Understanding Red Light Therapy For Wrinkles

By Elaine Guthrie


It's easy to fill an entire medicine closet or vanity with anti-aging skincare and beauty products such as creams, liquids and lotions. There are likewise many surgical and cosmetic procedures that can temporarily get rid of aging symptoms such as wrinkles. One new and rather innovative technique is red light therapy for wrinkles.

Phototherapy or heliotherapy is an established and scientifically proven technique for treating a wide range of ailments and disorders. It can help patients suffering from skin-related disorders such as eczema and acne. It speeds up healing of open wounds, and is even known to be useful for slowing down cancer. Not to mention other problems like sleep disorders, depression and stress.

Phototherapies typically come under one of two broad categories. The non-targeted type is where the patient is asked to get more and regular exposure to sunlight, which can be direct or through a lightbox that reflects sunlight. On the other hand, targeted types of therapies focus intense rays of light from sources such as lamps, LEDs and lasers on a particular patch of skin.

So red light therapy comes under this targeted type, focused on the wrinkled skin around the eyes. At this point, one important thing to remember is that these are not infrared rays that are invisible to the naked eye. German researchers at the University of Ulm conducted a study that proved beyond doubt how red spectrum visible rays are beneficial in combating medical ailments.

The whole thing hinges on the well-being of elastin. This is the protein that makes skin elastic by producing collagen as required. As a person ages, the fibers start breaking down, and the skin therefore starts producing less collagen. It starts losing its elasticity and ends up looking more and more stretched and baggy. That's what causes wrinkled skin.

The core cause of this dysfunction is because of water layers around the elastin fibers. Subjecting such affected areas of the skin with light rays at a high intensity leads to a sudden spurt in blood circulation, in the process freeing up the elastin to resume their work. Collagen starts being produced like before, and the skin starts regaining its earlier healthiness.

The process is simple, non-invasive and completely painless. Areas of the skin which have wrinkles or wounds will heal quickly. Other areas that are normal will gain a healthy sheen because of the extra collagen production.

Beauty salons and skincare clinics today have FDA-approved devices for phototherapy treatments. It's also possible to buy devices that can help people do the same thing at home. This will be a headgear unit that subjects the area around the eyes to the rays, along with goggles that keep the eyes safe.

Even so, it's important to remember to use it in moderation. It's helpful up to a certain point, but bombarding a specific patch of skin with intense light rays for extended periods will have adverse consequences. The ideal usage is for one minute exposures for no more than three to four times per day, at most. Also note that patients with medical conditions and other skin ailments should talk to a dermatologist first.




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