Your body needs to detoxify itself regularly to remain healthy.
Is there anything you can do to support this function? Yes!
In this article, we’ll discuss the role of red light therapy in supporting the body's natural healing processes and detoxification functions, and how you can use this non-invasive treatment to enhance your health.
In the meantime, check out the BIOMAX Series for optimal home red light therapy treatment.
How Red Light Therapy Helps with Detox
Detoxifying with red light therapy can be even more effective than using a sauna. In this section, we explore some of the reasons why.
Red Light Therapy Increases Cellular Energy
Red light treatment stimulates the production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) in cellular mitochondria. ATP is a substance that fuels all human cells.
Healthy cells synthesize an abundance of ATP. Meanwhile, factors like inflammation, oxidative stress, and environmental toxins can cause mitochondrial dysfunction. When a cell can’t produce enough energy it is more vulnerable to damage and early death.
Red light therapy boosts mitochondrial function and gives more energy to the cells. Increased cellular energy results in more efficient waste removal and healthy organ functioning and detoxification.
Red Light Therapy Reduces Inflammation
Chronic inflammation damages all of the body’s systems. Inflammation is a normal immune response but it becomes a problem when it lasts longer than it should. Long-term inflammation can adversely affect kidney, liver, and immune function.
Red light and near-infrared light treatment have powerful anti-inflammatory properties. Red wavelengths can treat inflammation within the skin, which will ultimately enhance its barrier capabilities to keep pathogens out of the body.
Longer near-infrared wavelengths absorb into the subcutaneous tissue. One study reported that shining near-infrared light on the abdomen to reduce inflammation in the gut improves gut health, with positive effects on the liver and kidneys.
When the body's Detoxification Circuit, made up of the liver, extracellular fascia matrix, and the immune system is malfunctioning, the elimination of toxins and metabolites can produce symptoms of inflammation, skin disorders, fatigue, anxiety, and insomnia. Consistently using PlatinumLEDs therapy lights not only supports the proper function of the Detoxification Circuit but also provides symptomatic healing support.
Functional Medicine Doctor of Physical Therapy
Dr. Alayna Newton, PT, DPT, FAFS
Red Light Therapy Improves Circulation
Lymph circulation is vital for the removal of toxins. The lymphatic system requires muscle contractions to push lymph through the body, unlike the cardiovascular system where the heart pumps blood through the blood vessels.
When the lymphatic system isn’t working properly, the human body can't expel toxins. This can negatively affect brain health. One study found that near-infrared light therapy can support the lymphatic system to improve brain health. Near-infrared light treatment helped remove amyloid-beta plaques.
Amyloid-beta plaque is implicated in Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, and other neurodegenerative diseases.
Red light therapy also reduces lymphoedema, which is abnormal swelling due to a blockage within the lymphatic system.
Increased blood flow helps with detox by moving toxins and pathogens to the liver and kidneys where these substances are processed and expelled. It also brings white blood cells to any area that's under threat from bacteria or viruses.
Red light therapy promotes microcirculation of both blood and lymph through angiogenesis and through increasing the production of nitric oxide. Angiogenesis is the growth of blood vessels, whereas nitric oxide dilates blood vessels.
Let’s also take a closer look at how red light therapy can help stimulate cellular energy.
How the Body Expels Toxins
Most toxins are not expelled through the skin, no matter how much you sweat or scrub. Your sweat is 99% water, with a few electrolytes. Included in these are minerals, salts, bacteria, and only trace amounts of metals or chemicals.
Your kidneys, liver, and immune system handle your body’s detox functions. The kidneys remove acids and minerals. The liver removes drugs and harmful chemicals. Meanwhile, the immune system removes pathogens including bacteria, viruses, and parasites.
Hot yoga, intense exercise, and saunas do not boost the skin's detox functions, which are minimal, to begin with.
Does sweating benefit you, then? Yes! Some bacteria can be expelled through the skin. When you're sweating, your lymph and blood circulation increases. Sweating is helpful in keeping your body healthy but you won't get direct detox effects from it.
Red light treatment supports the kidneys and liver in their detox functions through several mechanisms.
RLT Sauna Lights and Detox
Are there benefits to using a sauna for detox? How about red light therapy sauna lights? Here's what you need to know.
Do Saunas Help with Detox?
A sauna won’t detox the human body by increasing sweating. Sweat is 99% water, along with electrolytes, bacteria, and a few trace toxins. However, saunas help increase blood circulation and stimulate heat shock proteins (HSPs), which are part of the body’s stress response to excess heat.
HSPs are ‘stress proteins’ that protect and strengthen cells. HSPs are activated whether you use a traditional sauna or a far-infrared sauna, enhancing the cells’ mitochondrial function where ATP is generated. HSPs also help improve blood flow, stimulate white blood cell production, and stimulate faster muscle recovery after exercise.
Heat shock proteins have also been expressed in response to heavy metals and are instrumental in treating autoimmune disorders, preventing of disease-causing mutations, releasing growth hormones, and repairing damaged proteins.
Sauna Light Therapy
Sauna treatments offer many health benefits including cardiovascular health. Adding red light therapy sauna lights to a traditional sauna can stimulate a powerful detox effect. The combination of soothing heat and deep-penetrating light wavelengths gives you the benefits of heat shock proteins as well as the detox effects of red and NIR light therapy.
While most red light therapy devices can’t handle the heat of a traditional sauna, one can. The SaunaMAX PRO, a device you can use in your sauna or anytime outside the sauna.
What is Red Light Therapy?
Our bodies require natural light to function optimally. This includes exposure to light wavelengths that cause ATP production. Red light therapy stimulates the mitochondria, which in turn leads to ATP production.
During treatment, red light therapy uses specific wavelengths of red and near-infrared light to support normal cellular functioning. Red light therapy treatment may use red light alone, near-infrared light alone, or a combination of red and near-infrared light. In the case of the BIOMAX Series, all panels also have traces of 480nm blue light.
You may have heard of low-level laser therapy. This is red light therapy, too, but the treatment is delivered via lasers rather than light-emitting diodes. Most red light therapy devices use LEDs.
The term low-level light therapy refers to therapeutic laser and LED treatments.
How Does Red Light Therapy Work?
Blue light at 480nm is a new addition to the BIOMAX red light therapy series. It kills acne-causing bacteria and relieves inflammation on the skin’s surface to clear up acne and promote wound healing.
Red light therapy from 620-660nm increases blood flow and stimulates skin cell function. It offers benefits for improved skin tone including smoothing fine lines and wrinkles by boosting elastin and collagen production, and by boosting cellular energy. It is a popular treatment for stimulating hair growth and for skin wound healing.
Near-infrared light therapy is often used to treat slow-healing wounds, improve physical performance, accelerate muscle recovery, and relieve joint pain. Near-infrared light therapy can even stimulate the production of stem cells in the bone marrow to further support the immune system.
A combination of blue light, red light, and near-infrared light is a comprehensive approach to wellness. The wide range of scientifically validated applications of red light therapy is growing every day. Discover more ways red light therapy can treat various health conditions in the Learning Center.
The BIOMAX Series: Advanced RLT Panels
Support your body’s ability to detoxify itself with the BIOMAX powerful medical-grade light therapy panels. They deliver superior light energy for greater absorption into your tissues.
All BIOMAX red light therapy devices feature a proprietary combination of one blue, two red, and three near-infrared wavelengths.
This gives you the option of treating the skin as well as underlying tissue, including the kidneys, liver, lymphatic system, and circulatory system. Used regularly in combination with drinking plenty of water and a healthy diet, red light therapy can support your body’s natural detoxification processes.
You can also experience a variety of other health benefits ranging from weight loss to pain relief, better physical performance, reduced stretch marks, more collagen production, faster wound healing, improved sleep quality, and of course anti-aging and overall skin health.
The Learning Center is a great resource on the many applications of red and near-infrared light therapy. If you want to cleanse your body of toxins and pathogens.
Be sure to check out the BIOMAX series to learn more about which panel might be right for you.
