Red Light Therapy as an adjunct to Rapamycin

#1

I don’t mind saying I was shocked and surprised when my retired physician, who also prescribes me 6 mg weekly Rapamycin for longevity, mentioned Red Light Therapy as a treatment for my chronic tennis elbow.

He’s about as conservative as they come, and to hear him promote a seemingly outlandish treatment for a problem that had afflicted me for over a year got my attention.

As we discussed it further, it became apparent to me that he was a huge fan of Red Light Therapy because of its noninvasive approach to many ailments which afflict us as we get older. He said many medical professionals are big believers but are understandably reluctant to publicly discuss it because of the lack of clinical trials to support it. Sound familiar?

Surprisingly, many big names in the medical world are now giving their tacit approval to the therapy. For example:

To cut to the chase, benefits are being observed in the following areas:

Pain and inflammation
Reduction of wrinkles, fine lines and age spots
Improvement of facial texture
Wound healing
Osteoarthritis
Hair loss
Brain health and cognitive decline
Fitness and muscle recovery
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD)
Sleep

My tendinitis resolved in six weeks. How does it work? Red Light Therapy (a combination of visible red light LEDs which don’t penetrate very deeply and invisible near-infrared spectrum LEDs which do penetrate deep into body tissues) works by activating photoreceptors in your mitochondria, or the powerhouse of the cells. With this boost to the energy center of the cell, the cells can do their jobs—such as healing and growth—more efficiently. “Think of it as your morning coffee—red light therapy helps your cells wake up and get the job done!” said one physician.

Here is my red light machine:

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I use it 15 minutes a day after my morning workout by lying down and positioning the LED array from the top of my head to below my groin. My machine beeps halfway through the treatment so I can flip over and light up my posterior…not an especially pretty sight!

I did a lot of research before purchasing it and am very happy with it. I am not promoting any particular brand, but FYI here’s what I use:

Rouge is always running specials. There’s currently a “Canada Day” special for 20% off through July 6; promo code is CANADA20.

I hope readers “see the light” as I have and find this post useful and informative. This is my first post since the popular “DIY Rapamycin skin cream” thread several months ago. My compliments to RapAdmin for his amazing administration of this site.

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#2

I have a small hand held Red Light Therapy flashlight. I’ve found that it does provide relief from discomfort after 5 mins of shining on my arthritic thumb. It hasn’t cured it yet, but I haven’t really used it more than 5 mins at a time. I might consider a larger Red Light panel like yours for my elbows.

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#3

Been doing Red light and preaching red light for 3 years… love my skin, brown spots disappearing and basically I just feel better!

I did not think it helped with sleep.

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#4

MedCram’s Dr Seheult posted this NIR study on Twitter. It’s funded by a LED company but the science looks good as far as I can tell. Don’t give up on your red/IR lamps!

Effects of Near-Infrared Light on Well-Being and Health in Human Subjects with Mild Sleep-Related Complaints: A Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Study - PMC

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#5

The effects of red to near-infrared light on mitochondrial function.

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Red to near-infrared (NIR) light therapy is a non-invasive, drug-free therapy comprising a broad spectrum of wavelengths between 630nm and 1000nm, which allows the light photon to penetrate from 0.5mm to 50mm through the skin to reach the target tissue and mediate cellular response.

Therapeutic benefits of red-to-NIR light therapy have been reported in neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Neuronal mitochondria have been identified as the primary target for red and NIR light. At the cellular level, preclinical studies in animal models have shown promising effects in increasin adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production in response to light treatment, but how red-to-NIR light affects mitochondrial complexes and function has yet to be identified.

This project aims to:
(1) Investigate the effects of both continuous and pulsed red-to-NIR light on neuron metabolism;
(2) explore the influence of continuous red-to-NIR light on mitochondrial complex respiration;
(3) determine if red-to-NIR light aids neuron cell resistance to external stress.

In order to conduct this project, SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells were exposed to both continuous
and pulsed light treatment protocols. During the pulsed light treatment experiment, KCl stress
was applied to explore the resistance of light-irradiated SH-SY5Y to external stress. Our results
revealed that 850nm continuous light irradiation led to the greatest increments in intact cell respiration. At mitochondrial complex-level, 850nm and 940nm light wavelengths were the most
effective in stimulating electron transport system capacity and cytochrome c oxidase activity. This
suggests that 850nm and 940nm continuous light-irradiated SH-SY5Y cells possess higher cell viability and have the potential to cope with an increased ATP demand. Furthermore, exposure to
830nm and 940nm pulsed light demonstrated an improvement in the resistance of SH-SY5Y cells to KCl-induced stress. Overall, this thesis provides insights into neuronal metabolism in response to red-to-NIR light therapy at both intact cell and mitochondrial complex-specific levels, and demonstrates the potential of red-to-NIR light therapy in ameliorating neurodegenerative diseases.

https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/handle/2292/66995

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#6

I think there is a forum consensus the this works on cells that get irradiated.

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#7

I want to try red/near infrared light for a very slow healing tendinopathy, but it’s one of my hip adductors, so the target is in the crease of my groin. I already have a box-type red/IR light, but it’s useless for that area. Any suggestions?

Edit: I got the Rouge Nano with the 20% off sale. I definitely WON’T be telling my patients that I put a red light down my pants every morning and evening.

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#9

Have you seen any improvement?

#10

Yes, but not from the red light. Even with the small box, it was in just such an awkward area that it made it impossible to treat with infrared. Doing resistance training for my hip adductors (squeezes with an inflatable exercise ball) has fixed the problem and allowed me to get back to barbell squats and lunges.

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#11

Wasn’t there a trend a few years ago where crotch sun bathing for guys was supposed to be a good thing? :grinning:

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#12

Testicle Tanning for testosterone! I think it was a Tucker Carlson exclusive😬

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#13
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#14

Surfin’ Saturday. That’s what I like to do on Saturday (Internet surfing that is :slight_smile:

In case you missed it, here is another video about infrared photobiomodulation.
It’s rather wordy and long but still has much good information.

According to him you don’t need a very powerful light source.

Power Up Your Mitochondria With Red Light Therapy | Dr Glen Jeffery

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#15

5 min per side every morning, 0-6 in distance from face to knees using my Gemba Red 5-color panel, wakes me up and energizes me. Looking up at the sun doesn’t work as well. A few minutes before weights and cardio seems to help also. Placebo or real ( I think real ), I am happy with it.

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#16

I have used my R/IR lamp nearly everyday for 1 year. It is an amazing destroyer of joint and muscle pain I get from weight lifting. It doesn’t not seem to help with knee pain from long endurance cycling (but icing does). It has done nothing for my skin quality, but after the first 3 months of no effect I haven t been as diligent about that.

I will never give up my R/IR light until I move to the beach and get outside all day every day.

This video is very good. The best I’ve seen. I will start using the lamp on my eyes every few days for 3 min.

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#17

I’ve experienced a similar issue with red light therapy. After diving into numerous studies and diligently using it, I’m not seeing any results. It’s quite disheartening because the more I read, the more convinced I am of its effectiveness. At this rate, I might just become the most informed but least affected user of RLT!

P.S. It is quite convenient to undergo red light therapy during mindfulness sessions (reserving 10-20 minutes a day) – so, zero effort somehow.

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#18

I think one aspect of Red Light therapy is not only improving some mitochondria and the cells that are irradiated, but additional some of the better mitochondria are spread around.

I get this from anecdotal reports of improvements in areas which are not subject to R/IR radiation.

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#19
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#20

This does not surprise me much because, while red/NIR light therapy is a new treatment for general health and aging, it is not new for treatment of injuries. It has been used for long by physiotherapists to accelerate healing of various injuries.

Red/NIR light is unlikely to be significantly effective for that because it won’t penetrate deep enough to reach the hip adductors in significant amounts unless you happen to have unusually low body fat so the penetration depth isn’t so large.

This is to be expected. Most of the things it is effective for are not things that you will notice, with the exception of injury healing.

I haven’t seen evidence of it improving the mitochondria. It mainly temporarily increases themitochondria efficiency during the treatment, which is short lived. But it does result in a hormetic response that can last for hours or days and can lead to changes in signaling molecules that can transmit some effects to parts that were not directly irradiated. As an example, some studies found an increase in oxygenated hemoglobin, which can then of course possibly travel through the blood circulation and have effects elswhere in the body.

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