How to Research Red Light Therapy (Photobiomodulation, Low Level Laser Therapy)
The foundation of the mainstream success of Red Light Therapy have been the thousands of peer-reviewed articles in medical journals on this topic. But how do you actually find them?
Searching for Red Light Therapy information often results in being bombarded by content from commercial brands, device manufacturers, influencers, or news media claiming to dispense the science. Even if they are referencing scientific articles, they could add their own unqualified interpretations, biases, or agendas to their reporting.
So where do you find the legitimate peer-reviewed articles, studies, systematic reviews, meta-analysis, and books on Red Light Therapy?
Perhaps you are trying to convince yourself or a friend that Red Light Therapy is really backed by science. Or find studies or dosing protocols from studies that are relevant to your condition. Maybe you are even an aspiring Red Light Therapy content creator but always end up stumbling into competitor's blogs.
As you can tell from my previous blogs, I have done a lot of research and read a lot of studies. Even though I am an engineer with a talent and passion for research and data analysis, what I do can be easily taught to others.
So, I will go over how I use Pubmed, Google, the PBM Database, articles, and books for red light therapy research. And even provide some tips on how to use AI and avoid pitfalls with it.
We even provide a list of free articles and books on Light Therapy near the end of the blog to get you started with your own research!
Searching PubMed for Red Light Therapy Articles
Studies and Research Articles are often catalogued and organized in government databases like PubMed which is hosted by the NIH National Library of Medicine.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
PubMed is a free database that anyone can use to search for scientific articles. It indexes articles from various peer-reviewed scientific journals and publishers.
But searching "Red Light Therapy" won't yield good results, since that is not an official medical term.
Go to PubMed and search a keyword like "Photobiomodulation" or "Low Level Laser Therapy" - then type in the medical condition or topic you are interested in exploring.
These two search terms:
- Photobiomodulation
- Topic or Condition you are interested in.
Example of the search result on PubMed for "photobiomodulation Alzheimer's". There are 86 results.
You can search for free-to-read articles by seeing the orange "Free PMC article" on the article, or use the "Free full text" filter on the left hand side. Clicking the DOI number will bring you to the publisher's website which sometimes provides the entire article for free.
The default sorting is by "Relevance" - which is generally the best results for your first time doing a search. You can also choose to sort the results by "Most Recent" which will show you the most modern articles that match your search.
To keep up with the latest research and publications, I simply search "Photobiomodulation" alone and sort by Most Recent. I do this several times a week. Then I can make sure to incorporate the latest studies in my content.
From some simple searches, you will find hundreds or even thousands of results from peer-reviewed journals and catalogued on this database.
Unfortunately, often you can only read the Abstract (the summary) for nearly any study. Many articles are behind a paywall to pay around 30-50 USD per article, unless you have a subscription to the journal (or if you work at an institution that already holds a subscription).
Since we don't want to promote piracy through Sci-Hub, we spent extra time at the end to find free articles and books to get you started!
Publisher's Websites
You could also search directly on the publisher's websites. It is possible that not all PBM articles are indexed on PubMed. Or you may have a preferred publisher for doing research.
- ScienceDirect / Elsevier
- Springer
- Wiley
- MDPI
- Liebert
- SPIE
- FrontiersIn
- JAMA
- Nature
- BioMedCentral
- MedRxiv
- The Lancet
- PLOT
- CELL
I listed in a general order that I see the most PBM articles from the most (top) to the least (bottom). The mere fact that PBM has been published in such a wide range of reputable journals should give confidence in the strength of the science.
Professionals may often use these search tools as well, but may require a subscription for full access:
Each of these sites have a search function that you can input Photobiomodulation or Low Level Laser Therapy for articles. Although I would fear their search engines are not as robust as using Google for more intricate searches.
Pitfalls of Google and SEO Content
Searching "Red Light Therapy" will often bring up trending articles and blogs that are rarely scientific.
The top results are content designed for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Which are marketing techniques to help content get boosted to the top of the search results by the algorithms.
So when you haphazardly Google search topics in Red Light Therapy, that is why you are met with content that is SEO. That is, after you first skip over the literal sponsored content and shopping suggestions. Then you are hit with blogs that seem authentic but are often affiliate influencer or brand content optimized for SEO.
Thus, the top search results are not necessarily the best, most valuable evidence-based information. As we would falsely assume. The content will seem impressive and flashy. But the goal is to plant the cookies on your device and maybe even throw a pop-up window to collect your email address. Solidifying your initiation into their sales funnel.
After visiting some of the top search results; one is often left with a subconscious feeling of hollowness; lacking substance and authenticity. Leading to either giving up the search for answers, or digging deeper to find more legitimate sources of information.
Optimal Google Search Terms for Red Light Therapy
That is why we need to write our Google or Bing or DuckDuckGo searches with better terminology.
The science behind Red Light Therapy is officially called Photobiomodulation (PBM), Low Level Laser Therapy (LLLT), and Low Level Light Therapy.
So use one of the keywords Photobiomodulation or Low Level Laser Therapy and the topic you are searching, Low Level Laser Therapy will generally bring up older studies before it was renamed to Photobiomodulation for more modern studies.
Then also add the word "pubmed" at the end of your search query. Google will prioritize the Pubmed articles in the search results. This way you don't get bombarded by manufacturer's blogs, affiliate influencer's blogs, or mainstream news articles. Similarly, many people may add "reddit" at the end of a search inquiry if you are looking for real consumer conversations about a topic or product.
For example, instead of searching:
- "red light therapy for arthritis"
Instead I would search:
- "photobiomodulation arthritis pubmed"
And here is the result:
The Ultimate Google Docs Database on Red Light Therapy
An online Google document compiled by Vladimir Heiskanen gives an excellent list of 7000+ peer-reviewed published articles on LLLT/PBM. Note that these are mostly the same articles you would find on Pubmed or Google searches, but the table-format provides a lot of information from the studies in a convenient way.
Often when asked to see studies, many brands and marketers will drop the hyperlink to this Google Doc spreadsheet to inspire awe.
We can't expect a casual consumer to sift through such a daunting database of studies.
Naturally you can use the Heading Filters or the "find" function (Ctrl+F) to sort and find specific topics or keywords. For example sorting by certain wavelengths or types of articles can help narrow down the database to find what you are looking for. Usually I download a copy onto my computer as an Excel file for me to mess around with.
This kind of spreadsheet-type database could be used for doing data analysis. But unfortunately the formatting is not made to easily do data analysis unless it is overhauled.
One insider secret is that an influencer could simply transcribe information from this database onto their blogs. Like listing out which wavelengths have been used for certain conditions, or listing dosages even though most dosages were not using non-contact LED panels, and they were primarily done with Lasers.
Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Red Light Therapy Research
Artificial intelligence has become a trending area to get quick answers. In my experience the answers seem superficially correct, logical, and rational. However, it often lacks direct evidence and the details are not quite right. So basically the same quality of information you get from an influencer, but with less financial bias.
Or worse, AI can simply regurgitate false content from biased blogs or online forums. Unfortunately, we cannot assume the AI is exclusively scanning credentialed content. It has been shown to not have discretion in the data it scans, thus it can become biased by the years of false information being spammed by brands and influencers.
Using Perplexity, ChatGPT, Gronk, Gemini or other AI - can help you reach some quick, rough, ballpark answers about Red Light Therapy. However, do not take the answers too literally and do not simply copy-and-paste the answers as a fact. Otherwise you end up spreading more confusion and creating new myths. Which this industry definitely doesn't need more of.
I personally found that I spend more time fact-checking the AI answers, when my time would be better spent doing my own research with the techniques I mentioned above. Which is the exact same reason not to bother with influencer or branded content either since you would need to spend more time fact-checking their biased interpretations of the science when you would be better off doing your own research.
Certainly you could ask ChatGPT some basic questions about Red Light Therapy wavelengths, dosing protocols, usage tips, safety, and potential applications for health and wellness. And that can get you started in the correct general direction.
The best thing to do with AI answers is to demand the AI to provide relevant peer-reviewed article references for every point and statement they make. Similar to how consumers should be demanding influencers to provide specifics and relevant references for every statement they make. Unfortunately not all AI can do that, or they require the paid subscription for that level of detail.
Then visit the actual peer-reviewed articles and find the information you need from there.
In other words - at this stage of AI - just use it as a glorified search engine tool to help find direct references and articles. Or ask it for terminology or prompts to help you do better searches on your own.
Visit Bonus Sections 1 & 2 for more details about AI searches at the bottom of this blog.
Down The Rabbit Hole
Once I find relevant Peer-Reviewed Articles, then I look for statements that are relevant to the topic I am researching. The article may provide additional references for those statements. So I then open all of those relevant topics.
So I would look at all the References, all the Similar Articles, and all the Cited By articles.
The Cited By articles are very helpful. This helps me find more recent articles that may be discussing the same topic. Or it can help you appreciate the relevance if the article you are reading has been cited often, then it may be considered an important article.
Searches by Author
Sometimes I find myself finding an author (researcher) that has a theme of discussing a topic that I am interested in. Then I would include their name in my searches.
Or you can click their name and that will list all of the papers that they are connected with as an author, co-author, or editor.
So if you enjoy articles by Dr. Hamblin, then click his name from one of his articles, and it will automatically do a search by his name.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?sort=date&term=Hamblin+MR&cauthor_id=39838713
Here we have 834 results from just clicking Dr. Hamblin's name. Many of which are free to read. That can keep you busy becoming an expert in Red Light Therapy very quickly.
How to Read an Article:
Reading a journal article can be daunting at first.
A good tip is to start with just reading the Background and/or Introduction sections of the articles. These are usually written in Plain English with minimal technical jargon. And usually you can get a masterclass overview in the basics of PBM in just the Background sections of most studies.
Once you read the Background section of a handful of articles, you will have a much stronger foundation of the basics of Photobiomodulation.
Then skip over to the Discussion and Conclusions section which also summarizes the results of the study and explains how their results may fit in the context of the existing knowledge. Often a mix of technical terminology and plain English.
All the technical information is usually in the middle with the Methods and Results sections.
The Results section is key to find the actual effects of the therapy. It is often interesting to see how exactly the results are being quantified and what biomarkers are being used. However, the Results are often summarized in simpler terms in the Discussion section.
Finding Dosing Information from An Article:
One important thing to find from studies is the dosing protocol that was used. You may want to design your own Red Light Therapy protocol around the parameters used in a successful study.
Dosing parameters to look for in studies include:
- Wavelength (nm)
- Intensity (mW/cm^2)
- Exposure Time (sec or min)
- Fluence "dose" (J/cm^2)
- Power and Energy (mW or W, J)
- Skin Contact or Distance treatment method
- Device Size, Number of LEDs/Lasers, Coverage Area (cm^2)
- Type of Device (LED, Laser)
- Number of areas treated and the locations treated
- How Often (x number of times per week, spacing between doses)
- Continuous Wave or Pulse Parameters (frequency (Hz), peak intensity, average intensity, duty cycle)
Some articles are nice and present nearly all of these parameters in a clear table. Other articles you have to go digging in the Methods, Experimental Design, and other Sections to piece together all of these dosing parameters.
Sometimes you need to solve for unknown variables that aren't clearly listed. If a study tells you the Power (mW) and Dimensions of the spot size (cm^2), then you can divide to get the Intensity (mW/cm^2). This is common for laser studies.
If a study provides only the Fluence (J/cm^2) and exposure time (Sec or Min), then it is simple math to find the Intensity (mW/cm^2). Which is also quite common. So you need at least two of these variables, then you can solve for the unknown one; Intensity, Fluence, Time.
We would love to see more articles clearly explain why they chose certain dosing parameters. The reason behind the selections of wavelength (nm), intensity (mW/cm^2), fluence (J/cm^2), how often, device sizes and coverage areas, etc. These are topics we have dug into with our other blogs on the Learning Center.
Unfortunately, we are lucky if a study reports all the dosing parameters. This makes for bad science as it cannot be reproduced by another research group. And it doesn't help the public understand all the variables.
An influencer blog may reference a study to make a health claim, but then you check the study yourself and find the device used in the study (a skin-contact laser) was very different than the product they are trying to sell (a non-contact LED panel). Often the influencer and brands only focus on the "benefits" of a Wavelength (nm), but naturally it is implied the proper dosing is required to achieve a therapeutic effect.
While theoretically both Laser and LED could produce the same benefits, the dosing considerations and adjustments would be very different. This is why influencers started claiming that dosing is "confusing" because they know they are selling pseudoscience products that don't actually match what was used in the studies.
For example an influencer could cherry pick laser parameters from studies that seems to be high intensity and high dose to support their narrative, but in reality the spot size is extremely small so the actual Total Watts and Joules (not densities, not divided by an area) is very low. So they end up promoting the high intensity of a laser to justify their sales narrative even if it risks the consumer's safety and effectiveness. This is why being able to do your own research and fact-checking influencers is key.
Our Favorite Articles:
Some of my favorite Red Light Therapy peer reviewed articles to get you started! Completely free to read the whole article.
1. Infrared and Skin: Friend or Foe by Daniel Barolet, François Christiaens, and Michael R Hamblin, 2015
This is an absolute must-read for anyone interested in all types of light therapies. It has a great overview of light, sunlight spectrum, photoprotective effects of NIR, debunking myths about the dangers of NIR, and explains the limits of intensity and heat damage from NIR.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4745411/
2. Photobiological Basics and Clinical Indications of Phototherapy for Skin Rejuvenation by Robert Glen Calderhead and Yohei Tanaka, 2016
A free textbook chapter that is a masterclass in the basics of red light therapy, the history, mechanisms, and wavelengths. They explain several light therapy technologies like filtered lamps, lasers, and LEDs. These researchers have good experience with LED panels, which is rare since most of the research is still centered around laser. It ends on the mechanisms for skin rejuvenation from blood circulation, wound healing, and cellular proliferation that supports anti-aging.
https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/54924
3. Is light-emitting diode phototherapy (LED-LLLT) really effective? by Won-Serk Kim and R Glen Calderhead - 2011
A short and easy to read review of photobiomodulation, again with a good focus on LED light therapy that helps give us better context for how to understand the consumer-grade LED panels on the market.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3799034/
4. Low-Level Light Therapy: Photobiomodulation by Michael R. Hamblin, Cleber Ferraresi, Ying-Ying Huang M.D., Lucas Freitas de Freitas, James D. Carroll - 2018
5. Brain Photobiomodulation Therapy: A Narrative Review by Farzad Salehpour, et al., 2019
Searching for "Narrative Review" articles can also be a good introduction to many aspects of Photobiomodulation. These types of articles focus on summarizing the current science of a topic in a more narrative-driven way. Being generally easier to read than other types of articles.
This narrative review lays the groundwork for Photobiomodulation applications for the brain treatments and related disorders.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6041198/
6. The Beneficial Role of Photobiomodulation in Neurodegenerative Diseases, Ayodeji Abijo et al. 2023
There are many excellent articles about using Photobiomodulation for areas of brain health. This article is also a great summary of the history and mechanisms of Photobiomodulation in an easy to read format. It covers basic physics like wavelengths, photons, and light interactions with the skin. Then it covers the prospects of using PBM for Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Traumatic Brain Injury, Stroke, Epilepsy, and depression. It even discusses Remote Photobiomodulation, that treating other parts of the body can improve brain health through systemic mechanisms.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10377111/
7. Photobiomodulation Therapy by Praveen Arany, 2025
An excellent modern 2025 overview of all things Photobiomodulation. I appreciate taking time to explain the scope and boundaries of Photobiomodulation and how it differs from other light therapies like Photothermal Therapy and Photodynamic Therapy. It covers the main therapeutic applications of PBM including Oral/Dental, Pain and Inflammation, Immune response modulation, tissue healing, and regeneration. Then goes on to explain mechanisms and dosing theories for Photobiomodulation. It solidifies the explanation of a new dosing methodology focusing on Photonic Fluence and Einstein Dose that may play a big role in future studies.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772414X25000027/
8. Mechanisms and applications of the anti-inflammatory effects of photobiomodulation. by Michael Hamblin, 2017
This is an amazing article reviewing the mechanisms for red light therapy, which really gives the scientific explanation for how it works on the cells.
It also gets into a good summary for how red light therapy works on inflammation, wound healing, arthritis, muscles, pain, lungs, TBI, psoriasis, and more.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5523874/
9. Review of light parameters and photobiomodulation efficacy: dive into complexity. By Randa Zein, Wayne Selting, and Michael R. Hamblin, 2018
As the name implies, this is an essential review article that discusses the important concepts around proper dosing (J/cm^2), intensity (mW/cm^2), wavelengths (nm), and biphasic dose response. This review is mostly centered around laser parameters, but the fundamentals are very important to understand.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8355782/
10. Photobiomodulation improves depression symptoms: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials, by Qipei Ji et al. 2024
A Randomized Control Trial (RCT) is often considered the gold standard for clinical trials in all types of medicine and therapy. However, many PBM RCTs are quite small and have a wide range of results.
A Systematic review and/or Meta-Analysis will collect all of the RCTs on a topic, discard the ones that don't meet the criteria or are poor quality, and review the results. Thereby pooling the number of people and identifying trends or deficiencies in research on a topic. Searching for these types of review articles can give a strong scientific backing for the efficacy of Photobiomodulation on a specific topic.
This review discusses dosing and devices typically used for using red light therapy to treat depression. The results are generally positive and promising, but the authors call for larger studies in the future.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10866010/
11. Photobiomodulation in ocular therapy: current status and future perspectives by Hasan Chichan et al. 2025
An easy to read review article about the prospect of using Photobiomodulation for eye (ocular) health. It covers the history and mechanisms, then gets into areas like Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD), Diabetic Macular Edema, recovering from retinal injury like blue light damage, and Myopia.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11754031/
12. Photobiomodulation therapy: Ushering in a new era in personalized supportive cancer care by Ridham Varsani et al. 2024
Utilizing Photobiomodulation for managing the side effects of cancer and cancer treatments is a promising area for mainstream adoption. This is a short overview of the science and mechanisms leading into the prospective areas of cancer care such as oral mucositis and other mouth complications.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11633914/
13. Photobiomodulation for diabetes and its complications: a review of general presentation, mechanisms and efficacy, Keyan Wang et al. 2024
Diabetes is another large arena where Photobiomodulation will be implemented. It can directly support diabetes by promoting glucose, insulin, inflammation, and weight management. Even more promising are treatments of the symptoms and side effects of the disease, such as diabetic retinopathy, neuropathy, wound and ulcer healing, All of this covered in this excellent review article.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11610354/
14. Photobiomodulation as Medicine: Low-Level Laser Therapy (LLLT) for Acute Tissue Injury or Sport Performance Recovery, Julia Lawrence et al., 2024
Athletes and competitors are always seeking a competitive edge, and this is where Photobiomodulation has been playing a role for years. This article goes over both how it can be used for treating injury and for athletic performance. Review articles like this one will also summarize the dosing parameter ranges that they analyzed provided the most consistent results.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11503318/
15. Unlocking the Power of Light on the Skin: A Comprehensive Review on Photobiomodulation, by Maria Luisa Hernández-Bule et al., 2024
Using light therapy for skin health and anti-aging is one of the biggest areas of consumer hype. Unlike many other areas of PBM Therapy, it provides relatively quick, visible results. This is an excellent recent review of different types of light therapy used for the skin. It focuses on reviewing Acne treatments, Photorejuvination like fine lines and wrinkles, stimulating collagen production, wound healing, scar reduction, psoriasis, and radiation dermatitis.
https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/25/8/4483
Books on Light Therapy
Consumer-targeted books on Red Light Therapy are typically coming from unqualified people looking to cash in on the hype by promoting affiliate products. Or simply sell cheap books on a trending topic. Often filled with made-up science just to satisfy a sales narrative.
There are high quality Textbooks on Photobiomodulation and LLLT, but they are typically expensive and are not particularly practical for a consumer or relevant to commercial products.
Some legitimate books for purchase that can generally teach you about light and/or electromagnetism on health include:
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Infrared to X-rays, the Curious History of Invisible Light, Bob Berman, 2017
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Light: Medicine Of The Future, Jacob Liberman, 2001
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Free Online Books on Light Therapy
Here are a few books on light therapy that you can find for free online:
This website is owned by American Society for Photobiology and listed with National Library of Medicine.
As a whole, it is a compilation of scientific articles on all facets of photobiology (including Photobiomodulation) organized in sections such that it is basically a free online textbook on the topic.
The section header of Photomedicine primarily covers Photobiomodulation topics and we suggest reading the important articles from Dr. Hamblin and Dr. Tiina Karu that are on this website.
2. Soaking Up the Rays: Light Therapy and Visual Culture in Britain, c. 1890–1940. by Woloshyn TA published 2017.
This book focuses on the first golden age for light therapies and heliotherapy. This era was initiated by Niels Finsen's research and Nobel prize, as well as the successful opening of "open-air" hospitals, Sanatoria, and heliotherapy clinics. There was tremendous hype for using sunlight and electric lamps for all manner of cures. This was often aided by new photographic technologies that documented amazing "before" and "after" pictures that made the unbelievable results of light therapy much more believable. If we look closely we will see many parallels to the current hype we see today around red light therapy.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK476359/
3. Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms of Water-Filtered IR by Hamblin, M.R. published 2022.
This is a book chapter where Dr. Hamblin contributed a section dedicated to explaining the possible non-thermal mechanisms in a therapy called Water-Filtered IRA (wIRA). IRA is Infrared-A, a more scientific term for Near-Infrared light. Similar to Ultraviolet ranges are broken into UV-A, UV-B, and UV-C, the Infrared range is broken into IR-A, IR-B, and IR-C. Which corresponds to what we commonly call Near-Infrared, Mid-Infrared, and Far-Infrared.
wIRA is purposefully a high intensity non-contact radiant heat therapy with broad-spectrum incandescent Near-Infrared light, and there is certainly overlap with PBM mechanisms and benefits. This will be a very important book for people who are using high-intensity LED Heat Lamps and not doing true non-thermal Photobiomodulation.
From there you may want to read the entire book which is also entirely free to read online. It is called Water-filtered Infrared A (wIRA) Irradiation From Research to Clinical Settings by Peter Vaupel
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-92880-3_23
4. Laser Phototherapy - Clinical Practice and Scientific Background by Jan Tuner and Lars Hode. published 2010.
While focused on Low Level Laser Therapy, the authors have an impressive way of explaining many practical principals of Photobiomodulation dosing and applications that are often only implied by other books or papers.
Note, I am assuming the website below has the copyright approval to distribute this book for free online.
https://www.spectravet.com/LaserTherapyBooks/
5. Physical Principals of Quantum Biology, Nathan S. Babcock with Brandy N. Babcock, 2025
A short, 75 page book on Quantum Biology with 1754 references (actually 161 pages total if you include the syllabus and references). Normally we want to avoid this Quantum word as being associated with woo-woo concepts. But this book is a serious investigation into the actual physics supporting the perspective of Quantum Biology, with several chapters tied into Photobiomodulation.
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2503.11747
6. Light and Health, John Ott, 1973
Ott brought back a focus on light therapy after many decades of it being suppressed. John Ott made many incredible observations about how light impacts health and documented it in this book.
Note: I am assuming the website below holds the copyright to distribute this book online for download.
https://www.ratical.org/ratville/AoS/HealthAndLight.pdf
7. Phototherapy, Niels Ryberg Finsen, 1901
Niels Finsen was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1903 for his work on using light therapy for treating various diseases including lupus vulgaris, a tuberculosis of the skin. Finsen is often cited as one of the pioneers of light therapy.
You can read these books by Finsen for free from the Internet Archive. Copyrights last a limited time, and for some books it is 100 years. Old books on light therapy like this are now Copyright-free.
Finsen had some amazing experiments and insights into Light Therapy that are still relevant today.
https://archive.org/details/39002010758374.med.yale.edu
8. Light Therapeutics, John Harvey Kellogg, 1910
Kellogg was a contemporary of Finsen that was also working on light therapies. Kellogg worked on the incandescent light bath, essentially a full-body sauna made from incandescent bulbs. Similar to how now people use 250W heat lamps as a DIY sauna.
Also available on the Internet Archive because it is copyright free.
https://archive.org/details/39002011140895.med.yale.edu/mode/2up
9. Sauna Therapy, Dr. Lawrence Wilson, 2003
Dr. Wilson popularized the modern DIY Incandescent Heat Lamp sauna with this book. This book started a movement of health practices and wellness using simple, affordable heat lamps. The entire book is available for free on Dr. Wilson's website.
https://drlwilson.com/articles/SAUNA.THERAPY.pdf
Many of these books are quite old. However the majority of the insights, expertise, and science is timeless. In contrast, a modern "ultimate shopping guide to red light therapy" book with the sole intention to cash in on a trend becomes obsolete very quickly.
Institutions Around Photobiomodulation
Additional resources may be found on the institution's websites centered around Low Level Laser Therapy and Photobiomodulation.
Using GembaRed for Research
The real "hack" for doing Red Light Therapy research has been utilizing GembaRed blogs.
The GembaRed Learning Center has become an excellent resource for the consumers in this industry. We cover many of the most important areas of research particularly for dosing and safety. We also provide tools like dosing calculators for free.
We ironically call ourselves out in this blog as potentially summarizing the science in a biased way. Instead you could find one of our blogs on a topic of interest, skip over into the References section. There you can read all the references on a particular topic yourself and form your own opinion based on the evidence.
Unfortunately our blog is often being poached by competing brands and their influencers. Despite being a manufacturer, GembaRed is the rare exception of providing practical, insightful, evidence-based analysis of the science. Which is confirmed by many influencers when they utilize our blogs for their own purposes.
Please remember to share our content and provide citations to GembaRed and backlinks whenever possible. Sharing our content is free and helps encourage us to do the deep research that many other brands and their influencers are taking for granted.
Conclusions:
The goal is to decentralize and democratize science like Photobiomodulation. When the consumer is empowered to do their own research, they won't have to rely on monopolistic narratives created by influencers and their affiliated brands. Better yet, the consumer can fact-check the information being spread and call it out when it is incorrect.
Getting started with Photobiomodulation research may be daunting, but using some of these search suggestions can help you quickly find peer-reviewed articles on red light therapy while avoiding shameless content factories and sales tactics.
Whether you want to understand the fundamental science, gain confidence by reading legitimate peer-reviewed articles, or to design your own dosing protocols - this guide on conducting Red Light Therapy research will help you move in the right direction.
Bonus Section 1: ChatGPT Example
It made the news that ChatGPT can pass the Bar Exam to become a Lawyer. So we asked it a simple question.
This is hard to believe from ChatGPT. We have been told by brands and influencers a long list of totally legitimate legal loopholes they are exploiting.
So lets check the references and see what is happening. The ChatGPT is clearly confused.
Many of the references are credentialed, but we see in this section an interesting reference. Look closely at the screenshot above a small grey bubble in the bottom left corner under the text. The ChatGPT is referencing GembaRed blogs.
Et tu, ChatGPT? Is ChatGPT also pretending to be an expert by scanning GembaRed blogs?
ChatGPT's assessment on the legal situation may or may not be correct. But it makes the credibility compromised when AI is using potentially biased sources online.
Bonus Section 2: ChatGPT Red Light Therapy Prompt Recommendations
I consulted Phil from WAKN for some tips on AI prompts.
Credit Here: Shopwakn.com
Phil is a wizard with AI and had some tips for setting up your first prompt. Phil explained to me that the first prompt with many AI tools will lock-in a set of themes or parameters. The AI model generally becomes inflexible after that since they are still abiding by the parameters set in the first prompt.
Starting Prompt Template Suggestion (copy into ChatGPT and fill in the sections with [] brackets). Phil recommends using a GembaRed blog that helps establish the scientific framework.