🛑 Weekly Newsletter: Chronic Pain

More and more science is emerging on red light therapy for chronic pain. We cover a weekly study about that topic, and, we've included all of our latest polls and content below!

Let's go:

So there's a February 2026 study hot off the press on chronic pain and light therapy. The review analyzes and integrates earlier publications from Sept 2015 to Sept 2025. Only "Randomized Controlled Trials" (RCTs) were included, which have an intervention group and control (placebo) group. The benefit there is that you can distinguish between the real physiological effect of treatment and the psychological effect of the treatment.

Most importantly, here's the outcome of the study:

"Fourteen studies were included, covering populations with fibromyalgia, peripheral neuropathies, orofacial pain, and musculoskeletal pain. Most trials demonstrated significant pain reduction with PBM, particularly in fibromyalgia and neuropathy."

Here, at Light Therapy Insiders, we've often talked about how the outcome is different for different conditions. This dynamic is showcased in many of the articles we've published on pain-related conditions, such as:

And:

Also:

And lastly:

Here, in our articles, we show that fibromyalgia and jaw pain (TMD) have very strong effects on pain. For osteoarthritis and neuropathy, the expectations right now need to be lowered and you can say that the effects are "moderate", give or take. That's oversimplifying a bit but it demonstrates the dynamic well.

But let's return to the 2026 chronic pain review. There's not only an effect on pain, but also, depending on the type of pain, improvements of functionality and quality of life.

Quality of life improvements, of course, aren't hard to imagine. If you're with moderate pain all day (such as 6/10), or high levels of pain (8/10), then halving these numbers will be life-changing.

The conclusion, moreover, of the review is even more hopeful. Here's what researchers write:

"[Red light therapy] has [painkilling or] analgesic potential and a safe profile for managing chronic pain, especially in cases difficult to control with conventional therapies. However, the variability of clinical parameters and limited follow-up still hinder more comprehensive recommendations."

As always, getting the exact treatment parameters right is a big issue here. These limits are expanded upon in the full text of the study with the following limitation that's described:

"Despite promising findings, heterogeneity in devices, wavelengths, doses, and outcome measures complicates cross-trial comparison. Many studies had small sample sizes, limited follow-up, and incomplete reporting of intervention parameters or adverse events, reducing the generalizability of results."

So, yeah, once more, we need more studies and better ones. And we need to test light therapy under many different circumstances, such as power outputs, wavelengths, treatment frequencies, devices, and so forth. I personally think that dosing will stay complicated in coming years and decades.

Overall, the picture is very hopeful. Chronic pain is a "tough nut to crack" and as an acquaintance of me once said, "chronic pain will change your life" (and never for the good!). So here's what researchers finish with, in their paper, describing the effects on different types of chronic pain:

"These include fibromyalgia, peripheral neuropathies, musculoskeletal disorders, and orofacial pain following COVID-19. The collective evidence suggests that PBM has a meaningful analgesic effect compared to placebo or conventional therapies."

Promising for sure! We'll keep you updated about this dynamic in the coming years. But, good to see that there's now emerging evidence - which we already reported too - that there are physiological effects for a wide range of different types of chronic pain!

Which is why the researchers conclude that with regards to pain, the same underlying mechanism is likely targeted:

"The repeated observation of positive outcomes across different disorders—such as fibromyalgia, diabetic neuropathy, and chemotherapy-induced neuropathy—points to the likelihood that [red light therapy] operates through shared mechanisms of pain modulation, rather than disease-specific pathways."

All great!

(Also, soon, I (Bart), will publish a article/video going through a lot more science on chronic pain. So stay tuned for that!)

Weekly Poll On The Best Red Light Therapy Device

Recently we posted a poll about whether people want more simple content (for beginners), in our Facebook group:

You can still participate by joining the group and then clicking HERE. Here's the surprising outcome so far:

So, many people are interested in these video, although some are not. We're going to be experimenting a bit with that strategy very soon. So stay tuned!

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:

Mito Red Light Review: Are They Still Worth It? - Alex's company review, Mito Red this time. How are they holding up to the tough competition, in 2026?
Inside Vielight's Red Light Therapy Brain & Body Impact - Here's Alex's viewpoint of the Vielight products and whether they're worth it.
Vielight Red Light For The Brain Science - Interview with Dr Lew Lim - an older interview by Alex with the Vielight founder! Dr. Lew Lim also has many publications in the space!
Red Light Therapy for Strength & Endurance: Hype or Real Results? - Want to boost strength or endurance with light therapy? Alex breaks down the science in detail in this article, and what to select for the best results...
The BEST Red Light Therapy Device For Thyroid Health - The thyroid is the "furnace" of energy metabolism and fat burning. Here's Bart's breakdown of the amazing science on this topic, that's life-changing often, and the best devices you can buy for thyroid health.

Also, Check Out Some Of Our Other Content:

Below you'll find some of our best content that you shouldn't miss:

Light Therapy Advanced Science Course (Just Launched!):

Join Bart's 100% free advanced science light therapy course above, where he takes deep dives into many different topics, such as mechanisms, neurology (Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, etc), exercise recovery, skin beauty & rejuvenation, and much more.

Some of the topics are only published in that course, such as UV light risks and benefits, addiction, anxiety, depression, and more. So join HERE!