Many of us seek out new skincare products and procedures to maintain a youthful look.
These can also help address the symptoms of poor skin health. They may treat moderate acne, chronic disorders, or fine lines and wrinkles.
However, these don’t always address the underlying cause, which can force you into using an endless cycle of different products.
In this article, we’ll discuss how red light therapy can help. This includes considering the best red light therapy wavelengths for treating the face in particular, and how you can achieve excellent skin health by using red light therapy at home.
You can also learn more by checking out the BIOMAX Pro RLT panels, which offer the combined power of five different red light wavelengths, along with traces of 480nm blue.
Red Light Wavelengths for the Face: Which Wavelengths Work?
Red light therapy has a powerful effect on the body at a cellular level.
This is what sets it apart from products that treat the surface of the skin, but don’t fix the underlying problem.
A red light therapy device may use visible red wavelengths, invisible near-infrared wavelengths, or a combination.
Which is better for facial treatment?
Red Wavelengths
Red light in the ‘therapeutic window’ ranges from 630 to 660 nanometers.
These wavelengths can absorb through the various layers of the skin. Red light is commonly used for anti-aging. It helps treat fine lines and wrinkles, reduce acne, and chronic skin disorders.
Near-Infrared Wavelengths
Near-infrared wavelengths from 810 to 850 nm have the same effects on the skin as red light, but NIR light absorbs deeper.
It is used to treat skin condition as well as reducing inflammation that could be contributing to poor skin health.
How Does Red Light Therapy Benefit the Skin?
Red light therapy stimulates the mitochondria, which are are tiny organelles inside each cell whose job is to produce cellular fuel known as adenosine triphosphate.
Adequate fuel directly affects the function of the cell.
When the mitochondria don’t produce enough fuel, cells suffer from mitochondrial dysfunction.
Mitochondrial dysfunction is the underlying cause of most skin concerns including acne, wrinkles, crepey skin, inflammatory disorders, and uneven skin tone.
Red light therapy stimulates cellular energy production. This powerful effect has immediate and long-term healing of specific skin concerns, helping with the following:
- Cells are better able to fight inflammation and oxidative stress.
- Cells are better able to replicate themselves.
- Boosting cell health includes fibroblasts that synthesize collagen. Red light therapy promotes intradermal collagen density increase.
Red light therapy also increases blood circulation and lymph circulation. Bringing more oxygen and nutrients to cells further supports skin health. Meanwhile, the movement of lymph helps remove pathogens and other toxins to keep the skin healthy.
Red light therapy also reduces inflammation that could be contributing to poor mitochondrial function. It has been proven to be a valuable treatment for inflammatory skin disorders.
Because of the longer wavelengths, near-infrared light can be used to boost gut health, which can directly affect skin health, too. This technology goes beyond what cosmetic products can do.
Skin health isn’t from the outside in. Simply exfoliating dead skin cells and locking in moisture won’t give you radiant skin. You have to address skin health from the inside, with LED light treatments.
For example, inflammation in the gut can negatively affect skin cells and even lead to poor collagen production. Also, expensive laser treatments and exfoliants don’t treat skin from the inside like red light.
The best approach is to use both red light and NIR light. Your skin will benefits from concentrated red light energy near the surface, while still benefiting from NIR light energy that reduces inflammation and other problems beneath the skin.
Blue Light Therapy for Face Treatment
Blue light therapy is a popular treatment for acne. Its ability to kill acne-causing bacteria on the skin’s surface.
After daily six-minute treatments with blue wavelengths over the course of two months, participants in one study showed a significant reduction in acne lesions.
This is good news for anyone who is incompatible with typical acne medications or who would like to avoid the use of steroids.
Blue wavelengths increase cellular fuel production, boost circulation, and stimulate collagen production. They also calm redness and inflammation. The main drawback to blue light is that it only affects the outermost layer of the skin, whereas red light and near-infrared light absorb much deeper.
Participants in another study showed that a combination of blue and red light may be even more effective in treating acne. In one case, eight treatments of alternating blue and red light exposure led to a 69 percent reduction in acne lesions.
A Winning Combination
Red light therapy devices that use red and blue light together will give you the most comprehensive anti-aging benefits and improved skin health.
BIOMAX light therapy devices feature a powerful combination of red and blue light, including one blue wavelength, two red wavelengths, and three NIR wavelengths.
You may wonder if green light or yellow light treatment is as effective as red light. The answer is no because these shorter wavelengths don't absorb into the skin. Other than treating redness, the uses for green light and yellow light are extremely limited.
Results of Red Light Therapy for Facial Treatment
Does red light therapy really work as an all-around facial treatment? Hundreds of studies confirm that it does.
Anti-Aging
Red LED light therapy supports skin health by boosting collagen and elastin production to make skin more supple. 76 study participants in one study saw a 36 percent decrease in wrinkles and a 19 percent increase in skin elasticity after four weeks of twice-weekly red light therapy.
Photoaging and sun damage are common in aging skin. After treatment with a combination of 633 nm and 830 nm light for 12 weeks, 52% of test subjects in one study demonstrated a 25%-50% improvement in photoaging scores. 81% of these subjects also saw a significant improvement in crow’s feet.
LED light therapy is used to reduce fine lines and wrinkles, uneven pigmentation, rough skin texture, blotchy complexion, and crepey, loose, or sagging skin.
Chronic Skin Disorders
If you have a chronic inflammatory skin disorder like psoriasis, rosacea, or eczema, you can safely use LED light therapy to ease symptoms and support your body’s natural healing mechanisms.
In the case of psoriasis, red light therapy reduces inflammation that causes abnormal skin cell replication and turnover to prevent psoriasis plaques.
Acne
Acne is another inflammatory skin disorder. To successfully treat acne, first address inflammation which causes mitochondrial dysfunction and creates an ideal host environment for acne-causing bacteria. The body’s response to this bacterial infection is more inflammation (pimples and redness).
Therefore, reducing inflammation can help prevent bacteria from colonizing the skin. When you combine this benefit of red light therapy with the antibacterial properties of blue light, relief from acne can be fast and lasting.
You can use red light therapy anywhere on your body to improve the health of the skin. For example, you can minimize the appearance of scars and stretch marks, help speed up skin wound healing, and minimize scarring after an accident or a surgical procedure.
The Key to Healthy Skin
Red light therapy is not a cosmetic fix that simply masks symptoms of poor skin health. For the best results for facial skin care:
Choose the right red light therapy device. Larger panels are typically preferred as they provide widespread treatment to the skin, thereby optimizing mitochondrial treatment.
Use red light, NIR light, and blue light together to treat every layer of skin.
Use a red light therapy device consistently to boost the health of existing cells as well as emerging cells.
Give it time. A skin cell has about a 30-day lifespan. Since all skin cells don’t renew at once, it’s important to support the skin’s renewal function with consistent red light treatment.
Researchers treated skin cells with red light (640nm) and near-infrared light (830nm) for three days, which increased the natural production of hyaluronic acid, collagen, and elastin without the use of drugs.
You may see some fast results, but the benefits compound over time. And remember, red light therapy addresses skin problems at their root instead of simply minimizing symptoms.
You may notice more youthful-looking skin; less redness and irritation, fewer acne and psoriasis lesions; clearer, smoother skin tone; and even remission from chronic skin diseases.
The skin-regenerating benefits come without side effects. This makes LED light therapy a great option for skin health, especially for people with sensitive skin.
The BIOMAX Series
The BIOMAX Series panels are the most advanced red light therapy devices on the market.
They are medical-grade red light devices with a powerful combination of blue, red, and infrared light.
BIOMAX red light therapy devices come in four different sizes which you can use individually, or combine in larger arrays for greater light energy output and treatment area.
Here’s how you can use LED light therapy at home for more than facial rejuvenation:
Weight loss -Researchers have found that red light exposure creates temporary fissures that allow the lipids to leak out. Just how potent is this effect? One study found that after just six minutes, 99 percent of lipids were released from adipose tissue.
Faster muscle recovery after exercise or injury, less soreness, and better athletic performance.
Relief from osteoarthritis knee pain (the analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties of red light therapy are well-known).
Hair regrowth - Red light therapy can stimulate new hair growth in both male and female pattern hair loss.
Relief from low back pain and nerve pain.
As you can see, red light therapy is useful for treating the face, but it has many more applications. Discover more ways this natural therapy can benefit your health at the PlatinumLED Learning Center.
