Let There Be Light

I don't care much for gadgets or electronics. I was late to the smart phone game and still can't quite figure out Facebook. Don't even get me started on Twitter, Snapchat or Instagram.

I also tend to be skeptical of new things, especially high-priced new things that claim to have amazing healing powers.

Until I tried LED Light Therapy three winters ago. Twenty minutes under those lights and I felt like I'd been to the beach for a week. Talk about peace and serenity. I bought my own lights a couple of weeks later and have been using them ever since - on myself, friends, family and clients at the Polarity Center of Syracuse and East Side Light Therapy, both in Fayetteville.

These are not the same as lights for seasonal affective disorder (though they can help with that) or even cold laser light. They're better!

Light Therapy pads with red, blue and invisible
infrared LED lights. The pads are placed
directly  on the skin for 20 minutes at a time. 

LED Light Therapy has been used throughout Europe for more than 50 years. In the United States, the FDA has certified the lights for reducing pain and increasing circulation, and they are used by NASA, US Navy Seals and the Mayo Clinic, to name a few high-profile agencies.

Because blood circulation affects nearly every part of the body, improved circulation means wounds heal faster, swelling reduces, high blood pressure and high cholesterol come down, diabetic neuropathy recedes and so on.

Anecdotal evidence shows there really is no limit to the benefits of LED Light Therapy. Personally, the lights have helped me with stress, mild insomnia (I'm usually asleep within minutes of putting them on), PMS and muscle pain.

The most startling result I've seen was in a little boy named James, who had several nasty looking lesions on his face, neck, arm, belly and knees. He saw several doctors and natural healers, who could find no cause or cure.

James (making a funny face)
before receiving Light Therapy

After five, 20-minute lights sessions, his lesions improved significantly. A month later, only one remained and it was barely noticeable.

"Once we did the lights, it was amazing, really," said James' mom, Sarah. "Nothing else touched it. This poor kid going to school. I still cannot believe it. They're almost all gone."

James in November 2014. After
five Light Therapy sessions, all
that remains of his biggest lesion
 is a light pink mark on the cheek

For Syracusan's struggling to find joy cloudy day after cloudy day (November and December are the cloudiest months in Central New York, as well as the shortest), Light Therapy just might keep your spirits up and fend off or reverse depression, says Canadian Wes Burwell, an expert on Light Therapy, who spoke in Syracuse last week.

"When you put lights on a person's body, it kicks on all the chemical reactions required to keep you healthy," says Wes, who is conducting a study on the benefits of Light Therapy for patients with Traumatic Brain Injury. "Lack of light causes deviation in all tissues and leads to higher levels of inflammation."

For an added bonus, LED Lights act as an anti-aging skin rejuvenator by boosting the production of collagen - the protein responsible for your skin's tone and elasticity. They also help with age spots, freckles, scars, uneven pigmentation, hyperpigmentation, acne and blemishes.

Who says peace and happiness can't look good, too?