LED Light Therapy

A Brief History of Healing using Light
The power of light has been used since ancient times and the use of light therapy in treatment and healing is not a new concept. The Nobel prize (in physiology or medicine) was awarded to Niels Ryberg Finsen in 1903 for his work on red-light therapy in healing smallpox and lupus in 1893 and 1895. Finsen's work demonstrated the stimulation effect on human tissue through refractive rays from the sun.

Since the 1960's, more discoveries were made about the effects of light therapy by leading scientists and physicians namely Theodore Maiman and Endre Mester. Laser-based light therapy was used in many clinical and experimental settings which led to non-invasive treatment of illnesses. A further breakthrough occurred in the 1990's when NASA began working on the use of light emitting diode (LED)-based light therapy units for use in wound healing in astronauts (wounds take longer to heal in zero-gravity conditions).

LED versus Laser
An interesting review on human studies with near-infrared laser light therapy for wound healing was published by Conlan et al. in 1996(1) Lasers, however, have some inherent characteristics that make their use in a clinical setting problematic. Limitations include beam width, high cost, fragility and safety requisites.  The size of wounds that may be treated is limited, heat production from the laser itself can damage tissue and the pinpoint beam of laser light can damage the eye.

Specifications	Laser Devices	LED Devices
Laser diode	YES
Light Emitting diode		YES
Collimated beam	YES
Non-collimated beam		YES
Monochromatic beam / single wavelength beam	YES	YES
High Capital layout	YES
Diode/bulb lifetime	1000-2000 hrs	50000 hrs+
Cellular bio-stimulus effect	YES	YES

Recent advances in the field of photon therapy have shown that the bio-stimulatory effects achieved are not due to the type of photon emitting device being used, but by the wavelength of the emitted photons (light particles).

LED-based light therapy devices offer an effective alternative to lasers. The diodes can be configured to produce single or multiple wavelengths, generating a more diffuse light allowing for the treatment of larger areas during the procedure. The new generation light devices are less fragile, light-weight, produce virtually no heat and have a greater treatment coverage area. More importantly, LED light therapy has been deemed a non-significant risk thus approval has been obtained from the FDA for the use of LEDs in humans for light therapy(2).

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