A miracle cure for scars, injuries and wrinkles?
Is red light therapy too good to be true?
It’s been over two and a half years since my mastectomy, and nearly two years since further surgery to fashion a nipple-like protrusion on the front of my reconstructed breast. The final step - which I’m yet to have - is the areola tattoo.
I know that, after a mastectomy, reconstruction is at the bottom of many women’s list of priorities (understandable when ‘not dying of cancer’ takes up so much space on that list). But, for me, it has been an important part of getting myself back.
So why haven’t I had the areola tattoo done, so long after my surgery? Well, having identified the cosmetic tattoo artist I trust to do the procedure, it turns out that she’s a perfectionist (exactly what you want in a cosmetic tattoo artist, to be fair), and she said the scarring on my breast is still too inflamed for the tattoo to ‘take’ on the skin.
There is, she added, something worth trying to speed up the healing process. She asked if I’d seen those red light masks? Yes, I replied, I’ve seen them on Instagram. Well, she explained, people have had a great result in terms of scar-reduction from using one of those masks over their breast.
Once I’d stopped laughing at how mad that sounds, I considered it. This was not the first time I’d heard high praise for light therapy. It’s been touted as the answer to everything from pain relief to wrinkle reduction. But it set off my bunkum-o-meter. How can shining red light on your skin possibly have all these benefits?
I call Amy Fiddler, head therapist at The Light Salon, to explain. This is sciencey, but stay with me, because it’s worth knowing.
‘We use two wavelengths,’ she says. ‘Red, 633 nanometers, which works in the dermis, where you've got your collagen, elastin, nerve endings and lymphatic system. And near-infrared, 830 nanometers, which works deeper in the body.’
You’ve probably heard of the mitochondria, often referred to at the ‘battery’ within our cells. Light therapy basically ‘charges’ that battery, energising the cells.
‘It activates your wound healing process by tricking the body into thinking some kind of injury has happened,’ she says. ‘This reduces inflammation by instigating natural growth factors.' This effect, known as fibroblast activity, produces collagen, elastin and stimulates your own hyaluronic acid. ‘That's how light therapy is able to correct scarring, as well as stimulating the natural skin rejuvenation process.’
She suggests I think of the dermis as the mattress to my skin, so the red light helps that be plump and healthy. Meanwhile, the near-infrared light targets the bed underneath, which I want to be nice and strong, supporting everything above it.
So that’s how it works on the skin, but light therapy appears to have many more benefits:
Near-infrared light can penetrate bone, so can help improve bone density.
It aids vasodilation, ie. widening of the blood vessels. This improves oxygenation to the tissue, and supports your circulation and lymphatic systems.
That boost to blood flow activates neurotransmitters in your brain to help lower (stress hormone) cortisol, and heighten (happy hormone) serotonin.
On top of all this: reducing inflammation, of course, supports your immunity.
If you’re thinking that all of these claims sound a bit far-fetched, then Amy would like to direct you to the wealth of research (over 3000 peer-reviewed studies), some of which you can find on The Light Salon website.
The Light Salon’s focus is skin rejuvenation - that’s the main reason that people buy their products or visit their salons (in Selfridges and Harvey Nichols, and nationwide as part of their collaboration with ESPA), where they also offer peels and micro needling treatments in conjunction with light therapy.
Paid subscribers to Well Well Well get 20% off at The Light Salon. Scroll down to the bottom for the discount code.
Meanwhile, brands such as Kineon use the same principle for injury and pain relief. ‘For muscle and sports recovery, red light therapy can help improve circulation, reduce inflammation and promote the production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), crucial for cellular energy and tissue repair,’ says Forrest Smith, CEO and co-founder of Kineon. ‘It's like giving your cells a gentle push to work more efficiently.’
Anyone who has been on long-term pain medication (with all the side effects that entails) knows that this is a big deal. ‘Chronic pain is a silent epidemic,’ says Forrest. ‘The International Association for the Study of Pain found in 2023 that 35-50% of people in the UK suffer from chronic pain. This is an extremely effective non-pharmacological solution. We’ve had great results in treating arthritis, tendinitis and other musculoskeletal issues including cartilage regenerations.’
If you have a passing interest in biohacking, then you probably know about targeting the mitochondria to improve cellular health. It seems as though red light is at the forefront of bringing those benefits for immunity and longevity. So it’s about way more than simply having lovely glowy skin - which was my initial misconception.
Amy tells me that I don’t need to hold a red light face mask over my right breast because The Light Salon have created the Boost LED Body Patch (£375, or £300 with the Well Well Well discount), which is effective on any part of your body. It can even be used on the scalp to improve hair health.
Well, I’m sold. I’ve got the Boost LED Body Patch to use at home. Yep, I’ve done a full 180 from ‘this can’t possibly work’ to ‘wish I’d known about this sooner’.
‘With old scarring, it can take three months to see a difference,’ says Amy. ‘Fresh scarring is better because the body is healing at that stage, but it will still help.’
Anyway, I’m on it now. And maybe - just maybe - 2024 will be the year that my scarring is healed enough to get my areola is restored, representing a long-awaited full stop to the end of breast cancer treatment.
Scroll down to the bottom for The Light Salon discount code
This week I’m…
Stocking up on these because, if I’m eating Easter eggs, damn right they’re going to be free of e-numbers and emulsifiers (don’t tell my kids these are basically a health food).
Reading Nahid de Belgeonne’s Soothe: The book your nervous system has been longing for, about recovering from the hypervigilance of modern life. If you’re going away over Easter, pack this for a properly restorative break.
Cooking from Easy Wins: 12 flavour hits, 132 delicious recipes, 365 days of good eating by Anna Jones. She had me at ‘pasta al limone’…
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Well Well Well with Rosamund Dean to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.