Most insurance carriers have a financial interest in making sure that health care claims are valid. Carriers are very specific about covered medical expenses. Many plans won’t cover certain “health care” expenses. Is red light therapy covered by insurance?

This is a “sponsored” article, so the information should be independently verified by the reader. But it does raise an interesting question.

I have heard from too many doctors that stated, ‘we know it works but we cannot bill the insurance company for it’. So, they offer the treatments that do not work but are billable to the insurance providers.

David Christenson, Founder and CEO of Neurocare systems

As a layman and advocate, it is difficult to know what will change. In the case of COVID, for example, covered expenses changed for many insurance plans. Also, the IRS recently announced that certain COVID-related expenses are now tax deductible, such as masks and sanitizing wipes.

One has to wonder when a proven healthcare related expense such as red light therapy will be covered by insurance plans.

For your red light therapy dosage to be effective, you must use the proper dose for the outcome you’re seeking. If your dose is too weak or for too short of time, you get little to no benefit. Surprisingly, the same is true of too strong of a dose.

Red light therapy is extremely safe and simple, but since there’s no benefit to “more,” it makes sense to err on the side of caution.

5 Components to a Proper Red Light Dose

• Strength: Power density of red light device
• Size: How much body area it can cover  
• Duration: Length of treatment time
• Positioning: Distance of device from the body
• Frequency: How often to treat

Red Light Power Density

Power density is measured by the wattage of the light and the wavelengths of that light. Not all wavelengths are therapeutic, so it’s important to ensure your device’s total wattage is made up of 100% therapeutic wavelengths. With some devices, that percentage can be as low as 20%-60%.

When treating deep tissue conditions, you will want a higher power density, producing a dose of 10-60J.

If you’re treating anti-aging or skin issues, a low dose of 3-15J seems to provide better results. Rather than choosing a smaller or lower-dose device, however, simply position a higher-power device further away to get the dose you need. This means you also can treat a larger area of the body at one time.

For use near eyes, genitals, a raw wound on your skin or any other sensitive area, use only low doses of 2-10J or even lower.

Red Light Device Size

An entire treatment area receives dispersed power. So a 200-watt device that is only a few inches wide may work well for your wrist but not for your shoulder, as you may be able to treat only one small section at one time. A small light focused on different areas of the body in separate treatments might be somewhat helpful if you use longer treatment time, but if it’s also a lower-power light, it won’t penetrate as deeply. You should be able to treat at least 5-10” at one time.

A larger, high-powered device will serve all your needs. As stated earlier, it works well for deep tissue. By simply increasing the distance from the body, can also provide an effective dose for superficial skin conditions. Light spreads as you move it backward, so you also get the benefit of covering more of the body at one time. Smaller high-powered devices can, similarly, treat multiple dosing needs.

This component of red light therapy dosage is tied closely to how convenient treatment is for you and whether or not you will continue to use it. Why settle for dozens of short treatments for each area when you can treat the front or back of your entire body in one 20-minute treatment? 

Red Light Treatment Time & Distance

Power density is also impacted by distance from the affected area and duration of treatment time. Treatment time varies with the condition you’re treating (see below). But it is advised that you limit your total treatment dose for all areas of the body to no more than roughly 120J. That means no more than 15-20 minutes of treatment time in one session.

The highest red light therapy dosage occurs within a few inches, and by three feet away there’s little to no effect. Most experts recommend treating an area at least 6 inches away. But light will penetrate deeper through soft tissue than through your skull, so the area (and size of the area) you’re treating will require different times and distances.

Since not all devices are equal, it’s almost impossible to give specific distance recommendations, but energy specialist Ari Whitten recommends the following guidelines when using high-power density red lights:

Red Light Therapy Dosage For Skin

• 1-4 minutes from 12” away 
• 1.5-5 minutes from 18” away 
• 2-8 minutes from 24” away

Red Light Therapy Dosage For Deep Tissues

Whitten states that the deeper the tissue you’re trying to treat (muscles, bones, glands, organs, tendons, ligaments, etc.), the higher the overall dose you want to administer and the closer to your body you want the light to be:

• 2-7 minutes from 6” away, per area
• 5-10 minutes from 12” away, per area 

[Whitten advises that the brain may require the upper limits listed here for light to penetrate through the skull.]

Red Light Treatment Frequency

Start slowly, perhaps two times a week, to see how your body responds. You can build up to as often two times per day if you’re seeing results, but optimal frequency is probably every other day.

Can You Overdose on Red Light Therapy?

The more fragile your overall condition is, the slower you should go with red light therapy to avoid fatigue. A very ill person should start below the lower limits listed above to see how you tolerate the treatment. Then slowly increase the dose over subsequent days or weeks to find the appropriate dose for you within the range outlined above. (Whitten)

Optimal doses for the skin can be reached within seconds or a few minutes with many devices, so it’s extremely easy to “over” treat. In that case, the effect is less benefit. More does not lead to better results.

Red light therapy is safe. So for even a massive red light dose, the worst you would experience is fatigue or a slight headache. An overdose should seem no worse than the results of over-exercising. 

Choosing a Device

Most devices on the market are significantly underpowered. Their wattage is too low to reach therapeutic levels for large areas of the body, especially for deep tissue conditions. This means longer treatments with less benefit, and more likelihood of abandoning your device.

Choose a high-powered device for best results. We have reviewed several brands on our brand reviews page.

You may have heard some buzz about about the benefits of red light therapy (RLT). Also referred to as “low level laser therapy” or “photobiomodulation”, this interesting therapeutic method has captured a lot of attention for its efficacy, convenience, safety, and versatility.

Is red light therapy all that it is chalked up to be? Does it really work? Which conditions does LLLT treat well?

Let’s take a look at the potential benefits of using red light therapy benefits.

Red light therapy could help with many health conditions

Photobiomodulation, the science on which red light therapy is based, has shown promise in clinical and real-world applications for treating a range of conditions. The science is based on the ability of certain types of light to activate cellular processes, which in turn can help to trigger or speed up healing, recovery, or wellness outcomes.

Scientists, doctors, and consumers have shared their experiences with using red light therapy in many ways, including:

• Skin. RLT has been used to help wounds heal faster and to improve the look and feel of skin. Many clinicians are using it to reduce wrinkles, treat rosacea, eczema, and acne, and to counter the effects of aging to achieve a younger-looking face.
• Body contouring. Many fitness experts have used RLT as part of a fitness program to help with weight loss, muscle development, and fat and cellulite reduction.
• Immune response. There has been promising research into using RLT to trigger an improved immune response, which can help with conditions like psoriasis,
• Disease mitigation. Medical experts are studying how RLT can help patients recover from cancer, mitigate the effects of cancer treatment, slow or reverse neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, and so on.
• Mental health and cognition. We all know that light, generally speaking, is good for us. Red light may be beneficial for mood, sleep, focus, and mental clarity.

We are seeing new experiments with red light and photobiomodulation all the time.

Red light therapy is non-invasive, non-pharmaceutical, and even non-contact

One of the most exciting potential benefits of red light therapy is that it doesn’t involve putting any substances into your body. Pharmaceuticals and medicines are advanced, well-researched, and often effective forms of treatment. But as we all know from every TV commercial, pharmaceuticals can have side effects.

Furthermore, surgeries and even physical therapy have their risks. There is always the risk that something can go wrong, reversing or impeding the progress of the treatment.

Even CBD oil, one of the more recent health crazes, involves ingesting or inhaling a chemical compound into your body. Topical CBD treatments also involve exposing a chemical to your body.

Light is energy, not matter. Therefore, most experts agree that red light therapy is a flexible, low-risk form of treatment that can work both as a complement or a substitute to other approaches. This is incredibly advantageous to the consumer.

Red light therapy can be very cost-effective

Traditional medicine can be very expensive. Healthcare is a very expensive industry because of many factors, including the cost of regulation, the money required to build and manage a hospital or medical facility, the adminstration and overhead involved in running the business of healthcare, and the training and education required of those who deliver service.

Now it is possible to “do it yourself” (DIY). You can administer your own at-home treatments with innovative and cost-effective consumer-grade devices and equipment. For consumers like you and me, these new options can save a lot of money compared to receiving alternative or traditional treatments in clinical environments.

It is very, very safe

I have heard horror stories about all kinds of treatments, ranging from adverse reactions to chemical peels and depression medications. While these therapies surely help a great many people, for a small number of people they can have negative results. It is hard to predict whether any form of treatment will be safe for you as an individual.

And yet with red light therapy, it is very difficult to find examples of negative side effects resulting from its use.

It seems that exposure to red light, at its absolute worst, could simply be time lost. This has led some to conclude that red light therapy has no downsides whatsoever. In truth, there are always potential downsides. But for the time being, it seems safe to assume that RLT won’t do much harm to your body.

What is the best red light therapy wavelength? If you have begun your research into low-level light therapy (LLLT) then you have probably come across terms such as “wavelength” and “irradiance”. In this post, we’ll try to explain what they mean and what you need to know to continue your journey.

Wavelength is the Color (Kind of)

If you think back to one of your science classes, you may remember learning about the electromagnetic spectrum. Generally, electromagnetism is the science of how charged particles move in waves through space. This science covers all kinds of waves, including x-rays, gamma rays, and radio waves. But specifically, we focus on small portion called the “visible light spectrum”.

You Can See Some Wavelengths

Obviously the visible light spectrum is the small portion of electromagnetic waves that humans can see with our eyes. For example, these are the colors of the rainbow and all of the shades in between.

Just outside each end of the visible light portion of the spectrum lies ultraviolet light and infrared light.

Wavelength is a measure of distance between the peaks of the waves. We measure visible light in nanometers (nm). So a nanometer is one-billionth of a meter.

The human eye can detect wavelengths as small as 400nm and as large as 700nm.

Why is Wavelength Important for Treatment?

We all know that x-rays can penetrate many kinds of human tissue. That’s how they are used to “see” things on film. The harder, denser tissue absorbs or reflects some of those waves, while the softer tissue transfers those waves.

Most light works in a similar way. Body tissue reflects some colors, such as the shorter wavelengths. Certain parts of the body transfer the energy of some colors. Finally some “colors” are absorbed.

It turns out that some “colors” that are absorbed are exactly the ones that cause mitochondria in cells to produce the energy-storing chemicals that stimulate healing activities.

We’ve found clinical trials published online that have involved testing red light therapies with wavelengths of as low as 570nm and as high as 850nm. The specific wavelength selected for treatment depends primarily on the level of tissue penetration desired, with higher wavelengths penetrating deeper into human tissue. Wavelengths below 540nm, which is generally greenish light, will typically not penetrate more than 3 millimeters into skin. This depth is roughly equivalent to where the base of a hair follicle would be. Near-infrared, which has wavelengths of 750nm or greater, travels through skin. Higher wavelengths can reach bone and tissue deep inside the body.

Irradiance: the Intensity of the Energy Delivered to An Area

The light’s energy intensity is another important factor in understanding photobiomodulation (PBM). This measurement is written as Milliwatts per square centimeter (mw/cm²).

Total Exposure Matters Most

However, imagine this example. You’ve step outside in the desert sun in the middle of summer. Obviously the sun there is hot. But being outside for a few seconds won’t have a large effect on your body. Prolonged exposure to that kind of energy makes all the difference. A Joule is the amount of work required to produce one Watt of power for one second. You can measure the total energy delivered to an area in Joules. Your treatment will be more effective with more exposure to a constant light energy source.

Red Light Therapy Wavelength and Irradiance Determine the Best Dosage

Commercially-available devices are limited in how powerful they are. Devices that are designed for clinical environments with high concentrations, such as lasers, can be 80 times as powerful as an at-home, LED style red light therapy device.

You should carefully evaluate the health outcomes you seek and match your purchase decisions to the products that are capable of achieving those outcomes. Most products allow you to select the desired red light therapy wavelength.

Smaller, handheld products deliver less energy to an area of the body. Larger units, like beds or panels, deliver more energy.

If you’re treating small areas of skin or a single bone or joint, a smaller unit may work just fine. However, a handheld device might not work that well if you’re trying to cover a large portion of your body.

In our opinion, you should gather many opinions from multiple sources to ensure success. Peers and medical experts are great sources of advice. Overall, the cost of these innovative products is coming down. Most importantly, choose the product that best fits the wellness outcome that you’re seeking.

Red light therapy is a hot new topic. So many beginners ask about the science. “What does red light therapy do?” is the common first question. You’ve come to the right place if you are curious, but don’t want to pore through technical details.

In this article, we take a deeper look at photobiomodulation (PBM). PBM is the science of how light affects living tissue.

What is Light?

Electromagnetism is the physics involving radiation. In other words, the science of how charged fundamental particles move through space. Charged electrons travel in harmonious waves of energy called “photons”. The patterns travelled by these photons can vary. (Think of various types of waves you’ve encountered in your life, whether at the ocean or listening to an echo in a large empty space.)

Portions of the electromagnetic spectrum, in particular the upper end of the visible light light spectrum and just above (red and near-infrared light), have been studied by researchers and physicians for the effect that they have on the cells of living creatures. In particular, scientists have discovered that specific waves of light affect mitochondria, which are components of a living cell.

Photobiomodulation: How Light Affects Living Cells

Different kinds of light can affect different kinds of cells in different ways. Scientists and the medical research community have studied these effects for many years now. Scientists are studying new treatments and applications all the time. We are learning so much about how light affects cells. But the science isn’t that simple. You can’t just shine a flashlight at your body and expect it to change. And while we know generally that it is healthier for most people to spend a reasonable time outside in the sunlight rather than indoors all day and all night, it’s a bit more complicated than that. Light comes in many different forms.

The Job of a Cell

Cells can have many “jobs” in the body. These jobs include metabolic regulation, immune signaling, programmed cell death, and many other functions. Since certain types of cells “do certain things”, such as fight infection, reproduce, and repair tissue, all living cells require energy to perform these tasks. It takes the right kind of photon to stimulate the production of ATP within the mitochondria.

Frequencies & Wavelengths are How Light Is Measured

As your exploration of the potential benefits of red light therapy continues, you will encounter terms like “nanometers” and “wavelengths” and “frequency”.

The terms “frequency” and “wavelength” are measurements of these different types of waves. The two terms are related.

Frequency refers to the time required for waves to oscillate, or “cycle”. For example, a 60 hertz wave completes 60 oscillations per second. Wavelength refers to the distance between the two of the same points along a wave’s cycle. Since any given wave always travels at a constant rate, the distance between the nearest two peaks and the nearest two troughs will always be identical.

Most devices measure the light administered as a wavelength, and since a wavelength is a distance, it will usually be measured in nanometers, abbreviated as “nm”. One nanometer is equivalent to 0.0000001 centimeters. Pretty short!

Why are Wavelengths Important in Light Therapy?

Wavelength is one of the primary determinants of how deep into living tissue the light will penetrate. This is important because, for example, treating an area deep in the brain requires a different wavelength of light than a wrinkle on the surface of the skin.

Why is Red Light Good, but Other Colors are Not?

Here is where we get to put all of the pieces of the science together. Shorter wavelengths of light (colors like green, blue, and ultraviolet) do not penetrate tissue. But red and near infrared do penetrate human tissue. As a result, red is “the” color for light therapy. For this reason, shorter wavelengths of light get reflected by tissue, while very long wavelengths of light transfer the light (kind of like “passing-through”). Human tissue absorbs the red portion of the spectrum.

The benefits of light on human health has been studied for decades. And we all know that plants need visible light from the sun to grow and life to thrive. But some of the interest in the practical application of red and near-infrared light came from NASA, who used the light to grow plants on the Space Shuttle and also found that it helped to heal wounds.

Is the Science Settled? Does Light Really Make a Difference for Health and Medical Issues?

We feel very strongly that there’s really no such thing as “settled science”. Here at Red Light Therapy 101, we will always view findings with an open mind and a critical eye. We think that there are always more questions to ask. There is always room for more research. And we believe that new things will always be discovered if we continue to ask objective, rational questions and seek truth.

So the most appropriate answer is that every consumer should find all of the facts that they can, share those facts with other truth-seekers, and only take prudent measures with your own health, informed by the facts that you have gathered. Our advice is to understand the potential benefits and risks of all possible treatments. Consult a range of experts and gather their recommendations. And then make an informed decision about which treatments to pursue, understanding that there’s no such thing as a “sure thing” and “zero risk”.

That’s why we created the Red Light Therapy 101 Facebook group. All interested consumers are invited to join the group, learn from each other, share their own experiences. If you haven’t joined the group yet, please join soon and be there for the discussions.