Can LED devices damage skin??
EDS Skin Care Forums Forum Index » Skincare Tools & Do-It-Yourself Skincare

free skin care · Tue Oct 12, 2010 10:31 am

Toby wrote:

nubajelly,
This has come up before on the LED threads....they are so long....I have directed your concern to someone more knowledgeable than myself and there should be a post shortly Wink

Toby

LOL! Looks like we both went to the same source..

Because I am a 3 year, consistent user of my LED's, I can never have too much confirmation of the safety factor. With that in mind, I once again went to the manufacturer of my products, to see if anything new or dangerous came to *light*.. Laughing

I received this email from Steve Marchese of LightStim. Also included is the post he wrote the last time this subject came up a while back regarding the the green tea PM study.

Hi Kat, Man I hate this crap that goes around the Internet and scares people for no reason. All of the below should help allay any fears. Let's talk tomorrow morning, I have some interesting developments to share, you might be interested in, considering you are a long term LightStim user. I'm going to go have a glass of wine! Ha!

http://www.elle.com/Beauty/Makeup-Skin-Care/Sun-Protection-News-Traditional-Sunscreens-May-Not-Be-Enough This is about UVA and UVB light, neither of which has anything to do with LED or Infrared. Infrared and UVA/UVB light are at the opposite ends of the spectrum. Also, there are no clinical studies in this article having to do with Infrared, only an opinion somebody has stated. Ridiculous!!!!

http://www.skintherapyletter.com/2009/14.5/2.html
http://thedermblog.com/2009/02/06/heat-from-the-sun-causes-aging/ Both of these articles are related to the same study out of Germany. The writer of one of the stories found the data on line and wrote about it. The other article actually states it IS the article out of Germany. I had someone post on the forum about this clinical study before. Below is what was posted. It should answer all your questions.

Before reading this old post below, you should also know that we have since verified that the German study was funded by the company that first came out with a green tea cream and that the company suggests that the cream will prevent any potential problems with infrared and aging. Wow, how surprising!

Additionally, for the person who posted and is worried about cancer: we have our red and infrared only LED light being used at Loyola University in conjunction with a compound to cure skin cancer. Also, Dr. Harry T. Whelan, the foremost medical authority on anything medically related with LED and also the doctor who did all of the work for NASA on LEDs in the mid 90's, did a study curing brain tumors using LED and some type of a serum or compound. He also has done studies using red/infrared to heal the sores created in the mouth of people receiving chemotherapy. Also, at his request, LightStim built him a large 2-panel Professional Light with 1130 Infrared (ONLY) LEDs to be used to heal the chest after open heart surgery and another one to reduce inflammation of the brain caused by sever head trauma.

From: Steve Marchese, President of LightStim International, Inc.

Hello ladies, gentlemen and manufacturers of the EDS forum. I am joining in on this thread to just give you a couple of the many things wrong with this study. I have included the full study and the MACHINE that was used in the study for your comparison to your LED devices, regardless of what manufacturer you bought from or are thinking about buying from. My statements will have nothing to do with LightStim, as LightStim is not the issue.

These articles and the study were designed as an outright attack on LED Lights using the 833nm or 850nm wavelength Infrared LEDs, which are used in consumer devices. You will see more studies of this type on other wavelengths as time goes on. This study was about going to an extreme, never even envisioned by any of the LED Light Manufacturers, to show some possibility of a negative reaction. The next paragraph will show you just how far they were willing to go.

All LEDs lights that are sold to the public have 1 or 2 SPECIFIC wavelengths, not the FULL RANGE OF 700 to 1440nm all at once. All LED's lights that are sold to the public put out less than 10 watts and less than 12 joules. All LED lights sold to the public have a per location treatment time of 1 to 10 minutes, except Omnilux at 20 minutes. The study used a water cooled MACHINE, it is not a device- it is a MACHINE, and it puts out 360 to 720 Joules and 520 watts!!!! And according to the study they applied it for 57 to 114 minutes and they applied ALL of the wavelengths from 760 to 1440nm at once to one location!!!! No manufacturer I know of uses above 980nm in a device sold to the public. With that many Joules and Watts I'm surprised they didn't harm the participates in the study!

This is so irresponsible that a one paragraph totally misleading article was put on the internet. When you look at the above statistics and you look at the machine they used in the test, this would be likened to this: A number of manufacturers put out similarly effective sleeping pills that have a dosage of 1 pill per night and is taken by 5 million people over a 20 year period with not a single instance of someone being harmed. Then a study summary comes out on the internet and states nothing more than in a test done in Germany they have concluded that some people may die from taking such a sleeping pill. Everybody gets upset. When you finally get to see the whole study, which you have to pay for by the way, you find that the study consisted of giving a person 500 sleeping pills in one night! That is how irresponsible PubMed is for putting up this paragraph. It was done to sell the full article and I'm sure they were successful. Why else would they not put up this gross discrepancy and make people think that there consumer LED light might have anything to do with this crazy powerful machine that the FDA would never allow into ANYONE'S hands?

The study itself is completely flawed in that they are treating the whole range of 740 to 1440nm. No machine in our industry does such a thing. Every manufacturer either uses 833nm or 850nm, including LightStim, in their anti-aging devices. Who would even think doing a test like this unless they wanted negative results that they could then use to sell a skin care product? The skin care industry is freaked out that you will all stop buying their products because of the cost and effectiveness of LED. Why would anyone do a study and subject people to 360 joules and 520 watts?

LED's have been being used for 30 years with no side effects. Newborns have been put under them to treat Jaundice for over 30 years with no side effects. Dermatologists have used them for over 15 years to treat acne with no side effects. The FDA no longer requires safety testing on normal LED devices because they have a 30 year safely record and there are no clinical studies that have been turned into the FDA and overseen by an Investigational Review Board that show ANY side effects!

All of you on this forum should be proud that you have chosen these safe and effect devices, no matter what company you bought from. They are all good devices. Some might be better than others and some manufacturers might embellish their claims more than others, but they all work to one degree or another and as long as they aren't made in China you won't hear me saying anything bad about any of them.

You will find other studies in the future and just remember that LED's have been being used for medical purposes for over 30 years. It did not start with NASA. Most medically oriented devices use Red and Infrared together. To date, there are no side effects.

The question you have to ask yourselves is who would benefit from funding a study that was designed specifically to discredit LED Light Therapy? Nobody in this day and age can afford to fund a study to discredit a technology which has worked for over 30 years with no side effects unless it benefits themselves in some way.

Best wishes to you all,

Steve Marchese, President, LightStim International, Inc.

LightStim® International, Inc.
The LEADER in LED Light Therapy

SteveM@lightstim.com
Toll Free (800) 298-4010
Local/International (714) 884-3337
http://www.LightStim.com

ETA: My disclaimer: I am not now, nor have I ever been affiliated with LightStim or on their payroll.. I am simply a happy customer, who has had wonderful results with the products.

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