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

Light-based treatment is certainly having a moment. You can now buy light-emitting tools for everything from skin conditions and wrinkles as well as sore muscles and periodontal issues, the latest being an oral care tool equipped with tiny red LEDs, promoted by the creators as “a major advance in at-home oral care.” Internationally, the industry reached $1 billion in 2024 and is forecast to expand to $1.8 billion by 2035. There are even infrared saunas available, where instead of hot coals (real or electric) heating the air, the thermal energy targets your tissues immediately. As claimed by enthusiasts, it’s like bathing in one of those LED-lit beauty masks, boosting skin collagen, soothing sore muscles, alleviating inflammatory responses and long-term ailments and potentially guarding against cognitive decline.

Understanding the Evidence

“It sounds a bit like witchcraft,” notes a Durham University professor, a scientist who has studied phototherapy extensively. Naturally, we know light influences biological functions. Sunlight helps us make vitamin D, needed for bone health, immunity, muscles and more. Light exposure controls our sleep-wake cycles, additionally, triggering the release of neurochemicals and hormones while we are awake, and winding down bodily functions for sleep as it fades into night. Daylight-simulating devices are a common remedy for people with seasonal affective disorder (Sad) to boost low mood in winter. Undoubtedly, light plays a vital role in human health.

Various Phototherapy Approaches

While Sad lamps tend to use a mixture of light frequencies from the blue end of the spectrum, most other light therapy devices deploy red or infrared light. In rigorous scientific studies, such as Chazot’s investigations into the effects of infrared on brain cells, finding the right frequency is key. Light constitutes electromagnetic energy, extending from long-wavelength radiation to the highest-energy (gamma waves). Phototherapy, or light therapy employs mid-spectrum wavelengths, the highest energy of those being invisible ultraviolet, then visible light (all the colours we see in a rainbow) and infrared light visible through night vision technology.

Dermatologists have utilized UV therapy for extensive periods for addressing long-term dermatological issues like vitiligo. It works on the immune system within cells, “and reduces inflammatory processes,” notes Dr Bernard Ho. “Considerable data validates phototherapy.” UVA reaches deeper skin layers compared to UVB, while the LEDs in consumer devices (usually producing colored light emissions) “generally affect surface layers.”

Risk Assessment and Professional Supervision

UVB radiation effects, like erythema or pigmentation, are understood but clinical devices employ restricted wavelength ranges – meaning smaller wavelengths – which minimises the risks. “Therapy is overseen by qualified practitioners, meaning intensity is regulated,” notes the specialist. Most importantly, the light sources are adjusted by technical experts, “to guarantee appropriate wavelength emission – different from beauty salons, where oversight might be limited, and we don’t really know what wavelengths are being used.”

Commercial Products and Research Limitations

Red and blue LEDs, he notes, “don’t have strong medical applications, but they may help with certain conditions.” Red LEDs, it is proposed, enhance blood flow, oxygen utilization and dermal rejuvenation, and stimulate collagen production – an important goal for anti-aging. “The evidence is there,” says Ho. “But it’s not conclusive.” Regardless, with numerous products on the market, “it’s unclear if device outputs match study parameters. Optimal treatment times are unknown, ideal distance from skin surface, if benefits outweigh potential risks. Numerous concerns persist.”

Treatment Areas and Specialist Views

Initial blue-light devices addressed acne bacteria, a microbe associated with acne. Research support isn’t sufficient for standard medical recommendation – even though, says Ho, “it’s commonly used in cosmetic clinics.” Some of his patients use it as part of their routine, he observes, though when purchasing home devices, “we recommend careful testing and security confirmation. Without proper medical classification, standards are somewhat unclear.”

Cutting-Edge Studies and Biological Processes

Simultaneously, in innovative scientific domains, scientists have been studying cerebral tissue, identifying a number of ways in which infrared can boost cellular health. “Pretty much everything I did with the light at that particular wavelength was positive and protective,” he says. Multiple claimed advantages have created skepticism toward light treatment – that results appear unrealistic. However, scientific investigation has altered his perspective.

The scientist mainly develops medications for neurological conditions, but over 20 years ago, a physician creating light-based cold sore therapy requested his biological knowledge. “He created some devices so that we could work with them with cells and with fruit flies,” he says. “I was quite suspicious. This particular frequency was around 1070 nanometers, that many assumed was biologically inert.”

What it did have going for it, though, was that it travelled through water easily, enabling deeper tissue penetration.

Mitochondrial Impact and Cognitive Support

Growing data suggested infrared influenced energy-producing organelles. These organelles generate cellular energy, producing fuel for biological processes. “Mitochondria exist throughout the body, including the brain,” notes the researcher, who concentrated on cerebral applications. “It has been shown that in humans this light therapy increases blood flow into the brain, which is always very good.”

With 1070 treatment, cellular power plants create limited oxidative molecules. In limited quantities these molecules, explains the expert, “triggers guardian proteins that maintain organelle health, protect cellular integrity and manage defective proteins.”

Such mechanisms indicate hope for cognitive disorders: free radical neutralization, swelling control, and cellular cleanup – self-digestion mechanisms eliminating harmful elements.

Current Research Status and Professional Opinions

When recently reviewing 1070nm research for cognitive decline, he states, about 400 people were taking part in four studies, incorporating his preliminary American studies