‘It seems like sorcery’: is light therapy truly capable of improving your skin, whitening your teeth, and strengthening your joints?

Light therapy is clearly enjoying a surge in popularity. There are now available glowing gadgets designed to address skin conditions and wrinkles as well as muscle pain and periodontal issues, the latest being a dental hygiene device outfitted with tiny red LEDs, promoted by the creators as “a significant discovery for domestic dental hygiene.” Internationally, the industry reached $1 billion in 2024 and is forecast to expand to $1.8 billion by 2035. Options include full-body infrared sauna sessions, which use infrared light to warm the body directly, the infrared radiation heats your body itself. According to its devotees, the experience resembles using an LED facial mask, boosting skin collagen, soothing sore muscles, relieving inflammation and long-term ailments as well as supporting brain health.

The Science and Skepticism

“It sounds a bit like witchcraft,” observes Paul Chazot, professor in neuroscience at Durham University and a convert to the value of light therapy. Naturally, certain impacts of light on human physiology are proven. Sunlight enables vitamin D production, crucial for strong bones, immune defense, and tissue repair. Sunlight regulates our circadian rhythms, as well, activating brain chemicals and hormonal responses in daylight, and preparing the body for rest as darkness falls. Artificial sun lamps are standard treatment for winter mood disorders to combat seasonal emotional slumps. Clearly, light energy is essential for optimal functioning.

Types of Light Therapy

Although mood lamps generally utilize blue-spectrum frequencies, the majority of phototherapy tools use red or near-infrared wavelengths. During advanced medical investigations, such as Chazot’s investigations into the effects of infrared on brain cells, identifying the optimal wavelength is crucial. Photons represent electromagnetic waves, extending from long-wavelength radiation to short-wavelength gamma rays. Phototherapy, or light therapy employs mid-spectrum wavelengths, with ultraviolet representing the higher energy invisible light, followed by visible light encompassing rainbow colors and then infrared (which we can see with night-vision goggles).

UV light has been used by medical dermatologists for many years to manage persistent skin disorders including eczema and psoriasis. It affects cellular immune responses, “and reduces inflammatory processes,” notes a dermatology expert. “There’s lots of evidence for phototherapy.” UVA reaches deeper skin layers compared to UVB, whereas the LEDs we see on consumer light-therapy devices (usually producing colored light emissions) “typically have shallower penetration.”

Risk Assessment and Professional Supervision

The side-effects of UVB exposure, including sunburn or skin darkening, are recognized but medical equipment uses controlled narrow-band delivery – meaning smaller wavelengths – that reduces potential hazards. “It’s supervised by a healthcare professional, so the dosage is monitored,” explains the dermatologist. And crucially, the devices are tuned by qualified personnel, “to ensure that the wavelength that’s being delivered is fit for purpose – different from beauty salons, where regulations may be lax, and wavelength accuracy isn’t verified.”

Home Devices and Scientific Uncertainty

Red and blue LEDs, he says, “don’t have strong medical applications, though they might benefit some issues.” Red wavelength therapy, proponents claim, enhance blood flow, oxygen absorption and cell renewal in the skin, and promote collagen synthesis – a primary objective in youth preservation. “Research exists,” comments the expert. “However, it’s limited.” Nevertheless, given the plethora of available tools, “it’s unclear if device outputs match study parameters. Appropriate exposure periods aren’t established, how close the lights should be to the skin, if benefits outweigh potential risks. There are lots of questions.”

Treatment Areas and Specialist Views

Early blue-light applications focused on skin microbes, bacteria linked to pimples. Research support isn’t sufficient for standard medical recommendation – although, explains the specialist, “it’s frequently employed in beauty centers.” Individuals include it in their skincare practices, he says, however for consumer products, “we advise cautious experimentation and safety verification. If it’s not medically certified, oversight remains ambiguous.”

Cutting-Edge Studies and Biological Processes

At the same time, in a far-flung field of pioneering medical science, Chazot has been experimenting with brain cells, identifying a number of ways in which infrared can boost cellular health. “Nearly every test with precise light frequencies demonstrated advantageous outcomes,” he reports. Multiple claimed advantages have created skepticism toward light treatment – that results appear unrealistic. But his research has thoroughly changed his mind in that respect.

The researcher primarily focuses on pharmaceutical solutions for brain disorders, however two decades past, a physician creating light-based cold sore therapy requested his biological knowledge. “He designed tools for biological testing,” he says. “I was pretty sceptical. It was an unusual wavelength of about 1070 nanometres, that nobody believed did anything biological.”

What it did have going for it, though, was its ability to transmit through aqueous environments, allowing substantial bodily penetration.

Mitochondrial Effects and Brain Health

More evidence was emerging at the time that infrared light targeted the mitochondria in cells. These organelles generate cellular energy, creating power for cellular operations. “Mitochondria exist throughout the body, even within brain tissue,” explains the neuroscientist, who concentrated on cerebral applications. “Studies demonstrate enhanced cerebral circulation with light treatment, which is always very good.”

With 1070 treatment, mitochondria also produce a small amount of a molecule known as reactive oxygen species. In limited quantities these molecules, notes the scientist, “stimulates so-called chaperone proteins which look after your mitochondria, protect cellular integrity and manage defective proteins.”

These processes show potential for neurological conditions: oxidative protection, anti-inflammatory, and waste removal – autophagy being the process the cell uses to clear unwanted damaging proteins.

Current Research Status and Professional Opinions

When recently reviewing 1070nm research for cognitive decline, he says, approximately 400 participants enrolled in multiple trials, comprising his early research projects