Red Light Therapy Update: Good News, Things are Changing!

In prior blogs, I’ve written about my experiment using red light therapy panels at home for lymphedema. I have now used a Red Light Panel for about 70 days and experienced some interesting short-term changes. Now I’m away from home for almost 2 months, so having to take a break from it. Will get back to it later in the summer. While I was initially sad to take this extended break, things have gotten very interesting. The benefits appear to be more than temporary at this point, even with just short term use.

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What Has Changed?

Since these panels are not travel-friendly, I had to say a temporary goodbye to my new panel for several weeks. Interestingly enough, since stopping this treatment while travelling, my lymphedema has taken a curious turn. It’s a twist I never anticipated, but one that’s making me feel even more optimistic about what this light therapy might be able to do over the long term. Long story short, my legs are no longer swelling much at all. Instead my hands are swelling instead. Mostly my right hand, which has never swelled much at all before. But it’s not much and it resolves very quickly.

My swelling has always had a distinct pattern that has not changed. (I”m curious if any of you have experienced changing of swelling patterns???) My left leg has always been ground zero and the first to swell. It doesn’t happen anymore, but early on before I had this under control, my right leg would start to swell too at times. My left hand would occasionally swell during exercise too….that still happens to me now.

So this new pattern is completely different. It appears that any swelling I am feeling is going to my right hand first. I see that as a big sign that my lymphatic system is changing for the better, hopefully. This is definitely not its pattern at all.

To give this some context, after about 50 days of use of the red light panel about 5 times per week, I was feeling some short-term benefits. As others have noted on other blogs and forums, red light can help with lymphatic drainage (symptom control). It was helping with that, and also I noticed a lot of small aches and pains I have normally went away. Very cool stuff and great results, but really, I am hoping for more.

Given the research out there suggesting that red light therapy can help basically jump start cells and increase lymphatic drainage pathways, I am hoping for much bigger results over the long term. But I understand that will take time and of course there are no guarantees.

That’s why I was so surprised to see this change in my swelling after just about 2 months of use. To me…although I am not a medical person or a researcher, this seems to show that my lymphatic system IS changing. It appears the legs are draining more normally since I am not noticing much there.

Some caveats though: my swelling is mild since it has been so well controlled in the past with Chinese herbs and other strategies. So changes are not huge. However, this is definitely noticeable to me as I can feel when there is liquid not draining normally.

And what is really good is that I figured out if I just swing my arms or walk with a stick in one hand, there’s no swelling at all in my hands.

So far so good in the experiment! I look forward to getting back to the red light panel in about 5 weeks. Until then, I am thrilled so far.

More Side Effects from our Modern Life?

This all got me thinking. I found out a couple days ago that by walking with one walking pole (or just a stick–really anything), engaging my upper body also helps the lymphatic flow.

Really, a lot of things we all suffer from are worsened by the “luxuries” of everyday life, aren’t they? Sitting more, not having to walk around carrying food as hunters/gatherers, artificial lights, living inside glued to screens…it seems that a lot of the health improvements I’ve experienced have come from trying to neutralize all these modern conveniences.

Anyway, I just found that curious. Here, adding light from a panel, which our ancestors would have gotten naturally just by spending a lot more time in the sun and in the dawn/sunset/fire light, is helping combat some of these modern day health issues. We do live in a strange world!

How to Use Red Light to Treat Lymphedema

Just to recap what I”ve written about in previous blogs, I’ve been using a full body red light panel by MitoRed (the MitoPro 1500). I chose this particular panel after extensive research. With this one, you get very strong power (which is what you need for results) without paying more for all the bells and whistles that I didn’t think I would ever use. And their products are independently third-party tested to ensure that the power they say the panels provide actually exist. That is critical since these panels are not cheap, and you want to make sure you get what you are paying for.

I use the panel for about 12 to 15 minutes most days, taking at least 1 or 2 days off per week. While many of these panel manufacturers say daily is best, one MD I listened to thought it was important to take breaks. I thought her advice was good so would rather be conservative and take a couple days off per week. Plus, there’s always a day or two where there’s not enough time, so that works well.

Learn more about the MitoPro 1500.