I'm currently writing from my hotel room just across from the Health Optimisation Summit 2026 (HOS 2026).
I interviewed 5 different people there - thanks, everyone, for participating. And I'll cover the 7 most important developments/lessons from 3 days at the HOS 2026.
If you weren't there, here's what you need to know to stay on top of developments in the space:
I have used AI for suggestions for improving the article and finding mistakes.
1) James Carroll & Thor Photomedicine: Red Light Therapy For Recovery Is Becoming An Independent Health Pillar
Think about this. There are a few independent health pillars, such as:
- Nutrition
- Exercise
- Sleep
And today, James Carroll of Thor Lasers and Thor Photomedicine argued that red light therapy should be added to that list. Here's me interviewing James Carroll:
James Carroll has almost 40 years in the space. Our argument revolved around different ways in which red light therapy (technically called "photobiomodulation") affects recovery:
- Before workouts
- After workouts
- Before surgery/medical interventions
- After surgery - in many cases, directly after surgery
What's super interesting is that James thinks you should ideally apply red light therapy both before and after workouts for optimal recovery. The mechanism isn't just increased ATP production, but also a short-term increase in oxidative stress.
If you're curious, I've covered my viewpoint on these topics in the following articles:
Bart Wolbers
And:
Bart Wolbers
But back to James Carroll's interview. What surprised me is that he's a proponent of using red light therapy for recovery 7 days a week. We've had lots of discussion on this topic in the industry, too. Many people think you'd overdo it, but James even mentioned using his NovoTHOR bed twice a day in some cases for maximum gains.
In the end, full-body treatment is best here, using either panels or ideally a red light therapy bed. With panels, you'll need a 360-degree setup, so treating every spot of your body requires more time. And, over time, many of the underlying recovery processes should be improved, such as:
Leading to much quicker recovery. Quicker recovery, in turn, leads to the ability to exercise more frequently. And that ability to exercise more frequently - or to recover from surgery or other issues more quickly - then supports overall adaptability.
We discussed quite a few other topics with James, such as:
- red light therapy and cancer
- different red light therapy mechanisms and wavelengths.
- how measurement in the red light therapy space, in both studies and with consumer products, isn't universalized
- panels versus red light therapy beds
- James' viewpoint on the issue with panels
- And much more!
It's too much to include here, so I recommend subscribing to our YouTube channel so that you can see the update soon!
James has a huge mission: to make red light therapy part of routine health care before he turns 100. At 64, he moves like a 25-year-old.
Thor also has dozens of clinical studies coming out, apparently, with human participants.
All very exciting!
And the NovoTHOR? Still a thing of beauty:
But I'll likely keep recommending panels anyway because of the overall value, cost, and space requirements for most people. And I'll also admit that many people simply want a NovoTHOR in their house, ideally. A man can dream!
2) Andy Smith: Combine PEMF And Red Light Therapy To 2-3X Your Health Benefits
Andy Smith is a real gentleman. His company CELLER8 started out in Pulsed Electro-Magnetic Field (PEMF) therapy more than a decade ago. Red light therapy was added a few years ago.
I interviewed Andy Smith as well so stay tuned for my interview on the YouTube channel, specifically on what benefits he's seen from combining PEMF and red light therapy.
Combining red light therapy and PEMF therapy apparently reinforces both of their own benefits. There's an issue, however, as:
- We've got lots of science on red light therapy - 10,000-12,000 studies, depending on who you ask
- There are 330+ different PEMF studies out there.
- There are few if any studies that combine PEMF and red light therapy as a setup.
The solution?
I had to ask Andy personally about his experience combining PEMF and red light therapy, as he's got experience for a few years now. As far as I know, CELLER8 is one of the few companies combining high-quality PEMF and red light therapy devices, and do full justice to both.
(Below you can see me interviewing Andy Smith!)
Here are some of Andy's most important takeaways:
- Often, when a PEMF company wants to integrate red light therapy into its product, they'll only use a few LEDs for their light therapy.
- Alternatively, when red light therapy products integrate PEMF into a single product, it's often not a good match as the PEMF can disrupt the electricity mechanism of the red light therapy products
- So it's better to have an independent red light therapy product, and an independent PEMF product
- You can see the preferred CELLER8 setup below:
- So it's red light therapy on top, a PEMF mat on the bottom, and here also a targeted PEMF device is used on the abdomen.
More takeaways?
- One of the health conditions that improves very strongly, experimentally, based on the in-house data of CELLER8 is chronic fatigue.
- Although this is not medical advice, many other health conditions also improve significantly with CELLER8.
- Andy recommends getting 1 high-quality PEMF product and 1 high-quality red light therapy product, ideally in separate devices.
- PEMF has some overlapping and some different mechanisms than red light therapy. For example, PEMF can change the electric charge in the cell and ion channels (sodium, potassium). We don't fully understand this yet, just as we don't fully understand the mechanisms of red light therapy.
- For best overall health effects, Andy recommends doing the PEMF and red light therapy combination twice a day now. Once in the morning to set the circadian rhythm, and once in the evening before bedtime.
- In the morning, use more activating PEMF; in the evening, use more relaxing frequencies. You can align the morning with the activating beta brainwaves, for instance, and the evening with the tranquil alpha brainwaves.
- So where do I get the 2-3X in results from? Well, Andy states himself, that 1+1 = 3 here, in relation to combining PEMF and red light therapy. Both are great therapies in their own right, but working synergistically, you're not just getting the benefits of one but the mutually reinforcing benefits. I'll have to test this for myself, though, and hopefully we'll have some great studies on their combination in the near future as well!
- And, in my opinion, it's a matter of time before we start seeing human studies combining PEMF and red light therapy. That's very exciting, as I personally see huge potential in both modalities.
In the meantime, subscribe to our YouTube channel to get a lot more updates on combining PEMF and light therapy
3) Kineon: Upcoming Products, Life-Changing MOVE+ Reviews For Chronic Pain, And More
I talked a lot with Tom Sanderson from Kineon over the weekend. He interviewed me, and I interviewed him, and we had a great time at the event:
As you may know, we've been promoting the Kineon MOVE+ for years now as one of our favorite portable devices:
Alex Fergus
Check the high score on the travel devices too.
Tom gave some great examples of the life-changing effects their Kineon MOVE+ has had for people across this planet. I'll quote one of them here, which will be discussed in more detail in the interview:
Which should be a huge motivation for many of us to move this industry forward!
We both covered a lot of topics, such as:
- The biggest "Unique Selling Point" about the Kineon MOVE+ is probably that you can use it anywhere, any time, during almost any activity. So the Kineon MOVE+ won't take any time out of your day, which is by far the biggest benefit it has over panels.
- Using the Kineon MOVE+ consistently then becomes much easier when you can use it while watching television, or driving to your job, or at work
- Red light therapy treatment at the arteries in the neck is my personal favorite way to use the Kineon MOVE+. This has many systemic effects for pain, blood circulation, heart health, immune system benefits, and much more. Read my article on transcutaneous ("through the skin") or intravenous ("into the veins") light therapy.
- The MOVE+ straps have been updated recently, and the new strap system allows you to target different areas better, such as the back of the knee, abdomen, lower back, and more.
- There's lots and lots of great stuff coming from Kineon, including an interview with me. Follow them on IG for more info.
Oh yeah, one more thing!
I will say Tom gave a heartfelt, genuine apology for the delay with HEAL+ for gut health and CALM+ for the vagus nerve and relaxation.
Tom from Kineon was very sorry for the delays, and the main reason is that they really want to ensure that they bring out products that are just as great and unique as the MOVE+. They would rather wait a little longer to develop a good product than ship early and have the product perform poorly.
Curious to learn more? For the full interview, subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Thanks, Tom, for the great time. And the great dinner at a Turkish restaurant:
Thanks again, Tom, for being a great gentleman!
Want a Kineon MOVE+? Use discount code AFERGUSMOVE and CLICK HERE.
4) Neuronic Brain Red Light Therapy: New Studies
We've worked a lot with Neuronic, and they still offer one of the best brain red light therapy devices out there.
First up, it's great to see that Neuronic are still publishing new studies using their brain red light therapy device. If you're not familiar with their helmets, they emit the quite special 1,070 nm wavelength:
(I've written about the adjacent 1,060-1,064 nm wavelength that likely overlaps a lot in mechanisms and biological effects)
Here are some of Neuronic's outcomes in recent studies they've done:
- Two adolescents with PANS/PANDAS - both neuropsychiatric conditions starting in infancy - improved during treatment combining 1070 nm red light therapy and neurofeedback. One participant's overall symptom severity fell 73%; the other’s OCD severity fell 50%, with school attendance restored. Check the full study HERE. Very promising but not a perfect study setup and a small sample size - but enough reason to explore a lot more on this topic!
- Then there's a nine-month randomized trial of 73 people with mild cognitive impairment or early dementia. Here, researchers compared standard care with personalized treatment combining diet, exercise, sleep, supplements, hormones, and often red light therapy, including the Neuronic devices in some cases. The treatment group showed substantial improvements in cognition, memory, and reported symptoms. However, differences on the "mild cognitive impairment" test were not statistically significant.
- And then one study I will soon cover in an upcoming news & updates video on our YouTube. In a study with 8 participants, two sessions with the 1070 nm Neuronic improved reaction time and working memory during demanding tasks. Here, pupil measurements also suggested changes in attention-related activity. Three of four treated participants reported reduced depression, anxiety, and stress. Good stuff!
It's great to see Neuronic developing and publishing human studies across many contexts related to brain health. It's very good to see the professionalization of the space, as these studies strongly support that these devices are working.
The issue here is that such studies, especially longer-term and with many human participants, are extremely expensive to setup. Neuronic have also told me that they've got another study on "Mild Cognitive Impairment" (a pre-stage of Alzheimer´s Disease) and Alzheimer's coming up, with 40 human participants.
Apparently Neuronic has made some big recent hires, including Alec Singleton - who has a background in Muse and the Oura Ring. Alec is now the Chief Product and Technology Officer at Neuronic - implying that big things are to come here!
We covered the Muse and Oura Ring on our old Alexfergus.com website. But this implies that big things are to come with Neuronic.
Curious to learn more? Check out some of our content on Neuronic, such as a recent interview:
Bart Wolbers
And, a little bit older but still applicable, Alex's viewpoint on the original Neuradiant 1,070 nm helmet:
Alex Contributor Account
Let's see how Neuronic ups their game in the coming years!
For a Neuronic helmet, click here and use discount code AlexF100.
Discussions Around Dosing, Treatment Area, Wavelengths & More
So, after finishing this article, I added this section - after talking to the Neuronic team in a London pub on Sunday night!
We discussed about what we know and especially don't know yet about dosing, wavelengths, treatment area, different application methods, for brain red light therapy.
It was a great in-depth discussion with some of the Neuronic team members. They're training/promoting several PhDs right now to specialize in these topics and get better answers, such as Will Dixon who has a great interview on this topic.
And, as much as I want to give a definitive answer, I can't. Neuronic also talks about the difficulty for good measurements in the industry, and brain light therapy in particular. I'd say that James Carroll agrees with that sentiment during my interview with him, and even went so far that he doesn't believe any number reported in any of the PBM studies, due to the discrepancies in measurement equipment, testing methods, etc.
Alex, Chris, Marvin, Will, were real gentlemen/women during the entire night (sorry if I forgot someone!).
And as much as I'd like to say something meaningful here, I'll just have to wait for the research to come out. I am impressed with their thoroughness in understanding these topics, as well as their in-house testing equipment.
If you read my background on dosing, you can even see that I've been skeptical about whether we'll find any universal dosing recommendations ever, as human beings are not biologically 100% the same.
A lot more can be said than that, but I won't, and I'll await their in-house and PhD research to come out on this topic. I'm very excited to see how much research Neuronic is carrying out themselves, though!
Moving on:
5) Daniel Ebett From Block Blue Light: The Future Of Light Therapy In 2027 & Beyond
Some huge news from Block Blue Light's founder, Daniel Ebett, who I also interviewed:
Here's what you need to know from the interview - at least the key takeaways:
- Daniel told me he's experimenting with different light colors, such as green and blue. I've been a huge fan of these and have talked about the benefits of green and blue light for years.
- Block Blue Light has a new mask with different protocols. This includes the 415 nm blue wavelength that Alex has covered, but also some other protocols
- Apparently, a new generation 7-panel series is coming up. 7th generation here entails a new line of Block Blue Light panels. This is great news as Block Blue Light's panels have always ranked among the top in our comparisons.
- See some recent content here:
Alex Fergus
And:
Alex Fergus
Plus:
Alex Fergus
- They're seeing great responses to the red light therapy pod, mat, and belts they've recently released. I've talked about those new products in our recent news video here:
Bart Wolbers
- Some other stuff? The space is professionalizing big time. For example, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in the UK are closely scrutinizing health claims on light therapy websites right now.
- Daniel has a very outspoken, no-nonsense, and critical opinion on red light therapy products, which I really like. He's argued in the past against "smart modes" because he (I think correctly) thinks that companies don't have dug into all of the science to back different wavelength/irradiance choices for different smart modes.
- The same for speech control - I would personally agree that a speech control feature is a bit gimmicky, and most people don't need it.
- Of course, this dynamic is very understandable as companies are always searching for another competitive edge. And most of the low-hanging fruit have been adequately covered by now, so it's getting harder to be innovative!
- Again, thanks Daniel for the great conversation(s)!!
There's still more in the interview, such as ultraviolet light as well. So subscribe to our channel and see the upcoming interview where you get all the details!
Want a Block Blue Light product? Use this link and save 15% on Block Blue Light's products.
6) Firefly Red Light Therapy - Adding Blue And Green Light For Additional Effects
So other companies were exploring adding blue and green light to their products- Firefly Red Light Therapy in this case.
Firefly had some interesting products, with a real bottoms-up design (so it's not a copycat product), that you can see here:
And:
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to test these devices. But they seemed really interesting and the lady at the stand, who had great humor, did tell me that blue and green light were also included into their products, not just red and near-infrared.
Here's what Firefly writes on their website about combining the different colors, not just seeing them in isolation:
"Firefly utilizes blue, red, and near-infrared light to penetrate the skin and tissues at varying depths. Blue light impacts surface layers, red light penetrates tissues and is absorbed by the blood, and near-infrared light can reach depths of up to eight inches. This combination allows Firefly to effectively treat soft tissue injuries, reduce pain, promote healing, and manage chronic conditions.
This therapy provides powerful results, targeting specific areas to alleviate pain and encourage recovery."
And yeah, there should be green light in there as well!
I should have gotten a bit more play in with their products, but unfortunately my action-packed days were filled with interviews and other activities.
Apparently, Firefly has devices aimed at both consumers and clinicians. The device above felt decently powerful on the skin and needed to be moved around. Then, another website associated with them states:
"10X More Powerful Than Traditional LED Technology, Rivaling Class IV Lasers"
I can't find much information on the website, however, how it's different from lasers or LEDs, and what exact wavelenghts are included, treatment protocols, and more.
Bummer...
But let's move on:
7) Honorable Mentions: Even Healthier Indoor Lighting, Brain-Gut Axis Upgrades, And AI Taking Over The Medical Internet?
So here are a few honorable mentions of the HOS 2026 regarding light therapy:
- Sarah Turner, of Cera Thrive has the brain-gut axis product - interviewed me during the event. She's building out a dashboard that allows clinicians to keep progress on patients with her headband/gut axis combination. What I was even more excited about is that she's likely launching an oral health product. I've written a lot about this topic in the past, but my best source is my huge guide:
Bart Wolbers
- Also check out my earlier interview with Sarah.
- Ray Lighting has great indoor lighting that emits a lot more red and near-infrared than standard LED bulbs. The indoor light is therefore much healthier, also because Ray Lighting has no flicker. They have a huge product category that looks great, which is sometimes missing with many healthy indoors bulbs from companies:
- Great stuff, I love to see more competition in this space, and options, as so many people have indoor lighting that's horrible to their health.
- I saw Sunlighten's infrared saunas with 880 nm light in them - I personally don't like the small LED panel setup:
- Apparently there's some red in there as well as otherwise they wouldn't be visible with the naked eye. But yeah, I'm somewhat conflicted about how effective this approach is, as you won't hit a large area of the body this way.
- I've talked with Eduard de Wilde of Livehelfi and Nattha Wannissorn, PhD, about how we're seeing more and more AI content everywhere. I think this development is inevitable and many tasks are already being taken over by AI (agents). It's an interesting discussion; I'd like to invite you to our Facebook group and share your opinion on it! I think AI is already changing how I do health research personally, although I don't have AI write my articles (yet).
- Lastly, there were tons and tons of other options for biohackers, health and wellness practitioners, people who want anti-aging, science geeks, and anything in between, with 120 brands included there:
- You could find stuff such as supplements, functional foods, drinks, and gut health/testing, light therapy, PEMF, saunas, and hyperbaric oxygen products. And anything for sleep, fitness, recovery, stress-management technology, lab testing, biological aging, longevity services, natural cosmetics, skincare, oral care, and anything in between! If you're curious, join us next year!
Conclusion: Health Optimisation Summit 2027 - Here We Come!
My huge bet is that the next few years will reward visionary companies that make light therapy simpler and easier to use. Clearer dosing, higher-quality human trials (if possible), and plug-and-play devices will become major competitive advantages.
(Yes, I know I've been part of that problem, as the science is very complex!)
As a result, that could also change who buys these products in the future. Surprisingly, clinicians aren't consistently applying light therapy right now, and to me, regular consumers seem almost more interested than people in the medical industry.
Affordability matters big time still. Bringing high-quality light therapy products within reach of ordinary people is a huge step forward - as James Carroll already implies. By HOS 2030, I hope we’ll be discussing which of the evolving products/ideas have delivered meaningful improvements in people’s lives.
Until then, check some of my earlier articles on different conferences, including HOS 2024:
Want My Viewpoint On Earlier Conferences?
Below I've added a few more conferences I've visited in the last few years, where light therapy was a main topic.
Let's begin with the Health Optimisation Summit 2024:
Bart Wolbers
Then, there was also Photobiomodulation (PBM) 2024:
Bart Wolbers
And, if you're curious about dentistry and light therapy, a huge topic that involves 20-25% of all publications in the space, see:
Bart Wolbers
This is a post by Bart Wolbers. Bart finished degrees in Physical Therapy (B), Philosophy (BA and MA), Philosophy of Science and Technology (MS - with distinction), and Clinical Health Science (MS), has had training in functional medicine, and is currently the head researcher at Lighttherapyinsiders.com
Items Mentioned
- For a Kineon MOVE+ use discount code AFERGUSMOVE and CLICK HERE.
- For a Block Blue Light product use this link and save 15% on Block Blue Light's products.
- For a Neuronic helmet, click here and use discount code AlexF100.
Other Resources I Recommend Checking:
🔴 Basics: What Is Red Light Therapy?
🔴 Basics: How To Use Red Light Therapy?
🔴 Basics: Red Light Therapy Buyer's Guide
🔴 Science Tool: Simplifying Routines, Benefits & Device Selection
🔴 Light Therapy Insiders Shopping Tool
🔴 Light Therapy Insiders Mask Shopping Tool
🔴 Light Therapy Advance Science Course Introduction
🔴 Signup To The Light Therapy Insiders 100%-Free Advanced Science Course
🔴 Light Therapy Insiders AI-Assistant Explained
🔴 All The Deals & Discounts Listed Alphabetically
🔴 Best Red Light Panel 2025? BioMax Pro Ultra vs The Rivals
🔴 The 3 Red Light Therapy Mechanisms You Should Know About
🔴 Red Light Therapy Wavelengths & Penetration Ultimate Guide
