For many patients who are dealing with some chronic conditions in their lives, it is important to find a treatment that will help ease the symptoms (without all the harmful medications). One method, known as red light therapy, is gaining a lot of popularity because it is a safe, natural, and effective treatment for many conditions. This therapy can help with bone health, insomnia, hair loss, arthritis, and many other conditions.
While red light therapy is a relatively new type of treatment, it is taking the world by storm. In this article, we will take some time to discuss the pros and cons of using red light therapy so you can decide if this is a good therapy for you to use.
What is Red Light Therapy?
Red light therapy is a process that uses LED bulbs to send low-level red light through the skin, providing some great therapeutic benefits to the cells. This process works because our bodies can react to the light by producing more necessary energy for the cells. This puts the cells into overdrive, helping them to improve efficiency and thrive. When our cells are healthy and energized, they can perform and do their jobs more effectively. This helps you to have more energy, decreases inflammation, prevents hair loss, and so much more.
The Pros / Benefits of Red Light Therapy
There are a lot of great benefits you can enjoy when it comes to choosing red light therapy for your life. Some of the biggest benefits include:
Skin Conditions
Many people choose to work with red light therapy to help them with skin conditions, and there are quite a few dermatology applications of this therapy. For example, you can use this to heal damage to the skin due to sun exposure. The longer wavelengths that are possible with red light therapy help it to penetrate right through the skin and promote healthy and normal cell activity. It can also help to stimulate the formation of new capillaries, improves oxygen, and more. Some of the skin conditions that red light therapy can assist with include accelerated skin aging, acne, rosacea, eczema, and psoriasis.
Bone Health
Red light therapy can help to promote bone growth in some patients. This can turn it into a great tool to help with the prevention of bone loss due to osteoporosis and other bone diseases the patient may suffer from.
Hair Loss
Another way to use red light therapy is to help with the prevention of hair loss. This type of therapy can stimulate the growth of hair because it increases blood flow to the scalp so the hair follicles can get out of their dormant state and start to grow again.
Heals Wounds
This therapy is a great option to use when you need help healing deep wounds. The way that this works is by decreasing the amount of inflammation in the body. This will ensure that the skin will be able to heal well and can prevent scar tissue throughout the body.
Muscle Recovery and Reduced Joint Pain
If you feel sore and tight after your workouts and have trouble moving through the day, then this could very well be the perfect time to try red light therapy. This therapy will speed up muscle recovery while helping to heal and regenerate damaged muscles and their connective tissues. This will help you to reach your peak performance when you work out and compete. In addition, red light therapy can reduce pain and increase your range of motion in the joints, all while reducing inflammation.
Sleep
There are studies that show how red light therapy can help you get better sleep. Patients who did about half an hour of red light therapy (daily for a total of two weeks) saw that their melatonin levels increased, they had better sleep quality, and their endurance was enhanced throughout the day.
Weight Loss
Red light therapy is a good option to use to help you lose weight. This works a little differently than you may think expect, however. With this therapy, you are using the lights to help balance out your thyroid function, while helps to regulate your hormones, thus making it easier to manage your weight (compared to solely dieting and exercising).
Degenerative Brain Diseases
While the research on this is pretty new, it seems that red light therapy will be able to help fight off degenerative brain diseases. This means that it may be an effective therapy to help with dementia, seasonal affective disorder, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s to name a few.
The Cons / Negatives of Red Light Therapy
While we just went through a ton of benefits to using red light therapy (and how it can be used to help out with many health and beauty concerns), there are a few potential drawbacks that you should be aware of before using this therapy in your life. These include:
- While this therapy can provide relief, it should not be seen as a cure for any disease.
- You need to commit to doing this for the long-term. You will need to continue with it indefinitely to see the results.
- If you are doing this therapy through a dermatologist, the costs can get high since you have to use it consistently.
- Not everyone should work with phototherapy, especially if they are sensitive to light.
- You should use it with caution. Some patients will see redness and tightness in the skin when they are done.
- The long-term effects of using this type of therapy on the body are unknown.
- Doing this on your own could lead to more serious issues and misdiagnosis of the underlying condition.
- There are no regulations on this therapy, so it is hard to know how often to use it or when.
- The quality of the different devices will vary so you may not get the best treatment each time.
Overall, red light therapy is an effective way to take care of your body and help it operate the way that it should. It is simple to use, and with the right professional helping you out, you should be feeling better in no time.
