Red light therapy has been growing in popularity over the past several years, and it’s easy to see why. Not only does red light therapy offer long-lasting, healthy benefits to your skin, but it’s also incredibly easy to use! If you’re considering adding red light therapy to your skincare routine, here are six of the many red light therapy benefits for skin health.
What is Red Light Therapy?
Before we dive into some benefits, you first need to understand how red light therapy works. Red light therapy is a form of LED phototherapy that uses specific wavelengths of red light to stimulate cell repair and improve skin health. It’s also known as biostimulation and typically involves sitting under a bank of LED lights while they emit wavelengths between 600nm and 1200nm. Although it has been in practice since at least 1879 (when Heinrich Hertz produced electricity by beaming light through his partially evacuated tube), its use in a modern clinical setting can help bring balance back to your body. But don’t take our word for it. Here are six benefits you might not have known about.
Read: 11 Incredible Infrared & Red Light Therapy Benefits for Optimal Health
6 Red Light Therapy Benefits For Skin
1. Anti-Aging
One of the biggest benefits of red light therapy is its ability to reduce wrinkles and rejuvenate your skin. It does this by removing dead skin cells from your face, resulting in a fresh, youthful appearance. However, it also helps build collagen in areas like around your eyes, helping to minimize crow’s feet and even fine lines. It will also help eliminate dry patches on your skin and give you a youthful glow. Its anti-aging properties make it a great anti-aging treatment if you’re looking to fight premature aging.
2. Fading Sun Spots and Age Spots
If you have sun spots, red light therapy may fade them away. When someone has spent a great deal of time in strong sunlight, their skin will accumulate brown spots on their face. This can be an unsightly blemish that affects self-esteem and confidence and makes makeup more challenging to apply. However, red light therapy can drastically reduce or even eliminate brown spots! Studies have shown that red light phototherapy effectively rejuvenates damaged skin cells and improves overall skin texture and tone.
3. Removing Acne Scars
Scientifically speaking, there are two types of acne scars: atrophic and hypertrophic. Atrophic scars occur when your body reabsorbs dead skin cells that should remain on your face, leaving indentations. Those with moderate or severe acne scarring may require dermatological treatments such as dermabrasion, laser resurfacing, chemical peels, and microneedling. However, red light therapy is an effective treatment that can drastically reduce acne and skin scarring. It works by emitting a wavelength of light that stimulates collagen production, which helps repair damaged tissue. This process creates new layers of healthy skin without removing any existing layers.
4. Cellulite Reduction
If you’re looking to reduce cellulite, try red light therapy. Red light treatments are known to stimulate collagen production, which can improve skin elasticity and smooth out cellulite. In fact, one study found that women with mild to moderate cellulite were able to see improvements in their appearance by using red light therapy during treadmill training. However, it’s important to note that any weight loss benefits from red light therapy would be temporary and are not recommended as a stand-alone treatment for cellulite reduction.
Watch the following video to learn how to use red light therapy to reduce cellulite:
5. Treating Psoriasis & Eczema
People with chronic psoriasis or eczema can use red light therapy to treat their flare-ups. This is particularly useful if you experience frequent occurrences, as it offers a quick and effective way to lessen symptoms in mere minutes. It’s also worth noting that treating psoriasis with phototherapy doesn’t require any prescriptions or medications—it’s just regular light therapy delivered by a specially designed device. In most cases, 30 minutes of daily treatment is recommended over eight weeks to achieve results. However, some patients find relief after only four weeks. If you have psoriasis and are looking for a fast way to ease symptoms and stop breakouts, consider red light therapy as an alternative to traditional treatments.
6. Reduce Stretch Marks
Our skin is susceptible to damage from various sources, including genetics, aging, and our environment. Stretch marks can also occur during pregnancy, puberty, or weight gain/loss. These are all problems that red light therapy can help with. During treatment time with red light therapy, blood vessels near the surface of your skin will open up and increase blood flow and circulation to your skin—in turn speeding up healing and reducing damage caused by stretch marks or unsightly scars left behind from injuries. If you’re looking for an effective way to reduce scarring or treat stretch marks on your body, a weekly red light therapy session might be right for you!
How to do red light therapy at home?
If you’re like most people, you don’t have a team of doctors and experts at your beck and call to help maintain your skin’s health. Thankfully, home treatments such as LED face masks can often give you comparable results to in-office procedures—especially if you remain consistent.
Because it’s relatively new to medical spas and doctors’ offices, we still don’t know as much about its effectiveness as we do with other popular skin treatments.
But that hasn’t stopped consumers from seeking out red light therapy devices—with tens of thousands sold each year and dozens of models now available on major online retailers like Amazon. Check out these top affordable LED face masks.
When will you see results?
How long it takes for red light therapy to work depends on your condition. For example, if you have minor issues such as a few sun spots or uneven pigmentation, you can expect results in about two weeks.
However, people with major skin concerns like rosacea or acne may take up to four months before seeing optimal results. If you’re following a treatment plan from your device manufacturer and take good care of your skin in general, results should be visible within two months.
Read: How Often Can You Use Red Light Therapy? The Answer May Surprise You!
Final Thoughts
We believe in science, and we strongly believe in the many health advantages red light therapy offers. These six benefits of red light therapy for your skin health support our case, but there are many more. With all of its remarkable advantages, it’s a wonder why red light therapy isn’t part of every beauty routine.
After using a red light device on your skin, you’ll be able to experience smoother, more even-toned skin with reduced lines and wrinkles as well as healed acne scars and burns.
If you have any questions about how it works or what results to expect from treatment (or if you need any guidance), talk to your physician or dermatologist today—you could make one decision that will change your life forever!
Are you considering red light therapy to improve your skin? Drop a comment below and share your thoughts!