What is LED Light Therapy?
LED light therapy is very popular today, especially for anti-aging and acne treatments. What’s so special about it? Is it worth the price tag?
Well, it’s not that LED light holds some extraordinary power of healing and rejuvenation. It’s light itself that holds that power, LED light is just the latest advancement in lighting technology.
LED light therapy is light therapy, just using an LED light source instead of an incandescent, fluorescent, or laser light source. LED lighting technology is not necessary to make light therapy effective, but it does have some nice benefits over other types of lights as we will see.
LEDs were NASA’s choice for red light therapy when it brought the technique into space around the year 2000. They chose this technology for its low energy requirements, as well as its low heat emission and light weight.
Those same qualities made later research more accurate, and, to date, hundreds of studies from around the world have shown the benefits of red light therapy in the fields of anti-aging, healing, and pain relief.
What Makes LED Light Therapy Special?
1. Tighter Wavelength Span. LED light has a tighter wavelength span than other types of bulbs. For example, while a fluorescent or incandescent red light might have a 660 nm peak, they could include wavelengths of plus or minus 40 nm or more. However, in the case of red LED light with the same 660nm peak, the useful wavelengths are only plus or minus about 10nm. For this reason, some consider LEDs a superior vehicle for delivering the necessary light for a given application.
2. No heat. There is very little heat generated with red LED light therapy, which makes the technique safer and more pleasant.
3. Durable & Long Lasting. Today’s LED devices use solid state electronics and plastic or metal housing which is much more durable and long lasting than incandescent or fluorescent bulbs made of glass.
4. Compact & Portable. LEDs are tiny little things, so it’s easy to pack them into a small, hand-held, portable device.
5. Earth Friendly. Using LEDs for light therapy is more eco-friendly than using incandescent or fluorescent bulbs because they can produce the same amount of light but do so while using a small fraction of the energy.
That’s it! Those are the major things that make LED light therapy any different or better than light therapy from any other light source.
When it comes to light therapy, it’s the color of the light, not the source of the light, that does the work.