IMA Head of Medical and Scientific Affairs Dr. Ryan Cole joined The National News Desk to argue that red light therapy is far more than a beauty fad. Behind the glowing masks sits a real research base, roughly 10,000 peer-reviewed papers, and a simple mechanism: light charges the mitochondria that power your heart, brain, and muscles. The strongest evidence, he says, is for healing and recovery, with wounds closing 30 to 40 percent faster and athletes bouncing back quicker.
But his real message was the sun. Red light is a useful tool, not a cure-all, and nothing replaces natural sunlight. Fifteen minutes of morning sun, Dr. Cole explains, sets your body clock and switches on your skin’s own defenses. He points to studies from Sweden and the UK tying more sunlight to longer life and less heart disease. For anyone stuck indoors under artificial light, the fix is low-tech: get outside, early.
Check out these related resources from IMA below, followed by the full segment transcript.
Transcript
Jan Jeffcoat: It has been called the “Billion Dollar Glow.” You’ve probably seen them on social media: those glowing red face masks, light panels, red light saunas, and beds. The technology started in NASA research labs and is now showing up in gyms, spas, and homes across the country, with claims that it can help everything from wrinkles to recovery. So could red light therapy support the body’s natural healing process? Joining us now is the Head of Medical and Scientific Affairs and Senior Fellow of Pathology at the Independent Medical Alliance, Dr. Ryan Cole. Great to see you, sir, as always.
Dr. Ryan Cole: Good morning, Jan. Great to see you.
Jan Jeffcoat: Many folks think of red light therapy as a beauty or skin treatment, but the research is now going beyond that. So first of all, tell us: what is red light therapy, and why are scientists interested in how it could support healing inside the body?
Dr. Ryan Cole: That’s a great question. There are a lot of medical papers and a lot of medical research on this, about 10,000 peer-reviewed papers at this point over the last several decades. Red light is just part of that prism spectrum we all remember from high school science class, but it’s the light beyond the visible red, the near-infrared light, that can penetrate the body depending on the wavelength. The higher the number, the deeper it goes. And it can affect everything from our cellular energy to our mood, inflammation, pain, wound healing, and skin health. It’s certainly in the beauty product industry, but we’re seeing it applied a lot more in medical settings as well, with stronger lights and different wavelengths for different treatments.
Jan Jeffcoat: So what is cellular energy, and how does it work?
Dr. Ryan Cole: Every cell in your body except your red blood cells has what are called mitochondria. Those are commonly known, again going back to high school chemistry, as the power plant of the cell. But certain cells, like the heart, the brain, and the retina, are where you have the most mitochondria, up to thousands per cell. They get charged up by our food, certainly, but even more so by light. And they’re not just a power plant. They’re a battery, a signaler, an antenna. They control so many of the messages between our cells. When we’re deficient, and 97% of Americans now spend the majority of their time indoors or in their car, we get a spectrum of artificial light. This red part of the spectrum has been cut out of our fluorescent and LED light, so we’re literally red light deficient. That means our energy levels can be lower simply because we’re living in a deficient, toxic light environment.
Jan Jeffcoat: So are we talking about scientists now looking at whether this could help with muscle recovery, tissue repair, pain, wound healing, things like that?
Dr. Ryan Cole: Yes, those are some of the very well-established areas for near-infrared and red light therapy, with a lot of evidence. Wounds heal 30 to 40% faster with red light. You can use it daily for pain without your pain receptors adapting or getting so used to it that it stops working. It’s highly effective for pain and for muscle recovery. A lot of athletes in the professional leagues are using it now because they recover more quickly. So all of those areas have very strong evidence at this point.
Jan Jeffcoat: I was reading about that, that a lot of NFL players have this at home for that reason. So how should folks think about natural sunlight versus red light therapy? We need both, obviously. We definitely need sunlight. So what should we know about using each one safely and wisely?
Dr. Ryan Cole: Red light is an adjunct. It’s not a panacea, it’s not going to cure everything. I like what my colleague Dr. Jack Kruse says: when it comes to sunlight, there is no alternative. We need to use sunlight. That’s where the richest spectrum of light comes from, including the near-infrared light we cannot see. We need at least 15 minutes in the morning, right around sunrise, basically 6 to 9 a.m., 15 to 20 minutes. It sets our biological clocks and our circadian rhythms, but it also sets our anti-inflammation pathways and our skin-protection pathways. In that little video, we saw people slathering on sunscreen. If you get that morning light, your natural skin-protective mechanisms upregulate, with signals in your brain that protect your skin. I personally haven’t used sunscreen in over 10 years, other than on my nose and my ears, because if you get that morning light, then later in the day when you get out in the midday “burning” sun, which we also need, UV light can help with blood pressure and mood. We need about 15 minutes of morning light and at least 15 to 20 minutes of midday light. The further north you live, probably a little bit more. So sunlight is the most important of all. Red light and near-infrared therapies are wonderful adjunctive therapies, and there’s a lot of research coming in on neurologic conditions and many other areas, even cancer therapies that are being explored. But sunlight is the most important of all. There was a women’s health study in Sweden and the UK showing that women who got more sunlight, even if they smoked, lived longer than the women who got less, by a significant amount. And in the UK biobank study, they showed that people who got more sunlight had less cardiac disease and lower all-cause mortality. So sunlight is most important of all.
Jan Jeffcoat: I believe it. All right. For more information and resources from the Independent Medical Alliance, you can visit imahealth.org. Dr. Ryan Cole, always a pleasure talking to you, sir.
