What is Red Light Therapy and How Can It Help You?

Red light therapy (RLT) is a treatment that can help heal the skin, muscle tissue, and other parts of the body. It exposes you to low levels of red or near infrared light.

Infrared light

is a type of energy that the eyes cannot see, but the body can feel warm. Red light is similar to infrared, but you can see it.

This type of therapy is non-invasive, painless and does not use heat. It works by sending low-intensity red and near-infrared light to body cells to stimulate healing. Many experts believe it can help with problems such as skin conditions, scarring, and signs of aging, including wrinkles and age spots. Red light therapy (RLT) is a combination of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that emits infrared light and heat.

It aims to solve skin problems by using low-wavelength red light. This type of therapy can broaden the spectrum of anti-aging treatment options available to patients seeking gentle and pleasant skin rejuvenation with just light. The application of RLT provides atraumatic, non-ablative, non-ablative and non-thermal photobiomodulation treatment of skin tissue with high patient satisfaction rates. It is different from laser or intense pulsed light (IPL) therapies because it does not damage the surface of the skin.

Many of the human studies involving red light therapy used samples of small sizes, so more research is needed to confirm safety and efficacy. Hungarian doctor and professor Endre Mester first used red light therapy in 1967 while studying how cancer cells react to radiation exposure. This type of therapy can help with skin laxity, fine lines, pore size, texture and wrinkles, making low-intensity red and infrared light treatments ideal for daily home treatments for patients with photoaged and photodamaged skin. It can also be used to treat acne by directing the red light into the small ducts of the sebaceous glands that release an oil that clogs the pores.

Photodynamic therapy can make you more sensitive to light up to three months after the procedure. For alopecia specifically androgenetic alopecia, also known as male and female pattern hair loss, some studies support red light therapy as an effective treatment. It is not the same type of light that is used in tanning booths and does not expose the skin to harmful UV rays. Red light therapy is generally safe and can be a very effective treatment option for people looking for smaller skin changes or to maintain healthy skin and reduce inflammation. When using this type of treatment, a person can see the red light and feel the warmth of near-infrared (NIR) light.