Introduction & Episode Overview
Intro (00:03)
Welcome to the Red Light Therapy Podcast, brought to you by Platinum LED Therapy Lights, the pioneers who spent 15 years building the world's most powerful red light technology. In each episode, we show you how to use that power to heal your body, save time with shorter sessions, and get the professional grade results you deserve. This is the Science of the Light, Simplified for you. And now, your host, Mike Volcan.
Mike (00:37)
All right, everybody, welcome to another red light therapy podcast. And as always, I'm joined by our co-host, Dr. Inman. Welcome to the show, Dr. Inman.
Alan (00:47)
How's going everyone? We're gonna talk about some interesting facts today.
Mike (00:50)
Yeah, today's gonna be a good one. We're talking about eye health. But for those of you who don't know, Dr. Inman is a longevity and sports performance specialist from West Texas. not only does he have two clinics in Costa Rica, but he's also a medical director of a stem cell clinic. and I am just a huge advocate of stem cells. It just completely fixed my back pain. So I highly recommend if you're considering stem cells, go talk to Dr. Inman. but as a red light therapy expert, today he's gonna be sharing his wisdom about eye health and how it relates to red light therapy. So are you ready to go ahead and
Dive into it, Dr. I? Okay. As you know, if you've listened to the show before, everybody, this is going to be less than 15 minutes, so you can kind of listen to this while you do your red light therapy session. So today's exact topic is on eye health alert. And my first question to you is why do people say that red light is good for your eyes?
Why Do People Say Red Light Is Good for Your Eyes?
Alan (01:40)
Retina is one of the most metabolically active tissues in the body. It's really important to know that the photoreceptors that are in that retina are they they require enormous amount of energy, which means they contain a very high concentrated amount of mitochondria. And the mitochondria, as we age, we start to have a decline in its function. So that's where, you know, red light comes along.
And it's received by the mitochondria, and it's gonna improve its function and cellular energy production, meaning the basis of photobiomodulation. So, one fascinating human study, which you know took on using 670 nanometer red light therapy for three minutes, what they did is they tested three hours later and they found a 17% improvement in blue-yellow color contrasts. And then they
They also found that there was a twelve percent improvement in the red-green color contrast. So this is something in where if we look at it, biologically it's really interesting. But we also need to be able to speak of the fact that this was only a twenty person study. So it wasn't that big, but it was still something that they could measure and the numbers looked really good.
Do I Need to Wear the Black Goggles?
Mike (03:03)
Yeah, it's not definitely not a meta study, but definitely shows promising results. So we're Platinum Therapy Light fans, and that's who sponsors this show. But do I need they they come with these black goggles when you buy your panels. Do I need to wear those when I do my red light therapy sessions?
Alan (03:20)
If you're using a powerful red light therapy panel like what we use, it is something that I'm always gonna recommend. You know, just as a manufacturer eye eye protection that that you have, in those instructions, how it says you need to place them over your eyes and you need to close your eyes so you can protect. That doesn't mean necessarily that I'm saying it's harmful, but I'm not saying it's not either. There isn't sufficient amount of data there.
For us to be able to say it's not going to be helpful. There is studies that show that if you had a certain amount of milliwatts per centimeter squared used over the eyes in an ophthalmological way, then that's different. But in this case, you know, being how I am, always trying to be careful, it's best to consider using the eye protection.
Mike (04:10)
Okay, that makes sense. so we've got the platinum therapy light, for example, has multiple different wavelengths. And how do you know what the safest way to treat, say, the face is without hurting the eyes?
Alan (04:24)
So very simple. Use what is these goggles and just make sure your eyes are closed as we had mentioned. it is good for the retina, but it is something that on this power level, whenever you have powerful panels, there's no way of knowing what are gonna be the results over time. So there's not sufficient amount of studies. So I would always recommend to use the goggles.
Can Red Light Help With Age-Related Vision Loss?
Mike (04:51)
And you hear about obviously a lot of it's very well known, humans have vision loss as they get older. Can red light help with age related vision loss?
Alan (05:02)
Well, this is probably one of the most important and interesting parts of research. We we have now had a random randomized study in where there was dry age related macular degeneration. And in this study, what they did is they had a hundred patients and this was a hundred and forty eight eyes. One's gonna go, Well, isn't that two hundred? Well, consider there's gonna be some people that, you know, only have one eye. five ninety
660 and 850 nanometers was used. And so they did a 20-month study with the photobiomodulation group, and it improved by 6.2 letters on the eye chart. If you guys have ever seen an eye chart. And so if we looked at percentages, it was 61.5% of treated eyes improved at least five letters. And 23.1% improved at least 10 letters. So
It was pretty interesting these results that you're gonna find. And so if you're looking at these numbers, I find them really compelling.
Is There a Safe Distance for Eye Therapy?
Mike (06:07)
I'd have to look at that study, I'd be interested to know what those distances are. Is there a safe distance for ISAFE therapy?
Alan (06:13)
No. And I think that's an important misconception to correct. So as of right now, or you know, somebody could say stay twelve inches away from the from the eyes and distance, it has nothing to do with just distance because remember, when you look at red light therapy, it's also about wavelength, irradiance, distance, duration, beam characteristic, and the design of the device. So if we just try to give someone, the distance is what's most important.
then we're missing the whole thing that has to do with the amount of photons that's being received by that retina.
Is Closing My Eyes the Same as Using Goggles?
Mike (06:49)
Yeah, that's a good point. There's so many factors that go into an answer like that with the how red light therapy panels operate. What about just like closing my eyes instead of using the goggles? Is that safe or is that effective?
Alan (07:00)
I wouldn't automatically consider close eyes equivalent to goggles.
Mike (07:05)
Okay.
Alan (07:06)
goggles are gonna protect all red light from getting in, at least the majority of it, and your eyelids it's skin, so it's still gonna penetrate and that's really actually easy to demonstrate because when you close your eyes you're gonna see that red seep through and so you know that the transmission of that red light is reaching
The rest of
Mike (07:30)
Yeah.
Alan (07:31)
your eye use those icon.
Dr. Inman's Overall View on the Vision Research
Mike (07:33)
Exactly. Okay. Well, you know, th you've mentioned some studies already, but what do you think about the recent vision study results? There's a a bunch of different ones coming out, a bunch of different size of the studies, different ways that they're measuring. What what's your whole encompassing view of all those?
Alan (07:48)
Well, it it's just like I had mentioned this study and where they had a seventeen percent improvement in specific measurements of contrast. and so to know that there was sixty-one point five percent gained at least in five letters, and twenty-three point one percent gained in at least ten letters whenever they did that twenty-one month study, that's actually showing quite a bit because you know, that's approximately a seventy-two percent relative reduction in that particular outcome. So
It is something that you're gonna find where it is improvement, but as I said, it's something in where it needs to be very specific all in distance, radiation, duration, etc. So until that is perfected, I would no way desire for anyone to listen to others who are saying to use the red light without enough sufficient stemness.
Closing Outro
Mike (08:43)
Right. So proceed with caution. The red light therapy industry is still very young. A lot of studies need to be done still. A lot of studies are already done. but anyway, thank you very much, Dr. Inman. That was super helpful. we're gonna have you back in a future episode next, actually, about fighting inflammation, which I'm sure you're gonna that is your wheelhouse. Thank you very much for joining us. If anybody has any questions they want to send in to Dr. Inman, we'll address them at the future episode. Go to red light therapy podcast dot com. Thanks again, Dr. Inman.
Intro (09:12)
Thank you for joining us on the Red Light Therapy Podcast. While others imitate, Platinum innovates. For over 15 years, Platinum Therapy Lights remains the pioneers and global leader in the red light therapy industry. Access the same technology trusted by medical professionals, researchers, and peak performers worldwide. Now it is your turn to experience the Platinum LED difference. Visit Platinum Therapy Lights.com to secure your professional great results today.
Alan (09:47)
Yeah.
