Whole-Body Benefits of Infra Red Light Therapy
The two main benefits of red light therapy (reversing mitochondrial dysfunction and boosting collagen production) lead to many secondary benefits, including:
Skin Health
The most popular use of red light therapy is skin rejuvenation, including improving skin complexion, reducing signs of aging, minimizing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, reducing skin roughness, and treating chronic skin disorders. Red light also shows promise for reducing sun damage, lightening sun spots, and smoothing overall skin tone.
Red light can be used for many chronic skin conditions, including:
Accelerated skin aging (wrinkles and sun damage)
Acne
The primary mechanisms for improved skin health are increased cellular energy and intradermal collagen density increase. In addition, increased elastin production, increased microcirculation of both blood and lymph, and reduced inflammation can help restore skin health. All of these are supported by red light therapy.
Optimal results including significantly improved skin complexion and reduction of skin disorder symptoms can often be achieved within one to four months of regular LED light therapy. You can safely continue with the treatment indefinitely to prevent flare-ups and to maintain results.
If you have particularly sensitive skin, you may experience mild redness and tightness after a red light session; however, this effect is very short-lived.
Muscle Recovery
Athletes and weekend warriors alike can precondition their muscles to prevent injury and prime the body for peak performance with a short red light therapy session before a workout or competition.
Afterward, red light therapy will speed muscle recovery and stimulate, heal, and regenerate damaged muscle and connective tissue. Faster muscle recovery can result in improved ability to achieve peak performance in competition; even more importantly, it can help prevent injury.
Joint Pain from Osteoarthritis
Red light therapy has been shown to reduce pain and increase the range of motion in joints affected by osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis: up to 50 percent pain reduction after just a few red light therapy treatments.
The anti-inflammatory properties of red light therapy, along with the stimulation of cellular energy and increased collagen production, promote healing, reduce pain, and can hasten recovery from degenerative joint diseases.
General Pain Relief
Aside from osteoarthritis-related joint pain, red light therapy is also used for other kinds of pain relief. Pain is often caused by inflammation; if it’s during the healing process, the pain will dissipate as the area heals (and healing will be accelerated by red light therapy). But if the pain is caused by chronic inflammation, red light will reduce that inflammation and support normal bodily functioning.
Wound Healing
Red light therapy stimulates wound healing through a fascinating mechanism: red wavelengths boost acute (short-term) inflammation, which is part of the body’s natural healing process; and it also prevents inflammation from becoming chronic, since chronic inflammation interferes with healing.
Red light activates stem cells in the bone marrow. These stem cells mobilize to the injury site where they take on the specialized functions of damaged or dead cells. As new cells grow, emerging cells take cues from their neighbors: If new cells mimic the characteristics of damaged cells, they will function as damaged cells. To avoid that, mobilization of healthy stem cells is required to “teach” emerging cells how to behave like healthy cells.
Promoting wound healing also involves improving blood circulation as well as lymph circulation. Red light promotes the proliferation of endothelial cells, which make up the inner layer of tiny blood vessels known as capillaries. In turn, capillaries deliver oxygen and nutrients throughout the body, and blood flow delivers needed nutrients and oxygen to the wound site.
Additionally, red light therapy increases the proliferation of the lymph vessels that transport waste and toxins away from the wound. Between increased blood flow and increased lymph function, your body's self-healing mechanisms will be well-supported.
Scar Reduction
Red light therapy has been used to minimize the appearance of scars and stretch marks by reducing inflammation, as well as supporting tissue repair and regeneration.
By stimulating collagen and elastin production, red light therapy supports the body in rebuilding the normal flexible and tough latticework structure that supports the epidermis, in lieu of a layered organization of scar tissue that is extremely inflexible and prone to damage.
This essentially means that if you start using red light therapy immediately after an injury, you can speed up healing and minimize or prevent scarring.
Red light therapy also activates stem cells, which can change into healthy skin cells. The transformed stem cells stimulate nearby cells to grow into skin cells with a genetic makeup of healthy cells, as opposed to cells with the genetic makeup of scar tissue.