Red Light Therapy For Acne

How Red Light Therapy Helps With Acne

Did you know that acne affects an estimated 85% of people at some point in their lives?

Chances are if you’re reading this you’re a part of that 85% to some degree or another.

In this article we’ll cover how red light therapy is an all natural non-invasive solution for healing acne - it’s broken down into five key points so that you can follow along easily.

Many of us deal with acne quite frequently. Severe and even minor cases of acne can have a significant impact on our confidence levels as well as our mental health.

And while a lot of conventional treatments and skincare products can get rid of acne quite effectively, they’re often associated with side effects such as skin irritation and dryness - especially over a longer treatment period.

So let’s get into how red light therapy helps with minor or even severe cases of acne.

How Does Acne Form?

Firstly, it’s important to understand what acne actually is and how it starts.

Acne usually occurs when your hair follicles become plugged up with oil, bacteria, and dead skin cells - which results in whiteheads, blackheads, and pimples.

Quite simply - a lot of acne skin care products work to kill the bacteria that is causing the inflammation in the skin, while others remove excess oil or speed up the growth of new skin cells and the removal of dead skin cells.

Some utilize a combination of all these to repair and rejuvenate your skin.

One of the core ingredients in a lot of skin care products is salicylic acid, which ultimately helps prevent your pores from becoming plugged in the first place.

However possible side effects to salicylic acid commonly include stinging and skin irritation.

Now that you understand how acne begins, and how most of the commonly known solutions work to prevent or heal acne - let’s chat about the importance of light and how it affects our bodies.

An All-Natural Skin Treatment for Acne

Light is the main source of energy for all living organisms, humans are no different.

As humans, we’ve evolved with the sun. Light quite literally powers our cells and provides us with the energy we need to live.

That being said, in the modern digital age the average person in North America spends over 90% of their time indoors, and that was a study done pre-covid.

Different wavelengths of light have different effects on our bodies, in fact you may have heard about the negative side effects of harmful blue light wavelengths over a long duration.

Just as there are negative side effects of blue light, there are extremely positive benefits of other wavelengths on both the visible and non-visible spectrums that can have a tremendous impact on many different ailments and conditions - including your skin.

Red and Near-Infrared wavelengths have been proven by 1000’s of clinical studies to be a non-invasive solution for skin conditions such as acne and inflammation.

What is Red Light Therapy?

Red Light Therapy (a combination of both red and near-infrared wavelengths) can deliver concentrated wavelengths of natural light into your skin.

The light is absorbed by the mitochondria in your cells, which are otherwise known as the “powerhouse” of your cells - they produce adenosine triphosphate or ATP which is a molecule with a sole function of storing energy in our cells.

The more efficiently the cells in our body can make and use energy, the better the body functions.

Okay, so you’re probably wondering what this does for your skin health and for your acne - so let’s dive into it.

The release of this ATP cellular energy in the body makes the most out of the nutrients, oxygen, detoxification, growth, and repair in your cells.

Therefore stimulating blood circulation in the body, increasing the production of collagen which is one of the key factors in the health and radiance of your skin, and also aids in the development of new capillaries.

Increases Elastin and Collagen to Heal and Repair Skin

The increase in collagen helps reduce pore size, smooth out fine lines and wrinkles, and help improve and smooth out the texture of your skin.

As for acne itself, it promotes the healing of your skin cells to reduce the visibility of acne scarring and has anti-inflammatory capabilities.

The really exciting thing about RLT is that it’s completely non-invasive, and has little to no side effects across thousands of scientific studies.

In combination with near-infrared wavelengths, red light therapy works deep below the surface of your skin to help soothe and repair tissue.

How Red Light Therapy Gets Rid of Acne

Simple 15-20 minute sessions once or twice per day integrated into your routine can work wonders for treating acne and has numerous positive benefits that traditional treatments don’t.

If you’re wondering whether or not red light therapy is for you, we’ve put together a personalized light therapy quiz that will provide you with in-depth research and articles on using RLT for skin conditions like acne, and many other amazing benefits that come as a side effect to daily treatment.

I’ve left the link here to take the personalized light therapy quiz. I hope you found this information valuable in your progression to heal your acne and overall skin complexion.

Thanks for reading and have an amazing day!