Light therapy in some form or another has been used by humans for thousands of years, dating back to solar therapy by Egyptians. Recent technological advances have opened the door to the use of lasers and LEDs as light sources. Low level light therapy clearly has biological effects, but scientists are still discovering just how and why energy from therapeutic lasers and LEDs work at the cellular level.
Low Level Light Therapy (LLLT) is used to describe a technology that uses different wavelengths and frequencies of light to feed energy into your cells so they can operate efficiently. Our bodies were created with an amazing ability to heal themselves and our body is better at healing itself than any drug. As anyone who has studied biology can tell you, the human body is an amazing, complex organism that requires an astounding number of processes to work together in order to function properly. Most of the time our bodies generally do what they are supposed to do without us even thinking about it. There are many factors, both inside and outside our body, that can derail the body’s design and make us sick, feel pain, or generally make our bodies work at less than their peak performance. Light therapy helps to address some of these factors in a safe, effective, and non-invasive way.
Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, said, “It is the unqualified result of all my experience with the sick that, second only to their need of fresh air, is their need of light; that, after a close room, what hurts them most is a dark room and that it is not only light but direct sunlight they want.” She also wrote that, “The craving for ‘the return of the day’, which the sick so constantly evince, is generally nothing but the desire for light.”
To understand how this technology works, it’s useful to understand the basics of light therapy. The primary mechanisms employed are using the right wavelengths and the right frequencies. Other key aspects are the amount of time and amount of light (density of light) delivered.
The benefits of light therapy (be it red light therapy, blue light therapy, infrared light therapy, laser light therapy) come down to several key factors. These include the wavelengths of light used, the frequencies the light is pulsed at, and the amount of light available.
Not all wavelengths of light are beneficial. Many wavelengths do not do anything. Some are harmful. For example, we have all experienced the painful effects of UV rays causing a sunburn. Ultra Violet light (UV light) 10nm to 380 nm, is very harmful and is the number one cause of skin cancer. Blue light (in the 450-495nm) can damage the skin and eyes. At the same time, our bodies were made to use light. There are many examples in nature, one of the most dramatic is the way natural light is used to treat jaundice in newborn babies. According to mountains of research, the most effective and beneficial spectrums of light are in the 600nm to 800nm range, with light in the 700nm range found to be neutral. Light in the 600s is red, and light in the 800s is near-infrared. Life Light incorporates two wavelengths in the 600s and two wavelengths in the 800s. Other devices typically use only one or two wavelengths.
Different frequencies cause different biological responses. Each of our biological parts respond optimally to a unique sequencing to stimulate body cells. Frequency coupled with pulse width modulation or photobiomodulation provides an even more effective light therapy. Light can be flashed at different speeds. Think of turning a light switch on and off either slowly or quickly. The light itself is still the same, but the speed at which it is flashed or pulsed changes. Pulsing the light at certain frequencies has a significant impact on how the light is received and used by cells.
This is an area where most light therapy devices, excluding Life Light, fall far short of their potential. On most devices because light is either on or off, there is no pulsing. On some devices light is pulsed across maybe 1 to 5 frequencies. Life Light devices utilize 46 different frequencies spread across 26 different protocols.
The amount of light available to your cells is also a major component of effective light therapy. Standing in the sun, for example, will expose you to many beneficial, neutral, and harmful wavelengths of light. Even with some of the harmful wavelengths, exposure to natural sunlight is important for our health. Light therapy devices focus a higher concentration of the most beneficial wavelengths of light into the areas most needed for your body to heal. Life Light offers more diodes (light sources) per square inch than any other device on the market.
LLLT interacts with tissues at the cellular level increasing metabolic activity within the cell. By improving the transport of nutrients across the cell membrane, the increased production of cellular energy (ATP) is stimulated. The beneficial effects that follows includes increased cellular function and tissue repair.
Your body has an incredible and natural ability to heal itself given the right environment. Life Light therapy helps promote the correct environment by using different wavelengths of light delivered at specific frequencies to feed energy into your cells. While ultraviolet wavelengths can be harmful to your body, red and infra-red wavelengths have the ability to accelerate healing in your body. Low level light therapy will assist your body by boosting blood circulation, reducing inflammation and reducing pain along with many other cellular effects. This allows light to help with issues as diverse as treating ailments and enhancing athletic performance.
Life Light Therapy uses low level light therapy through non-invasive pads with hundreds of specialized LEDs, or light emitting diodes, to deliver light safely to the areas of your body needing healing or stimulation. When your cells receive the light, an amazing amount of cellular activity is stimulated.
The light stimulates the release of ATP (adenosine triphosphate), which carries energy on the cellular level. Increasing ATP helps cells in accepting nutrients faster and removing waste faster.
The light increases phagocytosis, which is used by the immune system to remove pathogens and cell debris.
The light stimulates tissue granulation. Granulation tissue is new connective tissue and tiny blood vessels that form on the base of a wound during the healing process.
The light improves circulation. Light therapy helps increase the formation of new capillaries, which speed the healing process by allowing more oxygen and nutrients to reach damaged tissues, as well as allowing your body to release more toxins.
The light stimulates collagen production. Collagen is the most common protein in the human body and is essential to the repair of damaged tissue. Increasing collagen production helps to decrease scar tissue which further aids the healing process.
Because Life Light works on the cellular level, there are a huge range of conditions that can benefit from physical healing to physical performance.
For many years, the healthcare industry has used laser therapy for numerous medical applications. More recently, light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have become adopted for many of the same applications and more. LED’s are microchips that allow specific wavelengths of light to be delivered safely.
The main difference between laser and LED is that laser is “coherent” and LED light is “incoherent.” The wavelengths are the same, the difference is in the concentration of photons. Evidence demonstrates that once laser light contacts the skin, the light scatters and effectively becomes “incoherent.” Sometimes people assume that because laser starts out as coherent light the depth of penetration must be deeper, but that is simply not the case. Depth of penetration is based on the wavelength of light, and the only way for a laser to achieve deeper penetration is by burning through tissue.
Laser devices typically need to be delivered by a clinician due to the potential for harm, while LED devices are safe enough to be used at home. LED devices are safe, effective, pain-free and side-effect free. They can be used by patients of all ages from infants to the elderly.
Laser technology has no advantages over Life Light LEDs. In fact, lasers have some distinct disadvantages. LEDs emit incoherent light in a broader range of wavelengths than lasers. Lasers have to be constantly moved around so they don’t cause damage to tissue, they require the use of a medical assistant to administer treatment, and they have extremely limited coverage. Life Light is able to place hundreds of LEDs on a single pad, allowing for broad coverage with multiple wavelengths.
Life Light provides advanced technology and results that would almost suggest it should be in its own healthcare category… not laser, not LED although it is LED driven… but perhaps a new classification named Advanced Low Level Light Therapy (ALLLT). Life Light outperforms laser therapy and traditional LED light therapy systems with its broad wavelength capability, wide range of available frequencies, higher light density and much larger treatment area. Additionally, Life Light is safer (no continuous oversight by a clinical attendant while in use), and the system cost is much lower than that of laser systems. Whether you have tried LLLT in the past or not, we invite you to feel the difference and put Life Light Therapy to the test today.
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COPYRIGHT © 2018 · INFORMATION ON THIS SITE IS PROVIDED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT MEANT TO SUBSTITUTE FOR THE ADVICE PROVIDED BY YOUR OWN PHYSICIAN OR OTHER MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL. THE RESULTS REPORTED MAY NOT NECESSARILY OCCUR IN ALL INDIVIDUALS. THESE STATEMENTS HAVE NOT BEEN EVALUATED BY THE FDA. LIFE LIGHT DEVICES ARE NOT INTENDED TO DIAGNOSE, TREAT, CURE, OR PREVENT ANY DISEASE.