Also known as low level laser therapy or low level LED therapy (LLLT)

I’m adding information about red light therapy devices you can buy or rent to use at home as, in the long run, this is a lot easier and cheaper than having to go to clinics repeatedly. If you have any questions about them, feel free to email me:
alison at concussionrecovery.uk

Photobiomodulation (PBM) is basically exposure to specific wavelengths and red and near-infra red light at specific intensities for specific periods of time. Most of the light gets scattered when it reaches your skin but a tiny percentage can penetrate deeper, up to several centimetres, depending on the area of the body, and this is enough to improve various molecular and cellular processes so that your body and brain can repair and regenerate themselves.

It was pioneered in Eastern Europe and the USSR in the 1960s, initially using low-intensity lasers. Now LEDs are mainly used. It’s non-invasive and, in over fifty years of use, no side effects have been found (though there are a few contraindications, so check with your doctor/health professional first).  It’s been researched in the West for over twenty years and is now starting to be used by private clinics and, more slowly, by health services for certain conditions. The best equipment, fortuitously, is being developed by a company called Thor Laser in England (as well as TheraLight in the US) and is gradually becoming available for use in private clinics around the UK.

This clinic in Derby, England, has a lot of information about it on their website: Brain PBM Therapy

Here are a couple of scientific articles about it too. If you’re not familiar with the format of scientific papers, you can read the abstract at the beginning for an overview, then dip into the less technical sections as you like. If you want to read more academic articles, contact me and I can send you links and/or pdfs of papers I’ve downloaded.

Photobiomodulation for Traumatic Brain Injury and Stroke (Hamblin, 2018)
Brain Photobiomodulation Therapy: A Narrative Review (Salehpour et al, 2018)

If you’re thinking of getting it, I’d encourage you to phone the clinics which offer it and talk to them about it. I’ve spoken to folk at a few different clinics and they’ve all been really helpful and happy to give me more information on the treatment and on other clinics. Most of the people I’ve spoken to seem to think that the best option is to go on a whole body red light bed if you can get access to one. The one I have used is made by NovoTHOR but there is another by TheraLight and both are high-spec. You can check the company websites to find the locations of their light beds:

Novothor.com – locations
TheraLight.com – locations

The whole body light bed allows you to get a lot of light into your body and system as a whole, although the light isn’t being targeted at your head specifically. If you aren’t near a whole body light bed, some clinics instead have the Thor Laser desktop unit – also very good – where the light is applied over small areas sequentially, focusing on your head and neck. There are other types of red light equipment becoming available but Thor Laser/NovoTHOR and TheraLight seem to be the best.

I used the whole body red light bed at a clinic in Cardiff. There are several clinics dotted about England and in Scotland there’s a whole body bed in Bridge of Weir, about fifteen miles west of Glasgow, plus clinics in Glasgow and Stirling which have the desktop unit and know how to use it for brain injury.

Below are the clinics I’ve been in contact with. You’ll be able to find more, and if you do, please let me know and I’ll list them here. You can search online using the term “photobiomodulation” (the preferred term among researchers) but also try “red light therapy” and “low-level laser (or LED) therapy”.

Glasgow and Stirling – Sports Therapy Scotland
Bridge of Weir, Renfrewshire – The Health Hub
Leyland, Lancashire – The Wellness Practice
York – Active Care Chiropractic
Derby – PBM Therapy Clinic
Cardiff – The House of Human Potential

It’s generally recommended that you have at least 8-10 sessions to see an effect. I felt more clear-headed (and just generally lovely) after two sessions. However, if you have it only occasionally, the effects may not last. Research suggests you need regular sessions for it to be effective. I initially had it three times a week for three weeks and this appeared to increase my clarity and decrease my grogginess.  Later, I had it weekly for a couple of months. This was less effective and the positive effects seemed to fade after a couple of days, so I’m looking into buying a device to use at home.

You might need to have it regularly for at least several months in order for any benefits to stabilise. Doctor Fred Kahn, one of the pioneers of photobiomodulation in the West (featured in Norman Doidge’s book) recommends treating brain injuries 2-3 times a week and continuing for a couple of months after the person has recovered. Although it’s established that photobiomodulation does help recovery from brain injury and stroke (and can improve the functioning of healthy brains), the exact treatment parameters are still being worked out. The sooner you can get it after your injury the better though studies have shown it can still help even years afterwards, and my experience bears this out too.

For the full body light beds, clinics generally charge £40-60 per session, and a bit more for using the desktop unit as it takes longer. If you can afford it, it could be worth trying. As well as helping your brain heal, the red light also has beneficial effects on the rest of your body too (including reducing inflammation and promoting nervous system regeneration), and can help alleviate pain and a variety of other conditions, so it’s a win-win situation. Maybe in a few decades it’ll be available on the NHS…

 

Red light therapy devices to use at home

I’ll keep adding to this as I find out about more companies making red light therapy (photobiomodulation) devices for home use. For some of them a discount is offered – this is because I’ve joined affiliate programmes for those companies which means you get a discount and I get a small commission.

Red light therapy devices generally come in the form of hard panels, soft pads, hard helmets and soft headpads.

The best thing for treating concussion or other brain injury (photobiomodulation has been shown to help stroke recovery) is a red light helmet or pad that wraps around the head. The downside is that these are much more expensive than the flat panels and pads – generally in the thousands rather than the hundreds of pounds.

However, you could still use a panel or pad. Some red light therapy practitioners say that getting the light into your body in any way is useful. It can also be particularly helpful to put red light on the back of your neck as then the light can get into the various fluids going into your head through your neck (blood, cerebro-spinal fluid, lymph) and get into your brain that way.

 

Panels and pads

Infraredi make a range of red light therapy devices, from large panels to soft pads.

Click here to shop at Infraredi UK with a 10% discount. The discount should get added automatically when you go to the checkout but if it isn’t, just enter the coupon code ALISONROE – this code will also work on the US, Canadian and Australian websites.

Infraredi Body Wrap Plus with velcro strap
Infraredi Body Wrap Plus with velcro strap

For using on your head, the large soft pad – the Body Wrap Plus – is best as you can wrap it round the back of your head and neck, or even put it over your head: Body Wrap Plus with the 10% discount (about £180)

I’ve tried this a few times as some of my friends have bought them. I wrapped it round the back of my head and neck so the light could get into the various fluids going into my head (blood, lymph, cerebro-spinal fluid). It seemed to help in that I got the nice clear feeling in my head that I usually get during and after red light therapy and I did seem to have better mental stamina afterwards. It didn’t have such a powerful effect as the Wellness Tree head pad which I usually use (see below) but, at a tenth of the price, the Infraredi body wrap seems like a decent investment. It’s also very easy to use on other parts of your body, if you have any aches, pains or strains.

Note that, in the photo, the reason some of the LEDs don’t appear to be lit is because those are the ones in the infrared part of the spectrum, and this is outside the visual range of humans.

 

Helmets and headpads

The Wellness Tree (UK) do various pads, including a headpad, which is what I have. I bought it with a friend, who also has post-concussion syndrome and conveniently lives nearby, so we could share the cost. The pad can also be unfolded to lay on other parts of the body so it’s very versatile.

The light therapy section of their website will be finalised in January so I’ll add more information then.

Another option is the CognitoLite helmet, developed at Durham University for use in their research into infrared light therapy and dementia. It’s currently on sale for £4900 (!) and I have no discount for this.

 

The tech specs (some of)

Please remember that I am not a medic or a photobiomodulation specialist and there are no universally agreed protocols for using red light therapy for concussion recovery, or anything else. It has been researched for decades and seems to be safe for most people. However, if you have any doubts about whether you should use it, please talk to your doctor/health practitioner. If you want to read more scientific papers about photobiomodulation and these devices, email me and I’ll send you some: alison at concussionrecovery.uk

Wavelengths

Most devices use a wavelength from the red and from the near-infra red part of the light spectrum – having the two together seems to be most effective. Note that the infrared wavelengths are out of our visible range, so you can’t see them. So if it looks like half the LEDs aren’t lighting up, don’t worry – you just can’t see them.

Power

In terms of how powerful the devices (or the LEDs in them) need to be, if you’re using it on your head, higher power is better as more of the light can get through your skull and into your brain. However, Professor Michael Hamblin, who researched red light therapy at Harvard and MIT for over twenty years, says that if you have a lower powered device just use it for a bit longer than a higher powered one – research indicates that it’s the total amount of light getting into you which makes the difference.

Note that there are a lot of red light devices out there designed for putting on the face. This is because it appears to help slow skin ageing. However, these types of devices tend not to be very high-powered as the light only has to penetrate a few millimetres into the skin, so they probably won’t be powerful enough for the light to penetrate your skull.

How long to use it for?

Most devices will come with recommendations on how long to use it for, or will run for periods of a set length. Usually, you use red light therapy for up to twenty minutes in one go. Keep in mind that using it for longer or more often will probably not help and may even be less effective. There seems to be a sweet spot – not enough, and you won’t get the benefit, but too much, and you also won’t get the benefit. So don’t overdo it.

The protocol adopted by some of the research labs is to use it every other day for brain injury recovery until your symptoms clear up. After that, use it two or three times a week for a few months in order for your recovery to stabilise. After this, you hopefully won’t need it any more. You might want to keep it though, as red light therapy has been found to stimulate cognitive improvements (e.g., in memory and concentration) even in healthy people, and there’s research suggesting it may help slow down the progress of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Other uses of red light devices

One of the known effects of red light therapy is to reduce inflammation. Many injuries and chronic health conditions involve inflammation, so red light therapy can potentially help treat a wide range of conditions.

You can use red light therapy for recovery from injuries – pulled tendons, muscle strains, etc.  Elite athletes have been using it for years to improve injury recovery and improve stamina. Supposedly putting it on your belly can also help the health of your gut bacteria but I haven’t looked into this yet.

Leading researcher, Professor Hamblin, reckons that in years to come every household will have some kind of red light device as it’s so useful for so many things. I reckon he’s probably right.