Wednesday, April 26, 2006
LED (light emitting diode) treatment for rosacea? Part 1 of 2
This is part one of a two-part post on LED treatment for rosacea. I have asked David C, who posts regularly on rosacea forums online, to share his experiences with LED treatment for rosacea for part one. Part two, coming in a few days, will look at what if any other evidence there is to support this therapy.
Here are two photos of David (click the photo to view high-resolution version).
Photo 1: Before This is a picture of me after I was hospitalized for rosacea-related complications (because of my extreme sensitivity to heat, over a period of weeks, I drove my core body temperature down to 84 degrees F using a fan, misting water on myself, and sitting in 60-degree air conditioning--my doctor said it was the lowest core body temperature he'd seen in anyone other than patients pulled out of a frozen lake) in September of 2003. Needless to say, I was of great interest to the resident med students making their rounds in the internal medicine wing. This was about as bad as my disease ever got.
Photo 2: AfterThis is how my skin looks now, in April of 2006. This photo was taken without a flash, using sunlight for illumination, so the flash did not wash out any redness in my skin. Not all of my progress is due to red light therapy, but since I have been using red light therapy over the past year my tolerance to triggers (heat, exertion, socializing) has risen an incredible amount--it has been far more effective for flushing prevention than any other treatment modality I've tried.
This is what he says:
My Experience with Red Light Therapy
- by David C
I have been using red light therapy, regularly, for a year now. As far as I understand, the light can come from any source—fluorescent tubes, LEDs, or a monochromatic filtered incandescent bulb, so long as the light is around 660nm (the range or specific wavelengths for red light therapy are not clearly understood in the treatment of rosacea; there may be a range of wavelengths, or specific peaks into the infrared spectrum that are beneficial—we just don’t know yet). I chose an LED-based product (an Acnelamp 3-headed all-red unit) to begin with.
I used the Acnelamp gingerly (sporadically) at first, as I was concerned that it might make my condition worse. But, eventually, I began to use the Acnelamp on a regular basis. I went from using it fifteen minutes a day, then fifteen minutes twice a day, then up to twenty minutes twice a day, and then sometimes for a cumulative total of an hour a day.
One of the reasons I began to increase my exposure time was that my face was almost always paler or “calmed” after a session with the Acnelamp. Also, in the hours following a session, my face was less reactive—rather like a dose of clonidine in the action of flushing suppression/prevention. Over time, I noticed that my threshold for flushing began to rise. I was able to take walks in the summer evenings that would have been impossible to tolerate before my use of red light therapy.
After a few months using my Acnelamp regularly, I started doing research on LEDs, because I wanted to construct a custom-made LED array with more LEDs than the Acnelamp had. My first design used LEDs with a viewing angle of 15 degrees that produced light at 660nm. While this design was an improvement over my Acnelamp (it had 252 LEDs (as opposed to the Acnelamp’s 72)), the viewing angle made the light diffusion of this model awkward in that one had to sit around sixteen inches from the light source to get total coverage on the face. However, I did use this model for a few months and found that my condition only continued to get better.
However, I was unsatisfied with this first array, so I built another array, using 660nm LEDs with a viewing angle of 30 degrees, which allowed for a condensing (I could sit closer to the array and get total coverage) of the array’s set-up. This is the array I am currently using, and it has 1176 LEDs, made up of 8 arrays consisting of 147 LEDs that I have arranged into a half-moon curve. I use this set-up anywhere from 20 minutes a day to a few hours (I sometimes purposefully fall asleep in a chair in front of this array with my eye-protection goggles on). I have seen nothing but benefits from this kind of extended exposure time in front of this stronger array.
Why Does it Help Rosacea?
Though there have been no good studies on red light therapy and rosacea, from my readings on this topic, red light seems to have an anti-inflammatory action. If rosacea is, at heart, a flushing disorder that is complicated by the body’s inflammatory response—which in turn cascades and creates a vicious cycle of flushing, which causes an inflammatory response in the facial vasculature, which makes the face more sensitive and prone to more flushing, etc. with eventual extreme sensitivity and a break-out of papules and pustules—daily use of red light therapy appears to act as an anti-inflammatory on the facial vasculature and thus stops the disease from progressing, and, indeed, has reversed the disease process in my case.
Moreover, red light therapy has an added bonus of promoting collagen production, which can build up a thinned dermis, which offers added protection to vessels that were previously more exposed to environmental insults. Much like IPL (though its action is non-thermal and gradual), red light therapy can, over time, treat photo-aged skin and fill in wrinkles, too.
An Addendum: Rosacea Treatment through Red Light Therapy is NOT Singular Cure
I will firmly support red light therapy as the best treatment modality I have come across in my 6 years of treating/fighting/suppressing this disease. However, PLEASE do not rely on red light therapy or a given topical skincare product. Rosacea is a complex disease and must be recognized for what it is: You most likely will need a multi-pronged approach.
I currently use clonidine, clarithromycin 500mg XL, clonazepam, and have had over two dozen thermal laser treatments.
The number of laser/IPL treatments I’ve had should make the intelligent rosacean take pause; while laser/IPL treatments can treat telangiectasias and flushing, it is most likely that one will not find this an end-all a solution. Rather, one must integrate thermal laser therapy, anti-angiogeneic drugs/supplements, and, if I may be so bold as to recommend, red light therapy. This is a complex disease, and so we must all be vigilant and constantly educating one another.
This addendum is in no way meant to undercut my experiences with red light therapy: I am a rosacea sufferer, and I believe that full disclosure is the best way help us, as a community, treat our common disease.
Here are two photos of David (click the photo to view high-resolution version).
Photo 1: Before This is a picture of me after I was hospitalized for rosacea-related complications (because of my extreme sensitivity to heat, over a period of weeks, I drove my core body temperature down to 84 degrees F using a fan, misting water on myself, and sitting in 60-degree air conditioning--my doctor said it was the lowest core body temperature he'd seen in anyone other than patients pulled out of a frozen lake) in September of 2003. Needless to say, I was of great interest to the resident med students making their rounds in the internal medicine wing. This was about as bad as my disease ever got.
Photo 2: AfterThis is how my skin looks now, in April of 2006. This photo was taken without a flash, using sunlight for illumination, so the flash did not wash out any redness in my skin. Not all of my progress is due to red light therapy, but since I have been using red light therapy over the past year my tolerance to triggers (heat, exertion, socializing) has risen an incredible amount--it has been far more effective for flushing prevention than any other treatment modality I've tried. This is what he says:
My Experience with Red Light Therapy
- by David C
I have been using red light therapy, regularly, for a year now. As far as I understand, the light can come from any source—fluorescent tubes, LEDs, or a monochromatic filtered incandescent bulb, so long as the light is around 660nm (the range or specific wavelengths for red light therapy are not clearly understood in the treatment of rosacea; there may be a range of wavelengths, or specific peaks into the infrared spectrum that are beneficial—we just don’t know yet). I chose an LED-based product (an Acnelamp 3-headed all-red unit) to begin with.
I used the Acnelamp gingerly (sporadically) at first, as I was concerned that it might make my condition worse. But, eventually, I began to use the Acnelamp on a regular basis. I went from using it fifteen minutes a day, then fifteen minutes twice a day, then up to twenty minutes twice a day, and then sometimes for a cumulative total of an hour a day.
One of the reasons I began to increase my exposure time was that my face was almost always paler or “calmed” after a session with the Acnelamp. Also, in the hours following a session, my face was less reactive—rather like a dose of clonidine in the action of flushing suppression/prevention. Over time, I noticed that my threshold for flushing began to rise. I was able to take walks in the summer evenings that would have been impossible to tolerate before my use of red light therapy.
After a few months using my Acnelamp regularly, I started doing research on LEDs, because I wanted to construct a custom-made LED array with more LEDs than the Acnelamp had. My first design used LEDs with a viewing angle of 15 degrees that produced light at 660nm. While this design was an improvement over my Acnelamp (it had 252 LEDs (as opposed to the Acnelamp’s 72)), the viewing angle made the light diffusion of this model awkward in that one had to sit around sixteen inches from the light source to get total coverage on the face. However, I did use this model for a few months and found that my condition only continued to get better.
However, I was unsatisfied with this first array, so I built another array, using 660nm LEDs with a viewing angle of 30 degrees, which allowed for a condensing (I could sit closer to the array and get total coverage) of the array’s set-up. This is the array I am currently using, and it has 1176 LEDs, made up of 8 arrays consisting of 147 LEDs that I have arranged into a half-moon curve. I use this set-up anywhere from 20 minutes a day to a few hours (I sometimes purposefully fall asleep in a chair in front of this array with my eye-protection goggles on). I have seen nothing but benefits from this kind of extended exposure time in front of this stronger array.
Why Does it Help Rosacea?
Though there have been no good studies on red light therapy and rosacea, from my readings on this topic, red light seems to have an anti-inflammatory action. If rosacea is, at heart, a flushing disorder that is complicated by the body’s inflammatory response—which in turn cascades and creates a vicious cycle of flushing, which causes an inflammatory response in the facial vasculature, which makes the face more sensitive and prone to more flushing, etc. with eventual extreme sensitivity and a break-out of papules and pustules—daily use of red light therapy appears to act as an anti-inflammatory on the facial vasculature and thus stops the disease from progressing, and, indeed, has reversed the disease process in my case.
Moreover, red light therapy has an added bonus of promoting collagen production, which can build up a thinned dermis, which offers added protection to vessels that were previously more exposed to environmental insults. Much like IPL (though its action is non-thermal and gradual), red light therapy can, over time, treat photo-aged skin and fill in wrinkles, too.
An Addendum: Rosacea Treatment through Red Light Therapy is NOT Singular Cure
I will firmly support red light therapy as the best treatment modality I have come across in my 6 years of treating/fighting/suppressing this disease. However, PLEASE do not rely on red light therapy or a given topical skincare product. Rosacea is a complex disease and must be recognized for what it is: You most likely will need a multi-pronged approach.
I currently use clonidine, clarithromycin 500mg XL, clonazepam, and have had over two dozen thermal laser treatments.
The number of laser/IPL treatments I’ve had should make the intelligent rosacean take pause; while laser/IPL treatments can treat telangiectasias and flushing, it is most likely that one will not find this an end-all a solution. Rather, one must integrate thermal laser therapy, anti-angiogeneic drugs/supplements, and, if I may be so bold as to recommend, red light therapy. This is a complex disease, and so we must all be vigilant and constantly educating one another.
This addendum is in no way meant to undercut my experiences with red light therapy: I am a rosacea sufferer, and I believe that full disclosure is the best way help us, as a community, treat our common disease.
