Does Red Light therapy Help Bruises?

We’ve all been there – you accidentally bang your leg on the corner of a table or take an errant elbow to the arm during a pickup basketball game. Before you know it, a colorful bruise begins to form, causing swelling, pain, and tenderness.

Red light therapy involves exposing the skin to low levels of red and near-infrared light. The light waves penetrate deep into tissues, triggering beneficial cellular responses that accelerate healing and reduce inflammation and pain. Does red light therapy help bruises?

What Happens When You Get A Bruise?

Bruises form when blunt trauma causes tiny blood vessels under the skin called capillaries to rupture. This allows blood to leak into the surrounding tissues. Here is a more in-depth look at the bruise formation process:

• Trauma: Bruises start with some form of trauma to the skin, whether it’s accidentally bumping into something or getting hit by an object. The impacted area sustains damaged capillaries.
• Blood leak: When capillaries are damaged, blood leaks out into the surrounding interstitial tissues – the spaces between cells. This blood is trapped and has nowhere to go.
• Inflammation: The leaked blood triggers an inflammatory response. Inflammatory chemicals like prostaglandins are released, causing pain and swelling around the bruise.
• Color changes: At first, the pooled blood appears reddish. But as the blood breaks down, bruises turn bluish-purple, green, yellow, and brown before finally clearing up. This color change occurs as hemoglobin from red blood cells breaks down into biliverdin and bilirubin.
• Absorption: Over time, the body gradually reabsorbs the leaked blood and clears up the bruise. Most bruises heal fully within 1-2 weeks.

The key point is that a bruise indicates inflammation and tissue damage under the skin at a microscopic level. Red light therapy aims to calm this inflammation and speed up recovery.

How Does Red Light Therapy Help Heal Bruises?

You first need to understand how the treatment works at a cellular level. Here is an overview of the key mechanisms:

• Increases Circulation and Blood Flow: Red light exposure causes mild vasodilation – expansion of the tiny blood vessels and capillaries in the skin. This gets more oxygenated blood flowing to the bruised area, helping carry away damaged blood cells and byproducts.
• Reduces Inflammation and Swelling: The anti-inflammatory effects of red light therapy help reduce excess inflammation and swelling around a bruise. This helps reduce pain and tenderness.
• Stimulates Collagen Production: Collagen provides structural support under the skin. Boosting collagen with red light therapy helps rebuild and strengthen tissue impacted by a bruise.
• Accelerates Cellular Repair and Renewal: The light signals cells in the area to increase their metabolism and repair processes. This speeds up the turnover of damaged cells and tissue repair.
• Improves Lymphatic Drainage: Red light can enhance lymphatic flow, improving drainage of excess fluid and waste products from bruised tissue. This aids normalization of the area.

Thanks to all these benefits, red light therapy delivers healing light energy capable of shortening the lifespan of a bruise. Consistent treatments can accelerate your body’s natural healing response.

Does Red Light Therapy Produce Noticeable Results For Bruises?

Multiple clinical studies have found red light therapy works effectively to treat bruises:

•  A 2020 study had participants use red light therapy after minor plastic surgery procedures. The red light group saw significantly faster resolution of bruises and swelling compared to the control group.
• A study in the Journal of Athletic Training* had athletes use red light therapy after muscle damage and bruising. The red light reduced muscle soreness and helped bruises heal within 1 week.
•  Researchers treated bruises on rats with red light. The light therapy decreased the size and darkness of bruises by over 60% compared to untreated bruises.
•  Many additional studies observe faster clearance of bruises, accelerated healing, and reduced discomfort compared to no treatment.

While larger bruises may still take weeks to fully heal, red light promises to shorten the lifespan by multiple days. With regular use, those ugly bruises don’t have to linger quite as long.

The Safety Of Red Light Therapy

One of the appeals of red light therapy is its excellent safety profile. The FDA has cleared red light as totally safe for home use. There are no harmful side effects, as the light simply delivers beneficial wavelengths rather than UV rays or heat.

Red light therapy is very gentle. You may notice the area feels a bit warm during treatment as blood flow increases. But the bulbs don’t get hot and won’t burn the skin.

Red light is also entirely painless, though you should avoid directing light into the eyes. Because it is so low risk, red light therapy is considered appropriate even for children with minor bruises when used carefully under adult supervision.

Some Tips For Optimal Use

If you want to try leveraging red light therapy to minimize a bruise, implementing it correctly is important. Here are some tips for optimal use:

• Use as Soon as Possible After Injury: It’s best to start red light treatments as soon as you notice a new bruise forming. This ensures the light can penetrate deeply and minimize bleeding and inflammation from the very beginning.
• Treat for 5-10 Minutes Daily: Most devices recommend 5-10 minute sessions per area. Consistency is key – aim to treat daily until the bruise has faded completely.
• Get Light Directly Over the Bruise: Position the light panel or diode so it shines evenly across the entire bruised area. This ensures full coverage.
• Sit or Stand 3-6 Inches from Light: Don’t press the light flush to the skin, but keep it within a few inches to allow the waves to properly penetrate the tissue.
• Continue Usual Bruise Care: You can (and should) continue using conventional recovery methods like ice, compression, ointment, etc along with the red light therapy for optimal results.

With the proper dosing schedule and positioning, red light can do its work to stimulate healing cascades in your bruised skin and tissues. Just be patient and consistent with it!

Specifically Optimized For Treating Bruises

With the basics covered, where should you look to access red light therapy for your bruises? One of the top at-home red light therapy devices comes from RedDot. Here’s why this option stands out:

• Full Red/Near-Infrared Wavelengths: RedDot emitters use the optimal 660nm red and 850nm near-infrared wavelengths proven best for treating bruises fast.
• Powerful 50W Output: Strong 50W power output ensures you get sufficient intensity for optimal depth penetration into bruised tissues.
• Complete Coverage: The large 14×10″ panel design allows you to easily treat bruises across broad surface areas like the back, legs, etc.
• Plug-and-Play Simple: This device doesn’t require complicated setup or control panels. Just plug in, turn on, and position over your bruise.
• 30-Day Money Back Guarantee: RedDot stands behind its product with a satisfaction guarantee – try it risk-free for bruise healing.

With the ability to deliver targeted, therapeutic wavelengths at an accessible price point, RedDot presents an excellent at-home red light therapy option to accelerate your recovery.

Conclusion:

In short, red light therapy, as an efficient, safe, and side-effect-free treatment, has become the first choice for more and more people in the pursuit of beauty and health. It lets us say goodbye to the trouble of bruises, but also brings us a better quality of life. In the future, red light therapy will continue to exert its unique advantages to bring health and beauty to more people! Let’s look forward to red light therapy for us to create more miracles!