Pain is a complex and often distressing issue that has a significant impact on individuals and those around them. It can be the result of an injury or disease but should be seen as a separate condition rather than just a symptom of other ailments.
A 2016 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that 50 million American adults (equal to 20.4% of the U.S. adult population) have experienced discomfort every day or most days for the past six months. To put that into perspective, that means that a fifth of Americans suffer from pain most days. Now that we’re eight years down the line, we can only expect that this number has risen.
When taking this further, health economists from John Hopkins University estimated the cost of chronic pain to be around $635 million a year. Again, when putting this into perspective, that’s more than the cost of cancer, diabetes, and heart disease combined.
With pain medication providing a temporary band-aid to a deep wound, alternative relief methods such as red light therapy, also known as photobiomodulation (PBM), have been proposed to promote the body's natural healing processes. So, how can red light therapy possibly help? What are the supposed benefits? Let’s take a look!
How does red light therapy help pain relief?
Before we look at the different ways red light therapy can help, let’s give a brief overview of how it actually works! So, the red and infrared light travels through the skin to the areas inside and around the muscles, nerves, joints, and bones. Our cells absorb the light which then creates a series of natural reactions in our body.
Improves blood flow
Blood flow is a key factor when it comes to tissue repair and healing. Blood needs to flow to the affected area to deliver oxygen and nutrients for our body's natural healing process to take place.
An important gas involved in this vial process is nitric oxide. Nitric oxide is essential for healthy arteries — it helps them relax, fights free radicals to reduce oxidative stress, and helps to regulate blood pressure.
The light energy stimulates the production of nitric oxide, allowing our blood vessels to relax and deliver more oxygen and nutrients. Better blood flow means more natural healing!
Reduced Inflammation
Inflammation is our body's natural response to an injury or infection. We need inflammation to help our body protect itself and prevent any further damage. However, it's only good in small doses. Too much inflammation, or chronic inflammation, may lead to cardiovascular disease, and autoimmune conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis.
Symptoms of inflammation include:
- Swelling and redness in the affected area.
- Discomfort and tenderness at the injury site.
- Increased pain sensitivity.
- Fatigue and weakness.
In small doses, this is okay. However, in the case of chronic inflammation, this is one of the main drivers of pain and reduced mobility associated with these chronic conditions.
Red light therapy can reduce the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Think of these as signaling molecules secreted from our immune cells that promote further inflammation. Alongside this, it can promote the release of anti-inflammatory cytokines which are molecules that help to reduce inflammation.
By changing the cytokine balance in the body, it can help to regulate the immune response and reduce the resulting inflammation and therefore pain.
Increases cellular energy
When the red light is absorbed, it stimulates the mitochondria in our cell’s to work harder. We can think of the mitochondria as the powerhouses of our cells that produce energy. When they increase their function, they produce more adenosine triphosphate or ATP. This is known as the energy currency of the cell.
Better mitochondrial function and more energy in the form of ATP means our cells can work better and heal faster. Great news for pain relief!
Enhances collagen production
Collagen is a protein that provides structure to our skin, bones, muscles, and connective tissues. It accounts for approximately 30% of our body's total protein, making it a vitally important component of health.
When we get an injury, the separated tissue is stitched back together via a network made up of collagen. This is an important part of the overall healing process.
Red light therapy stimulates fibroblasts, cells responsible for making collagen, to produce more. More collagen production means better skin, improved wound healing, and reduced joint pain.
Benefits of red light therapy
When correctly applied, red light therapy may offer several benefits as part of your recovery routine. Here are just some of the main ones that we think are worth knowing.
Improves Injury and recovery time
As we continue to search for ways to improve performance, injury and recovery time have been identified as key focus areas. When we dive a little deeper, we can see that red light therapy has made significant strides forward.
During the Rio Olympics, the USA track and field team decided to bring a red light therapy bed along with them. At $181,000, we can tell what they thought of its important recovery powers!
Fast forward several years and you can see that the US team was ahead of their time. Nowadays, many top-level athletes are using red light therapy to recover faster and train harder.
Here’s a quote from 10x CrossFit Games athlete, Noah Ohlsen:
“ I expend enough energy breaking my body down that I want to find ways to build it back up that don’t require any extra output. Kineon provides just that. When I’m at home watching a movie on the couch with my wife, I can have the Kineon helping the ache in my knee go away. “
To read more on this topic, check out our article that specifically focuses on the benefits of red light therapy for sports performance.
Few side effects
Potential side effects are often a huge consideration when starting a new treatment or using something new. While we have a lot of research out there that’s specifically designed to test new technology and medication, we can’t always guarantee complete safety.
Red light therapy is FDA-registered. This means that the treatment has been deemed safe and effective for its intended use. When a company is FDA-registered, it means that the manufacturing facilities can meet federal production standards.
We won’t brag too much, but the MOVE+ is FDA-registered. Its something we’re proud of and stand by when looking at innovative recovery tech.
Of course, there are always certain precautions you need to take and things that can happen with incorrect use. We’ll discuss this more in the next section.
Non-invasive
One of the best things about red light therapy is that it’s non-invasive. In simple terms, this means that it doesn’t require the skin to be opened or anything to be inserted into the body. Most red light devices simply require you to place them against the skin with no clothing present.
Using non-invasive treatment and recovery methods such as red light is great for several reasons. No scars, no recovery period, and fewer chances of any infection or side effects occurring. It really is one of the least invasive recovery methods you can use!
Do it on the go
As we come toward the end of 2024, gone are the days of taking things slow and watching the day go by. In a world full of new technology and more people than ever before, efficiency is now the aim of the game.
The real beauty of red light therapy is that you can now use it on the go, thanks to the ingenious inventions of gadgets such as the MOVE+. It doesn’t matter if you’re at home, at work, or even sitting at your favorite coffee shop, you can attach a handheld device and let it go to work while you get on with your day.
Check out this article on the MOVE+ Features And Why They Matter to learn more about how it can foster a productive recovery environment.
Can target different types of discomfort
Red light therapy is a versatile treatment option for many types of discomfort. It provides targeted relief depending on how you use it which means it’s beneficial for several conditions. These include:
Are there side effects of red light therapy?
Before we look at the potential red light side effects, let’s quickly discuss where we are in terms of scientific evidence. Like most things, we don’t have all the information to support every single claimed benefit. With so much information out there, this is always going to be the case.
However, we do have hundreds of credible scientific studies that support the safe use of red light therapy for a number of acute and chronic conditions. Examples include reducing inflammation, healing injuries, and improving skin condition.
With this, we feel completely confident in saying that we have a recovery method based on proven science with real-life results.
Here’s what Ben Greenfield said after using the MOVE+:
“I used the MOVE+ on my knee to help me recover from my recent stem cell procedure, and it was a huge game-changer in my path to full recovery. So many applications and a fantastic tool for any biohacker or athlete or anyone else who wants to harness the power of red light!”
Generally speaking, red light therapy is considered to be safe and effective with no known side effects. In some cases, users have reported burns and blistering but this resulted from falling asleep and faults with the device. This is why it's really important to buy from a reputable company who have done the testing and has many real-world reviews to prove it!
With the long-term effects of painkillers becoming more widely known, more people are looking for natural, holistic ways of healing such as red light therapy.
Combine red light therapy with other therapies
Red light therapy is a powerful recovery method all by itself. Even so, it doesn’t hurt to combine the effects of different beneficial treatments for an added boost! In some cases, combining treatments can even enhance their effectiveness!
Red light therapy and dry needling
Dry needling involves inserting sharp needles into myofascial trigger points to increase blood flow, decrease tightness, and reduce the associated discomfort. Red light therapy uses red or near-infrared light wavelengths to stimulate healing and reduce inflammation at a cellular level.
While both use different mechanisms, they both aim to stimulate healing in the cell. Both look to reduce inflammation, increase blood flow, and promote cellular efficiency. Therefore, combining them may improve the healing process.
Red light therapy and physical therapy
Physical therapy, commonly known as physiotherapy, includes exercise, massages, and treatments based on physical stimuli. The general aim of physical therapy is to strengthen muscles, improve mobility, and speed up recovery time.
Using physical therapy with red light therapy may help these benefits to be amplified. Because red light therapy helps to reduce inflammation and promote faster healing, it may improve the effectiveness of physical therapy provided such as exercises and stretching routines.
Red light therapy and medication
So, we’re not necessarily promoting the use of medication. As we mentioned above, it has lots of long-term side effects and isn’t always the best way. However, if you’ve been prescribed medicine to manage discomfort, combining it with red light therapy may enhance its effectiveness.
What we mean by this is that using red light therapy may allow you to lower your pain medication dosage which can help to minimize the long-term side effects. In some cases, it may even allow you to come of it all together. Of course, this is something you would need to discuss with your doctor first!
The future of red light therapy
While we can’t see into the future, the future of red light therapy is definitely promising. We already have hundreds of reputable scientific studies suggesting beneficial applications for joint pain, skin health, inflammation, hair growth, and wound healing just to name a few. Studies being performed currently are exploring potential applications for conditions such as Alzheimer's and depression.
The one thing we do know for sure is that technological advances are continuing to shape the future of red light therapy, improving its efficiency and accessibility to a much wider audience. We can say that above anything else, we are genuinely excited to continue sharing our passion and helping others to live a healthier and happier lifestyle with red light therapy.
References
- https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm6736a2.htm?s_cid=mm6736a2_w
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22607834/
- https://kineon.io/blogs/news/red-light-therapy
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5699925/
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10115964/
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5523874/
- https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/physiology/articles/10.3389/fphys.2023.1114231/full
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK553175/
- https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/srt.13391
- https://kineon.io/blogs/news/red-light-therapy-for-sports-performance
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5862299/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10796462/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20358337/
- https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/kineon-laser-review
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9980499/
- https://kineon.io/blogs/news/how-dangerous-is-red-light-therapy
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9159711/
- https://kineon.io/blogs/news/red-light-wavelengths
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK561514/
- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-56665-3#:~:text=Previous%20reviews%20of%20randomized%20controlled,4%2C%20and%20renal%20failure5.
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36373323/
