From beds to LED masks, is the red light craze giving us more than just a warm glow?

ShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleRuth CleggHealth and wellbeing reporterGetty ImagesLED masks are just one of many different devices currently on the market At first glance, it reminds me of a tanning bed I used to cook myself on as a naive teenager (which I heartily do not recommend). But I'm reassured I won't be turning a crisp brown. "It's red light," Dr Cal Shields explains. "This is going to repair cells - not fry them. "Just 15 minutes," he says, as he closes the lid of the red light therapy bed and leaves the room in Thriyv, a wellness suite in Manchester. There's a distant whirr, the bed glows and I'm left alone with my thoughts - and supposedly some hastily repairing skin and muscle cells. Over the past few months, the wellbeing industry has been turning red. Whether you want to look younger, live longer, feel happier, or recover more quickly, it's being claimed red light therapy is the way to go. But what is red light therapy, and can the warm scarlet hues beaming out of red therapy mats, LED masks and sauna sleeping bags really boost our health? Red light therapy impacts the body using different wavelengths. Red light is what we can see with the naked eye, with wavelengths measuring between 630–660 nanometres - that's millionths of a millimetre. As the wavelengths get longer, the light starts to become invisible. The longer the wavelength, the deeper it reaches in the body. While shorter wavelengths target the top layers of the skin, longer ones are aimed at muscle tissues and are said to help with recovery. Depending on wavelength and intensity, these little red light particles can speed up energy production in cells and help damaged cells repair and reproduce. Back at Thriyv, one of Dr Shields's regular clients, Kate McLelland, jumps off a red light therapy bed. She's been using red light since fracturing her neck two years ago, when a barbell landed on her while CrossFit training. "I had intense physiotherapy for my injury," McLelland says, "but I combined it with red light therapy." The 32-year-old - who believes this has helped her muscle tissues heal more quickly - is back training and she's just competed at a Hyrox fitness event. Red light is still a part of her recovery routine. "It used to take me a week to recover from Hyrox," she says. "Now it's just a few days." McLelland is such a fan, she also has an LED face mask. These sell for hundreds of pounds, if not thousands, with manufacturers claiming that use of red light stimulates collagen production and reduces fine lines. Some also use blue light, a shorter wavelength on the light spectrum, which some studies suggest helps with acne. "My skin does feel like it's got more of a glow," McLelland says. "I had a lot of sun damage, but I can see that's definitely lifted." So how effective are the red light devices you can find on the market? "Blasting yourself with an expensive red light device off the internet will not necessarily give you the results you want," says Prof Glen Jeffery, a neuroscientist based at University College London. While there are encouraging signs that red light therapy may help in some different areas - from skin rejuvenation to muscle soreness - Dr Sophie Weatherhead, from the British Association of Dermatologists, is also cautious. "We have lots of different studies, which tend to be quite small, which use various combinations of light, and very different doses of light. "It also depends on other factors: the way light interacts with different skin colours, the thickness of the skin, which part of the body is being targeted, the amount of energy used to power the devices." Here's how you can get your dose of red light therapy: These use mostly visible red light and some longer wavelengths. Weatherhead says the thickness of the skin affects how well red light can penetrate. There maybe marginal gains on the face, she explains, because the skin is naturally thinner there than other parts of the body. But, she stresses, it depends if there is enough power from the device. "The red light should be able to reach the dermis," Weatherhead says, which means, in theory, there may be some change to the mitochondria - where energy is produced in the cell, which could help with rejuvenating the skin. It also depends on where the red light is coming from. Home devices, she says, may be less effective than medical grade ones. These use some visible red light but more longer near-infrared wavelengths. Prof Jeffery, the UCL neuroscientist, says his studies show that near-infrared light can penetrate right through the body - so the light could reach deeper tissues. However, he doubts whether beds currently on the market are effective, explaining they don't have the right mix of wavelengths needed to successfully target cells' energy production. He adds it's very difficult to judge how much red light skin needs, and it differs from person to person. Prof Zubair Ahmed, a neuroscientist at the Univer

From beds to LED masks, is the red light craze giving us more than just a warm glow?

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