How Red Light Therapy Can Support Detoxification
The body’s aptitude to detoxify is crucial to overall health and is contingent on the functioning of several organs and tissues. It can be challenging to find techniques that support and enhance detoxification.
Health can suffer degradation from a variety of sources, including pollution, free radicals, UV damage, chemical exposures and cosmetics. Making sure the detoxification pathways are supported and working as they should, may help lessen the harm these toxins can cause.
What is Red Light Therapy?
Red light therapy is a type of phototherapy that uses low-level red and NIR light to treat various health conditions and promote healing. Unlike other forms of light therapy, red light therapy does not use ultraviolet (UV) rays. Instead, it uses specific wavelengths of red light to penetrate the skin and alongside with spurring the release of nitric oxide in the mitochondria, optimizing cellular ATP and heightening the production of collagen and elastin.
Red light therapy typically uses a wavelength of 660 nm, which falls into the infrared spectrum. It is generally believed that infrared energy helps to heal the body by relaxing muscles, boosting circulation and aiding in skin rejuvenation. In addition, red light therapy has been shown to boost the immune system, increase energy levels, and improve sleep.
How Effective is Red Light Therapy?
Adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a chemical element, is required by all living things in order to provide the cellular energy necessary for life. Our bodies need natural sunlight to help produce this component. The majority of the time, this function is carried out by the red-infrared spectrum of natural sunshine and does this by stimulating our cells’ mitochondria. By using red light therapy, you are essentially enabling your body to produce more ATP and operate at a higher level of efficiency. The fact that it operates at the cellular level offers a vast array of potential advantages.
How Can Red Light Therapy Support Detoxification
There are many parts of the body that are involved in the overall stress defense system. This is known as the NeuroEndoMetabolic (NEM) Stress Response. It plays a crucial role in eliminating toxins from your body and is mostly controlled by the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis. It works in tandem with your detoxification pathways and coordinates various organs and systems to maintain the internal balance required for good health.
To remove toxins from the body, the detoxification system and its organ systems, such as the skin, enter the picture. Red light therapy has the potential to optimally support and strengthen the autonomic function of detoxification.
However, the detoxification system can occasionally become sluggish. A range of symptoms that could eventually become incapacitating may manifest when this occurs.
Among the various symptoms of a detox malfunction are the following:
- Anxiety
- Brain fog
- Inflammation
- Fatigue
- Weight gain
- Insomnia
- Skin issues such as acne and psoriasis to name a few
Support Detoxification Naturally with Red and NIR Light Therapy
Red light therapy, particularly operates on the top layers of the skin and has the power to boost and encourage detoxification through the skin, blood, and lymphatic system. The targeted areas may experience increased blood flow which can enable some toxins to pass through the skin.
By combining the synthesized light energy with nutrients from a well-balanced diet, exercise and other wellness practices such as adequate sleep, and lymphatic drainage, the body’s detoxification pathways are positively supported.
It is no secret that sleep is vital when it comes to the body naturally detoxifying. The brain can legitimately be cleansed after a good night of rest. Researchers originally demonstrated in mice that the space between brain cells might widen during sleep, enabling the brain to clear toxins that accumulate during awake hours. These findings point to a novel function for sleep in health. Read more about how to optimize sleep with red light therapy, as covered in this article.
Red light treatment has been demonstrated in studies to lengthen and improve the quality of sleep through helping increase melatonin production.
It’s interesting to note that red/NIR light therapy has been found to boost “melatonin production “extra-pineal,” or outside the pineal gland. Melatonin plays crucial roles in protecting the mitochondria from harm and supporting glutathione levels, which is one of our body’s most potent and significant antioxidants and detoxifying substances. Contrary to what most people believe, melatonin is much more than just a hormone that induces sleep. Red/NIR light effects may be significantly influenced by this elevated melatonin, according to some researchers.”(The Ultimate Guide To Red Light Therapy, Ari Whitten, 2018).
A Few Tips on How to Use Red Light Therapy When Detoxifying:
- Start with a short session. If you’re new to red light therapy, start with a shorter session of about 5-10 minutes. This will give your body time to adjust to the therapy.
- Increase the duration of your sessions gradually. Once your body has adjusted to red light therapy, you can start increasing the duration of your sessions. Visit our Dosing Guidelines in this article to find out more A Guide to Red Light Therapy –lighttherapycare
- Use it regularly. For best results, aim to use red light therapy 3-5 times per week. This will help your body consistently eliminate toxins and improve overall health.
- Combine with other detox methods. For an even more thorough detox, combine red light therapy with other detox methods such as saunas or dry brushing.
