LED Light Therapy Anti-Ageing Treatment

[Matty1973]

I've been sent one of these Groupon style voucher things:

What is red LED Light Therapy?
This pain-free, non-invasive treatment harnesses the power of red LED Light. Identical to the process of photosynthesis in plants, light is used to stimulate cellular activity in targeted areas. For more information click here.

My woo alarm is going off - any one heard of this?

 

[Matty1973]

Some more claims from here:

What LED Light Therapy Can Do For Your Skin?
As we said earlier, light therapy (for skin) is mainly used to treat aging and acne. It is very common to see that red light therapy is associated with anti-aging and blue light therapy to fight acne.

Red Light Therapy Rejuvenates Your Skin

In the anti-aging process, what is important is the collagen production, and red light therapy stimulates the collagen production. Collagen is responsible for the elasticity and firmness of your skin, resulting in the reduction of fine lines and wrinkles. The collagen is also the protein that repair damaged skin cells. You look younger and have a healthier skin.

Blue Light Therapy Kills Acne

The blue light therapy kills the Propionibacterium acnes bacteria. This bacteria is one of the cause of acne, and is sensitive to light in a certain range (405 to 420 nm). The bacteria absorbs the light and the light kills the bacteria. Acne vanishes as a result. Because red light is more the “healing light”, it is also used for acne : it reduces the inflammation caused by acne, reduces scarring and sebum and oil production. You look better, your skin is clear.

 

[Dilb]

Remarkably enough, I think at least some of their claims are true. There was a thread a few years ago where the topic of red LED therapy was discussed, and I found some NASA-funded research which suggested it worked. Apparently there's a step in the Krebs cycle that can be sped up by exposure to red light. I don't know about collagen production, but it's not something I'd dismiss out of hand.

Blue light killing acne isn't a huge surprise, and Wikipedia has a nice section on it. Remember that acne vulgaris is not the same thing as pimples: it's a disease caused, at least in part, by bacteria.

 

[Matty1973]

I did see NASA research mentioned in a couple of places - I assumed it was BS. I'm happily surprised that there appears to be some truth in all this.

Before posting I did a search using the forum search but 'red' and 'LED' were too short to search for. I now have found some old forum threads via Google.

Light Therapy‎ - 34 posts - 15 Mar 2006
LED light therapy, "but wait there's more!"‎ - 21 posts - 3 Jan 2006
lightrelief.com‎ - 35 posts - 18 Jul 2005
LED therapy: legit or bologna?‎ - 22 posts - 2 Apr 2004

 

[Matty1973]

Amzingly the third thread in that list is actually linked to as part of the advertising for the product of the same name!

 

[Dismember]

Matty, I bought a "Prolight" red/infrared LED a couple years ago. I was convinced by the Nasa study, and taken in by the seller's marketing claims and anecdotal reports.

My skin does seem to look a bit nicer when I can be bothered to use it, but I suspect that's just because it gets warm to the touch and it's increasing circulation to the skin. Or hell, I guess it could also be placebo effect.

I was rather embarrassed with myself after buying mine because if I'd been thinking clearly, and not just desperately hoping to fix my skin (I had chronic rosacea at the time), I'd have realized that there was no way to verify if any of the commercially available LED units actually matched the specs of the LED unit used in the NASA study.

So I most likely am the proud owner of a $400 red flashlight

 

[casebro]

As I recall, the basis was the submariners healed better when exposed to the red LED. It was assumed that the LED was replacing a component of sunlight that was missing inside the artificial environment of a submarine. I assume the NASA study did the same in an artificial environment in space. Both examples would be useless if you are exposed to sun light.