The first time you hear about light therapy helping people with medical issues (photomodulation), it sounds like a scam.
It can be. All too many hucksters take advantage of our fears of illness, aging and death to sell us fraudulent products.
And light therapies are no exception. Scams are common in the field because, so far, there's so little proven science.
But we're learning more all the time.
Most people assume light is almost "nothing," so they believe light can't affect skin, let alone their deeper health.
But light is NOT "nothing." It's energy. Expose your skin to the ultraviolet radiation in sunlight, and you'll soon see it turn brown. Keep your skin exposed to the light, and soon it'll turn bright red and hurt. You've got sunburn.
Near Infrared Light is Powerful
Near-infrared light penetrates below the surface of your skin, bringing additional energy to the mitochondria inside your skin cells. Some wavelengths can even reach down to the subcutaneous tissue below your skin.
Mitochondria are the power plants of your cells. Give them more energy (through infrared/red light), and your mitochondria make more ATP, your body's energy source.
Make more ATP, and soon you're feeling more energetic. Plus, your cells are responding.
Much more research is needed, but - because they produce energy for our cells - mitochondria are critical to our health and, most likely, our general organ functioning.
Stimulate your mitochondria to produce more energy and, it's easy to speculate, that will make you feel better today, and give you better health over the future. That's because more energy is a crucial key to preventing disease and slowing down the aging process.
Studies show nerve cells respond well to infrared/red light. Such light appears to stimulate nerve regeneration.
That's incredible. People with Traumatic Brain Injury are reclaiming brain function.
In a study of ordinary people, their brain function improved by 10% through IR exposure.
In studies of mice fed a high-fat diet to obesity, infrared light shone into their brains reduced beta-amyloid plaque and tangles - both of which are highly correlated with Alzheimer's Disease.
The researchers used a laser to expose the mice - their skulls just 1 centimeter from the light source - to near-infrared light for 90 seconds, once a day for five days per week.
The mice exposed to the near-infrared light had some of the inflammatory markers of their high-fat diet significantly reduced.
Researchers are also investigating how near-infrared light stimulates the pineal gland to produce more melatonin.
Melatonin is a critical hormone our pineal gland secretes early at night, before twelve. If you're not sound asleep by then, or you're not in darkness or have something blocking melatonin production, that can result in health problems.
Melatonin appears to be extremely important because it protects the mitochondria from the oxidative stress of free radicals. In other words, with more melatonin, our mitochondria can produce more energy without damaging themselves.
Can Near IR/Red Light Help Prevent or Treat Alzheimer's?
We need a lot more studies, including on people.
Researchers are working on creating devices that can beam infrared light deep into a brain. That would trigger increased blood flow to the brain, plus the neurogeneration of brain cells.
Obviously, those won't be available for sale online any time soon, but we can hope for some spillover effect as we learn more how to use light to protect our brains - before a diagnosis of Alzheimer's.
Green Light Reduces Migraines
In response to green light, your eyes send a signal to your brain. However, those signals are smaller than the signals your eyes send to your brain in response to red, blue, white and amber lights.
The signals from your eyes stimulated by green light elicit electrical signals in the cortex, the outer layer of your brain. And these signals are smaller than those your brain generates in response to other colors.
This may be the mechanism by which green light reduces migraines.
In a mouse study, green light elicited the release of natural opioids in the brains of the mice. This had an anti-inflammatory and pain-lowering effect.
Sunlight is a Powerful Source of Near Infrared Light
Scientists have measured the sweat of people running outside during the day, and they have far more melatonin in their perspiration than their pineal glands produce.
Many now believe this melatonin comes from the sunlight shining on their skin and their skulls. Yes, it does penetrate the bones of your head.
Therefore, before you look for some magic device, remember outdoor sunlight is free. Go outside and run or walk with your head uncovered.
Or, simply enjoy being outdoors. Sunlight reflects well off green things (such as . . . hmmm . . . tree leaves).
Therefore, the near-infrared wavelengths of sunlight may help explain many of the benefits of exercising - and simply spending time - outdoors.
Research has verified people living close to nature have reduced risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and premature death.
Greenlight also increases sleep duration while also decreasing dyastolic blood pressure, heart rate and stress.
If You Do Look for Devices
Remember: buyer beware. Don't buy if the manufacturer doesn't have independent laboratory studies. Also, check on Google and YouTube for background and reviews by experts.
Be careful of "consumer" reviews. Ordinary people can't measure light waves or their clinical effects - or even see infrared light.
For reference: red light is 620 to 750 nm (nanometers). According to Health Light, 630 to 700 nm works best for health purposes.
Near-infrared is 760 to 1400 nm.
Before long, you may be saying, "I saw the light."
And it's improved your energy and mental fitness.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTzNeQdbPBc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF0nqolsNZc&t=7252s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wadKIiGsDTw&t=286s
https://healthlightllc.com/2023/06/08/what-wavelength-works-best-for-red-light-therapy/
https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/melatonin-what-you-need-to-know
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isz2IQs_EPg