Red/NIR Light Therapy Protocols

Why Dose Dependent Response is BS & How to Use Panels

Continuation from yesterday’s “The Most Underdiscussed Nutrient Deficiency” newsletter on NIR.

How MUCH Red Light is TOO MUCH?

Many of the red light therapy researchers preach a dose dependent response to red light therapy. They say “too much red light is a bad thing” basically. The image below highlights that 4-8 Joules/cm^2 is the “optimal dose”. I have be in line with this thought for a few years now and used my RLT accordingly, but recently I have changed my mind on this topic because I have realized just HOW important NIR is for our biology and HOW deficient we are as a population. I also have been looking at energy density numbers for sunlight and just thought there is no way we are getting anything close so if you can’t get outdoors RLT is a great way to bridge the gap.

Let’s run some numbers. On a clear day in the summer at solar noon the surface solar radiation power is ~1000W/m^2. NIR light is 45-55% of the solar spectrum depending on time of day and season. Solar noon at summer is likely 45%. That is 450W/m^2. Most red light therapy devices are 20-100mW/cm^2. 450W/m^2 = 45 mW/cm^2. So that is right in line with where red light therapy devices are at from a power density perspective. There is benefit however to going even higher from a power density perspective if you do have an injury (torn ligament, tendon, muscle, etc.) per say, because higher power intensity = deeper penetration. But the goal here is to emulate sunlight as best we can, so if you get 45mW/cm^2 of power density at solar noon, I am going to say if we want to get the benefits of RLT with longer term use we need to match it.

HOWEVER, distance does matter tremendously. I mentioned that most RLT therapy devices range 20-100mW/cm^2, well that depends mostly on the distance away from the device. One company (Red Light Man) has a nice chart of distance vs power density I have shared below. As you can see at a distance of 25-40cm (10-16 in.) we are in a zone of 18-45mW/cm^2. That likely would be very much indicative of natural sunlight. If you take shade, seasonality, time of day…5-45mW/cm^2 is certainly a reasonable range for sunlight power density.

But back to energy density. 450W/m^2 or 45mW/cm^2 = 0.045 Joules/second/cm^2. Let’s compare 1.5 hours of sun exposure at mid day power intensity. 90 minutes = 5400 seconds so if you multiply .045J/sec/cm^2*5400sec = 243 Joules/cm^2

That is 50X the “optimal energy density” according to the research. Again this is mid day sun exposure energy density, so if you take into account shade and say mid winter sun this value of 243 J/cm^2 may be as low as ~10J/cm^2. This would then be in line with the research optimal energy density of 4-6 J/cm^2 HOWEVER this is only taking into account 1.5 hours of sun exposure! Our ancestors would have been outside ALL DAY LONG. Even if they were in the shade (50-90% reduction) for say 6 hours per day we are again talking around 50-300 J/cm^2 depending on time of year.

Don’t believe me? Well funny enough after doing some of this rough math I found a NASA website that did the actual map of energy calculations including season, latitude for all day sun exposure. They found that the ratio between midsummer and winter is about 0.26 at 42 degrees N latitude, meaning that the mid winter energy is about 26% that of mid summer (9hr of sun vs 15hr of sun).

They calculated the angles and took the appropriate derivatives to find that peak mid summer energy at 42 deg latitude for full day sun exposure was 2200 J/cm^2 and the trough for mid winter was 580 J/cm^2. Taking 45% and 55% respectively for NIR percentages = 990 J/cm^2 & 261 J/cm^2. EVEN if you lived in the cloudiest/most overcast place on earth and say 90% of your NIR was blocked, you’d still be at 26 J/cm^2 for a FULL WINTER DAY OUTSIDE. This is what our ancestors would have been exposed to.

CONCLUSION

The notion that RLT dose dependent response is real is undoubtedly FALSE when considering these numbers, but it is nuanced. Because we have almost no connection to the outdoors, our tolerance for photonic energy is piss poor. Our redox potential as humans has never been lower. That means we need to build up our redox and tolerance to NIR over time. I personally think that using NIR panels to do so is brilliant. Remember that at any distance >1 ft away you are in the sunlight power density safe zone.

I would argue that one could benefit tremendously from having a NIR panel on indoors at 1-5ft of distance away almost continuously. It offsets the distorted spectrum coming from glass blocking NIR and will help you retain sufficient redox + EZ structure.

Start at 15 min and increase periodically and see how you go. That is what I am going to do this winter. HOWEVER, don’t forget that these RLT panels are high power and emit significant ELF-EMFs. I would recommend keeping the plug at least 10 ft away from you.

RLT PANELS/BRANDS I RECOMMEND

I like Midwest Light therapy for an affordable, high power RLT/NIR panel.

TRISTAN10 for a discount

For extremely high power, targeted NIR therapy (recommended for injuries), check out CHROMA and use code “TRISTANSCOTT” for a discount.

Will be recording Decentralized Radio podcasts in the near future with both of these brands to dive DEEP into the nuance of artificial light, blue light blocking glasses and Red Light Therapy.

Stay Sovereign,

Tristan

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