What is Red Light Therapy? Here’s everything you need to know about it

Everyone’s been on a sun lounger in a Disney-like destination, lapping up the rays and hoping that the dreaded winter might fade away.

But just because you’re nowhere near the sea doesn’t mean you can’t benefit from using the power of light and temperature on your skin.

More than half of Brits are concerned about skin cancer

Using a red light therapy lamp, rather than a tanning bed, helps boost the production of vitamin D, which is essential to good health. Red light therapy is used by a growing number of people in America, Australia and the UK – and now dermatologists are now starting to recommend it to us.

Here’s everything you need to know

Red light therapy is primarily intended to help treat inflammation and scaly, acne-prone skin.

However, red light therapy has been proven to help heal skin ulcers and even improve the texture of psoriasis.

The treatment won’t cause adverse effects unless it’s used excessively, or if you have an allergy to red light.

Red light therapy is a form of phototherapy. Phototherapy uses light to treat certain skin diseases and medical conditions such as vitiligo, alopecia, vitiligo and psoriasis.

This is used on the skin surface using red light as well as blue light, which is used to treat photodermatitis.

What can I do with it?

Red light therapy can be used alone, or in combination with topical anti-inflammation creams.

If you have skin ulcers, a red light treatment should be used in the morning or afternoon – morning because blue light is stronger in the morning than at night, and afternoon because red light is less strong at night.

While a blue light treatment can help to break up keratin protein in the cells to improve the skin’s tone, red light therapy is better for psoriasis and inflammation.

What are the benefits?

Vitamin D is made in our bodies when we get sun on our skin, and it plays an important role in maintaining a healthy immune system and bone health.

However, for the vast majority of us, the daily sun we’re in during summer is not enough to boost our vitamin D levels.

People who have dark skin, are ethnic minorities, or live in areas where there isn’t much sun – which are also the people who benefit most from a blue light treatment – can’t boost their vitamin D levels without using the red light treatment.

Benefits of a red light treatment include improved flexibility and improved bone density, improved circulation and reduced scarring, and a natural, non-irritating treatment.

Generally, people who get the red light treatment before their daily sun bath will start to see results within two weeks.