lystn

Skincare trends can be hard to keep up with sometimes...there are always new products, new technology… and I saw recently something I was curious about - this LED light therapy. Should you believe that strapping a creepy white mask to our face will take away redness and acne? Or that a handheld space-age looking wand could be the key to healing and smoothing away wrinkles? If the answer was yes, go ahead and sign me up! But let’s actually see if there’s truth to LED light therapy or not? The full face white mask became pretty popular on Instagram when the Kardashians endorsed it. The LED mask is kinda scary looking. You put it on for 20 minutes a day and if anyone sees you in it... it’s creepy! Major serial killer vibes!!!Back to our main question...what exactly is LED light therapy? It’s basically a plastic mask you put on your face. It has LED lights on the inside, which emit different color lights. And the difference between the colors is they are different wavelengths of red and blue light that can be absorbed into the skin. Now some history… Dating back to the early 1900’s A Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to a scientist named Neil Finsen for using light therapy in medicine. By the 1960’s LED light therapy was being used in Eastern Europe for pain and injury relief and in a small portion of the U.S. on animals, mostly horses, with joint or muscle injuries. In the 1980’s NASA developed an LED light as an experiment to see if they could grow plants on space missions. Under the red light wavelength the plants did grow and they actually developed a new antioxidant that made them stronger, healthier, and live longer. Then NASA began using red light therapy to heal the painful side effects of cancer treatment.  Now coming more current to the 2000’s...professional sports teams and physical therapists found that LED therapy helps heal sports injuries 50 times faster than without light therapy. It’s no wonder that light therapy made its way into more medical services and certainly skincare treatments. While LED light therapy can be used on any part of the body, it is mainly used on the face because the skin on our face experiences more damage from the environment like pollution and sun exposure. That is why LED light therapy is now used by estheticians to help heal stressed skin that is aging or suffering from acne breakouts. So let’s talk about the difference between the red and blue light for a moment...We’re going to get a little sciency here to explain exactly what red light therapy does to the skin. Red LED light therapy works by changing the chemistry of skin cells and making the mitochondria stronger, which is where all of the skin cells energy is made. When the skin cells have more energy… they can function better, heal themselves, and repair damage. Red light therapy in skincare treatments are usually marketed as anti aging or skin rejuvenation services. Red LED light therapy actually stimulates collagen and more collagen means that your skin will look smoother and fuller filling in fine lines and wrinkles. Red LED light also calms redness and improves circulation, which can give your skin a nice healthy glow! Blue LED light therapy, on the other hand, works on the oil glands, which produce the sebum that keeps skin lubricated so it doesn’t get dry. But when the oil glands start to produce too much oil because of hormone changes or an improper skincare routine...it causes blackheads and breakouts. Blue LED light therapy targets the oil glands to make them less active. Blue light can also kill acne-causing bacteria on the skin. This can with severe acne breakouts like cysts and nodules.  Blue and red light therapy can be used together to treat acne so you get the benefits of slowing down oil production, decreased scarring and redness. There was a study in 2006 where 10 people with acne used blue LED light therapy twice a week for 20 minutes for 8 weeks. All people showed improvement in getting rid of the breakouts in just 4 weeks and 9 out of 10 people were completely clear in 8 weeks with zero side effects.So that must mean LED light therapy is safe to use? The American Academy of Dermatology says YES! Since LED lights don’t have UV rays, they are considered a safe treatment. Light therapy won’t cause long-term damage to your skin. It is not invasive meaning it doesn’t break the surface of the skin, the light rays absorb into the skin. LED lights do not get hot so they will not burn the skin compared to other anti aging treatments like chemical peels, dermabrasion, and laser therapy. It is also safe for all skin colors and skin types. LED light therapy is not painful. There is no downtime after having a treatment either… so you won’t be walking around with a red face for 3 days the way you do after some really harsh chemical peels.The only thing you should be mindful of is if you are taking Accutane, a medication to treat severe acne, you shouldn’t use light therapy. You might wonder why since blue light therapy is great for acne? One of the side effects of Accutane is that it makes the skin very sensitive to light. You will typically find LED light therapy services offered by a doctor’s office, medical spa, or day spa. In addition of course to the scary looking at-home masks. It is recommended to have the treatment done 1 to 2 times per week for 20 minutes for up to 10 weeks. You’ll have to be patient with this treatment...LED light therapy is not a quick fix. And most people only see minor results after their first treatment. Results are not permanent either. So it’s more of a cosmetic treatment than anything else. That is why maintenance treatments are recommended every few months.  All in all, LED light therapy is an amazing technology and a great alternative to more aggressive acne and anti aging treatments.