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What is Red Light Therapy?

The healing powers of the sun has been known to humanity for millennia, but the particular effects of red-light and near-infrared-light have only rather recently been scientifically documented (first hypothesized in 1967), with a plethora of studies documenting its beneficial potential following since.

As humans we are evolutionarily built to receive light that is proportionally high in red and NIR (near-infrared) wavelengths every morning and evening which removes the oxidative stress that builds up during the day (from UV-exposure among other things), and thus its range of uses are wide and impressive. It’s not an instant miracle-cure, and although it might bring very acute effects on certain ailments, its main benefits are long-term physical and mental health.

The spectrum of light visible to the human eye is rather narrow, considering the broad spectrum of electromagnetic radiation within which it exists. RLT isolates and utilizes the scientifically documented benefits of red-light (600nm-700nm) and near-infrared-light (700-1000nm), in order to make their therapeutic benefits available to modern humans.

How does it work?

The particular wavelengths isolated by RLT-devices naturally penetrate the skin, and can in fact go as far as into the bone, where its electromagnetic force reacts with the mitochondria of the cells that it comes into contact with.

While the exact mechanism of action hasn’t been conclusively established, the process involves better ATP-production and removal of oxidative stress, which ultimately make for better functioning cells, regardless of what type of cell it is. This is why the benefits of RLT are so manifold and seem too good to be true.

If the cell has mitocondria, which all cells do, RLT can help it perform its job better.

What are the benefits?

So what are the concrete ways that RLT, delivered by the currently available technology, can enable you to live a better life?

Actual and perceived benefits will vary according to the individual in question. RLT has both isolated and systemic benefits, and while it is effective across a wealth of parameters, it is more effective for some purposes than others.

The table here lists some of the best studied and most interesting benefits of RLT.

Click on each of them, to learn more.

RLT is primarily known for its well-proven benefits for the skin. Just like the most obvious effect of UV-light on the body are the ones that we can see on the skin (tanning and aging) the most obvious benefits of RLT are improved skin.

The list of benefits is long: rejuvenation, reduction of fine lines and wrinkles, improved skin tone, skin density and radiance, youthfulness, lifting, collagen density, and reduction of pores.

(we're not skincare experts at HELIO, so if you want to dive deeper into the particular effects on the skin, we encourage you to hear from the various skincare bloggers online - just beware of their sponsorships).

Meanwhile, it also helps alleviate any symptoms one might experience from various skin conditions such as acne and eczema.

These effects have been proven countless times in controlled clinical trials and by anecdote.

Just like a healthy diet helps you maintain both overall health and the beauty of your body, fortunately, so does RLT.

Skin Health

The benefits of RLT on hair health are well documented both scientifically and anecdotally.

Many companies sell RLT-helmets for this purpose in particular, and while convenient, our HELIO panels are in fact better suited than many of these to help you grow and maintain the healthiest and best-looking hair possible due to its high-quality emission of the best available wavelengths and their synergistic effects on the cells.

While the benefits on hair health are significant if one applies RLT consistently and with patience, increasing both hair count, density, and thickness visibly, it, unfortunately, has rarely been shown to re-grow hair in areas where the hair follicles have ‘died off’ completely on its own.

To this purpose, we would advise looking into additional re-growth tools, which should however be more effective in conjunction with RLT.

Hair Health

The effectiveness of RLT on physical performance is well established across many parameters, for example: improved maximum physical performance, improved recovery, reduced oxidative stress, reduced lactation, and reduced pain.

In slightly more ‘real world’ terms: increased muscle mass, increased strength, better endurance, decreased soreness, and even fat loss.

Particularly the 810nm wavelength, which we carry in high proportion (unlike many of our competitors), has been shown to be effective in this regard. Furthermore, most studies, have been contacted with contact-use, which very few other RLT-brands than ours enable you to do.

If you haven't read about the difference between contact and standard use, scroll down on any of product pages to learn more.

Physical Performance

Although the inclusion of ‘protective eyewear’ might lead many to infer the opposite, RLT has in fact been proven to be very beneficial for overall eye health. As with basically all applications of RLT, there are both maintenance and general improvements, and particular ailments that it can alleviate.

Essentially, it helps keep your eyes young and healthy, with particular improvements on parameters such as: color contrast sensitivity, age-related macular degeneration, dry eyes, glaucoma, light-induced damage, myopia (short-sightedness), and many more.

Another benefit, particularly if used in the morning, is that the sheer power of the light also provides bright light therapy (which helps your circadian rhythm and hormones adjust and regulate themselves).

One can even get these benefits with closed eyes, as the light penetrates the thin skin of eye lid, but they will be greatly reduced if one chooses to wear the protective eyewear.

Eye Health

Demonstrating how the systematic benefits of RLT seem to reach every nook and cranny of the body, the brain has been demonstrated to benefit significantly from RLT – both in terms of performance and health.

Cognitive performance, i.e. better memory, focus, and speed in mental processes should result from normal use of our RLT-panels.

In addition, the maintenance of a healthy brain and the alleviation of many brain-conditions have been demonstrated scientifically. Improvements for Alzheimer’s, epilepsy, depression, multiple sclerosis, neuroinflammation, Parkinson’s, and stroke patients all point to the unusually wide-ranging nature of the benefits that RLT provides due to its general mechanism of optimizing mitochondrial function.

Mental Performance

It almost seems impossible that something as immaterial as light can affect something as dense and solid as bone, but RLT has been clinically shown to improve the growth, repair, and maintenance of strong and healthy bones.

Improvements in: Bone growth, bone healing, bone mineralization, osteoporosis, fractures, cell proliferation, and many other parameters have been demonstrated.

Bone Health

Just like RLT contributes to a healthy brain in general, so does it contribute to the alleviation of mental disorders such as depression, insomnia, anxiety, and headaches.

Such mental disorders shouldn’t be expected to be cured by anything as simple as a RLT device, but the improvement in these conditions has been demonstrated clinically and remain completely consistent with the well-established complicated link between the brain and psyche.

Besides, as is often underscored in the scientific literature, RLT is completely side-effect free and might act synergistically with other treatments for these mental conditions, so there is little to lose.

Mental Health

Stem cells are ‘blank cells’ with the unique ability to develop into various types of specialized cells needed for different functions within the body.

Stem cells play a crucial role in tissue repair and regeneration in the body, particularly for cells with high turn-over such as skin cells, blood cells and cells of the gut-lining.

Evidence suggests that RLT may enhance the proliferation, migration and conversion of stem cells, aiding in their ability to repair and maintain tissues, which can contribute to a generalized improvement in the body’s ability to heal itself and stay young.

Aiming our RLT panels at places in the body where the bone and the skin lies very close (such as the shin, chest-bone and forehead), could be the optimal strategy for ensuring the best possible results for optimal stem cell function through RLT.

Stem Cell Release

One of the most common uses of RLT is that of pain-reduction. Pain, as most people intuitively recognize, is a signal to the brain that something is wrong in the affected area. For example, increased pain-sensitivity in a joint will be an implicit signal to move that joint less in order for it to heal.

Often, when we our bodies are damaged or hurt locally as such, the area in question will be inflammed. ‘Inflammation’ sounds like a health-buzz-word to many, but it is a very real phenomenon that describes our bodies’ reaction to local damage.

Pain & inflammation is not always bad though. Think of exercise, where a painful physical exertion is a stressor to the system and causes and inflammatory response in the body afterward. This is a hugely beneficial stimulous across almost all parameters of health.

What isn’t healthy or desireable is the chronic activation of pain and inflammation in our daily lives. Unnatural patterns of movement (for example sitting down too much during the day), natural wear and tear to the body (such as problematic joints and ligaments), and any acute local injury all benefit from the alleviation of inflammation that RLT provides by boosting celluar repair, anti-inflammatory cytokines and local blood-flow.

Local Pain & Inflammation

An extremely interesting and promising use case of RLT is its application to enhance reproductive health and treat infertility. The scientific studies conducted have shown very significant effects on particular body parts such as the ovary, prostate, testicles, and sperm, but also observed decreased erectile dysfunction for men and increased chance of giving birth for women.

One study even suggests increased testosterone levels, but since the study was very small and done on rats, we wouldn’t hedge all our bets on the science actually living up to grand claims of the somewhat viral Men’s Health article from 2017 ‘I Put a Giant Red Light on My Balls to Triple My Testosterone Levels’.

Fertility & Hormones

RLT assists in maintain good oral health and alleviating the symptoms of particular oral diseases. Teeth repair (which is essentially bone repair) is improved, just like burning mouth syndrome, caries, postoperative implications of dental implants, dental hypersensitivity, herpes infections, oral mucosa, oral pain, dry mouth and many more.

While perhaps seemingly a marginal issue to most, the long-term benefits to your oral health demonstrate the way in which the generalized benefits of RLT extend to many, if not all, particular areas of your body and ultimately optimize their function, maintenance, and repair.

Oral Health

Some of the generalized benefits of RLT helps have been scientifically documented to help the microbiome develop better and to assist in the optimization and health of the immune system.

Concretely, benefits for systemic inflammation, lymphocytes, dendritic cells, antibody production, mast cells, and more have been shown for immunity enhancement, while better microbiome diversity has been demonstrated in the few studies that have been conducted.

Immunity & Microbiome

What does the science say?

At HELIO we are acutely aware that the benefits of RLT seem too good to be true and that many companies today sell hot air to well-meaning and hopeful consumers, who wish to optimize their health, well-being and beauty. Therefore we have compiled a list of scientific resources that back up the claims that we have made and that further elaborate the science and practice underpinning red light therapy.

The following lists comprises different types of informational sources that we recommend anyone with interest in RLT check out.

Websites

Gembared.com – the only other science-based RLT-company in the industry. Has a wealth of incredibly educational ressources and remains the best site to frequent if one wants truthful, deep and applicable knowledge of RLT and the science behind it.

Alexfergus.com – has very extensive coverage of everything RLT – with an emphasis on consumer knowledge and applicability. It does however play a bit too much into the industry narrative of ‘high intensity = better results’.

NovoThor – NovoThor is, like our own and Gembared, a company dedicated to the realistic and truthful – science backed – dissemination of RLT. Their site carry many informative blogposts and testimonials (they dow however deal in 200.000$+ RLT-beds and medical equipment, rather than consumer-panels).

Beyond the websites that specifically center themselves around the topic of RLT, you can of course also find it discussed in various mainstream media outlets such as Forbes, CNN, and, NBC (these however rarely do the topic or the science its justice).

Scientific papers

For a comprehensive list of every scientific study on RLT (which amounts to more than 7000 currently) see the brilliant spreadsheet made by Valdimir Heiskanen here.

For the studies done with non-contact (standard-use) RLT, which you will find isn’t in fact all that many, see the following.

Skincare:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3926176/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3926176/#!po=19.7674

Sleep and physical performance:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3499892/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33332232/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33345040/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9414854/

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10103-023-03759-5

Cardiovascular improvement:

https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2560630