The Power of Red Light Therapy

Table Of Content

• Potential Side Effects and Precautions
• Best handheld red light therapy device: Solawave 4-In-1 Radiant Renewal Skincare Wand
• CapillusUltra Laser Cap for Hair Regrowth
• What to consider when buying the best red light therapy devices
• Transform your health
• The 8 Best Hair Growth Devices for Achieving Thicker, Fuller, and Healthier-Looking Strands
• Best Overall: CurrentBody Skin LED Light Therapy Face Mask

You can do red light therapy at home, but the devices you can get to use at home are not as powerful as the treatment you could get at a provider’s office or spa. Dental professionals may use red light therapy to help with different oral health conditions. Research evidence supporting red light therapy is limited by small sample sizes, animal subjects or in vitro studies (using a test tube or petri dish in a lab instead of humans), and inconsistent standards.

Potential Side Effects and Precautions

Here are some of the conditions that are showing potential for treatment with red light therapy. As a result, most medical professionals agree that more quality research with more human participants is needed. A Pennsylvania-based board-certified dermatologist with Schweiger Dermatology. Read on to learn more, including potential benefits, side effects and how to use red light therapy.

4 Top Dermatologists Share the Benefits of Red Light Therapy for Your Skin - WWD

4 Top Dermatologists Share the Benefits of Red Light Therapy for Your Skin.

Posted: Fri, 19 Jan 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Best handheld red light therapy device: Solawave 4-In-1 Radiant Renewal Skincare Wand

If you are worried about the potential side effects of using red light therapy on your hair, you can rest entirely at ease. There is a general consensus among researchers that this procedure is safe and can be used frequently with no serious negative consequences to your tresses, scalp or overall health. If you are interested in preventing hair loss, you might achieve significantly better results if you combine red light therapy with a course of topical hair growth medication. Unlike androgenetic alopecia, hair transplant for alopecia areata doesn’t usually work, because there is no safe donor area (your antibodies would be attacking the implanted hair follicles as well).

CapillusUltra Laser Cap for Hair Regrowth

Even if you're new to the world of beauty tech, chances are you've already heard of red light therapy, which is a skin-boosting staple in spas and professional offices alike. Unlike blue light, which is typically used to treat acne, red light has a longer wavelength that allows it to more deeply penetrate multiple layers of skin. However, if products are misused — perhaps used too often or not according to directions — there’s a chance your skin or eyes (if not protected) could be damaged. The long-term safety of devices that use red light therapy is not yet known. Rolling a small, handheld device, covered in hundreds of very fine needles, on your scalp can improve blood flow and stimulate hair growth.

What to consider when buying the best red light therapy devices

Our present study also revealed that LLLT promotes human hair growth and prolongs the anagen phase in an in vitro HF culture model. The following study [2] was conducted to determine the physiological effects that occur when exposed to laser light with red light (650 nm). The study demonstrates that low-level laser scalp treatment every other day for 17 weeks is a safe and effective treatment for androgenetic alopecia. As a result, in patients receiving LLLT, the number of hairs increased by 51% compared to control patients receiving sham therapy.

Transform your health

Dermatologist Lindsey Zubritsky, MD, explains that there is a spectrum—ranging from ultraviolet (UV) rays and infrared (things we can't see) to visible light—when it comes to wavelengths of light (colors of the rainbow). Red light therapy utilizes low wavelengths of red light as a treatment because, at this specific wavelength, it is considered bio-active in humans cells and can directly and specifically affect and improve cellular function. While people commonly use red light therapy to treat other conditions, there is not enough research evidence to suggest there are benefits.

However, there are now a variety of treatment machines on the market that you can use at home and not spend a fortune on. With it, you will be able to focus on targeted areas and improve your health and well-being. While there are many products on the market that claim to treat hair loss, red light therapy has shown promise in scientific studies.

Chemotherapy-induced alopecia is hair loss that occurs as a side effect of chemotherapy. These drugs kill cancer cells, but they can also damage healthy ones, including the cells in the hair follicles. Also, the chemicals in chemotherapy can make the hair shafts brittle and more likely to break.

Best Overall: CurrentBody Skin LED Light Therapy Face Mask

Red light therapy is thought to work by acting on the “power plant” in your body’s cells called mitochondria. With more energy, other cells can do their work more efficiently, doing things like repairing skin, boosting new cell growth and enhancing skin rejuvenation. More specifically, certain cells absorb light wavelengths and are stimulated to work.

"There is an indication that the correct dosing can enhance performance and provide protective effects against muscle damage (and injury)," says King, but more research is needed. The evidence for exercise is promising, but not conclusive, King adds. "There is good data on skin rejuvenation, and for that, we're talking about wrinkles, broken blood vessels, elasticity of the skin, moisture level, roughness and tightness," says Lipner. Below, shop a range of celebrity-loved masks that experts have also name-checked in interviews with Page Six Style. What’s more, unlike many of stars’ skincare standbys, you won’t need a glam squad on payroll to get these tools for yourself.

For skin rejuvenation, red light therapy stimulates collagen production to reduce wrinkles and improve overall skin tone. With so many different LED light therapy devices on the market approved for at-home use, it can be hard to know which one (or ones) you need to target your specific skincare concerns. The best red light therapy devices can help turn back the hands of time, improving the texture and appearance of skin, boosting collagen and fighting wrinkles, fine lines and acne. They can also be beneficial for things like hair growth, inflammation and muscle recovery post-workout. Red light therapy treatments have been shown to stimulate hair growth in patients with androgenic alopecia (male pattern baldness), but commercial claims exaggerate the level of improvement shown in clinical trials [4, 31, 32]. One study found that there was no difference in patient satisfaction between the RLT group and the control group, suggesting that the regrowth was mild and possibly not noticeable enough [32].

Anti-aging guru Bryan Johnson, 46, claims he beat balding and stopped going gray: 'It's been a lot of hard work' - New York Post

Anti-aging guru Bryan Johnson, 46, claims he beat balding and stopped going gray: 'It's been a lot of hard work'.

Posted: Mon, 19 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Longer hair, healthier skin, and calmer acne can be achieved by a flick of a switch. However, they should be used at the recommendation of a medical specialist, as they could have adverse effects or not be effective for your condition. Red light is often emitted by therapeutic devices through an arrangement of larger light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

It’s quick and easy to use, too, only requiring 3 minutes a day, three times a week. It works fairly fast to reduce fine lines, wrinkles, redness and skin pigmentation too, with only three to five 10-minute treatments needed per week and results in as little as four to six weeks. “The device is FDA-cleared for use and Omnilux backs up the claims with strong, clinically reviewed and published research,” adds Hartman. The research strongly suggests that RLT will not improve issues of psoriasis or eczema, despite the benefits it provides for other skin conditions [1]. A 2019 literature review stated that RLT “can not be currently be recommended for the treatment of inflammatory skin diseases because of the lack of well-controlled studies” [36].

If you want to stop and perhaps reverse hair loss, you might consider laser treatment as an option. Dr. Kelley also warns that pregnant women may wish to steer clear for now because red light therapy hasn’t been well studied in relation to pregnancy. Red light therapy may be beneficial when it comes to improved skin appearance, wound healing and pain management, according to current research. Red light therapy is relatively new and its potential applications and benefits are an ongoing area of research, the experts note.

Where you should go for red light therapy depends on what you’re using it to treat. For example, if you want to use it for signs of aging you might be able to have it done at a wellness center. However, red light therapy for something like severe acne may need to be done at a dermatologist’s office. Human studies on red light therapy had small sample sizes, so more research is needed to confirm the safety and effectiveness of the treatment for most people. The potential for skin health benefits is said to be because of how the light affects collagen production and blood circulation in skin tissue.