RedLight Therapy as you have probably come to know, has a myriad of benefits for the user. However with different use cases requires different dosages in order to maximise effectiveness.
What is needed to plan for an effective dose of Red-light therapy, you will need 3 things,
a device powerful enough and has a high power density (lucky for you we have some of the most powerful RedLight panels on the market
Ideally a larger panel in order to cover more of the body at once
a good understanding of time duration for optimal dose
To give some background on “Power Density”, this is measured in W/cm2 (Watts per centimetre squared). This is measuring how much power the light is emitting over how big of an area. An example of this could be if you shine a light on your body and you are 100cm x 100cm (equals 10,000cm2). and the light you are using is 200 watts (200,000 mW), you have 200,000 mW/10,000cm2 equals: 20m/W2.
So put simply the area covered (10,000 cm2) divided by the Watts of the device used (200,000 mW).
Some additional details worth considering are:
The distance from the light, this can have a major decreasing in output the further from the light you are.
The wavelengths of light use, if a light has every wavelength 30% of the Wattage used to power the light could be using non therapeutic doses, thus having a decrease in effectiveness.
The size of the panel of course as a smaller device with an effective Power density will be less effective and more time consuming in treating large areas of the body than a larger panel.
To get an Ideal measurement of dosing and duration of dosing its a simple equation. Dose = Power Density X Time
How do we measure the Time? as we already have the power density measurement. so it is m/W2 X time (in seconds) X 0.001 = J/cm2
the “J” In the equation stands for Joules, and you should shoot for between 3-50 j/cm2
This range of 3-50 j/cm2 differentiates the treatment, from superficial treatment of the skin which is on the lower end to the deeper into the muscle treatment on the higher end. A sample of this equation would be: 50mW/cm2 applied for 20 seconds gives 1J/cm2.
So How do I know to use it for 1 or 10 minutes:
See below a summary of some of the common use cases and a table demonstrating the duration and distance from light.
For Skincare, you should aim for about 3-15J, and in some cases lower power densities may be better. As the treatment is surface level there is no need for an individual to be so close to the Light (especially ours as it powerful). So 1-4 minutes about 12 inches away from the light should suffice.
For the treatment of deeper tissues etc you want somewhere in the range of 10-60J. this could be 3-6 minutes at 6 inches away from the light for each targeted area or 5-10 minutes per area from 12 inches away. It is recommended to not go further than 12 inches away if your goal is to target muscle, joint, organ, bones, ligaments or glands.
Disclaimer, in the case of RedLight Therapy, more is . not always better, infact the logic of some being good so more should be better is incorrect, as we have a biphasic dose response, which in other words means after a certain point of treatment in a session you actually have an overload response which leads to lesser therapeutic benefits rather than more.
