🛑More Red Light Therapy For Type II Diabetes (Review)

More good stuff! There's a new review on light therapy for type II diabetes. And we've got lots of new content on acne, facial fat loss, methylene blue (long-requested!), and more:

Let's go:

Dec 2025 Type 2 Diabetes Review: What You Need To Know

This review on type II diabetes came out in Dec 2025. We've been posting about blood sugar more lately. In THIS article, for instance, we showcase how light therapy on the upper back can lower blood sugar.

The Dec 2025 review, however, analyzed and integrates the outcomes of 10 earlier studies on human populations with type II diabetes. Here's the very carefully written results section, right now, meaning the outcomes from the 10 earlier studies that the researchers analyzed:

"The narrative synthesis of primary outcomes showed inconsistent and largely short-term effects on glycemic control, systemic inflammation, and neurological function. In contrast, meta-analysis of secondary periodontal outcomes demonstrated modest but statistically significant improvements in clinical attachment level (−0.21 mm) and probing depth (−0.25 mm), with no effect on plaque index. Overall, the certainty of the evidence was low. [Red light therapy] may offer statistically significant but small adjunctive periodontal effects in adults with T2DM."

So, effects are found on blood sugar control (glycemic control), systemic inflammation, and neurological function (which often deteriorates with type II diabetes. And, surprisingly, there are benefits for periodontal health here, which I've written about extensively in the past.

If you're curious about my deep dive articles on these topics, check:

And:

In case of the review of the 10 earlier studies on red light therapy and type II diabetes, these 10 studies had a wide array of different setups. This means that there are huge differences in wavelengths used, devices, treatment frequency, treatment location, etc.

As always, that's used as a counterargument against red light therapy - ideally we'd have more standardization here. But, I will also say, that showing that light therapy works in a wide array of different contexts has benefits of its own. Often, you don't need to get the dosing exactly right as

The study is quite complex, with loads and loads of outcome measures as well, such as plaque in the mouth, attachment levels of the gums on the teeth, longer-term blood sugar (Hb1Ac), inflammation levels, and more.

And although some studies were positive, due to the studies differing so much in setup, the researchers conclude the following on blood sugar control:

"Current clinical data are insufficient to confirm sustainable metabolic benefits in T2DM; thus, larger and longer term RCTs with uniform [red light therapy] approaches are required."

And, later on in the paper, the researchers state that:

"For metabolic, inflammatory, and neurological outcomes, the evidence base is too limited and heterogeneous to support translation into practice. A single trial reported significant reductions in HbA1c after 12 weeks of PBMT, but replication is absent. Likewise, early findings suggest [red light therapy] may reduce systemic inflammatory biomarkers and provide short-term relief of neuropathic pain, but these observations are not supported by larger [red light therapy] data, as has been explored in patients with fibromyalgia. Therefore, clinicians should view these effects as preliminary and promising, but not sufficient for practice."

So, yes, you'll need to be careful with conclusions for now. But, the optimist that I am, does see the good developments here. Generally, there do seem to be good effects for blood sugar and inflammation across studies.

How do I know? I've looked at these topics myself. The diabetes deep dive blog was already included above, but there's another one on inflammation too:

And, in my opinion, the research on neuropathy, including "diabetic neuropathy" that many people get with their feet if they have type II diabetes, is also very promising:

So, there's that. Many of the conclusions you draw here come down to your philosophical differences - how much difference between treatment protocols, frequencies, devices, etc, are you willing to accept?

If you're curious, also check this newsletter we put out a few weeks ago, which covers a specific blood sugar & light therapy study:

Light Therapy Poll: Best Treatment Distance With A Red Light Therapy Panel

Once again, I did a quick and simple poll in our Facebook group about the best treatment distance that people get results with from a red light therapy panel:

The results are quite surprising.

And we got 44 comments on there, some very extensive.

The most surprising thing for me is that many people get optimal results from different distances to the panel. For me personally it's direct skin contact, even with a bigger panel setup. For others, it may be 12 inches.

Want to chime in? Join our Facebook group HERE. Then, participate in the poll HERE.

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:

Best LED Face Mask For Acne: The Wavelength Most Companies Get Wrong - Here's Alex with the science on LED face masks, and why 90%+ of consumers make a mistake selecting the wrong blue light for treating acne.
Methylene Blue And Red Light Therapy: Benefits, Risks, Dosing, Basic Protocols - Very frequently requested topic by our readers/viewers, on combining red light therapy with methyelene blue, and the safety, dosing protocol, etc!
July 2026 Red Light Therapy News: NEW Devices & Controversial Science - the red light therapy news for July 2026. We've got some great science showing that what we're doing at LTI is really worthwhile. And we've got a few unique new products such as a hair dryer, a PlatinumLED handheld unit (finally!), hair serum, and much more!
Red Light Therapy And Facial Fat Loss: SURPRISING Science - We got tons of questions about this topic in 2024, when the first panels with the 1,060-70 nm range emerged. People were afraid of suddenly losing excess fat on their face, so Bart decided to explore all of the science on this topic...

Also, Check Out Some Of Our Other Content:

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

Light Therapy Insiders Science Tool

Search on different health conditions, and benefits, and get Bart's breakdown of the science on that topic, as well as recommended devices, and light therapy routines.

We've been trying to simplify this space as much as possible: