i have extremely fair skin and i saw a new dermatologist today. i've been shopping for an at home blue and red light therapy device and i asked him what he would recommend. first he told me that they do it in the office, and then i told him i was going to buy one to use at home and then he said that he wouldn't recommend it because i'm so fair and it could increase my chances of getting skin cancer. there is a history of skin cancer in my family and it has always been a concern of mine; i had a scare once after a really bad sunburn and was then told to stay out of the sun as much as possible and always wear sunscreen. so i'm paranoid about skin cancer anyways, but part of me thinks he was just trying to sell the in office procedure to me and when he found out i wasn't going to pay for it he told me not to do it at all. i can't imagine this could be true and no one discovered it yet; causing cancer is the kind of side effect that would put a treatment off of the market. i was really hopeful that light therapy could help me, but now i'm worried and don't know what to do. any one know FOR SURE if this is true or not??
I won't advertise that I know for a 100% sure given fact that it has no risks of increasing cancer risks, but I strongly doubt it does. I have read over some of the medical literature on the topic of blue-red light phototherapy and the current consensus seems to be that it's an extremely mild treatment with positive results if used properly. Let me explain: certain "cheaper alternatives" will use poor quality lighting systems that might emit some UV-spectrum light (which is generally what causes increased skin cancer risks). However, if you do opt to go with a higher quality (doesn't have to cost thousands of dollars either) home phototherapy system, the LEDs or fluorescent tubes are usually quite well calibrated to stay out of the UV-spectrum and therefore I see little risk of increasing cancer proneness.
Be skeptical of dermatologists (or anybody for that matter) who is trying to sell an expensive (and high margin for the seller) product to you. My advice would be to opt for a home treatment system of mixed blue-red light phototherapy (make sure your blue light is between 405-420nm and your red light is roughly 660nm wavelength). Daily home systems seem to work better than weekly treatments available at certain dermatologists.
yeah, he was also telling me about washes and glycol pads that they sold, and after the phototherapy causing cancer comment it kinda raised some red flags with me. i hate that i can't trust the guy now because he's right down the street from me and is one of the few doctors that take both types of insurance i have so i don't have a co pay. i've researched the topic too, and a lot of research actually claims that it can treat cancer, so i don't know how it could treat it and cause it at the same time! but he's a doctor, so part of me feels like i should listen to him over the internet, but i think the internet is right this time. the one i was going to buy is called the dpl nuve blue, its around $160.00. i chose it because of the wide area it covers and it only takes 3 minutes per area. it sounded ligit (FDA approved) and the price helped too. but i read that its more effective to use blue light separately from red light so i ruled out all the products that use both at once. i'm going to go ahead and buy one, i think he's just a dishonest doctor.
thanks for the quick reply!
That doesn't seem too bad. However, I'd still try to get blue-red light therapy, as it seems to work better. I have heard about the concern over constructive/destructive interference of wavelengths being an issue, but it seems not to actually be a problem. Check out the study by Dr. Chu; combination blue-red light therapy works better than blue light alone, particularly so for inflammatory acne.
Hope I'm of help!
Hi, there. I quite understand what you said and worried about. I am likely to get fatigue and tired with my eyes the recent years because i have been working for a software company where i have to sit in front of computer nearly 12 hrs a day. And one of my friends told me that computer and other electronic devices like smartphones, tablets, iPod, etc. would emit blue light. Its wave length is from 446nm to 464 nm, which is harmful to our eyes and skins.
It might not that serious to cause dancer, HOWEVER, it has been proved to cause eye strain, eyesight reduction and even eyes diseases. From my experience, to protect eyes and skins from the danger of blue light, the tips are:
1. I know as you know, the most important is to reduce the time staring at LED screens. But huge workload makes that impossible. Free up eyes at weekend, doing eyes exercises and going trekking if possible.
2. A pair of computer eyewear sunglasses can help to reduce eye fatigue and harm. Some computer sunglasses are especially designed to filter blue light and UV.