Red Light Therapy: Eye Health Miracle?

Okay, so red light therapy. That is what we're  talking about today, and specifically how red light therapy can affect our eyes, including our  eye health and our vision, everything. And chances are you've already seen plenty of products sold  online for red light therapy for things like your skin health and muscle recovery, things like that. 

But while yes, there is some crazy, fascinating research on red light in the eyes that we're about  to go over, there are some major safety concerns that you need to know about, especially before  you try using any of these red light therapy devices you may have seen online. So in today's  video, we're going to break down how red light therapy works, what the research says about red  light therapy in the eyes, and then finally, safety with red light. So first, what is red light  therapy, and how does it work?

Red light therapy also goes by a few other names, such as low-level  light therapy, or even photobiomodulation. It is where we use low-level wavelengths of red light  to treat various health conditions. And this is primarily used to promote healing, as well as  reduce inflammation and to alleviate pain.

And historically, it's been used in dermatology  for some time to promote collagen formation, as well as treat acne and promote hair growth for  people with alopecia. But it's also been shown to help promote recovery for athletes, as well.  And honestly, if you dig into the research, there is just a ton of research coming out on this  and applications in almost every area of medicine.

But in short, how red light therapies believe to  work is that it activates cellular mitochondria, which, if you remember from your high school  biology class, is known as the powerhouse of the cell. And this red light therapy can help increase  the amount of adenosine triphosphate or ATP, which is necessary for cellular function as well  as repair. And what's so special about red light is that they find that wavelengths between 600  and about a thousand nanometers of light penetrate deeper into your tissues and get absorbed  by the cells without causing too much heat, which is important because too much heat can  cause damage to the cell.

And in addition to this ATP production, there's also a coupling of  nitric oxide within the cell, which plays a huge role in antioxidant activity and metabolism.  And then there's also inflammatory processes, which are further shut down by red light. And  both antioxidant activity and inflammation play huge roles within the eye for eye health.

But  again, this is just sort of the shortened or abridged version of how red light technology is  supposed to work. Okay, so now that we know how red light therapy works, what does the research  say about red light and the eyes? First, I want to say there is a ton of research on the subject  that I've been digging into, so what I'm about to share is sort of the grand overview of what these  publications are showing.

The first big way that red light therapy is being shown to be helpful  for the eye has to do with retinal conditions, primarily people who have macular degeneration or  diabetes. In fact, red light or low-level light therapy has already been approved and used as a  treatment for age-related macular degeneration in both Europe and Latin America, with various  publications showing that red light therapy can decrease the size and volume of drusen within the  back of the eye, which if you've never heard that term before, drusen is sort of a protein that  builds up in the back that's characteristic of macular degeneration. It has also been shown to  reduce the progression of geographic atrophy, which is more of the severe end stage of dry  macular degeneration, and red light therapy has been shown to improve visual acuity, yes, help  restore vision back for these people and help them see further down the vision chart.

And also  boost color vision and contrast sensitivity. This is huge because the research is showing that not  only can we slow down a disease that often leads to legal blindness, but we can restore eyesight  and give good vision back to people, especially considering that with macular generation, we  don't really have too many other treatments available. And if someone progresses to the  very severe end stage of that disease, the only options we have to treat it are injections with a  really expensive medication inside of the eye and nobody wants that.

And then for people with  diabetes, diabetes is a huge deal for eye care because diabetes not only can lead to bleeding  within the eye, but it can lead to swelling of the retinal tissue that we call diabetic macular  edema. And research is showing that red light therapy can help treat and decrease that swelling  inside of the eye, which otherwise the only other treatment we really have for that is again  similar to injections inside of the eye. So yeah, just based off of this info alone, red light gets  me really excited.

And then there's the treatment for dry eye disease, either in isolation on its  own or as an adjunct therapy alongside other forms of dry eye treatment, such as intense pulse light  or IPL, for example. And the whole idea is that red light being able that it's penetrating deeper  into the tissues may be able to help stimulate the oil glands of the eye to produce better oils,  but also improve blood circulation and reduce inflammation in those eyelids. In fact, red light  therapy has even been evaluated for the treatment of chalazions or eyelid styes that had previously  not been responsive to other forms of treatment, with one study reporting a 92% effective treatment  for chalazion within just two treatments.

The last really cool area of research on red light in the  eyes has to do with slowing down the development of myopia or nearsightedness in children. With  a meta-analysis from 2023 reporting a slowing down of myopia by 0. 68 diopters of glasses power  within 6 months of daily use.

And that translates to a slowing down of axial length or elongation  of the eyeball by about 0. 35 millimeters, which is honestly pretty exciting and fascinating because  this is all done with just a desktop red light LED that children can look at at home for three  minutes, twice a day. Because myopia development is such a huge topic in the field of eye care  right now, there's a lot of eyes looking at this research that's coming out, trying to analyze  how effective it is, why it works, and is it safe.

Even more so because again it's red light being  used on children's eyes. Unfortunately, we have really no idea of how red light therapy may be in  fact working to help slow down myopia. One of the best theories out there is that perhaps there's a  lack of oxygen in the back of the eye and that's helping change the formation of collagen within the  sclera and that perhaps red light is improving the amount of oxygen and blood flow to the retina  in the back of the eye and that may slow down this whole process.

But again, there's a lot of  theories but we really just don't know yet. Okay, so that's where the current research is at for red  light therapy in the eyes. Now I know it didn't go super deep into the weeds in this video about the  specific wavelengths or the specific devices used in these research studies, but I have been putting  a ton of time researching this and even creating a CE lecture course for doctors on this subject.

So  if you do have questions about a specific disease state, about a specific device or wavelengths of  light, anything you want to know, let me know in the comments because I'm happy to make additional  videos if people just want to learn more. The final thing I really want to talk about in this  video is safety and the current devices available for red light therapy. First thing to understand  is that this red light therapy is all still very new science, especially for the eyes.

And we don't  really understand the short-term or long-term consequences of this red light exposure. And  this goes for not just the eye, but for parts of the brain as well. And remember the retina in the  eye is just an extension of your brain.

And we're a little concerned about the possible long-term  consequences of what this could be doing to those delicate nerve cells. On top of that, there are  many different LED red light devices and masks on the market, which many of, and if not all, are not  designed specifically for the eyes. And there's usually a warning on them that says don't shine  directly into the eye.

Chances are if even if you do try to use one of those devices and look  at it, it's probably not the right wavelength, probably not the right power density or fluence,  which is the fancy word we use for dose of light. And there's a possible chance that that red light  could cause short or long-term damage to the retina in the back of the eye and again, I don't  want anyone to hurt themselves by trying this out. Even recently, a study looking at the light  devices used in these red light myopia studies on children found that these devices already breached  the safety limit of maximal light exposure, and currently, red light therapy is not FDA  approved for the treatment of any eye diseases in the US as of yet, but there is currently at least  one red light device going through FDA trials, specifically for the treatment of macular  degeneration.

And that's from a company called Lumethora. And honestly, looking at that  research, I think it looks really promising and it's a strong likelihood that we're probably gonna  see that FDA approved within the next year or so. But again, this is all still very new in the  area of eye care.

Okay, so there you have it. That is the lowdown on red light therapy for the  eyes. Thank you so much for hanging around here toward the end.

Again, please let me know in the  comments if there's another subject on red light you'd like to know more about, such as maybe some  of the devices currently on the market, especially the ones used for kind of treating the skin around  the eyes, whether it be for dry eyes specifically, chalazions or styes, or even like treating eye  bags, for example. There is some interesting stuff going on in that space. But again, let me  know in the comments.

Thanks for hanging around. Hit the like button for me and hopefully,  we'll see you in that next video. Peace.