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Okay, so red light therapy. That is what we're
talking about today, and specifically how red
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light therapy can affect our eyes, including our
eye health and our vision, everything. And chances
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are you've already seen plenty of products sold
online for red light therapy for things like your
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skin health and muscle recovery, things like that.
But while yes, there is some crazy, fascinating
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research on red light in the eyes that we're about
to go over, there are some major safety concerns
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that you need to know about, especially before
you try using any of these red light therapy
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devices you may have seen online. So in today's
video, we're going to break down how red light
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therapy works, what the research says about red
light therapy in the eyes, and then finally,
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safety with red light. So first, what is red light
therapy, and how does it work? Red light therapy
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also goes by a few other names, such as low-level
light therapy, or even photobiomodulation. It is
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where we use low-level wavelengths of red light
to treat various health conditions. And this is
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primarily used to promote healing, as well as
reduce inflammation and to alleviate pain. And
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historically, it's been used in dermatology
for some time to promote collagen formation,
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as well as treat acne and promote hair growth for
people with alopecia. But it's also been shown to
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help promote recovery for athletes, as well.
And honestly, if you dig into the research,
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there is just a ton of research coming out on this
and applications in almost every area of medicine.
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But in short, how red light therapies believe to
work is that it activates cellular mitochondria,
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which, if you remember from your high school
biology class, is known as the powerhouse of the
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cell. And this red light therapy can help increase
the amount of adenosine triphosphate or ATP,
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which is necessary for cellular function as well
as repair. And what's so special about red light
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is that they find that wavelengths between 600
and about a thousand nanometers of light penetrate
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deeper into your tissues and get absorbed
by the cells without causing too much heat,
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which is important because too much heat can
cause damage to the cell. And in addition to
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this ATP production, there's also a coupling of
nitric oxide within the cell, which plays a huge
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role in antioxidant activity and metabolism.
And then there's also inflammatory processes,
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which are further shut down by red light. And
both antioxidant activity and inflammation play
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huge roles within the eye for eye health. But
again, this is just sort of the shortened or
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abridged version of how red light technology is
supposed to work. Okay, so now that we know how
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red light therapy works, what does the research
say about red light and the eyes? First, I want
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to say there is a ton of research on the subject
that I've been digging into, so what I'm about to
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share is sort of the grand overview of what these
publications are showing. The first big way that
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red light therapy is being shown to be helpful
for the eye has to do with retinal conditions,
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primarily people who have macular degeneration or
diabetes. In fact, red light or low-level light
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therapy has already been approved and used as a
treatment for age-related macular degeneration
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in both Europe and Latin America, with various
publications showing that red light therapy can
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decrease the size and volume of drusen within the
back of the eye, which if you've never heard that
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term before, drusen is sort of a protein that
builds up in the back that's characteristic of
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macular degeneration. It has also been shown to
reduce the progression of geographic atrophy,
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which is more of the severe end stage of dry
macular degeneration, and red light therapy has
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been shown to improve visual acuity, yes, help
restore vision back for these people and help
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them see further down the vision chart. And also
boost color vision and contrast sensitivity. This
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is huge because the research is showing that not
only can we slow down a disease that often leads
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to legal blindness, but we can restore eyesight
and give good vision back to people, especially
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considering that with macular generation, we
don't really have too many other treatments
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available. And if someone progresses to the
very severe end stage of that disease, the only
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options we have to treat it are injections with a
really expensive medication inside of the eye and
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nobody wants that. And then for people with
diabetes, diabetes is a huge deal for eye care
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because diabetes not only can lead to bleeding
within the eye, but it can lead to swelling of
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the retinal tissue that we call diabetic macular
edema. And research is showing that red light
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therapy can help treat and decrease that swelling
inside of the eye, which otherwise the only
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other treatment we really have for that is again
similar to injections inside of the eye. So yeah,
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just based off of this info alone, red light gets
me really excited. And then there's the treatment
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for dry eye disease, either in isolation on its
own or as an adjunct therapy alongside other forms
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of dry eye treatment, such as intense pulse light
or IPL, for example. And the whole idea is that
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red light being able that it's penetrating deeper
into the tissues may be able to help stimulate the
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oil glands of the eye to produce better oils,
but also improve blood circulation and reduce
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inflammation in those eyelids. In fact, red light
therapy has even been evaluated for the treatment
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of chalazions or eyelid styes that had previously
not been responsive to other forms of treatment,
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with one study reporting a 92% effective treatment
for chalazion within just two treatments. The last
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really cool area of research on red light in the
eyes has to do with slowing down the development
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of myopia or nearsightedness in children. With
a meta-analysis from 2023 reporting a slowing
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down of myopia by 0.68 diopters of glasses power
within 6 months of daily use. And that translates
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to a slowing down of axial length or elongation
of the eyeball by about 0.35 millimeters, which is
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honestly pretty exciting and fascinating because
this is all done with just a desktop red light LED
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that children can look at at home for three
minutes, twice a day. Because myopia development
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is such a huge topic in the field of eye care
right now, there's a lot of eyes looking at
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this research that's coming out, trying to analyze
how effective it is, why it works, and is it safe.
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Even more so because again it's red light being
used on children's eyes. Unfortunately, we have
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really no idea of how red light therapy may be in
fact working to help slow down myopia. One of the
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best theories out there is that perhaps there's a
lack of oxygen in the back of the eye and that's
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helping change the formation of collagen within the
sclera and that perhaps red light is improving
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the amount of oxygen and blood flow to the retina
in the back of the eye and that may slow down
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this whole process. But again, there's a lot of
theories but we really just don't know yet. Okay,
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so that's where the current research is at for red
light therapy in the eyes. Now I know it didn't go
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super deep into the weeds in this video about the
specific wavelengths or the specific devices used
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in these research studies, but I have been putting
a ton of time researching this and even creating a
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CE lecture course for doctors on this subject. So
if you do have questions about a specific disease
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state, about a specific device or wavelengths of
light, anything you want to know, let me know in
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the comments because I'm happy to make additional
videos if people just want to learn more. The
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final thing I really want to talk about in this
video is safety and the current devices available
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for red light therapy. First thing to understand
is that this red light therapy is all still very
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new science, especially for the eyes. And we don't
really understand the short-term or long-term
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consequences of this red light exposure. And
this goes for not just the eye, but for parts of
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the brain as well. And remember the retina in the
eye is just an extension of your brain. And we're
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a little concerned about the possible long-term
consequences of what this could be doing to those
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delicate nerve cells. On top of that, there are
many different LED red light devices and masks on
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the market, which many of, and if not all, are not
designed specifically for the eyes. And there's
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usually a warning on them that says don't shine
directly into the eye. Chances are if even if
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you do try to use one of those devices and look
at it, it's probably not the right wavelength,
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probably not the right power density or fluence,
which is the fancy word we use for dose of light.
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And there's a possible chance that that red light
could cause short or long-term damage to the
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retina in the back of the eye and again, I don't
want anyone to hurt themselves by trying this
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out. Even recently, a study looking at the light
devices used in these red light myopia studies on
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children found that these devices already breached
the safety limit of maximal light exposure,
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and currently, red light therapy is not FDA
approved for the treatment of any eye diseases in
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the US as of yet, but there is currently at least
one red light device going through FDA trials,
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specifically for the treatment of macular
degeneration. And that's from a company
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called Lumethora. And honestly, looking at that
research, I think it looks really promising and
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it's a strong likelihood that we're probably gonna
see that FDA approved within the next year or so.
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But again, this is all still very new in the
area of eye care. Okay, so there you have it.
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That is the lowdown on red light therapy for the
eyes. Thank you so much for hanging around here
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toward the end. Again, please let me know in the
comments if there's another subject on red light
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you'd like to know more about, such as maybe some
of the devices currently on the market, especially
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the ones used for kind of treating the skin around
the eyes, whether it be for dry eyes specifically,
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chalazions or styes, or even like treating eye
bags, for example. There is some interesting
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stuff going on in that space. But again, let me
know in the comments. Thanks for hanging around.
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Hit the like button for me and hopefully,
we'll see you in that next video. Peace.
