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Inverse Square Law Conundrums in Red Light Therapy: Can Intensity Increase With Distance?

Inverse Square Law Conundrums in Red Light Therapy: Can Intensity Increase With Distance?

What is the optimal distance to use a Red Light Therapy panel? After years of consideration, it feels more like a philosophical question than a technical question. Firstly, assuming we are properly informed about the skin contact method and choose use devices at a distance anyway.  The real goal to to obtain the appropriate intensity landing on the skin, and we can adjust the distance accordingly. The "gold standard" distance of 6 inches away is not evidence based, but was a convenient guideline for the LED panels back in 2017-2019. Now, modern LED panels are more powerful and complex.  The relationship between intensity and distance is...

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Red Light Therapy and (Facial) Fat Loss

Red Light Therapy and (Facial) Fat Loss

Red Light Therapy has been utilized in human clinical trials to support spot fat reduction, body contouring, and weight management. As such, Red Light Therapy holds great potential to be used for the obesity epidemic.  However, marketing of these weight loss claims is often so heavy-handed that the consumer must assume spontaneous fat loss is a common side effect of Red Light Therapy. Red Light Therapy is often utilized on the face for anti-aging benefits, wrinkle reduction, acne management, and overall complexion benefits. [1][2] However, there are now concerns that it may result in unwanted facial fat loss.   As always, Red Light Therapy presents a...

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Deep Tissue Red Light Therapy Dosing: Does High Intensity Increase Penetration?

Deep Tissue Red Light Therapy Dosing: Does High Intensity Increase Penetration?

Improving the penetration of light into the skin is a key area for direct treatments with Photobiomodulation. However, many of the effects from Red Light Therapy are systemic in nature, particularly from non-contact LED panels that inherently have poor penetration. Meaning that even if the light doesn't directly penetrate deep enough, deeper tissues can benefit through indirect mechanisms.  Which is why adhering to proper dosing protocols is more important than maxing out the penetration depth to speculatively deliver better results.  Through the years, influencers have insisted that high intensity is essential for deep tissue treatments. These claims rarely come with citations or...

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The Superior Optics of Skin Contact for Red Light Therapy

The Superior Optics of Skin Contact for Red Light Therapy

Within typical LLLT and PBM (non-thermal) parameters, it is often recommended to use the skin contact method for deep tissue treatments. For superficial applications the non-contact method (using devices at a distance) is allowed.  The Phototherapy textbook by Tuner and Hode recommends non-contact for what they call "shallow problems", and for "deeper problems" to use skin contact method with some pressure. [1, Tuner&Hode, pg 118] "At medium depth: Press the probe into skin. The deeper tissue to be treated, the higher the pressure." [1, Tuner&Hode, pg118] One article makes this statement in a more technical way: "Increased light transmission was found to correlate with...

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The Optimal Intensity is not the Highest Intensity: The Big Dosing Myth

The Optimal Intensity is not the Highest Intensity: The Big Dosing Myth

A long time ago - researchers and doctors would discuss the optimal intensity as being a low intensity that has been proven to deliver consistent results. Many are still talking like this today. In the commercial industry, the "the highest intensity" marketing is often hinged on claims that you (1) get faster treatment times and (2) get better penetration. To the extreme point that it seems people are scorching themselves with reckless levels of intensity for fears they would not get adequate penetration otherwise. Yet the research and experts often contradict these points. Exposure time is often cited as being...

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