Red light therapy during quarantine
Will photobiomodulation help with the corona virus
We have all seen the news, the constant updates and many of us find ourselves in some sort of “lockdown” protocol. It makes sense that some of you are concerned and thinking about ways to keep yourself and your family safe.
You have heard about red light therapy (LLLT, photobiomodulation, light therapy, laser therapy) and heard that it can help with inflammation and pain, but can it help your immune system?
First off, you know that I believe in the benefits of red light therapy (and light therapy in general). Beyond that, there are studies that show red light therapy can help increase the function of certain aspects of the immune system and we know that it can help with pain and inflammation, but can it really help against viruses etc? It is in this regard (and those which I will post later), that I believe red light therapy could help develop a more efficient immune system for you and your family.
So Can Red light therapy protect me from getting sick?
The reality is that red light therapy is just one aspect of health and wellness. Much like if you trained a lot, but ate crap, had bad sleep and were stressed all the time, you wouldn’t be that healthy. Red light helps keep energy production and cellular health closer to their optimal level. The more you give it help (sleep, diet and exercise), the more effective it can be.
Red light (when I refer to red light I also include red, near infrared and far infrared) is known to provide “help” to immune function. The brilliant thing is that appears to help immune function regardless of underlying or pre-existing conditions. So it has the ability to help me, you, Janice down the road and Dave from the rugby club.
How does it work?
The immune function benefits seem to come from 3 main sources. First, Mitochondrial health – put simply, the better the mitochondrial health, the more energy you can produce, produce more energy and you have more energy to to fight off illness. Secondly, thirdly, fourthly seem to be effects on white blood cells and nitric oxide production and lymphoid ageing – we will talk about those now.
Red light therapy and Nitric Oxide
One of the first things you feel with Red light therapy is some tingles as nitric oxide is produced/released, it’s a lovely feeling. It isn’t that feel that creates the benefit to your immune system though, it is what the “tingling” is representing. You need to understand what nitric oxide is (in simple terms it is nitrogen and oxygen combined), it is a potent chemical messenger in the human body that effectively tells the body to start healing. With regard to Corona virus and any respiratory infection, nitric oxide has been shown to slow and inhibit the replication cycle of acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus. It is thought that red light therapy in the early stages of infection can provide an antiviral effect (1). It is this same process (via Nitric oxide) that has seen positive results with other illnesses, viruses and bacteria (2).
On this evidence, red light therapy could be used to help produce/release nitric oxide and therefore improve immune function and healing as well help prevent the spread/replication of certain viruses. Once you combine this additional benefit of red light with other known benefits (3), it is clear why I believe every person should have a red light device in their house!
Red light therapy and white blood cells (WBCs)
We have all heard of WBC’s from our early biology classes… right? Studies on red light (near infrared) have confirmed it’s ability to help certain aspects of WBC’s function and performance (4)
“The observations argue not only for contribution of mitochondrial stress to the pathology of ITP, but also clinical potentials of LLLT as a safe, simple, and cost-effective modality of ITP.”
What about lymphoid glands, aging and immune system
Red light therapy has been shown to change and reverse the decline in function of lymphoid glands and thus improve immune system function. That’s right, you read that right! Red light has been shown to“alter thymic involution, improve immune functioning in aged people and even extend lifespan.” (5)
Effectively this paper is saying that red light therapy may be able to prevent atrophy (decreasing size) of the thymus and maintain adequate production of T-cells to help fight infection. I thought I would leave the best until last!
Conclusion
It is safe to say that upregulating Nitric Oxide release and increasing the function and activity of certain WBCs as well improving lymphoid gland will have a positive effect on anyone’s immune system. Red light therapy really is a treatment with many benefits.
NB. Red light therapy is for the whole family – so don’t be afraid to let your child try it, or even your pet! Just remember to get your kids to use the light in shorter treatments and stand further away.
As I said at the beginning of the article – red light will not fix everything if you are “battering” your body from all sides. It can be an amazing addition to a healthy lifestyle that is able to provide benefits that many other things can’t.
References
1. https://jvi.asm.org/content/79/3/1966?fbclid=IwAR2aj-NE72VbxtMyhHyDCed3kHEM9ZlHTbvzIPIs-IQNuUWgCNKG8QHVURQ2. https://rupress.org/jem/article/185/9/1533/25521/Suppression-of-Herpes-Simplex-Virus-Type-1-HSV-1
3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3288797/
