How red light therapy affects your microbiome! And is pulsed LED better?

Welcome to The Honest Channel I'm Clare Johnston  a journalist on a mission to discover how to age   well look and feel good for longer and share what  I find with you and regular viewers will be aware   that I've become a big fan of red light in recent  years incorporating both red and near infrared   light at home to help support the appearance of my  skin and its health because red light is thought   to stimulate increased energy production in our  cells and I've spoken to several contributors on   the channel about red light in the last couple  of years including skincare founder and science   graduate Bev May Sanderson she spent considerable  time poring over the research around red light to   find the right approach to treat rosacea which  she's struggled with on her own skin and she's   been able to share some great advice with us in  the past around how to use red light safely and   effectively without overdoing it so I'll will link  to that interview below but with some of my more   recent conversations on the channel focusing  on the skin microbiome I wanted to find out   what impact if any red light could have on the  microbes that live on our skin which are thought   to play a role in our immune system and also in  keeping our skin healthy and considering Bev has   a degree in microbiology and virology she's been  able to look into this for us and you'll hear now   from her about the impact red light could have  on the microbiome based on some fascinating gut   health studies and also why she's particularly  enthusiastic about the potential of pulsed light Bev welcome back to the channel thank you so much  for having me back Clare it's lovely to be here   and I've been exploring on the channel recently  the skin microbiome what it's comprised of and   the notion that we should be highly mindful of  it when deciding on our skincare routines and   one thing that crossed my mind and which is why I  wanted to talk to you again is whether we have any   research into how red light may or may not affect  our skin's microbiome and I know you've been   taking a little look at that for us what insight  can you offer as you recall Clare my background   is microbiology I started as a microbiologist  so the skin microbiome is definitely a subject   that's that's really close to my heart and  as somebody with rosacea I'm aware that the   microbiome isn't just the skin it's also the gut  and a lot of these skin conditions start in the   gut and that's certainly been said about rosacea  so I think that's a really good place to start you   know let's let's look at some of the studies that  relate to the the gut microbiome there are certain   bacteria um within the gut which are associated  with a healthy gut and protection against diseases   like IBS and and diabetes so scientists in  general are very interested in exploring   ways that they can change the gut environment and  and photobiomodulation has been looked at as one   of those modalities to change the gut environment  because what they're looking to do is to increase   the abundance of those healthy bacteria so there's  there's a scientist in Australia called Bicknell   who's done a lot of studies and his initial study  was setting up an animal model so this is using   mice and uh his team separated the mice into  four different groups two of the groups were   treated with near infrared radiation radiation  always sounds like a negative word doesn't it   yeah it does it's one of those scary words it's  red light therapy but near infrared um and then   third group is treated with red light and then  the fourth group is a control group and then   after 14 weeks of treatment they analyze the the  feces of of these mice to see whether there was   any change in the the gut bacteria so I will  say that there that no mice were were harmed   in the making of this experiment what they saw  after this 14-week period was that there was a   huge increase in the diversity of the microbiota  the microorganisms in the gut particularly so in   all the treated groups not in the control group  but particularly in the group that had these   repeated sessions of new infrared so one group was  treated with a single session of infrared and the   other with repeated treatments and it was within  that group that they identified this particular   bacterium called allobaculum which is is known to  be it's known to protect the gut um by it produces   uh certain short chain fatty acids that help to  protect the gut and reduce inflammation and in the   group that was treated with repeated near infrared  the allobaculum increased 400 fold in its density   gosh it's just extraordinary when you think that  that has happened through light because you know   you often think of the of the gut you just relate  it with diet basically and that's the thing that   has the impact on our bacteria I know there must  be other factors but light is not one that you   consider it's extraordinary photobiomodulation  is the modality that keeps on giving as far as   I'm concerned anyway he went on to do some case  studies with uh with humans one was a breast   cancer patient and the other was a Parkinson's  uh patient um again because those conditions are   associated with gut dysbiosis so an inbalance in  the gut and um photobiomodulation was understood   to be a therapeutic modality for for treating  these conditions but nobody had really looked at   the change in the gut microbiota so he looked he  tested samples um with the cancer patient um for   example they took samples before treatment after  radiotherapy and then after 12 weeks of red light   therapy and there was no change interestingly  after the radiotherapy to the gut microbiome no   change whatsoever but after the photobiomodulation  they saw again greater diversity of bacteria and   more of the good bacteria and less of the bad wow  interesting and excitingly really excitingly the   same in the Parkinson's patient again was an  uplift in those commensal bacteria and less   pathogenic bacteria so it really does support  that red light therapy can have a huge impact   on on the microbiome I was just going to ask um  if they shared any suggestion as to why what they   thought was happening there within the cells yeah  um well they said that it's not a direct effect on   the bacteria but that it's an effect on the cells  themselves helping the cells to secrete molecules   that the bacteria need so kind of going back to  what we've talked about before you know with when   we've talked about the benefits of the skin that  it's putting energy into the cell and helping them   do what they do best basically exactly yes yeah  just creating a healthy environment um I mean you   mentioned at the start that link between gut and  skin and and something you've been considering   um when you've been looking at rosacea treatments  and you know we know there is a connection there   don't we through the gut we talk about the the  gut brain um skin axis something that needs to   be explored and will be um but yeah I mean what  are your own thoughts when when that comes to   you know rosacea and conditions like that and  how they might be linked well for me it's been   a bit of a light bulb moment because um you know  I do my anti-aging treatments with red light but   I think now I'm going to pay far more attention  to maybe treating my abdomen area as well because   one of the things we do know about rosacea is  that sometimes it's connected to SIBO which   is small intestine bacterial overgrowth so if I  treat my abdomen as well you've kind of got this   double prong attack to reduce rosacea because  the other element that they talk about um you   have an overabundance of microbial peptides on  the skin as well so I can treat my face and I   can treat my abdomen to help reduce my rosacea  and there are published there is published data   around this so I'll link some of the papers below  that talk about treating skin for rosacea with   with red near infrared and blue light which we'll  come on to and everything all the research we've   discussed it would be great actually to include  links for the audience that they can have a look   at that when you are uh looking at treating your  abdomen and in some of the research that that's   that's happened before I mean is that the mix of  red light and infrared that you'd be looking to   use through a panel for the abdomen what we're  interested in is near infrared because it's near   infrared that penetrates deeply into the skin the  red light would not reach the abdomen okay it's   the shorter wavelengths the red and the blue which  are great for superficial tissue so for treating   the skin effectively so it's the blue light that  is a short wavelength it's 400 to 470 nanometers   and red light is 600 to 700 nanometers so that's  great for treating superficial tissue and they   have again there's there's more published data  around using red and blue light together to treat   not just rosacea but acne and you'll be familiar  with uh masks out there LED masks that treat acne   with red and blue light combined because that's  better than blue light alone there's a fantastic   clinical study that's been done in Korea with 35  um participants that uses red and blue light and   there was a great reduction in lesions for acne  and and uh inflammation was greatly reduced as   well so that's a fantastic study we can link  below with red light devices I mean you know   sell some devices through Maysama and I see that  you promote pulsed light over constant um we've   spoken about this briefly before but what do you  think the biggest advantages are with pulsed over   continual red light I mean for me I'm completely  on this pulsed light journey now and this really   came from an early discussion that we had with  Professor Andrei Sommer he's one of the leading   photobiomodulation scientists he's actually the  guy that wrote the original paper around green   tea and red light therapy a dynamic duo in skin  rejuvenation and um I had a conversation with   with Andrei Sommer discussing the rooibos serum  and the better results that we were getting from   combining that with red light therapy and he said  to me you should be using pulsed light and I said   but but why and the reasons that he gave me were  so compelling that I felt that it was something   that we had to to bring to market really within  our offering the first reason being that when   you look at the mechanism of red light it you  shine the red light on the cell and it makes   the cytosol which is the fluid inside the cell  expand so your cell will expand when you shine   red light on it because it increases the volume  of the cell then when you turn the light off the   cell contracts so if you have pulsed light you get  this breathing effect where the cell expands and   contracts expands and contracts and what happens  you'll have micronutrients that surround the cell   and then those are sucked into the cell when  the cell contracts and the reason that Andrei   explained this to me is because their team are  doing lots of research around anti-cancer drugs   and one of those drugs is green tea or EGCG  from green tea effectively and so it's it's   a phenomenum they call transmembrane convection  anyway where it's a better drug delivery system   if they use pulse light because it helps to uptake  these micronutrients more effectively he said if   you use that for skin care then it will increase  the bioavailability of your skin care and then   increase the efficacy of your skin care so that  made perfect sense to me yeah the other reason is   is a little more complex but I I think that your  educated subscribers will relate to it we'll try   and keep up yes but I think they'll be familiar  generally with the term of free radicals that we   we generally understand that free radicals are  these very excited molecules that go in search   of a they have an unpaired electron and so  they scavenge to try and find this other   electron um and then they're happy bunnies but  in the meantime they can do a lot of damage to   to cell components to lipids to proteins um so  free radicals in excess are not great that's it   we we talk about wanting to um avoid creating  a buildup of free radicals that's it we don't   want an overabundance of free radicals but they're  not all bad I think it's important to understand   also that they are signaling molecules so a low  amount of free radicals is beneficial and it's   actually those that Kickstart the whole process  with photobiomodulation it's the free radicals   that signal to the cell to produce DNA um all the  things that happen are triggered by this initial   burst of free radicals what we don't want though  is this buildup of free radicals so if we have a   prolonged session of red light and I say session  because when I say treatment I think people think   that they can't use red light day after day yeah  but you can you know we're talking about a single   treatment and during that single treatment the  red light produces free radicals as a byproduct   and that continues over that session and then  what happens is when you get this abundance of   free radicals it can create oxidative stress  um but it also reduces the efficacy of your   red light device because you want the red light  device to produce more ATP more cellular energy   and you want it to drive cell proliferation you  know regeneration of cells when you get an excess   of free radicals it actually starts to inhibit  those very two processes that you're using your   red light for to start with so you get this curve  and you get inhibition if you go too far which is   why we always have a treatment time that you  should adhere to yeah where pulse light gives   you a benefit over static red light is that you  don't get the buildup of free radicals the reason   being that when the light is on you get a burst of  free radicals then when the light is off you get,   well the cell will then use up its reserves of ATP  that have been produced and the free radicals that   were produced have a very very short lifespan so  they just dissipate you talked about nanoseconds I   remember that sticking in my mind before which  was really interesting yeah so they just they   could they come and go in nanoseconds basically  exactly yeah so you only get a build up if it's   on continuously but if the light is on off on  off you get this wave and you don't get the   buildup so what we've seen and this is supported  by lots of clinical studies out there that you   get accelerated cell proliferation and you get  upregulation of ATP so you get more cellular   energy and you get more of the cells produced that  produce collagen which is why we see more collagen   produced with pulse light so it's complicated but  it's good to know it does make sense I always feel   bad in these scenarios um when people have you  know they've just gone out and they've bought   a red light mask and it's a constant mask and now  it's like oh great I should have a pulsed one but   I mean for somebody who's there are still lots  of benefits to be had from continual red light   and it comes back to you know if you've got  the mask just not sitting with it on for over   10 minutes or something like that absolutely yeah  you can still get those benefits um for me uh when   I use the panel now I do have it on constant uh  for a period of time but what I do I mean I look   ridiculous but I'm moving my head and doing my  exercises when I've got the constant on including   kind of kissing the ceiling like this I mean my  husband and sons walk in and they just go what   now you know what insanity is she bringing now  um and then I'll put it on on pulse mode um and I   wear the goggles but I find on pulse mode there is  still quite a strobing effect so sometimes I cover   my goggles with my fingers I mean what do you  advise for that for people who find that that is   that kind of strobing effect yeah I mean strobing  or pulsing is is definitely a different experience   and um and it is an adjustment in all fairness  but you know if you go sailing for the first time   you haven't found your sea legs have you on day  one you know it takes it takes time and what we   recommend is that you start slow so start by just  adding one minute of pulse light onto your regular   red light treatment and that would be enough to  get the benefit of improved skin care absorption   so you've already got that benefit if you just do  one minute on the end of your pulse light session   in an ideal world you know to get the benefits  of more collagen and you know increased um cell   proliferation and up-regulated ATP all those  wonderful things then ideally you want to kind   of switch to pulse light for your entire treatment  so we would say that just drop a little bit each   time of your static red light and add on a little  bit more pulse light which is why that we've got   the timer for one minute three minutes six minutes  and nine minutes but nine minutes is only if you   don't bother with pulse light at all you would  just do nine minutes of the continuous red light   session so you'd start with one minute on the end  of six minutes of continuous light and then you   would switch and probably do three minutes and  three minutes and then eventually you would do   six minutes of pulse light so start slow instead  for some people they can do that within a week um   some people tell me they actually prefer pulse  light they actually find it more relaxing than   continuous light um for others you know it is  distracting so it is normal to feel jumpy when   you first do it that is a normal reaction and  um you know just take your time there's lots   of things that you can do to adjust to it one of  the things would be to make sure that you are in a   well lit room you know I think I made the mistakes  sort of early on of doing an evening session and   it's dark around me and then you put the light on  you've got the brightness of the light yeah and   the pulsing and it's you know it's a lot for your  brain to adjust to even with your goggles on so   start in a well lit room because you've got less  differential then between the brightness okay turn   turn your head slightly to the right for half your  session and slightly to the right left and right   yeah so that way then you're you're not directing  the light again into the retina even though you've   got your goggles on you will see a reduction in  the kind of Kaleidoscope patterns that you see in   front of your your face and if you still find it  too much do you know what you could still reduce   the intensity of your light to 50% which our panel  allows you to do to reduce that intensity to 50%   or even 25% but even at 50% you would still have  a higher dosing than you would have with a mask   right interesting okay but with a panel you are  treating face neck and decolletage in one session   so it gives you that benefit yeah yeah that's why  I like it because it allows me to cover my neck   and decolletage as they call it all and you know  hands are in there as well really everything I   can possibly fit in as squeezed exactly yes people  do that with a panel so with a panel we use three   different pulse light frequencies we use 10 20 and  30 Hertz now when you look at the studies on pulse   light are right across the board from one Hertz up  to 1,400 Hertz but generally there seems to be an   well more more success with the lower frequencies  to one to 100 Hertz which is why we've picked the   lower uh pulse frequencies with the panel we also  felt it was important for people to see that the   panel is pulsing because it sounds crazy but with  the mask it has a different frequency it's 100   Hertz and the number of people that contact us say  it's it's not pulsing it is pulsing we've actually   deliberately chosen 100 Hertz so it's invisible  to the naked eye had we done that with the panel   and it was invisible to the naked eye it would be  possible that people wouldn't know it was pulsing   and they wouldn't wear the eye the protective  eyewear now the protective eyewear is necessary   with the panel because you are directing light  into the retina with the mask it's not necessary   when the light intensity is reduced secondly the  pulse light is around the eye not directly it's   perfectly safe not to wear goggles with your mask  we do provide them for your comfort if you want   to wear them but it's not necessary to wear them  okay that's clear thank you so much Bev I always   appreciate um your sharing your insight with us  thank you thank you for having me Clare thank   you light therapy could have so many potential  applications for health as well as skin aging   just last week I read a report which I'll link  below about a study in mice that found flashing or   pulsed light could help flush out toxic proteins  in the brain that may contribute to Alzheimer's   so as a result this approach is now being tried on  Alzheimer's patients and it's just an absolutely   fascinating time to be following the signs behind  light therapy in general and red light really has   become one of the biggest interventions I use  as I age alongside lifestyle so let me know if   and how you're using red light in the comments  or other forms of light therapy I'll include a   link to the details of how I use red light along  with my wider skincare routine below for those who   are interested and don't forget you can follow  more advice and information from me around how   to age well on my website honest.scot one of my  main aims is to continue to bring you content   free of charge and if you want to support the  channel you can do that by hitting the like and   subscribe buttons if you haven't already done  so and sharing my content with others who you   think might be interested as always thank you for  being here today and I hope to see you next time

Channel: The Honest Channel

Views: 21,296

Keywords: healthy aging, led skin, light therapy, light treatment, radiant complexion, red light therapy, skin rejuvenation, skin renewal, wellness therapy

Id: -fmYAtCAqtQ

Length: 23min 9sec (1389 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 07 2024