← Biohacking Beauty: The Anti-Aging Skincare Podcast
Biohacking Beauty: The Anti-Aging Skincare Podcast
5 Ways Red Light Therapy Can Fail You If You’re Not Careful
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Amita Eshel
Foreign Beauty. I'm your host, Amita Eshel, co founder and CEO of Yangoo's Skincare, the biohacking skincare brand that's all about simplifying your journey to youthful radiant skin. On this podcast we talk about cutting edge strategies to optimize skin health, slow down aging and look as vibrant on the outside as we feel on the inside. Today's episode is a must listen for everyone interested in red light therapy, one of the most effective science backed tools for skin rejuvenation. But not all devices are created equal. So I'm breaking down the top five things you need to consider before investing in a red light therapy device. Let's dive in. So before we do that, actually disclaimer. We've been talking about red light therapy a lot recently and I've also gone on different lives like with Jamie Ann, where I broke down the hella broke down the science of red light therapy. Probably too much. So why do I know so much about red light therapy? It's because I was actually one of the first people in red light therapy. That's how I came to the biohacking longevity industry. I was an executive in probably the first red light therapy or one of them at least. And so anyone who's been following this podcast fairly recently, we don't take money at all. Even if we provide a coupon code, we do not get commission off of that. Obviously we make money off of people buying Yungoos products. This podcast is brought to you by Yungoos, but we do not make money off of recommending any product, which is something that I'm not sure I can say about anyone else who's getting to be talking about the subject because at least they're going to be talking about commission. You know, they're going to recommend products that they get commission off of. So we don't do any of that. This is just a burning desire that we have for people to use this very, very effective modality to improve their skin health. And obviously our evil plan, as I say always is, is to improve our own pro, our own products. If you use, you know, red light therapy and you, you know, fix your, your gut and your, you know, whatever, you're going to get better skin and that would reflect on our products to the positive. So there is a secret agenda here, but it's not to steer you to a specific paradigm or dogma around red light therapy. What you're going to get here are as facts about red light therapy and I think the that most people are like extremely Confused around that even dermatologists, like dermatologists now are being, are being paid to say pretty outrageous things as far as like red light therapy and promote products that actually don't work very well. So we're going to dive into the science of, of of, you know, skin health and red light therapy. So here are the five things that make a difference and that you should consider when choosing a device. Number one is wavelengths. That is pretty basic and for the most part pretty standard. Red and near infrared are the two wavelengths that we know work on the mitochondria and improve mitochondrial skin health, which is the most important thing around red light therapy. Other colors might do different things. Blue light eliminates acne. Recently I've seen, you know, a clip of Brian Johnson doing blue light therapy every day, which is really bad for your mitochondria. Blue light is actually as bad for the mitochondria as red light is good for the mitochondria. So let's not do that. Green light could do, could have some benefits for pigmentation and amber as well. But these are not longevity or, you know, anti aging benefits. And for the most part, if we focus on the longevity youthful function aspect that light therapy can provide, this is what, what's going to allow us to use, for example, retinol and treat pigmentation significantly better. So red light. So light therapy does mitochondrial function well. And that's what we should stick with. In a different video, I can definitely explain why, but this is not this. Okay, so what we want to look for are red light, which is 630 to 660 nanometers for superficial skin rejuvenation and near infrared light, which is 810-850nm for deeper tissue penetration and mitochondrial support. There are many, many, many studies linking these wavelengths to increased collagen, reduced wrinkles and improved skin texture. Naming one of them is study out of the Yonsei Yonsei in Korea, which, which looked at pigmentation around 2010. You can look for it. Another one is the triangle of reactive oxygen or ros. Reactive oxygen species, explaining that as well. Red light therapy and dermatology is a good review for those. If anyone wants, you know, a lot more, they can Google or they can DM us on Instagram. They're going to get a lot more. But in any case, what I mentioned, wavelengths that are low. So wavelengths and color is interchangeable. If I say red, it has, it's a certain length of a wave, 630 to 660 and near infrared is 810 to 850 far infrared is what we use in saunas. That's what heats up the tissue. It does not provide any mitochondrial benefit. And so that's above 850. Normally, you know, effective saunas, they use even above 950 to 1200. But those are wavelengths that as long as you're talking about skin health benefits, you should ignore. They're irrelevant. We don't care about them. Let's talk about irradiance or power output. That's number of two. More power doesn't mean necessarily better results. But there is a minimum effective dose for an effective treatment. And the trick here is to know that light lowers in intensity really, really fast when you get, when you get further away. Okay, so what we want to know is where we are and what is the power that the device provides there. Normally we want to know what's the power at about 6 inches. Since this is not something that is easily accessible, I would recommend a minimum, a minimum of 70 to 100 milliwatts per centimeter squared at the point of. At zero. At zero distance. Okay, zero inches. If a company does not provide these measurements, there is a reason why. Okay, so I'll give you two examples. Most red light therapy masks do provide it, but it's actually much lower than that. Where all red light therapy masks are lower than that. They're about, even the strongest ones are about 30. But it's not going to be something that they talk about very, you know, very prominently because it's a weak point in their, in their, you know, whatever. In their advertisement Salooma, for example, which is a brand I like to bash and it is a brand that estheticians buy. That's the one Brian Johnson uses. And it's a brand that estheticians buy for a lot of money. So. So I piss a lot of people off by kind of bashing it. They do get credit for making product in the US but their power output is 6 milli. Around 6 milliwatts per centimeter squared at source at 0 inches from, you know, the light bulbs. So we're not even reaching the 70 to 100 milliwatts per centimeter squared. It's like less than 10% of what we need. So they don't mention it at all. Like, like you need to go to the FDA registration where they register that the device isn't harmful, which is called the 510 or FDA cleared to even get that data. So there are no devices. So I said more isn't necessarily better, but higher Irradiance, which is interchangeable with power output, does allow for shorter treatment times and better penetration. So we do prefer higher ones. Okay. You won't find ones that are more than like 100, 120. If you do, they might, might be like playing with the numbers. Just for you to know that that just has to do with available, you know, just light bulbs, etc. One thing I would say is one device that does have more is like chroma, but it's not necessarily for the skin, it's for the, for like deeper tissue. Yeah. So just look for that number three treatment area or the size of the device. You should kind of decide if you want to save money and do a targeted device or a full body therapy device, for example, like small handheld devices like loom box, for example, or a panel system that covers your entire body or even a bed. That's up to you. You should know that the larger the surface area, the less you're getting results per centimeter squared, per square inch of your body. The stimulation gets kind of shared by the entire body and it's less effective per unit of skin. Okay. So if you care about your entire body, you care about how your skin on your, you know, behind looks on your, the back of your shoulder and the face, go ahead and get, and you're willing to invest the money, go ahead and get like a very intricate panel system. That's what we have, by the way, if anyone saw us, like videos, like. Yeah, so, but if you care only about your, the skin of your face, neck and chest, get a smaller device, you're going to be paying like $500 for a small panel. And that would, that would be, that would be enough. That would be as good as a full body panel if you care about your face, neck and chest only. The most important, in my opinion is first, you know, for, for, for consistent skin results. Convenience and coverage are the make and break, make or break of the routine. Right. Like if, if you, if it's not convenient for you to use. If it doesn't, if you need to do multiple areas, you care about multiple areas, you start moving it around. Not as effective, you're just not going to do it as much. And red light therapy should be done every other day or like three times a week. Build number four is build quality and safety. A few things is what we call flicker and emf, both of those things. In newer panels, more, I would say, like, yeah, newer, more innovative panels, these two things are almost a given that they're going to be low Low to non existent, which is Flickr and emf. But it is something that you should be looking for. When a company sells you a product. Eye protection is less important. But if you are worried about your eyes, which you really shouldn't with red light therapy, but if you are do that, make sure that you're getting eye protection with it. Most companies would send you one check if it's FDA cleared or has a different third party certification if you're in a different place in the world. FDA cleared doesn't mean the device works better than a device that is not cleared. That's a lot of times I think a marketing issue because FDA cleared means that they follow guidelines that a different device laid and that showed that there is no harm within those guidelines. Okay. It doesn't mean that it actually works that is FDA approved. And normally FDA approved approved devices would be much, much, much more expensive because it takes more money to get the approval. And I'm not sure there are red light therapy devices that are FDA approved. Okay, so you might hear an influencer say something about the FDA approval. That's wrong. Cheaper devices like Amazon Panels, something like that. Let's say you found one that has the wavelengths in and mainly energy output needed. They might be ones that can emit harmful levels of EMF or that have flicker. Their, their diodes are not constant. They flicker and that is not good for you, for your eyes, et cetera. We're talking about longevity here. So it's important to have, you know, to make sure it doesn't hurt you. Number five is user experience and features. So timer settings, adjustable intensity, mobile app control, portability. These are all things that are important in my opinion. They're only number five. They're less important than the other things that I mentioned, but they are important. Why? It's because it should be easy to use it consistently. Does it fit into your skincare ritual seamlessly? Because red light therapy is exactly like working out. You have to do it multiple times a week, hopefully more than twice a week. So three to four times per week to get significant results. The best red light device is the one you'll actually use every other day. Can you use it every day? Yes, but it almost would not matter if it's every day or every other day. Okay, so these are my five tenants to find a good red light therapy device. Why would we want that for? To improve our skin health routine. So you know, I did cover a lot of how red light therapy basically makes your energy producing part of the cell. Which of the MITOCHONDRIA work more youthfully and that's what it does. It doesn't create collagen out of thin air. It. It doesn't fade pigmentation out of thin air. It doesn't do anything else. It makes your skin make more energy easy, more easily. Okay, that's it. It does actually bring also more blood to the surface and with blood come nutrients. But it doesn't do anything on its own. It just improves how your body functions. What it would do is improve the effectiveness of things like retinol peptides, NAD boosting serums. For example, Shameless Plug Here we just launched a product called Ladder which is light activated DNA repair serum. And this serum has to have that light stimulus, preferably from a red light therapy panel. Could be also from the sun to lesser extent. But it needs to harness that energy to repair UV DNA damage, to help with wrinkles, collagen production, elastin production, etc. To help your skin actually make more NAD to repair the skin barrier and help with things like acne or rosacea. So red light therapy is also important for your other skin care products to work. And we're actually in the midst of having a really, really incredible study which we're looking. We're seeing incredible results out of Red light therapy also helps products be uptaken better by the skin and it reduces inflammation that can come with actives so you can push the skin further. Here is a segment. Even though I said before, hey, we don't promote any other products, blah, blah, blah, whatever. There are products that I use personally and here they are. So I use a brand for our panels. I actually have it here. So. And again, this is. I am a friend of the, of the owner, but that's because I like the product and we've met before in many occasions and we connected. So I liked their approach before I met them. It's called Mito Red. That's the panel. The reason I use it is because it is up to the specs that I mentioned before. Plus it is more. It's one of the panels that keep up with the technology available. So you know, the small tweaks like I mentioned, like the apps, things like that are available here where they won't be available with other device. Bigger companies normally take their time so their diodes are not as like advanced as these ones etc. They, they react later to changes in the market and that's important. And also I love supporting smaller brands even though they've exploded, so they're not considered smaller brand. I also use Biolite, which they have things like a mouth retainer or things like that. So I use their Mouth Red Light Therapy piece and I use, as I mentioned, Chroma. Chroma is a brand that I actually have never had even positive interactions with their owner. He's kind of a interesting feller, but the product is incredible. That's not going to be something I use on my face whatsoever, but I do use it on injuries, specific injuries. It's extremely strong. You can burn yourself. You definitely don't want to use it on your face. And it is not the best user experience because you have to keep moving it around. It's a little bit heavy so it can get tired, but the treatment is a minute because it's so strong. Science updates worth mentioning in the field. So there are a few things that people are looking at as far as like red light therapy. One is that it helps structure water in the mitochondria and that it also helps basically improve fascia. Okay. Fascia is a, is a kind of a wrap that wraps around our body. It's communicative. It should glide on top of itself and other, other parts of the body. And with time it becomes more sticky and more bunched up. And Red Light Therapy shows improvement in fascia. So that's incredible. But that's all we have for for today. Thanks for tuning in to the Biohacking Beauty podcast. If you've been thinking about adding red light therapy to your skincare routine, I hope today's breakdown helps with choosing a device that actually works and works for you. As always, if you have questions about anti aging, skincare ingredients or any biohacking tools, leave us a review and drop your questions on Apple Apple Podcasts. I for one love reading your feedback and might even answer your question on a following on a future episode. So until next time, stay, you know, curious, learn as much as you can, and let's biohack your beauty. Thank you. Sa.