‘It seems like sorcery’: is light therapy truly capable of improving your skin, whitening your teeth, and strengthening your joints?

Light therapy is certainly having a moment. You can now buy glowing gadgets designed to address complexion problems and aging signs along with sore muscles and oral inflammation, recently introduced is a dental hygiene device outfitted with small red light diodes, promoted by the creators as “a major advance in at-home oral care.” Internationally, the sector valued at $1bn last year is expected to increase to $1.8bn within the next decade. Options include full-body infrared sauna sessions, which use infrared light to warm the body directly, your body is warmed directly by infrared light. According to its devotees, it feels similar to a full-body light therapy session, stimulating skin elasticity, relaxing muscles, relieving inflammation and chronic health conditions while protecting against dementia.

Understanding the Evidence

“It feels almost magical,” says a neuroscience expert, who has researched light therapy for two decades. Certainly, certain impacts of light on human physiology are proven. 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 frequently help individuals with seasonal depression to boost low mood in winter. So there’s no doubt we need light energy to function well.

Different Light Modalities

Although mood lamps generally utilize blue-spectrum frequencies, consumer light therapy products mostly feature red and infrared emissions. In rigorous scientific studies, including research on infrared’s impact on neural cells, finding the right frequency is key. Photons represent electromagnetic waves, which runs the spectrum from the lowest-energy, longest wavelengths (radio waves) to the highest-energy (gamma waves). Light-based treatment employs mid-spectrum wavelengths, 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).

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 suppresses swelling,” notes a dermatology expert. “There’s lots of evidence for phototherapy.” UVA penetrates skin more deeply than UVB, whereas the LEDs we see on consumer light-therapy devices (which generally deliver red, infrared or blue light) “typically have shallower penetration.”

Risk Assessment and Professional Supervision

Potential UVB consequences, like erythema or pigmentation, are well known but in medical devices the light is delivered in a “narrow-band” form – indicating limited wavelength spectrum – which minimises the risks. “Therapy is overseen by qualified practitioners, thus exposure is controlled,” notes the specialist. Essentially, the devices are tuned by qualified personnel, “to guarantee appropriate wavelength emission – different from beauty salons, where oversight might be limited, and we don’t really know what wavelengths are being used.”

Consumer Devices and Evidence Gaps

Red and blue LEDs, he explains, “aren’t typically employed clinically, though they might benefit some issues.” Red wavelength therapy, proponents claim, improve circulatory function, oxygen utilization and cell renewal in the skin, and promote collagen synthesis – a key aspiration in anti-ageing effects. “Research exists,” comments the expert. “However, it’s limited.” Regardless, given the plethora of available tools, “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, proper positioning requirements, if benefits outweigh potential risks. Many uncertainties remain.”

Targeted Uses and Expert Opinions

Early blue-light applications focused on skin microbes, microorganisms connected to breakouts. Research support isn’t sufficient for standard medical recommendation – even though, notes the dermatologist, “it’s frequently employed in beauty centers.” Some of his patients use it as part of their routine, he observes, however for consumer products, “we recommend careful testing and security confirmation. If it’s not medically certified, the regulation is a bit grey.”

Innovative Investigations and Molecular Effects

At the same time, in advanced research areas, scientists have been studying cerebral tissue, revealing various pathways for light-enhanced cell function. “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 claims seem exaggerated. But his research has thoroughly changed his mind in that respect.

The researcher primarily focuses on pharmaceutical solutions for brain disorders, though twenty years earlier, a doctor developing photonic antiviral treatment consulted his scientific background. “He developed equipment for cellular and insect experiments,” he explains. “I was pretty sceptical. The specific wavelength measured approximately 1070nm, that nobody believed did anything biological.”

What it did have going for it, though, was its efficient water penetration, allowing substantial bodily penetration.

Mitochondrial Impact and Cognitive Support

More evidence was emerging at the time that infrared light targeted the mitochondria in cells. These organelles generate cellular energy, generating energy for them to function. “Mitochondria exist throughout the body, even within brain tissue,” explains the neuroscientist, who, as a neuroscientist, decided to focus the research on brain cells. “Studies demonstrate enhanced cerebral circulation with light treatment, which is generally advantageous.”

Using 1070nm wavelength, energy organelles generate minimal reactive oxygen compounds. In low doses this substance, says Chazot, “activates protective proteins that safeguard mitochondria, preserve cell function and eliminate damaged proteins.”

All of these mechanisms appear promising for treating a brain disease: oxidative protection, inflammation reduction, and cellular cleanup – autophagy representing cellular waste disposal.

Present Investigation Status and Expert Assessments

The last time Chazot checked the literature on using the 1070 wavelength on human dementia patients, he reports, approximately 400 participants enrolled in multiple trials, comprising his early research projects