Yo!
It's jsmithson, back with yet another interesting topic! I came across a new science study about a Korean light therapy device in the British Journal of Dermatology:
"The clinical and histological effect of home-use, combination blue-red LED phototherapy for mild to moderate acne vulgaris in Korean patients: a double blind, randomized controlled trial"
You gotta pay to read it so I'll summarise it for you here. They tested a device from Ceragem Medisys called the MP 200. It's a combination blue (420nm) and red (660nm) light device that you use at home. You irradiate yourself for 5 minutes twice a day. After 12 weeks they found some very interesting results:
- Acne lesion counts down by average 77% and 54% (inflammatory and non-inflammatory respectively) in the treatment group. No change in the control group.
- Average 25% reduction in the area of the sebaceous gland (I assume this is a cross sectional area) in the treatment group. No change in the control group.
- Molecular markers for inflammation and sebum production (SREBP-1, IGF-1R, TLR-2, IL-1a, IL-8) were down in the treatment group. No change in the control group.
- Virtually no side effects (10% of treatment group reported 24 hours of mild dryness at one point in the study!)
- The study compares the treatment in effectiveness to topical retinoids and antibiotics but with less side effects.
- The blue light kills p.acnes via a PDT reaction. Since p.acnes stimulates oil production and inflammation, a reduction in oil production and inflammation is seen after treament.
- The red light has an anti inflammatory effect and accelerates wound healing.
This study is good for acne but also for us oily folk. I haven't found anywhere that sells the device so I don't know how much it costs. If it's not really expensive (it's just a bunch of LED's after all) I'll give it a shot!
I purchased the Tanda acne and regenerating light therapy device back in 2008 before it was FDA approved in the US (it is now though), you had to get them in Canada. I used to use it religiously. The light device is a triangle shape and has a flat surface. You hold it against the affected area for a couple minutes, depending on how severe the acne there is. The light "heads" are interchangeable, swap the red (anti aging/anti inflammatory) out for the blue light (anti acne) and vice versa depending on what you would like to use them for. It is very very time consuming bc it only covers about a 2 inch area on your face so you have to hold it there for 3 minutes each area you want to treat. Which for me was every part of my face so to make sure i got all the spots it took close to an hour (u also have to wait for it to cool down if u use it a few times in a row, they probably fixed that on the newer ones). I really did notice a big difference and still have the device. I was just using it again about 2 weeks ago when i broke out pretty bad during a stressful time. There have been many studies proving it's effectiveness. There are several other devices besides the tanda. Another is called baby quasar. that brand has the baby blue & the new clear rayz $200 which is double sided. Has a red light on one side and blue on the other. the clear rayz is about the same size as the tanda. The baby blue is much smaller. The tanda "zap" is less expensive but I'm pretty sure it is meant for people who occasionally get a pimple bc it is a little handheld wand. Then there are large ones that are the size of a small computer monitor that you just sit in front of . Those can range anywhere from $300up. The tanda i purchased was pretty expensive bc it was so new then. It was $500. They now are 200$ (sometimes on sale for less). If you're going to spend the money I would get one that covers you're whole face, i think they call them table top acne therapy lights. It would be less time consuming. I was spending almost 2 hours a day. One hour in the morning and one at night. I knew it was working when i would start to get one or two large inflammations, use it, and they would go away in about 24 hours. It's one of the many things i have tried and even though it helped a lot it was too much time each day, especially before work in the morning .Oh and it did significantly reduce oil production for me too
I purchased the Tanda acne and regenerating light therapy device back in 2008 before it was FDA approved in the US (it is now though),
Interesting that you are a new user since a few days ago, and that you seem to overwhelmingly refer in glowing terms to a single product.
I am way behind the times on this one. Doing a search on Amazon shows that there are many devices on the market that are based on this technology: Verilux Clearwave, Clear Rayz, Tria blue light system, BrightTherapy trident, acne 415 blue light therapy, Tanda Zap, etc. There are so many! They all seem to be based on the same science.
Doing a pubmed search shows that there's scientific evidence going back a decade that this technology is effective. Lots of papers - many use a specific brand and model of device.
Some issues I have with some of the devices above:
1. LED's are super cheap because they're mass produced in huge quantities. So why are all these devices so incredibly expensive?
2. Some of these devices try to force the user to upgrade the LED's while they're still useful. LED's last a very long time. The cynic in me is reminded of the shaving business model - where you make much more money if you can keep selling consumables.
I'm trying to get hold of a standard screw in globe containing high powered LED's direct from a lighting manufacturer. It's much cheaper than the stuff listed above and has a much stronger output.
I am a new user. But not new to acne. Iv had it since my teens (now 27)and i have tried so many things. Every antibiotic and topical, holistic & diet, otc product, facials, micro dermabrasion, laser, and on and on. i tried the tanda bc i saw an add in a magazine called new beauty. They really recommended it, it has been a treatment offered in salon & derm offices for years, they finally just approved it and made a home device a few years back.
I understand where you're coming from, i thought of how easy it would be to make this device at home for about 20$. But i have searched for the 414nm leds (for the light to work and penetrate the skin it needs to be between 400-420nm to kill the p acnes, from what i understand) but they are either not in stock or expensive and shipped from China or Japan. It would be very easy to make this device at home if you can get the leds. The tanda paper work says it is good for some 1000 uses i think, but i used it every day twice a day for the first 2 years and a lot of non regular use over the last 3 years, it is still working ok. They are expensive devices, but i didn't have health insurance at the time i bought it & for 500$ it was cheaper than a derm visit& rxs for a month. Also some people will pay anything to have a possible cure for their acne. They have gotten a lot cheaper since & I'm sure once they become more main steam (if they do) they will be avail in Walmart or something for cheap. & just to make sure i said this correctly, this didn't cure my acne, it helped a lot, but i still broke out. And as soon as i stopped using it my acne came back a few weeks later in full force. But it still helped my acne more than most other things i have tried. 