a physician creating light-based cold sore therapy requested his biological knowledge. “He created some devices so that we could work with them with cells and with fruit flies,” he says. “I remained doubtful. This particular frequency was around 1070 nanometers, that nobody believed did anything biological.”

The advantage it possessed, though, was that it travelled through water easily, meaning it could penetrate the body more deeply.

Mitochondrial Effects and Brain Health

Growing data suggested infrared influenced energy-producing organelles. Mitochondria produce ATP for cell function, creating power for cellular operations. “Every cell in your body has mitochondria, even within brain tissue,” says Chazot, who concentrated on cerebral applications. “It has been shown that in humans this light therapy increases blood flow into the brain, which is consistently beneficial.”

Using 1070nm wavelength, mitochondria also produce a small amount of a molecule known as reactive oxygen species. In low doses this substance, notes the scientist, “activates protective proteins that safeguard mitochondria, protect cellular integrity and manage defective proteins.”

All of these mechanisms appear promising for treating a brain disease: free radical neutralization, swelling control, and cellular cleanup – autophagy representing cellular waste disposal.

Ongoing Study Progress and Specialist Evaluations

When recently reviewing 1070nm research for cognitive decline, he states, about 400 people were taking part in four studies, including his own initial clinical trials in the US