What Are the Benefits of Red Light Therapy Treatments?
The benefits of LED light therapy fall into a few main areas of health and wellness:
Cosmetic and Dermatology
The effect that light has on cells promotes an array of cosmetic and dermatological benefits.
Red and NIR light act a bit differently; their longer wavelengths stimulate collagen and elastin production, which leads to more supple, taut skin. This is why red light therapy is ideal for combatting aging skin; used consistently over a period of time, it will stimulate skin cells and generate visible changes in the tone and texture of the skin, while also noticeably diminishing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. If it’s to combat fine lines and wrinkles, tighten loose skin, or reduce hyperpigmentation, then red light therapy is your best bet.
Red light therapy is also used to treat dermatological conditions such as rosacea and psoriasis, and it’s been shown to combat androgenetic alopecia.
Inflammation
Red light therapy, most often red and NIR light therapy, is also used as a medical treatment, and for good reason. Numerous studies have shown its efficacy in reducing inflammation, which is the body’s natural response to injury – but when inflammation becomes chronic, it is often the root cause of sickness.
One example is rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease that causes an inflammatory response in the body and leads to joint pain, stiffness, and reduced mobility. Studies have shown that red light therapy sessions successfully reduce rheumatoid arthritis symptoms by as much as 70 percent when compared with placebo groups.
Fitness
Red light has the ability to reduce inflammation. When the body is sore after working out, it’s usually due to damaged and overly inflamed muscle tissue. Not only is this painful; it can also inhibit proper muscle repair (which is the process that builds muscles) and force you to take time off from your workout routine.
By zoning in on inflammation, red light therapy promotes faster muscle recovery, mitigates pain, and reduces the amount of downtime between bouts of exercise. This is why red light therapy is often used as a recovery tool for weight-lifting, running, biking, and other intense forms of exercise.
Active Recovery
Active recovery is the practice of engaging in light exercise between more intense bouts of exercise, either on different days or between sets. This helps your body stave off tissue inflammation and increase blood flow, which, in turn, helps push toxins such as lactic acid (a byproduct of anaerobic metabolism) out of the body.
Active recovery can take many forms – light jogging, stretching, yoga – and these activities can benefit from the addition of red light therapy. Red light therapy is the best to use in this instance because of its penetrating abilities.
