Red light therapy ( RLT ) is becoming increasingly popular. I smelled a scam but surprisingly there are plenty of scientific studies which show health benefits for skin conditions, arthritis, and aiding muscle recovery from injury.That said there are also plenty of sharks trying to sell RLT devices for home use, trying to make a quick buck.I dont want it for myself but for my dog who is old and arthritic. I know her time is coming but I want to ease it as much as possible. And yes, there are RLT products out there for dogs, and yes the prices being asked are fucking insane. I smell scammers taking advantage of desperate and ignorant people. Making ridiculous claims and selling just about any red light emitting device as RLT, with very little way for consumers to verify the quality and effectiveness.Which leaves me, with only a High School education, asking some questions.As I understand it direct sunlight is all colors. So by just by being in direct sunlight the body should be absorbing a dose of red and near infrared light anyway. So whats so special about sitting under a red bulbs or LED light? Unless you live in a frequently cloudy climate.From what I have read the main wavelengths used in RLT are 630-670nm, 810-850nm and 1070nm. Is there any simple and cheap way I can produce these wave lengths at home for my dog without being suckered into RLT devices which I really cant afford anyway. Is an ordinary $5 red light bulb just as good as some fancy array of red LEDs which cost hundreds, even thousands of dollars?Discussion of RLT welcomed.Knowledge, experience and advice all appreciated.Also, please dont ask me to go ask on reddit. They are the blind leading the blind. I hope to get some sensible insights here.
>>>/x/
>>17000850No its not /x/ tier. There are clinical studies showing that used properly RTL has proven medical benefits.https://med.stanford.edu/news/insights/2025/02/red-light-therapy-skin-hair-medical-clinics.htmlBut if you choose to be stupid and ignorant then its you who should go to /x/
>>17000850Why are some people her violently opposed to discuss this? In a very jewish way. I dont think its great but these violent "dont talk about it goyim" responses will make me look into it. /sci/ really is a pretty jewish board, see their unreasonable defense of relativity.
>>17000850But it combats balding, little fapper.
>>17000841the red light stimulates the mitochondria in cells, making them produce energy more efficientlythe mitochondria are what create the little fuel, ATP that your cell uses to do all kinds of thingslots of ATP is needed to repair muscles for instancethe benefit of red light therapy devices is the degree of stimulation, the mitochondria evolved in animals that are outside already, so they aren't going to be supercharged by just being in the sun, but holding a source of red light that close to them can do it in some cases, it can also penetrate deeper into the skin (if you wear sunscreen, your body reflects 99% of the rays)
>>17000939Does it stimulate the mitochondria more due to red light having a higher energy wavelength than other colours?
>>17000841The sun is the best red-light you can get.The solar spectrum is like 50% near infrared up to around 2500nm.Living in a cloudy environment is not the issue, as infrared passes through clouds easily. If anything, cloudy environments allow fair skinned people to get sunlight without exposure to too much UV.Red light therapy is not a scam, but it is mainly a thing because people are chronically sunlight deprived. Most people spend very little time exposed to sunlight. Buildings, cars and transportation receive basically 0 solar infrared, as windows/walls block it. Also dermatologists, opthomologists, and doctors in general often say avoid the sun at all costsThere are about as many biological processes in your body that utilize infrared as there are incident infrared photons from the sun per second.As for the bulbs, yes you can easily just go buy LEDs in those ranges and comtrol them with some driver. Better yet, get an incandescent lamp. Incandescent lights put out mostly infrared. Incandescent bulbs are actualy the best lights to recreate sunlight indoors for cheap.
>>17001060You have light backwards, anon. Longer wavelengths have less energy.The mechanism is something like:Cytochrome c oxidase (COX) is the fourth and final complex in the electron transport chain of the mitochondria.COX can bind with nitric oxide (NO) and then COX cant donate its electrons to Oxygen.COX has a copper and heme group, and these metal complexes are excellent NIR absorbers.The complex absorbs the low energy NIR photon, and this breaks the bond between COX and NO, allowing ATP production to continue.
>>17001349OP here. Thanks.Incandescent lamps are just your regular old fashioned household light bulbs right? Like what everyone used before LED light bulbs became popular.So basically just buy one of those novelty red light bulbs that go for about $5? Like 60 or 100 watts. Like people might have used in a dark room lab for developing film or as a night light.Its for my dog and I really dont hold out much hope it will do much, but if its cheap and easy enough to do then there is nothing to be lost by trying. A simple desk lamp is only $20 or so. Ive seen special coats full of red LEDs that you can wrap around a dog but they cost hundreds of dollars and honestly it makes me think they are marketed by assholes riding a hype train. No way should it cost anywhere near that much,From what Ive read there seems to be two key factors involved to get any benefit. The intensity of the light and the duration. Too little will do nothing and doing too much will actually reverse the gains. Clinical sessions on human appear to usually be about 15 minutes long several times a week, but those are using powerful emitters. You can purchase weaker ones for home use but then you are talking up towards a thousand dollars, and again I suspect they are just riding a bandwagon. So I am guessing letting a couple of 100 watt red light bulb shine on her for a few hours as she sleeps at night isn't going to do any harm and may do some good. I have always let her lie out in the sun on a warm sunny day anyways.>>17000917No idea why they are like that. But when you think how that 19th century German doctor got vilified for encouraging hand washing inside medical facilities it seems there will always be some narrow minded assholes shooting off their mouths.
>>17000917lmao
>>17001908Flourescent bulbs were also popular, but it is a little harder to get incandescent bulbs after they were soft banned. The government decided that bulbs should have a certain efficiency defined by visible light output relative to energy input. Incandescent bulbs dont meet the standard automatically pretty much because so much of their output is infrared.Intensity and duration matter, but wavelength matters the most, especially if youre trying to find narrow band light. That means if you just buy a random red LED light, it pretty much won't do anything.The reason the redlight devices are expensive is it's usually several specific wavelength LEDs driven at once, and theres technically a lot of effort in wavelength, pulse frequency, intensity, etc. Its not as cheap as youd think to buy several high power NIR LEDs and then wiring them up in a device.I would actualy advise against shinning light on your dog while sleeping. It will actually mess with circadian rhythm.
