Researchers Track Thousands of Red Light Therapy Studies
Red light therapy is getting far more research attention than it once did. John Mitrofanis, a researcher at the University of Grenoble Alpes in France, said the field is slowly starting to get traction and that publication counts have risen from 10 or 20 a year to thousands.
John Mitrofanis on the research surge
Mitrofanis said, “It’s slowly starting to get traction.” He also said, “When I started, there might have been 10 or 20 publications a year, but now there are thousands.” The shift matters because the strongest emerging evidence is not for the wider wellness claims often used in marketing, but for possible mitigation of cognitive decline.
Red-light therapy is promoted for acne, hair loss, depression, chronic pain, better sleep, boosted mood and fewer wrinkles. The evidence for most of those claims is thin at best, even as the research base grows around more specific medical uses.
From 1960 to Semmelweis University
Work on the field began in 1960 with the invention of the laser. In 1967, Endre Mester, a physicist at Semmelweis University in Budapest, Hungary, shone red lasers with a wavelength of 694 nanometres onto shaved mice. Their fur grew back more vigorously, and Mester later found that lasers enhanced wound healing in people.
He used low-level laser therapy to treat ulcers and other intractable wounds, and later work showed that near-infrared light with wavelengths between 700 and 850 nanometres also had healing effects. LEDs could be used instead of lasers in low-level laser therapy, widening the technology beyond the early lab setup.
FDA clearance and new trials
Red light therapy uses wavelengths between around 650 and 750 nanometres, and red light can pass through the dead outer layer of skin and penetrate a few millimetres beneath it. The US Food and Drug Administration has cleared devices for acne and hair loss, but it has not approved them as clinically effective.
Researchers are now trialling red-light therapy for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, which pushes the work beyond consumer devices such as face masks and full-body panels. Glen Jeffery, a researcher at University College London, is among the people in the field examining the science as it moves from spa and dermatologist settings into studies aimed at cognition and neurodegenerative disease.
For readers, the practical divide is clear: the devices on sale may be marketed for appearance or wellness uses, but the more serious research question now is whether light in this range can help with cognitive decline and related diseases.
