By now most of us are all pretty familiar with Red Light Therapy and its proliferation onto our For You pages; nodded along to the discourse about masks vs. panels vs. handheld devices; perhaps even tried it and seen for ourselves the numerous benefits it has for our health. But why? Few of us really understand the process taking place during Red Light Therapy, a process called photobiomodulation. If that word sounds complicated, it’s really not. You don’t need a PhD to understand the mechanics at work here, you just need to think back to that one nugget of information from Grade 10 Biology we all held onto.

The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.

If we were to imagine our cells as a city, then the mitochondria would be the power plants turning raw materials into the energy we use to move around and accomplish things. When we are young the power plants are brand new and operate at their highest level of efficiency. But as we age, so too do the power plants; foreign materials gum up the works and the normal wear and tear of time slows down output - perhaps even natural disaster in the form of an injury. The power plant can no longer produce energy efficiently. It needs maintenance. This is where photobiomodulation comes in.

Red spectrum light penetrates the skin and gets absorbed into the mitochondria where it flushes the cell of all those impurities which prohibit it from producing energy. This new healthy energy trickles through the cells into our organs and muscle tissue, reducing inflammation (pain) and speeding up the process of healing.

The side effects of photobiomodulation are good for you and include a range of benefits from clearer skin to reduced pain and everything in between. It is a non-invasive therapy with few, if any, adverse effects. It’s really that simple.