Stacey Morrison puts the spotlight on light therapy for anti-aging and acne in the episode of Healthy or Hoax.

Healthy or Hoax host Stacey Morrison puts the spotlight on the latest in anti-aging skin treatments - light therapy.

The history of light therapy

Denise Ryan, vice president of global brand management for BioPhotas, (the company that manufactures the Celluma light therapy device), says light therapy was "sort of a serendipitous or a accidental discovery".

In the 1960s some scientists who were researching whether laser therapy could reduce cancer tumours in rats found an odd side effect. While it turned out the light was at too low a level to impact the cancer, the rats wounds healed faster than expected and their hair grew faster and shinier.

"They knew they had discovered something and that something turned out to be low level light therapy or as we call it today, photobiomodulation," says Ryan.

Then in the 1980s NASA began experimenting with low light for stimulating cell activity in plants and when they found it helped the plants to grow, they thought they would see what it did to human tissue.

What is it actually doing to us?

What low-level light therapy does to human cells is is similar to photosynthesis, Ryan says.

"When you send specific wavelengths of light into human tissues at very specific, low doses, within a certain range, human cells are capable of absorbing the light and converting that energy into cellular energy."

That energy helps compromised or damaged cells get back on track and when used in, for example, fibroblast cells which generate the collagen and elastin, it helps keep our skin looking plump, she says.

"The NASA research showed us that it helps tissue to heal and repair at about 3 to 6 times the normal rate.

"And that's for the average person. And the healthier you are to begin with, the faster you might see results. But honestly, everybody gets to see your results provided the device they're using has been designed to follow the known scientific parameters for effectiveness."

What are the parameters?

Light wavelengths are actually measured in nanometers and Ryan says it is a very narrow segment of the electromagnetic spectrum that has the ability, when delivered in the correct doses, to be absorbed by human tissue and used to generate this extra energy.

That range is roughly between 400 and 1000 nanometers and includes the colours blue, red and near-infrared.

And to be therapeutic, that low-level light needs to be emitted at a rate of between two to 10 joules per centimetre squared.

What are the risks of light therapy?…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details