Benefits of Red Light Therapy
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Red Light Therapy has been a part of my routine for over 2 years and it is one thing my body craves on a regular basis especially during these long winter months. While Red light therapy devices may be new, red light therapy is not a new therapy. In fact the original source of red light and near infrared light came from a combination of sun exposure and fire light. So before there was technology, we relied upon light from the sun or from fire and were getting exposed to these wavelengths of light on a daily basis. How cool is nature! It always gives us what we need to heal and promote optimal health.
Because of modern luxuries, our light exposure is something that has dramatically changed, especially in more recent decades with our increasing reliance on things like smart phones and tvs for entertainment when the sun goes down.
Adding in red light therapy has a vast range of benefits for your health and can be used in a variety of ways depending on what your goals are. That is the beautiful thing about getting a hand held “mini” device like this one because it is so easy to use in a variety of ways.
While I mainly use Red Light Therapy for its sleep and skin benefits personally, there are so many more proven benefits of red light therapy for improving areas of your health. Let’s take a closer look:
Benefits for General Health & Cellular Function
Boosts Circulation - Red Light Therapy can act on red blood cells causing them to increase the production of Nitric Oxide. This compound has a relaxing effect on blood vessel walls and thus increases blood flow in that area. Increased blood flow means more oxygen and nutrients which are essential to healing and promoting healthy cells in tissues. Essentially all the Benefits of Red Light Therapy can be summed up by function along with the increased production of ATP on a cellular level (see next point).
Increases ATP production thus boosting cellular energy - Red Light Therapy penetrates into your cells and stimulates the mitochondria of your cells to produce more ATP, aka energy. When your cells have more energy, they are going to function at a more optimal level which can boost your overall health throughout your body. This is one of the main reasons why red light therapy has so many proven benefits.
Promotes new hair growth (Yay!) - Because Red Light Therapy can increase ATP production from a cellular level, this is a great way to promote new hair growth. If you have dealt with conditions that cause hair thinning, like hypothyroidism or hashimoto’s, adding in red light therapy along with a healthy protein rich diet, can be very effective at helping to encourage new hair growth.
Reduces Seasonal Affective Disorder - Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD, is a type of depression that is closely linked with the changing of seasons. Cold and Dark winter days means less light which means lower vitamin D levels which can all lead to feelings of depression during those long winter months. Using Light Therapy as a way to promote your overall health can be a tool in your tool box to support mental health conditions like SAD.
Boosts Immune function - As if we needed more reason to use red light therapy during the winter months, because it can boost ATP production and cellular energy and reduce inflammation, red light therapy is actually a great way to provide a little extra immune support during cold and flu season. While it may not do much to fix the issue once you are sick, with regular use, your immune system will be better equipped to handle the germs of the season. Thank goodness! While you can use red light therapy while you are sick, it is not recommended to use if you have a fever as it can potentially increase body temperature. It is best to let your fever break before using red light therapy as part of your therapy.
Benefits for Skin Health
If you are looking to support your skin through the years, getting nutrients and blood flow to your skin is crucial. While I am by no means a skin expert, this is one of the many reasons why I don’t recommend anti aging interventions like botox as this impairs healthy circulation to certain areas of the skin. So while this may work at first to make your skin appear plump and smooth, long term your skin will be slowly starved of nutrients and oxygen from lack of blood flow. Rather, by increasing blood flow through boosting circulation and ATP production from a cellular level, red light therapy can have the following impacts on skin health:
Improved wound healing thus smoothing your skin’s surface and reducing the appearance of scarring
Increased collagen production which will promote strong and more elastic skin
Reduced fine lines and wrinkles thanks to increased collagen production, better blood flow, and more accessible nutrients
Because it can reduce inflammation, it can also reduce inflammatory acne (acne due to a damaged skin barrier vs. coming from internal sources)
My journey with hormonal acne and skin healing was actually how I first got introduced to red light therapy. While healing acne starts internally, I discovered that about 25% of my acne healing journey needed to be addressed from the outside. At this time I knew nothing about skin care because I had never had to do much to take care of my skin- I had always had “easy” skin to manage. When I started getting aggressive acne that was both on the surface of my skin and deep cystic nodules, I panicked and started to try anything and everything that would help my skin heal. While I worked on addressing acne from a root cause (for me this looked like addressing gut health and mineral balancing through HTMA testing), I was unfortunately making my skin worse through the harsh products I was using by causing damage to the skin barrier and increasing inflammation in my skin which can also be a cause of acne.
Once I realized this, I got my skin care routine under control and added in red light therapy to help promote a healthier skin barrier and less inflammation in my skin. This also helped with healing active acne spots I did have and reducing the appearance of scarring.
Now, this is a weekly routine that I use to promote a strong skin barrier which helps to maintain clear, youthful looking skin.
Benefits for Sleep Health
This is by far one of my favorite benefits of Red Light Therapy. Improved sleep quality was one of the first benefits that I noticed within days of using red light therapy. Red Light provides similar wavelengths to the light we see during a sunset. These wavelengths act on the brain to increase the production of melatonin which is essential for a healthy circadian rhythm and quality sleep. Blue light, which comes from things like morning sunlight, our electronic devices, and LED lights to some degree, do the very opposite of this by increasing the production of cortisol and keeping us awake. We were never meant to be exposed to blue light in the amount we are today and especially at the hours we are - after the sun sets. Staring at screens after dark is unfortunately one of the most damaging things we can do to our sleep quality. Now does this mean that I don’t ever watch TV or use my phone after dark? No, I still do these things even though I know it is not helpful. However, I DO balance this exposure by making sure that I end my night with red light exposure only. Using blue blocking glasses like these is also a great way to reduce your exposure to blue light after the sun has set.
Bottom line? If you find yourself struggling to fall asleep at night or stay asleep, adding in red light therapy can be a great way to support a healthy sleep-wake cycle in your system.
Benefits for Pain Relief and Healing
Reduces Inflammation & Joint Pain - Because red light therapy increases blood flow to the exposed area, it can promote healing in those cells and tissues and thus reduce inflammation and pain. Blood flow will bring much needed oxygen and nutrients to the cells and tissues aiding in a faster recovery.
Promotes muscle recovery. The same way that red light therapy can bring increased blood flow to your joint and tissues that need healing, the same can be applied to muscle recovery and soreness. Exposing your muscles to red light therapy before or after workouts is a great way to help reduce muscle soreness and speed muscle healing.
Natural headache support. While this won’t work as quickly as pain medication, this is one of the tools that I use to ward off a headache when I sense one coming on. In addition to turning off all the lights, adding some extra minerals to my water, and laying down, I always bring in my red light device for a while to help ease the pain. Using Red Light Therapy on a regular basis has been shown to reduce symptoms of migraines in some people so this is a great way to use as a preventative measure.
Choosing a Red Light Devices
Choosing a red light device will depend on what benefits you are looking to get out of it. There are two main forms of light that you will notice various devices talk about.
Visible Red Light (660 nm) will provide more topical benefits, so think those first few layers of skin. It will provide skin benefits as well as promote better sleep because your eyes can see the red light which triggers your brain to increase melatonin production.
Near Infrared Light (NIR, 850 nm), which is actually invisible to the naked eye, will penetrate to deeper level tissues, so think more about those tissues like muscles, joints, and organs. This wavelength will be more effective at reducing muscle soreness, addressing joint pain, and boosting circulation and internal healing than just visible red light.
Depending on what you what to get out of your red light device will impact which option you go with. While you can choose a device with just one, I like that my Bon Charge Mini Red Light Device produces both so that I can use it for such a wide variety of benefits for my health. You can use code restored15 for 15% off your order on any Bon Charge Products.
Additionally, checking that the light intensity is at least 100 mw/cm2 or more will ensure that the light is powerful enough to get its healing benefits. Choosing devices with flicker free LEDs and low EMF can also be advantageous.
While I love my Mini Red Light from Bon Charge, I started using Red Light Therapy using a lower investment option from Amazon like this one to “test the waters”. Once I saw benefits in my sleep, I really wanted to make sure that I was getting all the other benefits of Red Light Therapy and decided it was finally time to upgrade.