Is Red Light Therapy Witchcraft or Science? Is Red Light Therapy Equipment Worth Buying?

On the UTK page you can see many red light devices www.utktechnology.com, what exactly do these red lights do?

To better understand red light, let's first look at American football. The idea of this sport is to keep the ball on your side as much as possible. For many athletes, the result is repeated head trauma and concussions.

During an autopsy of former Pittsburgh Steelers player Mike Webster in 2002, Dr. Bennet Omalu found that the player's brain had undergone many distinct changes due to repeated blows and collisions on the field. Doctors believe this may be the main reason for the depression, mood disorders, intellectual disability and multiple suicide attempts Webster experienced after his career.

In 2005, football player Terry Long committed suicide. Dr Omalu examined him and found so much damaged protein built up in his brain that the 45-year-old's brain looked like the brain of a 90-year-old with severe Alzheimer's brain".

Larry Carr is also a football player, and his brain has been traumatized by many football games. He was diagnosed with concussive brain damage in 2008, years after his 10-year football career ended in the 1970s. Larry said his symptoms, which started 20 years ago, started with language difficulties and progressed to severe mood disorders, depression, anxiety and paranoia.

Fortunately, after getting in touch with neurology professor Dr. Margaret Naeser, he finally found a way to improve his brain health. Dr. Margaret Naeser put Larry in a trial that irradiated his head with red light to restore brain function. After 18 weeks, his brain health improved significantly after the unusual treatment. The number of emotional outbursts and depression scores decreased significantly, and the quality of life improved significantly. How could light possibly reverse brain damage? In fact, there is a lot of scientific basis and a long history behind "light therapy".

Today, red/near infrared light therapy devices are becoming more and more popular. The benefits of this "red light therapy" can be seen in many ways, from reducing inflammation, reducing recovery time after exercise, boosting collagen production, improving skin, and even improving vision, improving mitochondrial function, and reducing the rate of cell death . Previously, in a study published in Gerontology, a team of researchers from the University College London (UCL) Eye Institute found that staring at deep red light for three minutes a day can significantly improve deteriorating vision. This study, the first of its kind in humans, provides us with a simple, safe and easy-to-operate treatment to try to slow the pace of vision loss.

So where is the magic of red light? How is it different from ordinary light? In Japan in the 10th century AD, people believed that there was a smallpox god named Housougami, who was afraid of red. Because of superstition, people at that time liked to decorate the patient's room with red objects and red paper, and the patient would also wear red clothes to ward off evil spirits. In fact, many different cultures have similar practices. This "red therapy" was also recorded and recommended in the medical writings of medieval Arab scholars, and was practiced in Britain, France, Italy, Sweden, Denmark and other regions. During the reigns of King Charles V of France, King Elizabeth I of England and King Joseph I of Austria, they all "surrounded" smallpox patients with red ornaments.

When Huldschinsky claimed in 1919 that a mercury arc lamp could cure rickets, everyone thought he was a lunatic. But now we all know that rickets is caused by vitamin D deficiency. The ultraviolet rays contained in the sun shining on the skin can make the body synthesize vitamin D, thereby preventing rickets.

Not many people believed that red light was good for the skin until an "accident" made by Endre Mester in 1968. In one experiment, Mester made an incision in the skin of a rodent and implanted a cancerous tumor. He then tried to destroy the tumor with a laser, but surprisingly, instead of killing the tumor, the laser healed the wound on the animal where the tumor was placed. Why can't lasers destroy tumors but only heal the skin? In fact, Mester's laser was much weaker than he thought. The accident revealed the repairing effects of low-level lasers on the skin.

At present, Low Level Laser Therapy (LLLT) is widely used, and there are many related research papers. One such application is the treatment of acne scars. Low-level laser treatment mainly uses light in the red and near-infrared wavelengths of 660-905 nanometers, because these light can penetrate the body and have certain benefits for the human body.

What follows is a discussion of the science of how red and infrared light affects human cells, and in particular why the body responds specifically to red and near-infrared light. As the saying goes, all things grow by the sun. The sun was worshipped for a long time, and Hippocrates also said that sunbathing is good for health [23]. In this 1918 photo, U.S. soldiers expose their undressed wounds to the sun because it speeds healing. So, maybe the red and infrared light (healing devices) is not some kind of hex magic, but is simulating what humans used to get in their lives so often. Unless we're sleeping in the open air, we're unlikely to be regularly exposed to red and infrared light in the early morning or at sunset.

Similar to the application of UVB (UltraViolet B) in the prevention and treatment of rickets, red light and infrared light are very useful, because modern people just "lack" the red light and infrared light that these prehistoric humans obtained from morning and evening sunlight every day. Light. Red light therapy is said to have positive effects on improving skin health, even Alzheimer's disease and depression, and it works incredibly well. So how exactly does red light affect cells? To understand the details, let's first look at the phenomenon of cyanide poisoning. Mitochondria are known to be the powerhouse of cells, producing energy in the form of ATP to power cells. The basic principle behind cyanide poisoning is to disrupt the mitochondria's ATP energy factory, depriving the cell of the precious energy it needs to function. Cyanide inhibits cytochrome c oxidase in mitochondria - a key enzyme that produces enormous amounts of energy.

When cytochrome c oxidase is inhibited, ATP production is slowed or even stopped, the cell powerhouse becomes an abandoned shack, and if this happens to a certain number of cells, the person dies. Interestingly, red and near-infrared light works in the opposite way to cyanide. The first two stimulate the enzyme cytochrome c oxidase, producing more ATP energy [27]. Since nearly every cell in the body relies on mitochondria-generated ATP for energy, perhaps it's not out of the blue that light therapy could have such a broad range of applications. By the way, red and near-infrared light has been found to reverse the damage cyanide does to cells. Of course, this is just an "anecdote", red light cannot be used to defuse cyanide poisoning. So, cells need energy, and by irradiating cells with red light, the cells can produce more energy and work better. This is a concept with high practical value. If something makes all kinds of cells work better, it can also be used to treat all kinds of diseases. This should be the basic principle of red light therapy.

Red light exposure to cytochrome c oxidase also releases nitric oxide. Nitric oxide is a very important molecule as a neurotransmitter that helps repair damaged tissue, relax blood vessels, and increase blood flow. In 1998, three scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize for discovering the important role of nitric oxide in the cardiovascular system.

Turning to traumatic brain injury, 1.7 million Americans are treated for traumatic brain injury each year. Reduced mitochondrial energy output was again the main cause. As the paper explains, extensive damage to the brain's mitochondria is an important cause of traumatic brain injury symptoms. Therefore, Dr. Margaret Naeser called Larry Carr's red light-emitting device strapped to his head, with very solid science and logic, and a lot of scientific evidence to explain why this device would bring him such obvious benefits.

Additionally, a small study conducted in 2009 took 10 patients with a history of severe depression and anxiety and irradiated their foreheads with red/near-infrared light for 4 weeks. Surprisingly, after 4 weeks, 6 out of 10 patients experienced remission of depression, and 7 of them experienced remission of anxiety. This research is exciting, but I try not to use the word "cure" in this article. Although there are many successful cases and studies of red light therapy, the only application of red light currently approved by the FDA is for the treatment of mild pain and arthritis.

But should we immediately spend a few hundred dollars online to buy a red light therapy device? It's hard to say, although there are many studies showing that red light exposure enhances collagen synthesis. It's hard to say how much red light can beautify your skin, but if you're interested in skin or other benefits, red light therapy is definitely worth a try.