We burn ourselves all the time. It could be we stayed in the sun too long, touched a hot pot, or something more serious like a chemical burn. Either way, burns can be extremely painful. But did you know that light therapy can help burns heal faster?
So what is a burn, exactly? Burns are tissue damage that result from heat, overexposure to the sun, or chemical and electrical contact. Typically, the treatment of burns depends on the location and severity of the burn, itself. While sunburns can usually be treated at home, deep or wide burns need medical attention. There are four classifications of burns:
When it comes to treating a burn, the tactic really depends on the degree of the burn. Mild burns need minimal attention and can be attended to with aloe vera gel or other anti-burn gels. Most people apply cool compresses and, within a day or two, heal from the burn. However, for serious burns, undergoing a skin graft may be necessary.
However, it’s been discovered that light therapy has the ability to speed up the healing of burns by activating growth protein. According to a University at Buffalo-led study, their red light therapy skin research found that photobiomodulation - a form of low-dose light therapy - sped up recovery from burns and reduced inflammation in mice.
The findings are profound and may impact future therapeutic treatment for burn injuries, which affect over 1.1 million people annually in the United States, alone. Lead investigator Praveen Arany, DDS, Ph.D., assistant professor of oral biology in the UB School of Dental Medicine, says that number jumps to 6 million when looking at worldwide burn injuries.
“Photobiomodulation therapy has been efficiently used in supportive cancer care, age-related macular degeneration and Alzheimer’s disease,” says Arany. “A common feature among these ailments is the central role of inflammation. This work provides evidence for the ability of photobiomodulation-activated TGF-beta 1 in mitigating the inflammation, while promoting tissue regeneration utilizing an elegant, transgenic burn wound model.”
The study was performed on third-degree burns over a period of nine days. The treatment was able to stimulate various cells, bringing them into the healing process. These cells include fibroblasts (connective tissue cells that play a role in tissue repair) and macrophages (immune cells that reduce inflammation and fight infection). So, if you’ve been wondering, ‘is light therapy good for skin?’ - the answer is yes.
The effectiveness of treating pain and stimulating healing via light therapy has been positively documented in hundreds of clinical trials and thousands of academic papers. In other words, it’s showing that red light therapy treatment provides positive results for those looking to heal from their injuries and illnesses in a shorter time span. The future of medicine is here, and it's using the power of light.
At Kaiyan, we’re one step ahead and have developed a series of MDA-certified and FDA-approved red light therapy products and devices that cater to various needs. Whether you’re looking to private label your own light therapy products or for home use, contact our team as we would love to help you through your light therapy journey.
When summer rolls around, we all head outside, absorbing as many rays as we can. And the proof is in the numbers, with the top five summertime activities being barbeques, going to the beach, attending festivals, going for a hike, and exploring nature. When the sun comes out, people flock to the outdoors with good reason. We need the sun’s rays to survive.
However, many of us go a little overboard. Some lather on tanning oil or skip sunscreen to make sure we receive as much pigmentation as possible. And yes, we need vitamin D, but overexposure leads to sun damage, including sunspots and wrinkles.
However, it doesn’t end there. Neglectful sun exposure can also lead to skin cancer. While the damage has already been done from years of sunbathing and tanning oils, there are ways we can repair sun-damaged skin, reduce wrinkles and sunspots.
It can help repair the sun damage done to our skin and turn back the clock with red light therapy.
What is Sun Damage?
In the end, skin damage comes from overexposure to ultraviolet (UV) light. When we sunbathe, our skin naturally responds to the sun by protecting itself from UV light. What does our body do? Well, it produces melanin, which darkens the skin to reflect the UV light. So your summer tan is actually a defense mechanism. There are a few different types of sun damage to be aware of:
Melasma: It’s an overproduction of melanin that causes brown or gray patches to form on the skin.
Wrinkles: UV light breaks down the collagen and elastin in the skin, losing its firmness and causing wrinkles.
Sunburn: Sunburns are an inflammatory reaction to UV radiation damage to the skin. The body responds by repairing or removing the damaged cells, which results in redness and peeling.
Sun Spots: Overexposure to UV rays causes an increase of melanin production that builds up in clusters, producing dark spots on the skin.
Actinic Keratosis (AK): Causes a scaly patch of skin on the body from overexposure to UV light. This is particularly dangerous as around 10% of actinic keratosis becomes cancerous.
How Red Light Therapy Reverses Sun Damage
If you’re wondering whether sun damage is reversible or not, the answer is yes. Red light therapy uses infrared and red light to enhance the body’s healing process. Red light therapy increases the body’s collagen, elastin, and immune response; it can remove and repair dead or damaged skin cells.
By increasing collagen production, it’ll help smooth and firm the skin, reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Besides, red light therapy also protects existing collagen, which helps keep the skin’s elasticity.
However, red light therapy doesn’t only reduce fine lines and wrinkles. It can also help with more serious skin conditions such as actinic keratosis. It can aid in removing actinic keratosis spots from the skin with photosensitizing medication and red light therapy.
Sun damage is the main cause of aging skin and can lead to serious health issues. Naturally, some sun damage forms cannot be treated, especially for those who work consistently outdoors. However, tackling sunspots, wrinkles, sunburns, and actinic keratosis is achievable through red light therapy treatment.
It’s important to point out that while red light therapy does reverse sun damage, it can prevent future damage — but you should always wear a broad-spectrum sunscreen when outdoors and reapply after swimming or sweating.
Reversing past mistakes are possible with light therapy, but we also want to look at the future. Luna’s red light therapy will tackle previous sun damage and rejuvenate the skin, while sunscreen will prevent future damage.
We hope you continue to enjoy the sun’s incredible rays safely while enjoying the incredible skincare results of Lunas light panels.
Different types of clinical research are used depending on what the researchers are studying. Below are descriptions of some different kinds of clinical research.
Treatment Research generally involves an intervention such as medication, psychotherapy, new devices, or new approaches to surgery or radiation therapy.
Prevention Research looks for better ways to prevent disorders from developing or returning. Different kinds of prevention research may study medicines, vitamins, vaccines, minerals, or lifestyle changes.
Diagnostic Research refers to the practice of looking for better ways to identify a particular disorder or condition.
Screening Research aims to find the best ways to detect certain disorders or health conditions.
Quality of Life Research explores ways to improve comfort and the quality of life for individuals with a chronic illness.
Genetic studies aim to improve disorders' prediction by identifying and understanding how genes and illnesses may be related. Research in this area may explore how a person’s genes make him or her more or less likely to develop a disorder. This may lead to the development of tailor-made treatments based on a patient’s genetic make-up.
Epidemiological Studies seek to identify the patterns, causes, and control of disorders in groups of people.
An important note: some clinical research is “outpatient,” meaning that participants do not stay overnight at the hospital. Some are “impatient,” meaning that participants will need to stay for at least one night in the hospital or research center. Be sure to ask the researchers what their study requires.
Phases of Clinical Trials: When Clinical Research is Used to Evaluate Medications and Devices
Clinical trials are a kind of clinical research designed to evaluate and test new interventions such as psychotherapy or medications. Clinical trials are often conducted in four phases. The trials at each phase have a different purpose and help scientists answer different questions.
Examples of Other Kinds of Clinical Research
Many people believe that all clinical research involves testing new medications or devices. This is not true, however. Some studies do not involve testing medications, and a person’s regular medications may not need to be changed. Healthy volunteers are also needed so that researchers can compare their results to the results of people with the illness being studied. Some examples of other kinds of research include the following:
Dr. Claudia Aguirre which has a Ph.D. in neuroscience from USC and travels the world lecturing on a broad range of topics from neuroscience to skin care has been researching the power of the skin and its connection with the brain.
The skin is highly innervated and intricately connected to the brain and central nervous system, just as other sensory organs are. Dr. Claudia Aguirre is discovering that the skin has a lot of neuro potential, or neuroplasticity, that has gone unrecognized. For example, just as our eyes have receptors that transduce light photons into signals to the brain that we process as vision, we’re discovering that our skin also has light receptors. Although we don’t yet know how they work, we speculate that they might be signaling the brain to make systemic changes that affect the full nervous system. Similarly, olfactory receptors in the hair follicles, just as we do in the nose.
Another example is touch, for which our skin is the primary sense organ. Skin is also our largest organ, which gives us a clue as to how important touch is. Different receptors in the skin can tell us not only whether what we touch is hot or cold, rough or smooth. Skin can even sense the intention behind the touch. A gentle touch feels much different than an aggressive one. We can tell whether the person giving us a massage is paying attention or whether they’re distracted. Moreover, different kinds of touch elicit different biochemical and hormonal responses, which have systemic results. A hug or kiss stimulates the release of oxytocin, the bonding hormone, through the bloodstream, while a punch or shove will release adrenaline and cortisol. All of these capabilities are what we say by the hidden brain in the skin.
The skin is connected to the nervous system; it’s connected to the endocrine system. The skin is impacted by our emotional states and, conversely, our skin can impact how we feel about ourselves. Cultural stress and anxiety can trigger or aggravate many skin conditions—from acne to eczema to herpes, psoriasis, and rosacea. Conversely, a disfiguring skin condition can trigger stress, anxiety, depression, and even suicide. Chronic, generalized anxiety can create chronic inflammation and exacerbate inflammatory skin conditions, such as the ones mentioned previously. Chronic stress can result in chronic anxiety, hypervigilance, poor sleep, and a whole cascade of effects resulting in a constant breakdown of tissues and organs, including the skin. There’s a whole new field of medicine being developed called psychodermatology, which is the study and treatment of the psychological component of skin conditions. Better understanding of the neuropotential of skin also opens the possibility of whole new avenues of treatment with light therapy for many of our chronic conditions.
In Kaiyan Medical we have understood that neuroscience should absolutely be part of the conversation about skincare and beauty because the brain and the skin are intimately connected. Skincare is important not only for the skin, but also the brain. That's why we keep developing light therapy devices for skin and brain. In Kaiyan we always recommend to listen for all the little signs that your skin tells you that you tend to ignore. You get a rash, and you brush it off: “Maybe it’s just dry out. Maybe I need to switch creams.” But if it occurs repeatedly, you need to look more closely and ask, “What could my skin be trying to tell me?” Are you repressing emotions? Is there a relationship issue you’re avoiding? Is there some other life circumstance that’s “gotten under your skin”? The body has a wisdom we should listen to.
