Red Light Therapy: What Is It, Its Uses, Benefits and Side Effects

Red light therapy is an emerging treatment that uses low wavelength red light to enhance your skin’s appearance. It helps in reducing scars, wrinkles, acne and redness, and may also help with other medical conditions, including dementia, osteoarthritis, dental pain, tendinitis, etc. You may also hear about red light therapy in some other names, such as:

• Soft laser therapy
• Low-level laser light therapy
• Cold laser therapy
• Non-thermal LED light therapy
• Low-power laser therapy
• Photobiomodulation
• Phototherapy

What exactly is Red Light Therapy?

Red light therapy is a very straightforward procedure that exposes you to low levels of near-infrared or red light. While you can’t see the infrared light, your body can feel its heat. The red light, on the other hand, is similar to the infrared light, but you can see it with your eyes.

How does it work?

With this therapy, your skin gets exposed to a laser, lamp or a device with a red light. The mitochondria, or the power plant, which is a part of your cell, soaks in red light and creates more energy. With more energy, other cells in your body start to work more efficiently and thus lead to various skin and health benefits.

Some impressive benefits of red light therapy:

Red light therapy promises great benefits, including:

1.) It improves skin health:

One of the reasons why red light therapy is trending nowadays is because of its properties to improve skin health. This therapy may help improve skin by:

• Increasing blood circulation between the tissue cells
• Enhancing collagen production
• Increasing the production of fibroblast
• Reducing wrinkles and fine lines
• Preventing cells from getting damaged by free radicals

2.) This helps with acne conditions:

Red light therapy may also be a potential acne treatment. Pollution, sunlight, and other components hinder the way your sebaceous glands behave, and as a result, they produce sebum and clog the pores which further leads to acne. Red light may help calm your sebaceous gland and prevent your skin from future breakouts.

This therapy reduces sebum production and prevents acne and breakouts. (Photo by Andrea Piacquadio via pexels)

3.) It reduces pain:

This therapy also aids in reducing and managing body pain. As red light increases your body’s cell ability to enhance, it fights inflammation and provides relief from pain. It even manages chronic nerve pain that tends to continue after injuries and surgeries.

4.) It treats hair loss problems:

If you are facing hair loss issues, then red light therapy may be beneficial for you, as the light increases the metabolism of your hair follicles. It also enhances collagen production, which further leads to promoted hair growth.

This therapy is great for curing hair loss problems and promotes hair growth. (Photo by Skitterphoto via pexels)

5.) It repairs muscles:

Usually, it takes about 3 days to get relief from muscle soreness that occurs after working out. But with this therapy, the healing process gets much quicker. Exposing your muscles to red light can potentially help avert muscle soreness and heal them faster.

Where to get the therapy?

Today, many establishments may provide you with red light therapy rooms, including tanning salons, spas, gyms, wellness centers, dermatology offices, saunas, etc. Along with this, many products are also available in the market that use red light lamps as a healing tool. If you are purchasing any such tool, then make sure it delivers a red light within the effective wavelength so that it is perfectly safe to use.

Is this therapy safe? Does it have any side effects?

This therapy is a completely natural procedure. It exposes your skin to different levels of red light that are perfectly safe. There is no such risk or side effects from undergoing this therapy, but if you are exposed to too much, it may cause cell and tissue damage.

You should also remember that red light therapy is only a small part, and should not be the only way to take care of your concern. Plus, it may take several sittings for you to start noticing the changes in your skin.

If you are thinking of giving this a try, it's advisable to consult your doctor to see if red light therapy is the most appropriate way to treat your concerned skin or health issues.