Most Anti Aging technologies, such as laser treatments, are designed to produce controlled amounts of thermal damage to the dermis, that is, a subclinical wounding to deliberately cause damage and thus invoke the wound healing process, which leads to production of new collagen.

The use of LEDs for Anti Aging is unique in that it does not produce any thermal damage. Instead of thermal damaging, it induces a photobiomodulative reaction. Photobiomodulation is considered to stimulate fibroblast proliferation, collagen synthesis, growth factors and extracellular matrix production and enhances cutaneous microcirculation through activating the mitochondrial respiratory system of the cells.

NASA research

NASA found that LED lights, working at specific wavelengths, increased wound healing by a factor of 100-200%. These light waves have since been adopted as a post surgical procedure for wound healing.

Further to this, researchers began to theorise that these specific wavelengths could have implications for Anti Aging...

Anti Aging Research

Although there has been previous studies conducted on LED’s and skin rejuvenation. The most recent and ground breaking was conducted by S.Y Lee et al in 2007.

76 subjects with facial wrinkles were treated with the LED light therapy or a sham therapy (control group) twice a week for 4 weeks. The study was a randomised and placebo controlled with the observers being double blinded (they did not know which treatment group they were observing).

Results

S.Y Lee et al study results are:

• Severity of wrinkles were reduced by 36% in the LED therapy group compared to the control group.
• Skin elasticity increased by 16% compared to the control (sham treatment) group.
• A significant increase in the amount of collagen fibres throughout the entire dermis.
• A significant increase in elastic fibres in the upper and mid-reticular dermis.
• Highly activated fibroblasts in the treatment groups were noted.
• Subjects treatment satisfaction levels were 95.2% for the treatment group compared to 13.3% in the control group.

These results are stunning and clearly demonstrate the efficacy of LED treatment for Anti Aging. Indeed, the researchers conclude:

"We concluded that 830 nm and 633 nm LED phototherapy is an effective, safe, well-tolerated and painless treatment for skin rejuvenation. From the clinical aspect, the non-thermal feature of LED phototherapy may be a significant advantage, because we could achieve effective rejuvenation of aging skin without inducing any thermal damage or wound in normal skin. We recommend the use of the combination of these two wavelengths of light to maximize the effect through utilizing the advantages specific to each wavelength."

References

[1] S.Y Lee et al (2007). A prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blinded, and split-face clinical study on LED phototherapy for skin rejuvenation: Clinical, profilometric, histologic, ultrastructural, and biochemical evaluations and comparison of three different treatment settings. Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B: Biology 88. 51–67

[2] E.V. Ross, B.D. Zelickson, Biophysics of nonablative dermal remodeling, Semin. Cutan. Med. Surg. 21 (2002) 251–265.

[3] R.A. Weiss, M.A. Weiss, R.G. Geronemus, D.H. McDaniel, A novel non-thermal non-ablative full panel LED photomodulation device for reversal of photoaging: digital microscopic and clinical results in various skin types, J. Drugs. Dermatol. 3 (2004) 605–610.

[4] B.A. Russell, N. Kellett, L.R. Reilly, A study to determine the efficacy of combination LED light therapy (633 nm and 830 nm) in facial skin rejuvenation, J. Cosmet. Laser. Ther. 7 (2005) 196–200.

[5] S. Young, P. Bolton, M. Dyson, W. Harvey, C. Diamantopoulos, Macrophage responsiveness to light therapy, Lasers. Surg. Med. 9 (1989) 497–505.