Light therapy, also known as phototherapy, came a long way as a useful treatment option in medical science. The research into its many uses is still ongoing as new evidence is found and tested. For now, day spas and doctors’ offices use light therapy for medical and cosmetic procedures.
Additionally, some clinics commonly utilize light therapy for its positive impact on mental wellbeing. Its ability to imitate sunlight has been recognized as a major remedy that can assist you to improve your health in many ways. Read more for five benefits of light therapy on your body and overall wellness:
Improved Skin Condition
One of the most popular uses of light therapy today tries to improve a variety of skin conditions from your face and other areas of your body. Light therapy also helps treat skin care issues related to aging, acne, inflammation, and skin disorders such as psoriasis. This kind of therapy uses special colored lighting to perform tasks based on the treatment needed.
Red or infrared light tries to be effective in working on the surface layer of skin. It can increase collagen production within epidermic cells anywhere in your body. Helping stretch marks with light therapy also restores the skin’s firmness. You could buy several available handheld light therapy devices if you want to skip a salon appointment and treat yourself at home.
Faster Injury And Wound Healing
A key source of injury healing by NASA scientists initially discovered and used light therapy in space experiments. As research developed, light therapy accelerated the healing time of injuries within the skin which included burns and scarring. It also helps regrow new tissue cells faster than the body’s natural process.
Infrared light therapy can reach the deeper layers inside the skin to repair tears in muscles and ligaments. It speeds up bone injury recovery such as fractures and reduces pain when sealing up incisions after surgery. For this reason, only doctors perform light therapy for faster wound healing.
Better Quality Sleep
The quality of your sleep correlates to the amount of natural light you’re exposed to every day. This light helps in setting your body’s circadian rhythm or ‘body clock.’ It’s the system that regulates your sleep cycle and determines your overall sleep health. Due to this, light therapy helps treat people with symptoms of insomnia, sleep disorders, and poor-quality sleep.
During this type of light therapy session, your doctor sits you near a specialized light box that imitates natural sunlight. As a safety measure, the light doesn’t shine directly into your eyes. The duration of each session depends on your treatment plan. Alternatively, you can also buy your own light therapy devices that come in the form of lamps and visors. This continuous exposure to light therapy over time can help to reset your natural sleeping schedule.
Improves Mental Health
Exposure to natural light regulates your mood and mental health. Hence, it helps ease symptoms of seasonal affective disorder. This disorder affects people during seasons with little to no sun due to the weather such as winter and fall.
In this case, you can purchase a lightbox to use in the morning as a replacement for real light. Light therapy also improves the mood in cases of general depression. It stimulates serotonin and melatonin which are hormones responsible for your emotions and behavior. Repeated usage of light therapy could then lead to better mental wellbeing with time.
Lower Blood Pressure
Although studies are still within clinical trials, the results thus far suggest that light therapy can lower blood pressure. Researchers found that exposure to blue light on the entire body for about 30 minutes can have a similar effect to ingesting pills to lower blood pressure.
These studies also support the idea that blue light can also improve your overall cardiovascular health. It could do this by reducing stiffness in the arteries leading to the heart and easing the strain on your blood vessels. This type of blue light therapy is still within a testing phase but the promising results indicate the treatment could be made available in the future.
Conclusion
There are several benefits and uses for light therapy to improve your wellness. They mainly concern repairing skin conditions at a cellular level throughout your body. Light therapy also helps in managing mental wellbeing as you get better sleep and relieve the effects of depression.
In most cases, you could easily access light therapy by purchasing devices and products in the market as many don’t need prescriptions. For more specialized care, you’ll need to visit a dermatologist, esthetician, or doctor to perform the therapy on you. Doing so can ensure you get the best results you’re looking for in due time.
