How To Use Red Light For First Aid
- Sep 29, 2023
- 5 min read
Updated: Apr 1, 2025
Written by: Ida Fanelli, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
It was a smoky day in June 2023. Intense forest fires were in cities near our area due to the strong winds. My 65-year-old husband still felt the need to bike ride in these circumstances. He was riding fast, and his eyes were irritated from the debris in the air. Before he knew it, he hit a guard rail: he utterly skinned his left leg’s shin and surrounding calve.
Leg injuries take longer to heal because blood flow is further away from the heart. The age and health of an individual also impact how quickly they heal. I didn’t take any pictures, because writing an article about it was not on my mind. The size was at least 6 inches long and 5 inches wide. He had a subdermal hematoma; the swelling and bruising were extreme. The front of his shin was as deep as the back calve. Blood sank to his feet, and his ankle was very swollen from the incident.
There is a misconception that when you injure yourself, a scar will form. Deformed Tissue will not develop if you treat the injury properly when it is in the active stage of healing.
My red light/near-infrared light unit was instrumental in his healing.
How red light therapy works
The “power generators” of your cells, called mitochondria, soak it up and allow it to increase the ATP (energy) production from the mitochondria. Mitochondrial respiration is the most critical generator of cellular energy.
I used it on him every day. The open wound became smaller every day. The scab came off every day after removing the dressings. We used the red-light treatments at night after his shower. The unit I have requires 10 minutes of use spaced two feet away. After four days, he went to Urgent Care, and the doctors examined and x-rayed him. They found no broken bones and said it was not infected even though it was constantly weeping. They gave him no antibiotics. I was worried about an infection since it was such a large open wound. They said it was healing well. They did not give him any requirements to get his dressing changed by a nurse. They gave him some supplies and told him to change the dressings himself. We continued with the red-light treatments, and he changed the gauze dressing every night, resulting in the scab coming off each time. Each time, the scab became smaller. His skin was very irritated. He used a moisturizer I made of various healthy oils, butters, aloe vera and essential oils between dressings on the healed areas.
After two weeks, I started wrapping areas around the open wound with castor oil packs to reduce stubborn swelling in the impact areas. A particular part would not develop a scab after a while on the shin. The shin is very hard to heal because it has poor blood flow. The castor oil softened the swollen portion of the injury and enhanced the development of a scab. He stopped wearing dressings after that. It’s been four weeks. He’s running again. It is still swollen. It will take some time for the lymphatic system’s swelling to reduce. Exercise and the body’s natural healing processes will allow this to happen.
He healed quickly with no visible scar or physical limitations of movement, considering his age and the location of his injury. A few months later, he had one session with a massage therapist who treated him with a red-light laser and ultrasound. Laser is much stronger than LED light. During the treatment, she helped him with some stiffness in his leg.
Red light/Near infra-red
The quality of the Red light /Near-infrared light is also a factor in proper healing. The third one posted below is the one I used. The ones displayed here are also effective. The difference is that the third has a fan to keep it cool. Near-infrared light is scorching. Keep it at a distance from the user.
watch this video to learn Red Light for First Aid.
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Later, I researched that red light therapy is safe for people with diabetes, allowing them to avoid amputations.
Surgery incisions, wounds and third burn patients benefited from improved healing. Patients with previous scars found that their healed wounds became more tender with repeated use. These patients experienced much less pain and avoided the side effects of prescription medication and invasive procedures.
Utilizing red light during the healing phase aids the development of the circulatory system and stimulates the cells that help in tissue repair. (fibroblasts) It reduced inflammation and increased natural collagen production, which led to quicker healing. It also prevented the formation of misaligned collagen fibres that we normally after tissue repairs itself. Collagen is a protein. It is the connective tissue of the body.
Now, surgeries are being performed in the daytime when possible because skin cells that help patch up wounds work more quickly in the day than at night, thanks to the workings of our circadian clock. The finding suggests that patients recover from injury more rapidly if they have surgery during the right time of day.
Red light therapy is a safe, way to speed healing. It reduces pain and inflammation without the risks and side effects of medication and invasive procedures.
This is the one I used
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The after picture shows no typical scarring. However, he has a previous scar from years ago on the outer side of his leg.
It's still a bit red and swollen. Sorry, the before was just too grotesque to post.
I'd like you to please watch this video for more updated information on Red Light for First Aid!
Here are some other related articles you may enjoy learning from:
https://medium.com/@idalfanelli/how-light-therapy-can-help-62dfd7ff36a0
https://medium.com/@idalfanelli/how-to-use-light-therapy-for-teeth-3183c2550ad
https://www.brainzmagazine.com/post/green-light-therapy-achieve-pain-relief-for-the-brain-and-body
https://www.brainzmagazine.com/post/yellow-led-light-therapy-8-proven-benefits
Photosensitive products are a concern when using light therapy. Be knowledgeable of them.
New technology is always being researched.
Illumacell a Waterloo, Ontario Canada, based company has demonstrated ex vivo their LED red light devices can deliver light energy much deeper than typical. They help people with skin cancer. This company is currently seeking regulatory approval and financing to advance its mission.
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Ida Fanelli, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Ida is a certified aesthetician (graduate of Marvel School of Beauty), offering home-based services since 1994. Ida provides various holistic services; she graduated from Zanqara’s Holistica Skin Care’s Dermatician course in 1994, which required her to understand homeopathic remedies. Ida has been a certified reflexologist since 1993 (graduate of D’Arcy Lane Institute). She has also been practicing Healing Energy since 1998 and has added the Ion Cleanse Foot Detox to her therapies. In 2012, Ida became a certified Sharplight Laser (IPL) Technician. She enjoys learning new techniques which can benefit her clients. In 2019, she received certification from the Center for Pain and Stress Research (CPSR.) She can now speed up the healing of scars and help with pain caused by surgical scars to her list of specialties.
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