🔗 Share this article

Phototherapy is certainly having a wave of attention. You can now buy glowing gadgets designed to address complexion problems and aging signs as well as aching tissues and oral inflammation, the latest being a dental hygiene device outfitted with small red light diodes, promoted by the creators as “a significant discovery in at-home oral care.” Internationally, the market was worth $1bn in 2024 and is projected to grow to $1.8bn by 2035. You can even go and sit in an infrared sauna, that employ light waves rather than traditional heat sources, your body is warmed directly by infrared light. According to its devotees, it’s like bathing in one of those LED-lit beauty masks, stimulating skin elasticity, easing muscle tension, relieving inflammation and chronic health conditions and potentially guarding against cognitive decline.

Research and Reservations

“It sounds a bit like witchcraft,” observes a neuroscience expert, who has researched light therapy for two decades. Of course, some of light’s effects on our bodies are well established. Sunlight enables vitamin D production, essential for skeletal strength, immune function, and muscular health. Light exposure controls our sleep-wake cycles, additionally, stimulating neurotransmitter and hormone production during daytime, 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 combat seasonal emotional slumps. So there’s no doubt we need light energy to function well.

Different Light Modalities

Whereas seasonal affective disorder devices typically employ blue-range light, consumer light therapy products mostly feature red and infrared emissions. During advanced medical investigations, such as Chazot’s investigations into the effects of infrared on brain cells, identifying the optimal wavelength is crucial. Light is a form of electromagnetic radiation, which runs the spectrum from the lowest-energy, longest wavelengths (radio waves) to high-energy gamma radiation. Therapeutic light application employs mid-spectrum wavelengths, including invisible ultraviolet radiation, followed by visible light encompassing rainbow colors and infrared light visible through night vision technology.

UV light has been used by medical dermatologists for many years for addressing long-term dermatological issues like vitiligo. It works on the immune system within cells, “and dampens down inflammation,” notes a dermatology expert. “Considerable data validates phototherapy.” UVA penetrates skin more deeply than UVB, while the LEDs in consumer devices (which generally deliver red, infrared or blue light) “generally affect surface layers.”

Safety Considerations and Medical Oversight

The side-effects of UVB exposure, including sunburn or skin darkening, are well known but in medical devices the light is delivered in a “narrow-band” form – signifying focused frequency bands – that reduces potential hazards. “Treatment is monitored by medical staff, meaning intensity is regulated,” explains the dermatologist. Essentially, the devices are tuned by qualified personnel, “to confirm suitable light frequency output – different from beauty salons, where regulations may be lax, and we don’t really know what wavelengths are being used.”

Consumer Devices and Evidence Gaps

Colored light diodes, he notes, “aren’t really used in the medical sense, though they might benefit some issues.” Red light devices, some suggest, enhance blood flow, oxygen absorption and skin cell regeneration, and promote collagen synthesis – an important goal for anti-aging. “Studies are available,” states the dermatologist. “But it’s not conclusive.” Nevertheless, amid the sea of devices now available, “it’s unclear if device outputs match study parameters. Appropriate exposure periods aren’t established, how close the lights should be to the skin, the risk-benefit ratio. Numerous concerns persist.”

Specific Applications and Professional Perspectives

Initial blue-light devices addressed acne bacteria, microorganisms connected to breakouts. The evidence for its efficacy isn’t strong enough for it to be routinely prescribed by doctors – despite the fact that, notes the dermatologist, “it’s commonly used in cosmetic clinics.” Certain patients incorporate it into their regimen, he mentions, though when purchasing home devices, “we advise cautious experimentation and safety verification. Without proper medical classification, the regulation is a bit grey.”

Innovative Investigations and Molecular Effects

Simultaneously, 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 it’s too good to be true. But his research has thoroughly changed his mind in that respect.

The researcher primarily focuses on pharmaceutical solutions for brain disorders, but over 20 years ago, a doctor developing photonic antiviral treatment consulted his scientific background. “He developed equipment for cellular and insect experiments,” he says. “I was quite suspicious. This particular frequency was around 1070 nanometers, that nobody believed did anything biological.”

Its beneficial characteristic, though, was its efficient water penetration, allowing substantial bodily penetration.

Mitochondrial Impact and Cognitive Support

Additional research indicated infrared affected cellular mitochondria. Mitochondria produce ATP for cell function, generating energy for them to function. “All human cells contain mitochondria, particularly in neural cells,” 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 generally advantageous.”

With 1070 treatment, energy organelles generate minimal reactive oxygen compounds. In low doses this substance, says Chazot, “triggers guardian proteins that maintain organelle health, protect cellular integrity and manage defective proteins.”

Such mechanisms indicate hope for cognitive disorders: antioxidant, inflammation reduction, and waste removal – self-digestion mechanisms eliminating harmful elements.

Current Research Status and Professional Opinions

The last time Chazot checked the literature on using the 1070 wavelength on human dementia patients, he states, approximately 400 participants enrolled in multiple trials, including his own initial clinical trials in the US