Light Therapy Options has gone through some big changes in the last year.  As it turns out, those changes were against my grain, and I have becoming increasingly unhappy with the way the business is going.  So now, I’m going to change things back, and get the business back in line with who I am.   As a result of that, the business might fail, in terms of cash.  It will be a success, however, in that I will be true to myself, and be doing the most good for the most people.  Peace is more valuable than money, even in this economy.

The first thing I’m going to do is add red and blue lights separately to the product line up, in addition to the LightWave CS, which I will still carry.  I’ve got prototypes for them coming in any day, and we’ll begin testing them out on ourselves, family and friends.  I have no doubt they will work, but it’s always nice to see proof before you sell something to the world.

The Blue light will be a combination of 405nm and 470nm, which will be perfect for general antibacterial use, not just acne treatment.  Both wavelengths proved effective in killing other harmful bacteria, including MRSA, and so that light will prove beneficial for a wide range of people and situations.  For example, if someone buys it initially for acne treatment, they can also use it to help naturally disinfect everyday cuts, scrapes and bites for themselves and their family.  The blue light could also be used to disinfect surfaces around the home, or possibly help to treat an existing infection of the skin.

The red light will be a combination of red 660nm and infrared 850nm.  Red light is useful in acne treatment, of course, but this light can also be used for a very wide array of things, especially to speed healing of any injury to the skin or soft tissues.  The faster you close a wound of any type, the less chance there is for a dangerous infection to set in.  This is becoming more and more important as bugs become antibiotic resistant.  A Red/IR light can also be used for pain relief and anti-aging applications.

Making these lights available separately will make the initial cost of LED blue light acne treatment more affordable for more people, which is the point.  People can add red light to their treatments when they can afford it.  Either way, whether they own one light or two, the lights will be useful for many more important things than just acne treatment.  This will significantly increase the value of the light, and make the investment worth it for the whole family.

So I am going to be busy adding the red and blue to the website this week, and I will post often this month as I make other changes to just about everything.

Since we launched LightWave CS a couple of weeks ago, it’s been causing quite a stir.  I’ve updated the FAQ on IntelligentAcneTreatment.com to address such things as “how can this light possible work in seconds when all the others are 15 minutes?” “how can a 7 watt LED do anything?” “how can a light with 7 LEDs be better than one with 70?” and others like that.  But when you say, “too good to be true,” I think this might help:

Truth is I’ve been in the light therapy business for 10 years with my mom (Kathryn Kalisz, Sci\ART Global), who’s been researching color for 30 years.
Truth is I’ve been listening to acne suffers on the phone for 7 years.
Truth is I’ve been trying to find a way to solve their problems for that long.
Truth is I’m into all kinds of light therapy, not just acne light therapy.
I’ve been paying attention to advancements in the entire field of light therapy, and not just acne treatment.  Because of that I’ve been able to recognize which wavelengths might be the most beneficial and effective for acne treatment, and I put the best of everything I knew into this light of my own.  Based on that same knowledge, experience, and appreciation for the natural power of light, we started the testing with seconds and not minutes.  It worked in seconds, exactly as expected.

Now I give you a light that works for most people, not just for “mild-moderate inflammatory acne” but mild-severe inflammatory acne, as well as deeper, cystic acne, over time.   I give you a light that you can hold in your hand, sit on the table or clamp to just about anything to conveniently treat acne on your face, back, chest, or anywhere else it might be impolite to mention.  I give you a light that is made to last a long, long time, and I back it for life.  I give you a light you can travel with and not worry about because – who stays in one place anymore, and who needs one more worry?

I understand you are skeptical.  It sounds “too good to be true.” But really, isn’t it the way it should be?

Try the light.  Whether it works for you or not, please post your experiences here for the benefit of your community.

As always, I’m happy to answer any questions you may have.

Louanna Wilson
Light Therapy Options

Hey, everyone! Yep, its still us! Nope, you didn’t visit the wrong site. We’ve just been renovating around here.  Hope you all like the changes.

A visual comparison of the home pages, old and new, for http://intelligentacnetreatment.com/

Not only have we released a brand-spanking-new light bulb for ‘clear skin’ (psst… that’s the CS in LightWave CS), but as of midnight on June 27th, we’ve gone and launched a brand new site to go along with it. We’d been working on the new bulb since late last year, and on the site in our free time since last March.  We’re pretty happy with both so far, though you can expect to see changes to the site almost daily for at least the next month, I’ll bet.

Anyway, first, let’s talk about the new light, which we have named the LightWave CS. The light is great. Even thought it weighs in at 9 ounces, the same as our old enLux Hybrids, physically it’s only about half its length, so its more compact and fits into most light fixtures better.  At only 7 watts, the LightWave CS uses less than 1/2 of the power of the Hybrid.  Even with its reduced size and power requirements however, the LightWave CS replaces a 50 watt light bulb, down only 15 watts from the Hybrid’s 65 watt value, and still seems blinding when shined directly in your face.

Comparison of enLux Hybrid to LightWave CS

As for the light source itself, instead of using one large LED chip “light engine” like the enLux Hybrid (which, let’s face it, is actually pretty cool and one of the main reasons we approached enLux to build the Hybrid in the first place) the LightWave CS uses 7 high-power Cree LEDs.  There are Six LEDs in a circle around a 7th LED in the center. The six LEDs around the outside are made up of two 405nm blue LEDs, two 450nm blue LEDs, and two 660nm red LEDs. While the 660nm red lights are a nice bonus, since enLux couldn’t produce that wavelength, it’s the center bulb that really makes us smile. That center LED is an 850nm infrared light.  We tried for over a year to get infrared into the enLux bulbs, but with no success.  Overall, I think we have a winner on our hands.

The price of the LightWave CS is certainly higher than the enLux, but still very competitive with other options on the market.  Still, we understand that a number of you might have been in the middle of doing research and RIGHT on the edge of purchasing. Not to worry, I think we’ve still got your covered. We have a limited number of Hybrid’s still in stock, though we expect they’ll sell out pretty quickly. Or, if you’ve decided that you’d like to try the new bulb instead, we’re running an introductory sale. Starting at $249, the price of the bulb will go up $5 the morning of every business day for the next 4 weeks, until it reaches the $349 full-retail price.  While we won’t be making much (if any) profit off of these initial sales, it will be worth it just to get it into your hands and maybe grab some feedback on the product.

Now, as for the site, we hope its more than a cosmetic lift. We’re using a new ecommerce system that we hope will make things easier not only for us, but for you, too. We’ve still got more information on using light to cure acne and to heal and rejuvenate skin than most anywhere else, but now the information is separated out from the information on our light, so its easier to just sit back and read up on the subject without getting bogged down in how our lamps work.  Just click on the “Science” tab, and read up on blue, red and infrared light. If you’re the type who IS interested in the lamp specifics, well, we’ve got that information too, right under “The Light” tab.  If you think we’re missing any important information or features to the site, drop us a line and let us know.

We’re sure you’ll love these lights as much as we do, but if you don’t, we’ll give you your purchase price plus 10% back.

Chris Wilson
Devoted Assistant to the President

The following is an update on Katelyn & Zoe Bachman, whose lives are sustained by daily blue light treatments.

Dear Friends & Family,

We want to give you an update on Katelyn and Zoe.  For those of you who haven’t heard, we just returned from a week in Pittsburgh.  Katelyn and Zoe had their 4 day hospital evaluations and are now on the National Transplant List.  Katelyn will hopefully receive her liver transplant within 6 to 8 months.  Zoe will wait until she is 2 or 3 years old.

The Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh is the leader in liver transplants with a 98% survival rate.  Nation-wide the survival rate is 91%.  They have a wonderful team of doctors and nurses who have experience with Criggler-Najjar patients.  Since the girls are the only Texans with this condition, we have had to become experts on our own.  It was nice to be able to say the name of the condition and not have to explain it.  Over the past 6 years we have dealt with countless doctors who have never heard of this condition.  What a blessing to be in good hands and NOT be the experts!

When a liver becomes available we will only have a matter of hours to get Katelyn to Pittsburgh.  We are in the process of looking for corporations who could possibly provide a private jet when the time comes.  We were told that 95% of the time a commercial flight will not work.  We plan to have some bags already packed so that we are prepared.

After the transplant Katelyn will be in the hospital for about 2 weeks.  She will then be released to the Pittsburgh area.  She will have blood work and appointments almost daily to watch her progress.  In total, we will end up living in Pittsburgh for 2 to 3 months before coming home.

For now we are glad to be back in sunny South Texas where it’s nice and warm!  We want to thank you for your prayers and support.  We will keep you updated as we continue this process.  If you would like to see pictures of our trip you can go to www.KatelynsLight.com and click on the “Update” tab.

Love,
Jeff & Tammy

The Bachman Family

Jeff Tammy Shannon Katelyn Caleb Zoe

www.KatelynsLight.com

Since a number of our initial clients have come over from Sci\ART Global, LLC, this seems like an appropriate first post.

If you’re wondering why this business exists and where it all started, you’ve got to know just a little about my wife, Louanna, the heart and soul of Light Therapy Options.  Since 2000, she has been working with her mother, Kathryn Kalisz, starting Sci\ART and helping it grow.  More than that, however, Louanna grew up Kathryn’s daughter, and from those early years, she’s learned her mother’s passions.

See, Kathryn is a world class color expert. She’s one of only a handful of people who can complete the Munsell color test by eye, with 100% accuracy. Much of the work that Kathryn and other members of the Munsell team did contributed directly to the color-matching systems and software used today.  Ever get your paint matched by computer at the local hardware store? Then you know what I’m talking about.  Anyway, Kathryn has spent the better part of her life exploring color and its physical and mental effects on the human being.  A natural outgrowth of color was light, and within the first year of Sci\ART’s infancy they began offering colored lighting for the purpose of light therapy.

During these first years of Sci\ART, they came across the news that 415 nanometer blue light kills acne.  After more research, they chose to include acne treatment as a benefit of the GE Dichromatic blue flood lamps.  Since the GE lamps were broad spectrum, they certainly included 415 nm blue light, and based on the rate of returns, it appeared that the GE bulbs experienced the same (or even a bit better) rate of success than the reported 85% that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved systems encountered.

While the BLUE LIGHT TREATMENT PROCESS is approved by the FDA, it should be noted that at the time of this writing, with the exception of the Clear Light, Blue-U and Omnilux solutions, currently sold only to medical professionals, only a select few home solutions that we are aware of are FDA approved.  For most of us, we’re simply offering an alternative that may or may not work for you, using the same types of tools that the FDA approved system uses, but in the comfort of your own home and for a fraction of the cost of paying for weekly doctor visits.  Please, DO NOT BE FOOLED by vendors who claim their system is FDA approved.  Thoroughly check it out first.

As we said, the GE lights were obviously not ideal.  At 150W, they were hot, they used a LOT of energy, and they required a light fixture rated for a 150W light bulb.  Worst of all,  many felt that a lot of the energy was wasted on producing light that wasn’t 415 nm.  While we don’t think it was wasted, that really is the subject of a future post.

Because the GE lamps just weren’t optimal, Louanna began looking for a way to get hold of 415 nm bulbs.  She specifically wanted LEDs if she should could get them, since they were cool, used far less energy, and the lights would be more durable and last a lot longer.  At first, she looked to see if there was anything they could buy off the shelf, but there just wasn’t anything.  Next, she began looking to have them manufactured specifically for us.  It was at this point that she came across enLux Lighting.  Of all the LED manufacturers she found, she felt most impressed by them and a relationship was started.  Our first 415nm enLux lamps shipped in March of 2007.

In the summer of 2007, Kathryn decided to return to Florida and the bulk of the day-to-day operations of Sci\ART went with her.  Kathryn also decided to refocus her business on color therapy and several light therapies took at back seat.  Included in these was the Acne 415 business.  However, Louanna felt that the acne light therapy business had grown to the point of needing it’s own website, sales & fulfillment, and so in the fall she struck a deal with her mom and bought the Blue Light acne business from Sci\ART. A month later, Light Therapy Options was born, and its first endeavor, IntelligentAcneTreatment.com launched.

Since then we’ve continued to move forward. We’ve talked to our customers freely and openly, and in return, they’ve talked to us.  We’re learning from each other as we move forward, listening to the successes of others, all of the various ways that they’ve used their lights, and are passing that information forward to you.  We welcome you to keep checking this site and this blog, whether you’ve purchased our lights or someone else’s, so that we can all continue learning together.

- Chris & Louanna