Eczema is the general term used to describe inflammation of the skin. Not only can it be physically uncomfortable to deal with dry, flaky or red skin, but it can also leave a person feeling self-conscious about their appearance. More than 30 million Americans deal with some form of eczema, and many of them are struggling to find a successful treatment program. If you’re one of the millions who have yet to hone in on an effective treatment for your eczema, we urge you to consider red light therapy. In today’s blog, we explain how red light therapy can help manage your eczema.
Understanding Eczema
Since eczema is just the general term for skin inflammation, it’s important to realize that there are many different conditions that fall under the larger eczema umbrella. Conditions like atopic dermatitis, contact dermatitis, nummular eczema and seborrheic dermatitis are all forms of skin inflammation that can lead to dry, red and itchy skin, and you’ll want to work with your healthcare provider to better understand exactly what you’re up against. They’ll talk about some general ways to improve your skin health, like through improvements in diet, exercise and hydration, but they may also discuss complementary therapies like red light therapy.
Red light therapy can be helpful because it targets the root cause of eczema onset. For many patients, their skin condition is triggered by an issue that affects their body at a cellular level. Allergens, different foods, irritants or stress are all factors that affect the health of your skin cells. These underlying factors can damage your skin barrier, making it unable to lock in moisture as it should (and in turn, irritants can more likely damage the surface of your skin). It can become a vicious cycle where your skin becomes dry and cracked because of a problem with moisture retention, and these symptoms cause you to scratch or itch, further irritating the area and worsening the health of the skin. You need to break this cycle, and treatment is rarely effective at the surface level. For best results, you need to target your skin health from the inside out, and that’s where red light therapy comes in.
Red light therapy improves your health at the cellular level. It involves exposing the skin to light at specific red wavelengths. Light at the right wavelength can penetrate the skin and reach cells deeper inside our body. The cells then take this light and effectively convert it to energy to help perform cellular processes. Energized cells can better perform certain functions, including tissue repair. Essentially, red light is converted by cells into energy, which is then used to carry out repair processes, collagen production and improve the overall health of your cells and your body. This allows your skin cells to repair this damaged barrier, ensuring your skin can hold in more moisture and be less affected by outside irritants.
By solving the problem from the inside out, red light therapy can do way more than treatments like topical creams that help your body retain more moisture from the outside. Many studies have confirmed the effectiveness of red light therapy for eczema. A 2013 study revealed that red light therapy helped improve eczema symptoms better than traditional treatments like emollients or wet wraps, while a 2018 study found that red light therapy may be an effective treatment for patients with arthritis or other inflammatory conditions like eczema.
Perhaps best of all, red light therapy is low cost and doesn’t carry the risks or potential side effects of other common eczema treatments. You have little to lose and much to gain by talking with a provider about the possibility of adding red light therapy to your current eczema treatment program.
As we’ve talked about on the blog in the best, red light therapy can be great for your skin health, and that’s especially true for patients dealing with an inflammatory condition like eczema. Let our team sit down with you, talk with you about your skin issues and develop a wellness program that restores the health of your skin and confidence in your appearance. For more information on red light therapy for skin conditions like eczema, or for help with a different health issue, reach out to the team at HyperCharge Clinic today.