What You Need to Know Before Purchasing Red Light Therapy Products

Medically reviewed by Karen Wolters, RN and Joanna Fearnley, LPN

There is SO MUCH misleading information in the marketplace about infrared light therapy products. It really isn’t complicated, and we are going to tell you how. However manufacturers, particularly foreign imported products under hundreds of different names and product types, twist or simply lie about their claims. As a consumer, you like it because it is cheap. It may even have lifetime warranties—the cost to produce it is so cheap with cheap components and it is cheaper to replace it with new as it cannot be sent back to foreign countries for repair. You may even get “some” relief, but cannot achieve the maximum relief desired. Americans deserve better, especially when it comes to their health and improvement in lifestyle.

If you are looking at websites, trying to learn more, there are companies who claim to be ranking infrared light products. Beware. Manufacturers or distributors PAY to be listed!! You can determine that yourself.

I have been manufacturing for 30 years, and manufacturing red light therapy pads for ten years. We manufacture in the USA in a state of the art factory.

Here is the reality:

1. The FDA ONLY allows manufacturers to say that infrared light therapy products increase circulation and reduce pain. This is 100% true, it really does do this.
2. The FDA does not allow manufacturers to say it helps with peripheral neuropathy, arthritis, back pain, etc. If you have PAIN, red light therapy will help. It is not a CURE, but when it helps pain, for particularly chronic illness, it changes lives. We see patients like this every day. If you have cell damage, bringing increased circulation to those areas accelerate the production of ATP, energy for the cells to repair.
3. There are different types of infrared light products: Panels, Hard plastic covers, normally for foot application, over LEDs, Neoprene pads, Lamps, Hand held lasers resembling flashlights, Class 3b lasers, Class 4 lasers

Characteristics of LED products

• Various colors of LED wavelengths—red, infrared, blue, yellow, green
• Pulsing
• Frequencies
• Focused lens

What is the simple way to recognize quality?

• JOULES: What is the amount of joules produced by the LED at the skin? No hard plastic over the LEDs as some products are designed. The product’s LEDs must be touching the skin. This means that panels are significantly ineffective to treat a knee, a back, a wound, etc. At one foot from the panel, 90% of the efficacy is lost. Often the mW coming out of the wall outlet is given as the joules. Don’t be fooled—it is the optical joules at the LED next to the skin that gives you a quality read.
• TEMPERATURE: What is the temperature after 20 minutes? Should never exceed 105 degrees. We have seen burns from low quality products.
• TIME: Compare amount of time required by products to produce the highest amount of joules? Does it require twice the amount of time to equal the joules of another product?
• LENS FOCUS: What is the focus of the LED lens? 360, 180, or 20 degrees? The focus avoids loss of joules to the surrounding environment.
• PULSING: Important it pulses so the body doesn’t quit responding.

If you think your clinician would be using the best product, don’t be fooled. Even they often don’t know how to recognize quality.

Let’s take a look at Healthlight competition by a 3rd party engineering company. You will see on our website that we give the joules and temperature of every product we sell. Often you will see statements such as, “We sell the highest joules output of any battery operated product on the market”. They carefully state how they are the highest joules output.

There is a manufacturer that states joules output at the LED, but then the product is covered with a hard plastic, not removable, that significantly reduces the LED/joules at the skin.