Treating Colds & Coughs With Red Light Therapy
By Veathika J
It’s the season of flu, colds and coughs, that are not only irritating but tiring. While, we all run to get our Benedryls, Panadols and Vicks, they all run their course with only temporary relief.
Red Light Therapy devices can help with any and every ailment, including common cold, cough and flu.
Also known by the less-catchy names of photobiomodulation and low-level light therapy (LLLT), the devices release light waves in the red and near infrared spectrum, which are perfectly safe.
What it does is that the device emits 660 and 850 nanometer wavelengths of light that fall under red and near infrared in the colour spectrum. The cells in our body have chromophores which respond to these wavelengths much like chlorophyll responds to sunlight in plants. When you have a cold, cough or flu symptoms, the available energy levels go down in the affected cells, and why we feel so terrible. Increasing that level of available energy (ATP) with a red light therapy device will jump-start your body’s engine at a cellular level.
Here’s how to use a Red Light Therapy to help relieve the flu symptoms:
- For a cough or a sore throat, apply the device on your neck for about 30 minutes. Alternate the device between the two-sides of your neck where the carotid artery is and you’ll feel the symptoms easing.
- Putting the device over the nose and chest for 15 minutes on each, can treat a cold and bring relief.
- A headache caused by a congested nose and/or sinus, can be treated by putting the Red Light therapy device on the forehead or the head for 20-30 minutes.
- Feeling short of breath or breathless is a common symptom of the flu and the Red Light Therapy helps there as well. The emission of the light helps the blood cells take up more oxygen and nutrients to be utilized throughout the body, helping breathe properly while also helping to eliminate the dreaded lurgy from your body.
- Muscle and joint aches and pains are also flu symptoms and a session of 15-20 minutes with a Red Light Therapy device eases the pain effectively and efficiently.
We recommend using the device as many times as you want. However, once the symptoms start easing off, reduce the usage or dosage to 50%. For example, if you used the device for 30 minutes on three days, reduce it to 30 minutes every alternate day.
Red Light Therapy is completely natural, safe, non-invasive, chemical free and detoxifying. And what’s interesting is that the investment in one device can be your go to treatment source for a number of conditions and for your entire family. What’s not to love?