In my last post, I introduced our new body composition scanner, Styku. Today, I’m proud to announce that our second big piece of “bio-hacking” equipment is now fully functional here in the office: our Soleil-Well Red Light Device.
What is a red light device? It is, as its name implies, a device that shines very bright and powerful red (and near infrared) light onto the body. Truly it’s no more complicated than that – one simply stands in front of the device for a few minutes and allows the light to soak into their body. It’s completely painless, completely non-invasive, and virtually risk free, as it does not emit any radiation or ultraviolet light.
Extensive research done at world class institutions like Harvard, the NIH, and NASA, has shown a myriad of benefits to treatment with this type of therapy for dozens of conditions including fatigue, depression, wound healing, injury recovery, fibromyalgia, and even congestive heart failure. If you want to verify this, go to PubMed (a database of research articles maintained by the NIH), do a search for “photobiomodulation” (the technical name for red light treatment), and review the many hundreds of articles that come up.
Despite the abundance of evidence that red light therapy is safe and effective, it is virtually nowhere to be found in mainstream medicine. It is not taught in medical school curriculums, and there is no mechanism to bill for it in an insurance driven system. Few doctors outside of research institutions are offering it to their patients.
But an area where red light therapy has made significant inroads is in professional sports. Not surprisingly, high level athletes (and the teams that employ them) are always looking for anything that can give them an edge, and given the effects red light treatment has on helping muscle/tendon injuries heal more quickly, speeding up muscle recovery after intense exercise, and improving energy levels, many professional sports teams now provide this type of therapy for their players. In fact, the company that built the red light device here in our office has provided red light devices for many players in the NHL, NBA, and NFL, amongst other professional athletes.
Our red light device is now available to all of our patients on an as needed basis. It is yet another example of how, in direct primary care, we are free to re-imagine healthcare entirely and provide patients with a completely different experience than can be found in the mainstream system.
