While biohackers everywhere are spending hundreds of dollars if not more each year of expensive supplements, smart drugs and cognitive enhancers for executive functions, memory, creativity, or motivation - light medicine delivered painlessly with LED lightwaves can be used to achieve the same effect without any complications or side effects sometimes found in some of the more stimulating nootropics on the market.
Light therapy is a growing trend in the world of wellness and cognitive health, and has been proven to:
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promote alertness
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improve attention span
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improve memory consolidation
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dramatically decrease depression and anxiety
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generally improve cognition
When red light is applied to the skull, it penetrates into the brain. Applying the light for just a few minutes to the brain, decreases anxiety and depression. This makes sense as several studies show that depression is linked to abnormal blood flow in the frontal cortex of the brain, and red light and infrared phototherapy increases blood flow and circulation. As the lightwaves stimulate ATP production, also responsible for signaling to the brain to release serotonin and endorphins, our mood elevates and we're provided with a sense of ease and clarity not available to us before. Acting as an all natural anti-depressant without the side effects.
Using light medicine to benefit those suffering from major depression, scientists in 2009 from Harvard University tested the effects of near-infrared light on 10 subjects. Every subject suffered from major long term depression. When the lightwaves were applied directly to the forehead of the patients after 16 minutes, and after just one treatment with near-infrared light, patients experienced highly significant reductions in both depressions and anxiety. The subjects posted better and improved scores after only two weeks of the therapy. By the end of the four-week study, 6 out of 10 patients experienced a remission of their depression, and 7 out of 10 patients experienced a remission of their anxiety. This has shown that near-infrared therapy can tackle and ease depression and anxiety in just one treatment!
In some studies, researchers have found that brain and cognitive performance benefit greatly from trans-cranial red and near-infrared light therapy. There have been studies showing enhancement in brain function and neural activity in the older generations but recent studies are coming out now showing that light therapy isn't limited to enhancing brain health of the elderly, but also showing an increase in cognitive function among young adults.
A suggested routine for cognitive enhancement and mood elevation (increasing dopamine and serotonin in the brain while generally improving mitochondrial function), would be to:
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Apply infrared light waves in the 810 - 880nm range to the frontal cortex and back of the head where the base of your skull meets your neck). Infrared light waves in the 810 - 880nm range to the frontal cortex and back of the head where the base of your skull meets your neck).
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Get the right pulse rate. You’ll want a light pulsed at 10 - 40hz, as has been proven in recent studies at Harvard Medical and Boston University School of Medicine to correlate with gamma oscillations within the brain, activate glial cells (which are responsible for clearing unwanted protein deposits), and increase cognitive processing capability and memory consolidation.
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Check the power density. Without the right strength, the waves won’t get through the skull and into the brain. At a power of 37 joules per cm2 (such as our clinical strength Therapy Wrap) a 20 minute treatment would have similar effects to those in the groundbreaking studies happening now, which are examined in our book, Light Medicine. Light Medicine details 30 different treatments and recommended times and wavelengths for various conditions.
