How to Do Red Light Therapy at Home?

By now you have probably heard about red light therapy under at least one of its many names. Some of those are low level laser therapy, photobiomodulation, or cold laser therapy.

The therapeutic benefits of red light therapy are getting more and more attention. It is becoming a go-to treatment for many conditions.

However, until now, getting your daily dose of red light therapy required quite a bit of time, money, and organization. Your options were to go to a red light therapy center or to purchase a red light therapy panel. While both of these options are effective, they are not always convenient.

As the technology behind this treatment advances, you can easily find a red light device for home use.

What Is Red Light Therapy?

Red light therapy is a form of treatment that uses red and near infrared light to treat various conditions. You can use them to battle conditions affecting skin, muscles, bones, and other parts of the body.

A red light therapy device emits low level light using light emitting diodes (LED). Unlike lasers, these lights are non-invasive and cause no damage to the cells. This is also a chemical-free treatment, which is why it suits even people with sensitive skin.

Low-level light therapy is also completely painless and does not include uncomfortable heat.

Unlike harmful UV rays, red and NIR light are safe and do not cause skin damage or skin aging.

The technology was first developed by NASA as part of their plant growth experiments. However, it was later modified for medicinal purposes when it was discovered that it had health benefits for people too.

How Are Red and Infrared Light Different?

Red and infrared light are lights of different wavelengths. Red light belongs to the visible light spectrum, whereas infrared light is invisible to the human eye. Infrared light involves heat, whereas there is no heat with red light.

They also differ because they penetrate the skin at different depths. Near-infrared light can penetrate deeper layers than red light. Together, their combined characteristics make them an ideal combination to target all sorts of issues.

While infrared saunas have amazing benefits for your health, red and near-infrared light treatments are much more convenient to do at home.

How Does Red Light Therapy Work?

You’re wondering how red light therapy works? A red light therapy device emits certain light wavelengths, in the red and near infrared spectrum. When applied to the body, the red and infrared light have a photochemical effect. To be more precise, considering the first law of photochemistry – when the light gets absorbed by the body, that leads to a photochemical reaction.

Red light penetrates the skin, reaching not only different layers of the skin but also deeper tissue, muscles and bones. The photochemical reactions that take place in the cells promote healing, energy production, and a whole range of other beneficial effects.

Currently, red light therapy is most often used for pain relief. Other uses include:

• wound healing
• improving blood circulation
• boosting the immune system
• fighting auto-immune diseases
• alleviating symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome
• improving sleep
• helping you produce more energy
• and reducing inflammation.

In cosmetology, using red light therapy can stimulate collagen production. It can alleviate skin roughness, even out the skin tone, and promote skin rejuvenation. Red light has beneficial effects on general skin health, giving you that healthy glow that everyone is chasing. It also stimulates the hair follicle and supports hair regrowth.

What Are the Steps of At-Home Red Light Therapy?

In the early days, a red light therapy treatment was not something that you could do at home simply because of the size of the devices. Nowadays, doing red and infrared light therapy at home is simple and safe thanks to portable, targeted at-home red light therapy devices.

Here are the steps to doing your own red light therapy treatment at home.

When You Should Consult Your Doctor

Red light therapy is safe and has no side effects.

Caution is advised with some types of medication which might interact with direct light exposure. In some cases, that can lead to a photosensitive reaction. However, even if a medication could potentially cause photosensitivity, that doesn’t mean that every patient will experience this kind of reaction.

Red light therapy is not known to exacerbate any conditions, but there are some conditions which require caution because there aren’t enough studies about the interaction between them and red light. You should consult your doctor first if you are pregnant, if you have a malignant disease or are undergoing chemotherapy, if you have a heart condition, or if you are fighting an acute infection.

Remove Your Clothing Before Starting

For optimal results, it is best if the red light device is pressed directly against the skin, which is why you are advised to take off your clothes before use. With portable, at home devices like FlexBeam, it is easy to expose only the body part you are treating, which contributes to its ease of use.

Protect Your Eyes

As a general precaution, you should not use red light therapy on your eyes. The eyes should be protected if you use the device near them. You should not look straight at the light emitting diodes, especially not for a long period of time.

Choose the Position and the Program

The position of the device will depend on the issue you wish to treat. If you are treating an injury or acute pain, you can position the device directly over the affected area.

One of the advantages of a wearable device is that you can easily wrap it around limbs or adjust its position so that the light reaches the spot where it’s needed the most.

For benefits such as sleep improvement, anxiety, and depression treatment, and other issues that are not as localized as an injury, there are designated positions that yield the best results, and you can find instructions for them on the Recharge YouTube channel.

FlexBeam comes with several handy presets, so it is very simple to use.

How Can Red Light Therapy Complement Your Training?

You can use red light therapy before or after training to maximize the effects of working out and help your body recover quickly.

About an hour before training, you can use red light over the muscles that you will be using the most for short, five to ten-minute cycles. Another option is to use it over major blood vessels so that the light stimulates blood flow prior to the training.

Both of these methods will reduce risk of injury and minimize soreness.

After your workout, it’s best to use light therapy on days when you are taking a break from exercising. This will help your muscles heal faster and eliminate soreness.

How Often And for How Long Should You Do Red Light Therapy?

An at-home device for red light therapy is usually not as strong as the devices used at a doctor’s office. This means that you can safely do light therapy at home every day and get consistent results, without any danger of temporary redness or any irritation of the skin tissue.

With a device like FlexBeam, most daily treatments should last around ten to twenty minutes. The position of the device depends on the issue you want to treat and the affected body part.

What Time of Day Is Best for Red Light Therapy

The great thing about doing low power laser therapy at home is that you can do it at any time of the day, whenever it suits you.

In terms of results, specific times of the day are a little more beneficial than others. The best time to use your device is in the morning or in the evening.

In nature, you encounter the biggest concentration of red light wavelengths at dawn and dusk. During the middle part of the day, there is a bigger concentration of blue light.

Our bodies are naturally attuned to soaking in red light in the morning and evening, and at those times it affects many hormonal and metabolic processes in the body, such as melatonin production and the circadian rhythm.

How Soon Can You Expect to See the Benefits of Red Light?

How soon you see the results depends on several factors such as regularity of use, the type of condition you are treating and your body’s individual responsiveness to red light therapy.

If you are using red light therapy for healing and pain relief, you might start seeing first results as fast as one week in. Usually there are visible signs of improvement within a few weeks with daily use.

Regular, daily use of led light therapy at home can transform your health and your body in a natural, non-invasive, chemical-free way. Whether you want to improve the results of your workouts, promote fat loss, or finally live without pain, FlexBeam is the reliable, science-backed way to do it.