Red Light Therapy For Head Trauma: Breaking Down A Classic Study

Yes, you can have bad luck in life and end up with a concussion. And some people who participate in contact sports like football or martial arts, know they increase their risk but do it anyway.

If you're affected by a concussion or the more severe traumatic brain injury, you'll want a fix. Almost nothing helps here, or does it? Today we explore a classic head trauma study from a few years ago that features the Vielight products.

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Red Light Therapy For Head Trauma: Breaking Down A Classic Study

Today, we're breaking down a study from 2024 with a full free text available. The study uses a combination of the Vielight Gamma, and the intranasal probe (now the Vielight MIP).

We've covered that topic in great detail in the past. Check out our article on the Vielight science up until 2023 here, for instance:

The Vielight devices are very promising for treating the brain as they have the highest quantity of studies validating this approach right now. that work really well but the quantity of studies is lacking there that directly validate the approach.

In the study we're covering today, the Neuro Gamma was used as well as the intranasal device of Vielight back then. The study participants have "Head Acceleration Events", which is kinetic energy applied to the brain, such as with combat sports, or soccer and football, car accidents, etc.

Here's what researchers write about the study setup:

"For this study, participants self-administered itPBM with the Vielight Neuro Gamma PBM headset (Toronto, Canada) worn over the scalp and/or hair. The device has four LEDs, each emitting NIR light (810 nm), pulsating at 40 Hz (50% duty cycle) over a beam spot of 1 cm², three with irradiance of 100 mW/cm², and the fourth at 75 mW/cm². [...] In addition, the device includes an intranasal probe with one LED emitting pulsed NIR light with irradiance of 25 mW/cm² inside the nasal cavity targeting the olfactory bulbs and orbitofrontal cortex."

So there's a combination of treating the skull directly with 4 powerful LEDs, and a red light therapy device up the nose. Figure 1 of the study showcases the treatment setup pretty well, actually:

(By the way, if you want a Vielight, discount code ALEX10 saves! Click HERE to grab a device)

The "Head Acceleration Events", whether that's a hit to the head during boxing or a collision during American Football, can lead to Traumatic Brain Injury, among which is concussion. I've written about this topic in the past and the science there is extremely promising:

In this study, 43 people were included, mostly men (men are 3 times more likely to have traumatic brain injuries due to risk-taking!). These participants had a history of Repetitive Head Acceleration Events and/or concussions.

For 8 weeks, these participants applied the Vielight Gamma as well as the intranasal device. Many different tests, such as for motor control, coordination, reaction speed, and grip strength, were carried out before and after these 8 weeks.

If you've got traumatic brain injury, or repetitive head trauma due to accidents or sports, there are often side effects. Your thinking ability, reaction time, mood, overall cognition, planning ability, etc, can all be affected deu to the brain basically getting injured. Light therapy has been shown to help dramatically in that instant, depending on the case. So it's very justifiable that the researchers here used the Vielight Gamma to check for the effects of light therapy on these brain injuries.

The outcome in this study is broadly similar than in the previous research. Here are the results summarized, in the discussion section of the paper:

After 8–12 weeks of [intranasal and transcranial red light therapy] treatments, participants experienced small to moderate effects in bilateral grip strength, reaction time, and reactive postural balance, but not dexterity.

Small to moderate effect size showcases the magnitude of the improvement. So, even in 8-12 weeks (some people needed more treatments), there were already improvements in reaction time, grip strength, etc. Grip strength is generally a great proxy for general physical functioning, as it tends to be really high if you're strong and fit and tends to go down if you get sick or are in poor shape.

How is this accomplished? Here, the researchers write the following about the mechanisms:

"Connectivity of cortical [i.e. the upper brain] networks, which are disturbed in concussion, is vital for optimal motor control. [Light therapy]-related reductions in inflammation, along with increased energy production, cerebral blood flow, neurogenesis, and synaptogenesis, may contribute to neuroplastic changes to the structural and functional connectivity of the motor network, and thus recovered neuromuscular control."

Treatment was 3-4X per week here, which is great as that's a routine that most people can generally keep up with. Want more info on Vielight? We've got a few great videos on this topic, that aren't on our website yet, such as Alex explaining the differences between these devices:

Next up, here's an interview at PBM 2024, with Vielight about their 4th generation of devices:

And thirdly, here's the science broken down on the Vielight devices:

If you want a Vielight, discount code ALEX10 saves! Click HERE to grab a device.

Here Are Our Latest Light Therapy Insiders' Articles:

Every single article that we've published recently - you can find the videos in the article itself:

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Is Red Light Therapy Safe for Your Eyes? - Arguably one of the most controversial topics that gets us lots of discussion to this day, even in our Facebook group and on the YT comments. Bart leads you through many different scenarios regarding how to ensure eye safety using red light therapy, and how to minimize risk.
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