What do ailments like muscle stiffness, arthritis and osteoarthritis have in common?-The pain and inflammation that usually comes with them. While these conditions have usually been associated with the elderly, the past decade has seen a rise in the number of young or middle-aged people coming into the fold. According to the CDC, over 23% of all adults, or 53 million people suffer from arthritis in the US alone. And with the rise of joint ailments and inflammatory Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), the need for a cure has become ever more necessary. While the old rumor of arthritis being untreatable still runs wild, new age treatments like Red Light Therapy look to change that.
What is Red Light Therapy?
At its very basics, Red Light Therapy, or RLT, is exactly how it sounds. You expose a part of your body to a laser, lamp or LED diode that emits a specific frequency of red light. As the light gets soaked up in your skin, the mitochondria in your body soak up the energy and put it to use. This energy is then used to repair or heal skin or tissue.
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Using RLT for Arthritis- How it works.
Light therapy has its roots in solar energy. During the initial stages of development, most light therapy was studied and tested on pain. With pain, comes damaged tissue and inflammation. The purpose of RLT is to reduce this pain to a significantly lower amount. According to most studies, Red Light Therapy is capable of doing so by almost 50% in both osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis patients.
The most common type of arthritis in joints or knees is Osteoarthritis; the other type being Rheumatoid Arthritis. For the prior, the red light LED diode is applied directly through the skin over the most affected areas.
Since Rheumatoid Arthritis is an autoimmune disease, joint pain is just a consequence of the condition. The real issue lies within the immune cells, which may only be reached via your bloodstream. Thus, in cases of RA, red light therapy is applied directly to the blood instead of on the skin.
The way Red Light Therapy works is that cells absorb light energy from red and near infrared wavelengths (600- 890 mm) and turn it into chemical energy. This process is known as photobiomodulation and is known to catalyze the production of ATP. ATP helps the cell become more efficient and effective, while the Nitric Oxide (NO) that is produced widens the blood vessels and capillaries. This increases blood flow to nerves and other tissues.
Read: How Red Light Therapy Can Change Pregnancies for Good
Takeaway
Even though RLT was initially created as a home treatment, it currently has hundreds if not thousands of scientific articles to back it up. In one clinical study, as many as 50 patients were treated at least partially via Red Light Therapy for Arthritic Knees. As such, there is no doubt in the effectiveness of RLT. Thus, for pain reduction, skin repair, regeneration stimulation and arthritic treatment- Red Light Therapy is definitely worth a shot.
