Too Much Red Light?

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cyclops

cyclops

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so probably better to do many short sessions per day instead of one big one, even if it totals the same amount of time.
 

TheDrumGuy

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so probably better to do many short sessions per day instead of one big one, even if it totals the same amount of time.

Maybe but it's not like I have any studies or experience to back it up. You could try using some of the dosing schedules that have worked for people here, and if that fails, try to spread it out throughout the day. I am just getting into red light so I have no experience one way or the other.
 

Sucrates

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Someone here had said the sun makes you look older though. Wonder why that is, if it is so good for you.

UVA-Photo-ageing-624x308.jpg



Red light protects skin from sun damage.

like a good champagne. It invigorates and stimulates; indulged in to excess, it intoxicates and poisons
~Sir Henry Gauvin on Heliotherapy~
 

Makrosky

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My point is not that 15 minutes is the 'correct' dose for every red light device, but that for many devices the optimal dose (in J/cm^2) only requires a few minutes to deliver. This is in contrast to incandescent bulbs or the sun, where it takes hours to achieve comparable doses.

And it's probably not just about J/cm^2 either. I suspect the reason there is a U shaped dose-response curve for many LED devices is because in these studies they are delivering massive doses in a short period of time. Keep in mind with LED's you can deliver much higher doses of narrow wavelength ranges than you would ever get sitting under the sun. There is probably a limit to how much red light a given tissue can make use of in a given amount of time. At a certain point you're just giving the body light at a faster rate than it can handle, so it downregulates its response as a protective mechanism. It's like trying to shove 3000 calories down your throat in one sitting vs eating is at regular intervals throughout the day. To my knowledge Peat does not use LED's, and when using incandescents he has not suggested any upper limit on exposure.

Ok. I see your point. But it is absolutely impractical to sit on the sun for 4 hours every day. For most people neither 1 hour is possible. And even then, it's difficult to expose all body areas that need healing. I think it's different things. Sun would be nutrition, LLLT would be a medicine.
 

DaveFoster

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Does anyone regularly use more than 3 250 watt incandescent bulbs shining on them for the majority of the day?

In response to the winter drop in temperature, I've found a notable positive difference for 4 bulbs, as opposed to 3 bulbs, but I'm not sure if 4 or 5 bulbs should be used all day long.
 

ilikecats

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@DaveFoster I do. I usually have 1000 watts of light shining on me when ever I can (usually the majority of the day) and I have another 400 watts of light throughout the room. It works great for me but you can burn through your glycogen stores pretty fast and you can lose a lot of sodium through excessive sweating due to the heat from the bulbs. I think ray said it should be fine but he has mentioned the fact that even incandescents give off some blue light so thats something to keep in mind if you experience negative effects. Do you use 130v light bulbs? they give off less blue light than the 120v bulbs. It seems like the sun gives off more blue light (obviously the ratio of red light to blue light changes throughout the day) than the 130v light bulbs but thats just from my observations I don't have the data on hand. I think ray believes its ideal to be constantly exposed to bright light throughout the waking hours. Even right before bed
 

DaveFoster

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@DaveFoster I do. I usually have 1000 watts of light shining on me when ever I can (usually the majority of the day) and I have another 400 watts of light throughout the room. It works great for me but you can burn through your glycogen stores pretty fast and you can lose a lot of sodium through excessive sweating due to the heat from the bulbs. I think ray said it should be fine but he has mentioned the fact that even incandescents give off some blue light so thats something to keep in mind if you experience negative effects. Do you use 130v light bulbs? they give off less blue light than the 120v bulbs. It seems like the sun gives off more blue light (obviously the ratio of red light to blue light changes throughout the day) than the 130v light bulbs but thats just from my observations I don't have the data on hand. I think ray believes its ideal to be constantly exposed to bright light throughout the waking hours. Even right before bed
I use the 250 W or 120 volt bulbs, so maybe there's more blue light. I have five of them set up so that's 1,250 W at present. Thanks for the info.
 

ilikecats

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@DaveFoster I find it very theuraputic to fix a few light bulbs very close to my skin over certain parts of my body for 10-15 mins at a time. I get the best results from focusing on the abdomen and the thyroid. I’ll put a 200w 130v light bulb about a quarter of an inch away from my thyroid and it will have a profound anti stress effect most of the time.
 

ilikecats

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Why stop there?
I hear you! I remember looking for rays opinion on that subject and not finding much except some vague advice. He says sleep protects against the effects of darkness. I believe he also said that it’s important to give the eyes some rest but don’t quote me on that. Since learning about the catabolic effects of darkness I’ve always slept with a small light on in the corner of my room but I’ve been experimenting with some more additional light recently. In my opinion you really need to be in a really good physiological state to sleep properly with all that light. I think most people have to rely on some (endogenous) melatonin and serotonin to induce sleep...
 
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ilikecats

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@DaveFoster but yeah ray mentioned somewhere that running a 130v bulb in a 120v socket gives off more redlight than using a 120v lightbulb. I was skeptical but visually it’s pretty striking. Very warm (visually) and relaxing light.., clearly different than the light given from a 120v incandescent
 
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DaveFoster

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@DaveFoster but yeah ray mentioned somewhere that running a 130v bulb in a 120v socket gives off more redlight than using a 120v lightbulb. I was skeptical but visual it’s pretty striking. Very warm (visually) and relaxing light.., clearly different than the light given from a 120v incandescent
Interesting. I'll try shining the light close to my thyroid. I do notice a significant difference when the light happens to be close (even just a few inches can make a difference), but then there's always the chance of burning and overheating.

Here's the only clear 130 volt bulb I could find: https://www.amazon.com/Clear-125R40...513237380&sr=1-12&keywords=130+volt+heat+lamp

This would be the ideal bulb I suppose, for anyone perusing.
 

DaveFoster

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Soren

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For me using red light too much resulted in the same symptoms of angular cheilitis(the cracking of the corner of the lips). I was doing red light therapy daily with red light man full body light and started to develop redness and irritation in the corner of my lips. I'd had angular cheilitis before when I was younger and not using red light so I assumed that this is what it was and it was unrelated to the light. I thought the light therapy would actually help it heal but far from that it seemed to make it worse. It was only when I didn't use the light for about a week that the corners of my mouth began to heal. At the time I did not see the connection I thought other measures I had taken to cure it were the cause. But when I started using the red light again and the cracks and redness returned I saw the connection. I don't know why red-light does this to the corners of my mouth, it could be the red light uses up too much vitamin a and that leaves not enough for the Mucous membranes, could be that bacteria that causes angular cheilitis was already present and the red light helped it to proliferate more. I would assume that for guys this would be a reason to be cautious about using it on ones nether regions as that is another very sensitive Mucous membrane, cracks down there would be none to pleasant :laughing:
 

TheDrumGuy

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@DaveFoster but yeah ray mentioned somewhere that running a 130v bulb in a 120v socket gives off more redlight than using a 120v lightbulb. I was skeptical but visually it’s pretty striking. Very warm (visually) and relaxing light.., clearly different than the light given from a 120v incandescent

It gives off less light overall and less red light in particular, but a better ratio of red to blue, which is what you're seeing.
 

TheDrumGuy

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For me using red light too much resulted in the same symptoms of angular cheilitis(the cracking of the corner of the lips). I was doing red light therapy daily with red light man full body light and started to develop redness and irritation in the corner of my lips. I'd had angular cheilitis before when I was younger and not using red light so I assumed that this is what it was and it was unrelated to the light. I thought the light therapy would actually help it heal but far from that it seemed to make it worse. It was only when I didn't use the light for about a week that the corners of my mouth began to heal. At the time I did not see the connection I thought other measures I had taken to cure it were the cause. But when I started using the red light again and the cracks and redness returned I saw the connection. I don't know why red-light does this to the corners of my mouth, it could be the red light uses up too much vitamin a and that leaves not enough for the Mucous membranes, could be that bacteria that causes angular cheilitis was already present and the red light helped it to proliferate more. I would assume that for guys this would be a reason to be cautious about using it on ones nether regions as that is another very sensitive Mucous membrane, cracks down there would be none to pleasant :laughing:

Very easy to OD with LED's, much harder to OD with incandescents.
 

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