If you’re curious about light therapy and its benefits, you’re in the right place. In this article, we’ll explore how light therapy can improve your health and help you thrive. We have seen a great difference in our customers’ and employees’ health and wellbeing, and we hope you can learn a lot from this article.
It’s important to note that light is just as essential to our health as water, sleep, and nutrients from food. However, our modern lifestyles often leave us deprived of natural sunlight, with the average American spending more than 90% of their time indoors. This lack of natural light can have a significant impact on our health and well-being, especially when combined with the negative effects of blue light from screens and overhead lighting. This applies to individuals working at a diving float spa, including massage therapists and estheticians who may spend a lot of time indoors in a dark room as well as our customers who are working in offices.
Fortunately, light therapy can help combat the negative effects of our indoor lifestyles. By providing healthy light to the body, light therapy can improve cellular function and promote optimal health and balance. As a Divine Med Spa customer or employee, incorporating light therapy into your wellness routine, you can enhance your overall experience and contribute to your overall well-being.
Red light therapy is
Non-invasive,
Backed by science,
Clinicalyl researched!
Light therapy is not a wellness fad. It’s a legitimate and widely-used health intervention backed by a large amount of peer-reviewed clinical research. NASA studied light therapy in the late 1980s and 1990s for use in space, and over the last two decades, researchers have conducted over a thousand peer-reviewed trials and studies on various kinds of light therapy (also referred to as photobiomodulation or low-level laser therapy). The clinical consensus is that red and NIR light treatments are generally safe and effective, with a wide range of potential uses.
Light Therapy Supports a Wide Range of Systemic Health Benefits!
No matter who you are, incorporating healthy light into your life can bring you benefits, whether you’re a professional athlete, a busy parent, or an older adult trying to maintain an active lifestyle. Light therapy promotes balance and provides numerous systemic health benefits that apply to everyone. In the following paragraphs, we will discuss some of the primary advantages of light therapy.
Cellular Health
Improves Skin Health
Optimizes Sleep
Relieves Joint pain
Relieves inflammation
Athletic Recovery
Arthritis Support
Improves Blood Flow
Cognitive Function
Cellular Health: By improving cellular health throughout the body, light therapy treatments can offer systemic benefits, which in conjunction with a healthy lifestyle can lead to enhanced cellular function and increased ATP energy production. When your cells work more efficiently, you are likely to experience improvements in your overall well-being. To learn more about the relationship between cellular function, mitochondria, ATP energy, and light therapy, visit this resource.
Relieves inflammation: Light therapy treatments can aid in relieving inflammation and pain in your body’s natural healing process after an illness or injury. Dr. Michael Hamblin, a top researcher in photomedicine at Harvard Medical School, has studied the effects of red-light therapy on inflammation and believes that it produces a reduction in inflammation overall. To learn more about inflammation, strain, and how light therapy can help, you can read further details here. [2]”
Red light therapy also supports arthritis and joint pain relief by improving blood flow to damaged tissues.
Improved Blood Flow: Enhanced Blood Circulation: Light therapy has the potential to increase blood flow significantly after treatment sessions, indicating that tissues receive more oxygen and other essential nutrients necessary for healing. Additionally, light aids the body and circulatory system in eliminating harmful byproducts. [3] You can read more about blood circulation and light therapy here.
Optimizing Sleep: Adequate exposure to healthy light is crucial for regulating sleep and maintaining natural circadian rhythms. Our brains interpret light as a signal for when to be awake and asleep, and when to produce important sleep hormones such as melatonin. Exposure to bright blue light at night can disrupt your sleep cycle, but lower-intensity red light is an alternative that can help promote longer and more restful sleep. [4,5,6] Learn more about how light affects sleep here
Athletic Recovery: Light therapy is a popular tool among professional athletes and trainers to enhance physical performance, promote recovery, and aid in healing. Muscle cells require a significant amount of energy and undergo a process of tearing and repairing to grow and strengthen. Light therapy can increase the efficiency of energy production and utilization in the body, while also helping to reduce inflammation and promote circulation, leading to faster recovery after workouts or injuries. [7]
Healthy light intake plays a crucial role in maintaining skin health and beauty. Red and near-infrared (NIR) light therapy helps enhance cellular respiration, making energy production more efficient with less oxidative stress, which promotes balance across the body and skin. This can lead to softer, invigorated skin with improved overall appearance and texture. [8,9]
Cognitive Function: Cognitive function refers to the ability of the brain to process and respond to stimuli effectively. Light therapy using NIR wavelengths can penetrate brain cells and activate mitochondria in the brain, resulting in improved cellular energy production, enhanced blood flow, and better cognitive function. [8] To learn more about how light therapy can benefit brain health and cognitive function, check out our resources on the topic.
In conclusion, light therapy is a scientifically-backed and commonly used method for supporting better health. Healthy light is crucial for optimal function, but many people don’t get enough of it. Red light therapy can help enhance cellular function and improve sleep.
If you’re interested in trying light therapy, why not give it a go?
[1] Klepeis NE, Nelson WC, Ott WR, et al. The National Human Activity Pattern Survey (NHAPS): a resource for assessing exposure to environmental pollutants. Journal of Exposure Analysis and Environmental Epidemiology. 2001 May.
[2] Hamblin M. Mechanisms and applications of the anti-inflammatory effects of photobiomodulation. AIMS Biophysics. 2017 May.
[3] Mak MC, Cheing GL. Immediate effects of monochromatic infrared energy on microcirculation in healthy subjects. Photomed Laser Surg. 2012.
[4] Sheppard A and Wolffsohn J. “Digital eye strain: prevalence, measurement and amelioration.” BMJ Open Ophthalmology. 2018 April.
[5] Jung C, Khalsa S, et al. Acute Effects of Bright Light Exposure on Cortisol Levels. Journal of Biological Rhythms. 2010 Jun.
[6] Harvard Health. Blue light has a dark side.
[7] Hamblin, Michael. Mechanisms and applications of the anti-inflammatory effects of photobiomodulation. AIMS Biophys. 2017.
[8] Hamblin, Michael. Shining light on the head: Photobiomodulation for brain disorders. ScienceDirect. 2016 Sept.
[9] Avci P, Gupta A, Sadasivam M, Vecchio D, Pam Z, Pam N, Hamblin MR. Low-level laser (light) therapy (LLLT) in skin: stimulating, healing, restoring. Semin Cutan Med Surg. 2013 Mar.