My chronic illness journey is an old one that I’ve spread out in way too many posts, articles, and youtube videos. Soon I will have to fill a video dedicated JUST explaining the illnesses I suffer from. Unless I do, I will summarize it all briefly here: I suffer from degenerative disc disease, where my cartilage dissolves at a quicker pace than normal, and my bones detergent faster than normal as well. As is already the case, I have had neck fusions because of bone-on-bone contact, causing excruciating pain and nerve damage. Because I was pregnant during the worst part of it and had to postpone my surgery until after I gave birth, that left me with permanent damage. I live with constant nerve pain throughout my neck, upper back, shoulders, and arms, down to my hands where I can only feel a few fingers on my left hand. Because of all of that, I also have osteoarthritis throughout my body, which limits my ability in normal day-to-day things. In the morning, I am at my worst. It takes me almost an hour to get my body warmed up and “running smoothly”, kinda like a cold car engine. There is not a moment where I am not feeling pain somewhere throughout my body. I literally have the body of an 80-year-old lady, and it’s just getting worse because there is no cure to the disease that is deteriorating my cartilage and joints. For years, I’ve mastered physical therapy techniques, gotten acupuncture, and pursued natural alternatives because living on prescriptions is not a permanent option that I will take.
Another form of natural therapy I do often is Red Light Therapy. It is one of many things that help me control my chronic illnesses.
What is Red Light Therapy
Red light therapy is a procedure using light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to treat medical and cosmetic conditions. It sends low-intensity red and near-infrared light deep into the body’s cells to stimulate healing. It is non-invasive, painless, and does not use heat.
Hungarian physician and professor Endre Mester first used red light therapy in 1967 while studying how cancer cells react to radiation exposure. Today, this treatment is used in medical, dental, spa, and home settings to help repair tissue and relieve pain and inflammation.
Red light therapy is a popular option for treating redness, scars, acne, and wrinkles. This may be due to the light’s effect on collagen production and blood circulation in skin tissue. Red light therapy may help in the following ways:
Benefits of Red Light Therapy
Anti Aging
Red light therapy is used to enhance the appearance of skin that has been damaged or aged by sunlight. It may stimulate the rapid production of cells that secrete collagen proteins. This helps lift and tighten lax skin, reducing wrinkles.
Acne
Cold laser therapy could be an effective treatment for acne vulgaris, but the evidence is scarce. The light might decrease inflammation, irritation, and sebum production in the skin.
Hair growth
Low-level laser light therapy may help treat pattern hair loss in women and men, but more research is needed.
Wound healing
Red light therapy has the potential to help heal chronic wounds. The technique might also encourage new skin growth and help new blood vessel networks form.
Red or near-infrared light spurs cells to speed up the production of antioxidants and lower inflammatory markers. Soft laser therapy can increase circulation to help relieve inflammatory conditions without drugs or surgery, including:
Osteoarthritis: Several studies have found that red light therapy can reduce pain and disability in individuals with knee osteoarthritis. The benefits even extended up to 12 weeks after the end of treatment.
Tendinitis: Pre-exercise red light therapy might improve sports performance and speed recovery from muscle strain. This may be due to the treatment’s potential to combat oxidative stress caused by exercise.
I would highly recommend you try this form of therapy!
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