Ep. 315: The Scoop on Red Light and Infrared Therapy

In this episode, Stacy and Sarah tackle red light and infrared therapy and whether it's true science or fake quackery!
 
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The Paleo View (TPV), Episode 315: The Scoop on Red Light and Infrared Therapy

Intro (0:00)
News and Views (0:40)
Stacy went to the lake (and the boats stayed on the roof!) and has finally learned to stand and paddle her board!
Sarah's kids have been at school for almost a month and she now has a middle schooler!
Cole turned 13, so Stacy now has a teenager! School starts for her this week!
This week's podcast is sponsored by Joov! If you want to check out Joov's light therapy boxes, visit https://joovv.com/paleoview
Joovv is the main consumer product on the market that optimizes all the variables needed to hit that therapeutic window. Many other products out there use dosages and power outputs that are too low to achieve benefits, don’t use the right wavelengths, or don’t target large enough areas of our bodies (or better yet, target our entire body!).
New FDA-approved electrostatic-coated LEDs that deliver even more intensity and have passed rigorous 3rd-party testing.
Brand new modular design that lets you build a full-body Joovv system now—OR over time. The cool thing is that you can start with just one Joovv, and add on to it over time. Sort of like legos for light therapy!
Lastly, all Joovvs now come with a cool built-in Bluetooth control that’s compatible with their new app as well as multiple connected home devices like Alexa and Google Home. “Alexa, I want to Joovv for 10 minutes.”
Sarah loves hers and wants to build a whole room of them to stand in!

Question from Terri: "I am considering purchasing a Red Light Therapy device...I have read about the sweet spots and the NM needed to be beneficial. I don't want to waste any money, so.....are they effective, or just a fad? I am most interested in skin rejuvenation, surface capillaries, joint and muscle effects. Thank You. Sarah, I value your advice. There are so many scam artists "out there"....hard to know what to believe!!!"
Sarah believes in red light therapy because it's so well supported by scientific research!
Dates back to the 1960s, when we discovered that low-level laser light caused mouse hair to grow back more quickly and also stimulated wound healing
By the 1970s, low-level lasers on humans treated non-healing skin ulcers.
Research on this therapy has grown to include various skin benefits (including wrinkle reduction!), weight loss, oral health improvement, improved muscle recovery, better sleep quality, enhanced thyroid health, reduced joint pain and inflammation
Super well researched: over 3,000 published clinical studies on light therapy, including over 200 of them double-blinded, randomized, and placebo-controlled (the gold standard!).
How does it work? It excites chromophores in your mitochondria and stimulates the energy chemical ATP to form!
Induces transcription factors that play role in: protein synthesis, cytokine modulation, cell proliferation growth factors (muscle recovery, tissue repair, collagen formation), angiogenesis, tissue oxygenation, Endogenous antioxidant enzymes (SOD, iNOS), Liver regeneration, inflammatory mediators (pro and anti), CNS health (increases bone-derived neurotrophic factor)
Immune cells are strongly affected by red light therapy, Strongly anti-inflammatory, Improves wound healing, Reverses age-related immune dysfunction, Promotes “M1-related immunoregulation” (immune balancing), Antiviral immunity, Antitumor immunity (inhibits tumor growth in studies), Pathogeneisis of autoimmune disease
Effects on fibroblasts (collagen-forming cells), enhances production of basic fibroblast growth factor, increases the proliferation, maturity, and motility of fibroblasts (a type of cell that produces collagen and extracellular matrix). Resulting increase in collagen production r