Red Light and Infrared Therapies for Physical Healing. Part 1: Self-Experiments and Personal Experiences

Hair Regrowth, Wound Healing, Anti-Fungal and Anti-Allergenic

Introduction

I have been re-sharing some facebook posts, which I wrote a while back on the topic of low level red light therapy, to Substack’s “Notes”,

As these posts on this topic have proven quite popular there, I thought it would be worth gathering everything I had written on the subject here into main Substack articles.

Another reason for deciding to collate all this is that it fits in with my current themes on the need to build alternative, independent systems to withstand the oncoming dystopia. This will include the need for self-applicable healing modalities when we can no longer rely on “healthcare” systems or professionals. As we will see, red light therapy could definitely be a possible important contributor to a more systematic approach to health and healing.

In this first part, we will first consider some “show and tell” results I got by self-applying red light/infrared therapy to myself, then in Part 2 we will delve in to why and how it works, and look at all the supporting science behind it.

My Experiences with Red Light Therapies

Top: infrared massage device, hair regrowth and wound healing. Midldle: dry, hard skin removal and wearable wrist device. Bottom: fungal infection, and anti-allergen nasal device

Background

I was most intrigued by the chapter “Rewiring a Brain with Light” in Dr Norman Doidge's book "The Brain's Way of Healing",

Book Review: "The Brain's Way of Healing: Stories of Remarkable Recoveries"

which covers the amazing, seemingly miraculous potential for physical healing through application of low level red light and near infrared therapies - i.e. by shining low intensity red lasers or LEDs directly on to the skin. Indeed, the scientific literature now clearly reveals this can heal major wounds and scars in dramatic and rapid ways. When I saw the TEDx talk "Water, Cells and Light" by Professor Gerald Pollack, and then began to read the fabulous book "The Fourth Phase of Water" he wrote on this, the reasons why red light/nIR has such healing potential [more on Pollack’s work in Part 2] became very clear.

Hair Regrowth

I had looked into this before, and had even bought myself a home red light/near infrared (nIR) massage therapy device (shown in the top-left photo in the gallery above). At first, applying this gave me noticeable benefits, especially in reducing my pain, stiffness and rigidity of muscles. But then continued application seemed to start making me worse! At this point, the device went into the cupboard for a long time.

I now know, however, that less is more with such red light therapy - the benefits occur at very low (small and frequent) level application, but there is a critical level above which it starts to be a disadvantage. I had been overdoing it, it seems!

So, after having learned more about the actual potentials of such light therapy from Dr Doidges, and understanding more just why it works via Prof. Pollack, I decided to get my home therapy device out again and see if I could gain the benefits by applying it more correctly. As avoiding overuse seems critical, I determined I would only use it a small area of my body (before, I had been using it all over every day!). But where could I apply it to see the most directly observable effects?

I looked to my legs. I had noted some time ago how the lower legs of people with Parkinson's Disease have a tendency to go bald, and the skin there takes on a unhealthy plastic sheen, while the connective tissue and muscle tone notably feel wrong. Previously, I figured I could use any hair regrowth to assess whether my self-recovery programme was working, and indeed I could see some of the hair on my lower legs was growing back! Yet while the inside of my legs and thighs were now back to healthy hairiness, the outside of my lower legs had remained stubbornly bald, and that wrong plastic look and feel to the skin, fascia and muscle remained too.

So I resolved to use the red light, very sparingly, there and see if could detect any change as measured in any further hair growth over time. The results were so rapid and clear that I was shocked. All I had been doing is moving the light over the surface of the outside of the lower legs for just a couple of minutes at a time, each night before bed. Within days I started to notice individual hairs sprouting. Not stubble, but wispy hairs began to spring up overnight! And then after a week or so, patches of hair appeared. These continued to appear and the patches spread. I also noticed my skin looking more normal and the calf muscles definitely feels much softer.

Wound Healing

It is always pleasing when applying scientific knowledge to our own health and then seeing actual results!

The other year, when it was record breakingly hot and humid here, I went out for a walk in leather shoes with no socks on. I had not gone far, when I had to turn back for home - a massive blister had appeared out of no where on my right heel. By the time I reached home, the blister had burst, leaving an extremely sore and raw, weeping red wound. It hurt to walk even bare foot.

So, I thought, here is another application for red light therapy, which according to the science, has been proven time and again to have major wound healing benefits

The outcome, two days later, having applied my red light/infrared massager directly to the wound for just a few seconds, a couple of time a day: the wound was nearly healed already, new pink skin had formed over it (no scabbing), and it was dry and not even sore to direct touch (see photo top right in the gallery above)!

Skin Problems

Here is another personal example which illustrates that even when application is ceased or intermittent, the benefits may be sustained for quite a long duration. Indeed, some red light protocols for skin health/wound healing recommending daily application in the first week or so, but then reverting to a weekly session as being more optimal than continuing daily, i.e. that once again, less can be more.

So here is my own example of experiencing this. I had really thick, dry skin on the end and on top of my big toe for ages and it just wasn't shifting. So I started to apply the red light massage device to it daily for about a minute a day and quickly started seeing changes on a daily basis too.

Now, in the middle of this experiment I swapped to a red LED wristband that my friend, speech and language therapist Jolie Parker had created, which shines the light directly onto the pulse/acupuncture point in the wrist (see image in gallery above), and stopped applying the massager as I didn't want to overdo it. Even though I was no longer applying the red light direct to the skin issue itself, the issue on my toe continued to clear up. Then one day after a shower, most of the thick skin just rub off under my thumb!

After that, the skin continued to improved and go from white to pink even though I was then using wristband for just five minutes only every few days.

This was the first self-proof I gleaned that red light therapy can have non-local, systemic, long term effects.

Anti-Fungal Effects

A while back, I had persistent large cracks behind my ears, which I believe were associated with a fungal infection, because they emerged at the same time as "jock itch" (an external manifestation of candida-type infestation), and also the crack would ooze yellow liquid at night.

There are lots of science studies and real life experiences of applications of low level red light therapy for killing fungal infections as well as for wound healing.

One of the very remarkable benefits I personally saw in trialling the wearable wristband is that the healing of the ear problem suddenly happened. Within days, the persistent cracks completely sealed up.

This was further proof, to my own satisfaction, at least, that red light therapy is systemic and results can be non-local, possibly acting on blood supply, through light-conducting gel networks of the fascia, and/or lymph systems, energizing the body for healing and calming the nervous system. Again, the fact that red light therapy has results even when applied remotely/indirectly from a specific issue is supported in some of the science research we found.

My big hope, however, is that the therapy is also healing hidden wounds on inner skins, such as on the gut lining, or blood brain barrier.

Anti-Histamine Effects

When I was focussing on restoring healthy nasal breathing and diaphragm function, I discovered red-light allergy relievers which you insert up your nose for a few minutes (see photo bottom-right in the gallery). Due to my prior positive experiences with red light therapy devices, I immediately got myself one of these. It not only did what it said on the tin, and provided tangible allergy relief, allowing me to stop taking anti-histamine medication I was using at the time, but was also instrumental in unblocking my permanently stuffed up nose. It profoundly helped me change from a lifelong mouth breather, to defaulting to breathing through the nose.