Stephanie Hallett - Healing with Red Light Therapy: How Red and Near-Infrared Light Can Manage Pain, Combat Aging, and Transform Your Health

Text copyright 2020 Stephanie Hallett. Design and concept copyright 2020 Ulysses Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. Any unauthorized duplication in whole or in part or dissemination of this edition by any means (including but not limited to photocopying, electronic devices, digital versions, and the internet) will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

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ISBN: 978-1-64604-029-2

ISBN: 978-1-64604-112-1 (ebook)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020931858

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NOTE TO READERS: This book has been written and published strictly for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to serve as medical advice or to be any form of medical treatment. You should always consult your physician before altering or changing any aspect of your medical treatment and/or undertaking a diet regimen, including the guidelines as described in this book. Do not stop or change any prescription medications without the guidance and advice of your physician. Any use of the information in this book is made on the readers good judgment after consulting with his or her physician and is the readers sole responsibility. This book is not intended to diagnose or treat any medical condition and is not a substitute for a physician. This book is independently authored and published and no sponsorship or endorsement of this book by, and no affiliation with, any trademarked brands or other products mentioned within is claimed or suggested. All trademarks that appear in this book belong to their respective owners and are used here for informational purposes only. The author and publisher encourage readers to patronize the quality brands mentioned in this book.

For B. A. H.

(Sorry about all those Rudolph jokes.)

In the past few years, red and near-infrared light therapy has exploded in popularitythe treatment seems to be everywhere, from the doctors office to the salon. Its received high praise from the press, too: Glamour calls it a fountain of youth; Shape insists you make it a part of your skin-care routine; and Mens Journal praises its sleep, strength and endurance training, and post-workout recovery benefits. It certainly seems like this painless, side effectfree treatment could be the medical breakthrough weve been waiting for.

Red light therapy has been around for decades, since the advent of lasers in the 1960s. Currently, there are dozens of FDA-cleared red and near-infrared light therapy devices on the market, mainly for skin care and aches and pains. Some estimates suggest that the light therapy market, including white light devices for seasonal affective disorder and devices of other colors, will reach $1 billion worldwide by 2025.

Today, red and near-infrared light therapy is known in the scientific community as photobiomodulationa mouthful that means photo: light; bio: life; modulation: regulate, stimulate, or adjust. Ill refer to the acronym PBM throughout this book as shorthand. The treatment uses lasers or LED lights of a particular wavelength and helps with a huge variety of conditions. Hundreds of human clinical trials have been conducted, the vast majority with positive results. Even pro athletes like three-time Stanley Cup champion Duncan Keith swear by PBMhe raved about it to the New York Times in 2019.

My introduction to PBM was in early 2017. I was freelancing full-time, and my editor at HelloGiggles assigned me a story on light therapy titled, A dermatologist weighs in on those LED light masks you see all over Instagram. At the time, the Neutrogena Light Therapy Acne Mask seemed to be on every celebrity and influencers feed: a white, plastic device that looked a little like a hockey mask and glowed pink in photos from its combination of red and blue LEDs. (That Neutrogena mask was pulled from the market in 2019 over risk of eye injury.) The doctor in my story said that while red and blue light had been shown to be effective at treating acne, the at-home devices proliferating online likely hadnt been tested or cleared by any regulatory body and might not necessarily do what they claimed to. He advised a healthy dose of skepticism on the LED light masks and a trip to the dermatologist for advice and an expert-approved skin-care treatment.

Later that year, my dad came to visit me in Los Angeles. We were watching TV together on the first night of his stay when I looked over and saw his nose glowing brightly, like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. He had a bulbous white device on his face, held up by a prong in each nostrilit was a Bionette, a PBM device that uses red LED light to relieve allergy symptoms. I gave my dad a hard time about it because it looked ridiculous, and I didnt believe it could work (sorry, Dad!), but he was steadfast: Hed had terrible allergies his whole life, and this was the only thing that really helped him. Hed been using it every day for just five minutes, and it reduced the sneezing and discomfort that plagued him. (He described the discomfort as ants running up and down the inside of my nose, which, frankly, sounds horrifying, and he said the Bionette pretty much eliminated the ants.)

Then, suddenly, light therapy seemed to be everywhere in my lifenot only was I seeing it on social media and in the news, but my aesthetician recommended it for my acne scars, and my physical therapist told me about all the ways it had improved her patients lives. When I set out to report and write this book, I was delighted to discover that PBM could do so much more than rejuvenate my skin and soothe my aching joints (though it can do that well, too). These lights could be used to heal wounds and grow hair, they could offer help managing inflammatory conditions like fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis, and they could even potentially ease the symptoms of degenerative brain diseases like Parkinsons (though that research is still in its relatively early stages). PBM is also effective at treating wounds and illnesses in animals, which seems relevant to the conversation since theres no such thing as a placebo effect in animals. As Dr. Praveen Arany, a PBM researcher at the University at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine, explained to me, Animals do not have placebo. They do not pretend to get better because youre shining light on them. Take that, PBM skeptics.

Personally, I tried a number of PBM devices throughout this writing process and experienced my own remarkable results. Thanks to the NovoTHOR light bed and the Celluma PRO, my skin was glowing and blemish free on my wedding day. Plus, a few sessions in the NovoTHOR seemed to clear up some chronic stomach pain Id been experiencing. My husband, too, tried the LumiCeuticals light system and noticed a much shorter recovery time after his workouts, and he also noted that he was lifting heavier at the gym.

While mainstream medicine still has a long way to go before offering a full-throated embrace of PBM therapy, scientists and researchers in the field are making great stridesthere are already reams of evidence in favor of the treatment. Someday, experts hope, PBM will be a first-line treatment that offers real healing for a variety of health conditions, not just symptom management.