![]() This was how NASA stumbled into the world of medical light therapy. The LEDs were red and blue because these are the most efficient light wavelengths for driving photosynthesis, and NASA scientists who spent time working with their hands under the lighting found that abrasions on their hands seemed to heal faster than normal. In 1989, Ignatius founded Quantum Devices Inc., and Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding from NASA paid the company to complete an LED plant-growth unit that grew potatoes on the space shuttle in 1995.īut the research had a side effect. As light-emitting diode (LED) technology entered the commercial market, Ignatius worked with WCSAR to study this new lighting for growing plants in space. In the late 1980s, engineer Ron Ignatius worked at a company that partnered with the Wisconsin Center for Space Automation and Robotics (WCSAR), which was funded by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. ![]() Karu and others began to suspect that “uniform” laser light probably wasn’t necessary for producing beneficial effects, but it was NASA that finally answered that question after the space agency stumbled on it accidentally. Today it’s thought that red and infrared wavelengths are absorbed by cytochrome C oxidase, a key enzyme in cellular metabolism, and probably by other light-sensitive chemicals, triggering a cascade of effects within the cell. This would accelerate cell production and relieve oxidative stress, a factor that causes inflammation and symptoms of aging and ultimately contributes to diabetes, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, and other illnesses. Karu hypothesized that red light treated many afflictions because it improved overall cell function by stimulating the mitochondria that drive metabolism in animal cells. In a 1989 paper about the health benefits of low-powered laser light, biophysicist Tiina Karu noted that the treatment appeared “highly incredible and even mysterious.” What’s more, she wrote, its effectiveness against many different ailments only added to doubts by creating the appearance of a proverbial snake-oil panacea. For example, although a Danish physician received a Nobel Prize in 1903 for discovering that exposure to concentrated red light accelerated the healing of sores, he remained reluctant to put it into practice without understanding why it worked.Ī larger barrier to acceptance, though, has probably been that it simply sounds unbelievable. This may be because the science behind it hasn’t been well understood. Can light help a wound heal faster? Alleviate pain? Prevent loss of eyesight?Īlthough decades of studies indicate it can – including extensive research funded by NASA – the mounting evidence hasn’t always drawn the attention that might be expected for such a striking discovery.
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