Can Red-Light Therapy Treat Brain Injuries? (nytimes.com) 54
The Athletic reports that researchers at the University of Utah are studying itPBM, a medical-grade red-light therapy that has shown promising signs of reducing brain inflammation and improving cognition, mood, anxiety, motor performance and neural connectivity. The report centers in part on former BYU football star and University of Utah adjunct professor Larry Carr, who says the treatment helped him after years of brain damage from repeated head impacts. An anonymous reader shares an excerpt from the report: ... The knife, the call, the diagnosis in 2013, would lead [Carr] on a life-changing mission -- one in which he and a team of researchers at the University of Utah would eventually compile research that one of those researchers, Elisabeth Wilde, Ph.D, co-director of the Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Concussion Center, calls "striking." The treatment they are studying is called photobiomodulation therapy, or itPBM (intranasal transcranial PBM), also known as red-light therapy. It is different from the kind of superficial red-light usage one can find on social media skincare channels or at a wellness boutique, and its application is broader.
The research includes multiple studies, and is not just focused on ex-football players, but on women and men in various walks of life. The group recently published their latest results in the Journal of Neurotrauma, based on a study that followed 26 BYU football players throughout a season, suggesting the treatment could "potentially safeguard neurological health without reduced playing time or contact exposure."
Definitive clinical trials haven't been run yet; broader research and validation is required, and some in the field are skeptical. Carr acknowledges some have told him that it could be "too good to be true." Still, other outside experts who spoke with The Athletic call the findings promising. They make sure to caution: This is not a cure-all, and there is much more to be tested. But the findings have been compelling enough to justify more research and more speculation. Researchers say 14 peer-reviewed studies have linked itPBM with improvements in cognition, mood, anxiety, attention, executive function, motor performance, and other measures, while brain imaging has shown reduced inflammation and improved connectivity.
One of the most striking findings mentioned in the report came from a study of 26 BYU football players during the 2021 season. Players who did not receive treatment developed significant, widespread brain inflammation, while the treated group showed no comparable increase and even demonstrated reduced inflammation in some brain regions. As researcher Michael Carr put it, "I believe our BYU data suggests the players' brains using itPBM are actually healthier after the season." He added: "That is a first."
Carr also said treated participants showed fewer symptoms of depression, anxiety, stress and PTSD, along with faster processing, better sustained attention and stronger executive function. Researchers have also observed improvements in balance, motor control and grip strength. Taken together, the findings suggest itPBM may have a neuroprotective effect.
The research includes multiple studies, and is not just focused on ex-football players, but on women and men in various walks of life. The group recently published their latest results in the Journal of Neurotrauma, based on a study that followed 26 BYU football players throughout a season, suggesting the treatment could "potentially safeguard neurological health without reduced playing time or contact exposure."
Definitive clinical trials haven't been run yet; broader research and validation is required, and some in the field are skeptical. Carr acknowledges some have told him that it could be "too good to be true." Still, other outside experts who spoke with The Athletic call the findings promising. They make sure to caution: This is not a cure-all, and there is much more to be tested. But the findings have been compelling enough to justify more research and more speculation. Researchers say 14 peer-reviewed studies have linked itPBM with improvements in cognition, mood, anxiety, attention, executive function, motor performance, and other measures, while brain imaging has shown reduced inflammation and improved connectivity.
One of the most striking findings mentioned in the report came from a study of 26 BYU football players during the 2021 season. Players who did not receive treatment developed significant, widespread brain inflammation, while the treated group showed no comparable increase and even demonstrated reduced inflammation in some brain regions. As researcher Michael Carr put it, "I believe our BYU data suggests the players' brains using itPBM are actually healthier after the season." He added: "That is a first."
Carr also said treated participants showed fewer symptoms of depression, anxiety, stress and PTSD, along with faster processing, better sustained attention and stronger executive function. Researchers have also observed improvements in balance, motor control and grip strength. Taken together, the findings suggest itPBM may have a neuroprotective effect.
Shine On, Football Brain (Score:5, Interesting)
It always starts with "promising results" and ends with somebody selling a $799 helmet on Instagram.
That said, this one is actually interesting. The study was small, but it wasn't just a handful of guys staring at a red light and filling out a questionnaire afterward. The researchers randomized 26 college football players to active PBM or sham treatment and followed them through a season. The MRI results reportedly showed substantial changes in the untreated group that weren't seen to the same extent in the treatment group.
The part that makes me cautious is the leap from "we saw interesting changes on an MRI" to "this protects football players' brains." Those aren't the same thing. MRI measurements are proxies, the sample is tiny, and a single season tells us very little about what happens after ten years of playing football. And none of this establishes that PBM prevents CTE, which is the elephant in the room whenever we're talking about repetitive head impacts.
Still, I wouldn't dismiss it. If shining 810nm light at someone's head a few times a week really does reduce the neurological consequences of repetitive impacts, that's potentially a pretty big deal. It's also exactly the sort of claim that needs a much larger, independent trial before anyone starts handing these things out in locker rooms.
I'd be particularly interested in seeing a study with hundreds of athletes, multiple seasons, objective biomarkers, standardized PBM equipment, and researchers who aren't financially connected to the device manufacturer. If the effect survives all of that, then we can start getting excited.
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But how does that work? It just feels that there is no logical causal mechanism through which red-light photons can affect brain inflamation.
> The treatment they are studying is called photobiomodulation therapy, or itPBM (intranasal transcranial PBM), also known as red-light therapy.
From google:
> Nostril-based i-PBMT devices are available, using either lasers or light emitting diodes (LEDs), and can be applied either alone or in combination to transcranial devices (the latter applied directly to the
Re:Shine On, Football Brain (Score:5, Interesting)
Red light therapy is one of those things that sounds like total woo hokum when you first hear about it, but that studies keep showing benefits to.
Key thing to remember is that these studies are using very high doses of red light - often limited by the amount of heating you can safely tolerate in the subject (not heat from the emitter, but from the photons themselves).
Honestly, it doesn't sound crazy at all. Different tissues have different light susceptibilities (that's how, say, laser hair removal works), due to the susceptibility of specific compounds. Red penetrates very deeply (remember the classic trick of shining a flashlight through your hand; only the red makes it through). Red light has a number of very specific interactions it causes. The main one is that it photolyzes the bond between NO and cytochrome c oxidase (triggering NO signaling, causing vasodilation). A secondary possible affect is that it affects light-gated ion channels (esp. in the TRP family).
And the amount of red light we're talking about is very high. Instantaneous fluxes are like 1000-5000 times higher than ambient indoor light in the red spectrum, and even averaged across a day it's still like an order of magnitude higher than a person who spends their day indoors. For NIR therapy, the difference is even more extreme (commercial LEDs emit essentially zero NIR). While outdoor light exposure is much higher - 15 mW/cm2 red + 20 mW/cm2 NIR, comparable to the 10-100 mW/cm2 of red light therapy - it's broad spectrum, while red light therapy is concentrated around cytochrome c oxidase peaks, so the flux around these specific peaks is ~10-50x higher with red light therapy.
Flux matters a lot because to meaningfully dissociate NO from CCO, you have to do so at faster than the rate that NO and CCO recombine. Sunlight on its own (let alone indoor ambient light) don't do that. It doesn't matter if you're spending all day in the sun vs. 15 minutes in treatment if the sun isn't hitting the threshold effect level.
Another difference, BTW, is not just "shooting it up your nostrils", it's scattering. Sun just hits your skin and much of it is lost through scattering and absorption in blood, esp. hemaglobin. Red light therapy targeting deep structures is delivered by a contact probe that compresses the skin, displacing blood. This increases penetration into deep tissues 2-5x.
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Also, it's perfectly possible that the red light from being outdoors in the sun is also good for you - but that also comes with other frequencies, including harmful ionizing UV light, which "ages" the skin and risks skin cancer (though the increased vitamin D from ~290-300nm is an offsetting factor).
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Another difference, BTW, is not just "shooting it up your nostrils", it's scattering. Sun just hits your skin and much of it is lost through scattering and absorption in blood, esp. hemaglobin. Red light therapy targeting deep structures is delivered by a contact probe that compresses the skin, displacing blood. This increases penetration into deep tissues 2-5x.
Hmm, maybe if I use a couple red laser pointers stuck up my nose, I'll achieve at least some beneficial effect. I'll look like a walrus, but considering what I see walking around these days, that might be considered kewel.
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Re: Shine On, Football Brain (Score:2)
When I see the promises and even demonstrated effects of red light therapy I am reminded of the museum exhibits of the âoedisprovedâ sham medicine of generations past. And prominently displayed was large red lights. And many of the claimed benefits that were ridiculed are exactly what we find today.
When I was a child (1960â(TM)s and 1970â(TM)s) we were told very clearly that acupuncture was a scam. Wellâ¦
Thatâ(TM)s why I donâ(TM)t dismiss everything automatically, bu
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Lots of things in medicine and biology were discovered long before there was and plausible reason. And how many people understand, e.g., alcohol. Often even when you do understand part of it, you don't understand all.
What this needs is a large double-blind experiment. Worry about the explanations later. (And EXPECT the first ones to be wrong.)
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How it works (Score:2)
But how does that work?
Red light is thought to activate a regeneration mechanism within the body.
It interacts with some of the compounds in mitochondria that promotes healing and cellular recovery. It also has a biphasic effect: too little does nothing, too much does nothing, but the right amount can have therapeutic value.
Re: Shine On, Football Brain (Score:2)
Red light makes the ATP synthase rotor spin faster by reducing the viscosity of its water based lubrication layer:
https://www.researchgate.net/p... [researchgate.net]
That's why people feel energised by sunlight.
A more friendly format:
https://youtu.be/5VRypR6NsoU?s... [youtu.be]
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If shining 810nm light at someone's head a few times a week really does reduce the neurological consequences of repetitive impacts, that's potentially a pretty big deal.
How about avoiding those impacts in the first place? Or would that be un-American?
In other news, scientists are looking into geoengineering to cool our planet, so we can continue to drill-baby-drill until kingdom come.
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If shining 810nm light at someone's head a few times a week really does reduce the neurological consequences of repetitive impacts, that's potentially a pretty big deal.
How about avoiding those impacts in the first place? Or would that be un-American?
Is avoiding futbol head injuries un- European? https://www.sciencealert.com/s... [sciencealert.com]
Check your narrative
In other news, scientists are looking into geoengineering to cool our planet, so we can continue to drill-baby-drill until kingdom come.
Using a Sarah Palin quote from almost 20 years ago? And no serious scientist is looking at injecting sulfuric or hydrochloric aerosol atmospheric injection for the thousands of years it would take for the residual greenhouse gases to drop to 1750 levels. The results would be worse than the present AGW issues.
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Maybe not, but some are considering, e.g., salt water. Of course that's for "cloud brightening". And irrigation is already causing some areas to experience excessive salt in the agricultural land.
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In other news, scientists are looking into geoengineering to cool our planet, so we can continue to drill-baby-drill until kingdom come.
Using a Sarah Palin quote from almost 20 years ago?
Flag on THAT play: [He Who Must Not Be Named] at the Republican National Convention [abcnews.com], July 18, 2024: "'I make this pledge to the great people of America, I will end the devastating inflation crisis immediately, bring down interest rates and lower the cost of energy ... We will drill, baby, drill' ... garnering resounding cheers and applause from the RNC audience who began to echo the oil and gas slogan."
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that was less than 20 years ago.
More recently, in the 2026 State of the Union speech [youtube.com]: "American natural gas production is at an all-time high, because I kept my promise to drill, baby, drill".
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How about avoiding those impacts in the first place? Or would that be un-American?
Yes that would be un-American but more importantly it would affect the tremendous revenue that college football generates. Coaches are paid millions and players get paid nothing to destroy their bodies. I spend zero time paying attention to sports but paying college athletes is something I agree with. If you're going to shorten your lifespan playing football then you should get properly compensated just like in the NFL.
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Apparently. There was a push to ban football around the beginning of the 1900s. It was properly brutal, with lots of people, mostly school kids, dying from injuries. Teddy Roosevelt though it was essential for building character though, and bullied many of the colleges into keeping their teams. He did compromise and push for important rule changes though.
https://www.history.com/articl... [history.com]
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If shining 810nm light at someone's head a few times a week really does reduce the neurological consequences of repetitive impacts, that's potentially a pretty big deal.
How about avoiding those impacts in the first place? Or would that be un-American?
Repetitive head impacts aren't always associated with sports. Shit happens, and for some unlucky people it may happen several times.
Also, if red light helps brains which have endured repeated impacts, perhaps it will also mitigate the negative effects of singular, more traumatic injuries.
Re:Shine On, Football Brain (Score:4, Insightful)
It always starts with "promising results" and ends with somebody selling a $799 helmet on Instagram.
That's not where it ends, though. It ends with China selling knockoffs from everywhere from five dollars to five thousand dollars (listing price, presumably for money laundering?) on AliExpress.
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It always starts with "promising results" and ends with somebody selling a $799 helmet on Instagram.
I've seen ads for women's panties with red-light features. So it's here now, and people are using this kind of stuff.
Now after it is proven that it does nothing, the true believers will start moving the goalposts. This test didn't work, they'll claim it was the wrong shade of red, and on and on.
And we do live in an age where we've moved beyond tinfoil hats, and there are ads online of faraday cage caps. Actual metal mesh under what looks like a normal cap.
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> Now after it is proven that it does nothing
But it seems it's already proven to have an effect:
The light is absorbed by cytochrome c oxidase, an enzyme in the mitochondria which triggers the release of nitric oxide, this helps mitochondria produce more ATP, expands local blood vessels and improves blood lowering oxidative stress and decreasing inflammation.
I may have misread some of the article but you can look at it yourself, section 3.1 - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/a... [nih.gov]
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Basically, the regulatory mechanism is: NO is "the brakes" on the mitochondria, and it's also a vasodilator. More NO in a tissue is a signal that it needs more oxygen, and it "opens the floodgates". The problem is that the rate of reaction in the mitochondria is proportional to the local oxygen concentration, so the cells nearest the supply will tend to disproportionately consume it. So the electron transport chain in these cells are simultaneously "braked" by the NO to limit how fast they can consume oxyg
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Interesting, hadn't thought about risks.
No. (Score:2)
But it can diagnose it. If you believe that it can, you have a brain injury.
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> Nostril-based i-PBMT devices are available, using either lasers or light emitting diodes (LEDs).
From https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/a... [nih.gov]
If they stick a laser up your nose and shoot the light at your internal blood vessels, it might have some tangible physical effects. It's not just putting you in a room with red lighting.
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) (Score:2)
is the name I've been looking for. Just calling it brain damage always felt crass.
There's a shit load of so called PTSD label cases that are really TBI instead ... IMHO.
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Y'all appear to only ever have one "joke". And it was never funny to begin with.
I'm afraid it's society that's played that joke on you, my friend.
But yes, you don't see that it's a joke ... that's true.
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Pay no attention to conservatives always thinking about trans people. It's just something they do.
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Pay no attention to conservatives always thinking about trans people. It's just something they do.
I'm saddened that you would allow these researchers to get away with misgendering people.
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New red light therapy (Score:2)
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I'm hopeful for you :)
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Synopsis (Score:2)
Turns out the right shade is a more mauvy shade of pinky-russet.
WWBS? (Score:2)
Yes, you can treat anything with any method.
No, it won't be successful.
What Would Betteridge Say?
People with mental illness like hats. (Score:2)
It keeps the head warm and improves mental performance. A warm head performs at a better rate. Like a warmed up body or the people doing hot yoga. I'm a more or less bald ADHD candidate and I wear buffs as "spare hair" and observe a similar effect.
There's a reason we keep ill and injured people warm.
Bottom line:
This sounds plausible IMHO.
No. No it can't. (Score:2)
Ob.: Rooooxxxxanne, you don't have to... (Score:2)
I believe in (some) red light (Score:2)
OK, this is my personal anecdote and might or might not be related to the brain injury treatment - but I'm confident more and more red (or more accurately: various long wavelengths) light therapies will get proven in future.
So I'm a middle aged male and miss a box-jump at Crossfit one fine day. Superficial shin injury that turns out to not want to heal, turning nasty. Doctor explains as we get older, we have less blood circulation in the lower limbs especially. Sedentary IT job doesn't help either. Lots of
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