Overview of red light therapy and its potential benefits for thyroid health, including how it energizes mitochondria and improves cellular function.

Introduction to Red Light Therapy

Discussion of clinical trials showing red light therapy's effects on thyroid function, along with guidelines for its effective use.

Clinical Studies and Protocol Recommendations

Explores other potential benefits of red light therapy beyond thyroid health and important cautions regarding device selection and usage.

Additional Benefits and Cautions

Importance of monitoring thyroid levels while using red light therapy and a comparison between LED and laser devices for applications.

Thyroid Monitoring and Device Comparison

Summary of red light therapy benefits, the need for further research, and encouragement to leave a review and visit the website.

Conclusion and Podcast Promotion

- Dr. Ruscio Radio discusses red light therapy for Hashimoto's and its potential benefits.
- Studies show 30-50% of participants could discontinue thyroid medication after red light therapy.
- Red light therapy, also known as photobiomodulation, enhances mitochondrial function, increasing energy production (ATP) and improving circulation.
- Benefits include reduced thyroid antibody levels, improved hair and skin health, and enhanced mood and energy.
- Protocols and device recommendations are provided to avoid overpriced options.
- Mechanism involves stimulating cytochrome C in mitochondria, leading to better cellular function and antioxidant production.
- Clinical trials indicate significant improvements in thyroid hormone levels and reductions in thyroid antibodies with red light therapy.

- Two studies showed significant reductions in TPO antibodies and weight loss with red light therapy.
- A randomized control trial demonstrated a 600-point reduction in TPO antibodies after 10 sessions, with 48% of participants no longer needing medication.
- The placebo group experienced an increase in antibodies and continued medication needs.
- Long-term effects of red light therapy are transient; annual treatment is recommended to maintain benefits.
- Additional benefits include improvements in fatigue, skin elasticity, hair loss, and mood.
- Rare side effects may occur; caution is advised during pregnancy and regarding eye exposure.
- A meta-analysis indicated 40% of thyroid medication users may not need it; proper lab interpretation is essential.
- A thyroid self-help course is available to assist with diagnosis and management.
- Recommended red light devices include Platinum LED (FDA approved, $700) and Bonn Charge Mini (FDA approved, $299).
- Effective wavelengths for thyroid therapy range from 800 to 850 nanometers; broader ranges are acceptable.
- Suggested usage frequency: 2-3 times per week for about 3 months.

- Recommended frequency for thyroid treatment with red light therapy: 2-3 times per week for 3 months, then once a year.
- Ongoing use is acceptable for overall skin health and mitochondrial function.
- Treatment duration: 10-20 minutes per session, ideally 8-14 inches from the device.
- Monitor thyroid levels to avoid overdosing on hormone supplements as thyroid function may improve.
- LED devices are safer, cheaper, and effective compared to lasers, which require more time and have safety concerns.
- Red light therapy enhances mitochondrial function, circulation, and thyroid hormone production, with potential benefits for hair, skin, mood, and energy.
- More research is needed, but home use of LED devices is encouraged while avoiding overpriced products.

- Thank you for listening to Dr. Ruscio Radio.
- Check out the podcast on iTunes and leave a review.
- Visit DrRuscio.com to ask questions, post comments, and sign up for weekly updates.

- Dr. Ruscio Radio discusses red light therapy for Hashimoto's and its potential benefits.
- 30-50% of participants may stop thyroid medication after treatment.
- Enhances mitochondrial function, increasing ATP production and circulation.
- Benefits include lower thyroid antibodies, improved hair/skin health, and better mood/energy.
- Protocols and device recommendations provided to avoid high costs.
- Stimulates cytochrome C in mitochondria for better cellular function.
- Clinical trials show significant improvements in thyroid hormone levels and antibody reductions.
- Long-term effects are transient; annual treatment recommended.
- Suggested usage: 2-3 times per week for 3 months, then annually.
- Safe LED devices recommended over lasers; effective wavelengths are 800-850 nm.
- Monitor thyroid levels to adjust hormone supplements as needed.
- More research needed; home use of LED devices encouraged.

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Shockingly, 2 Studies found that between 30 and 50% of people who performed a course of red light therapy on their thyroid gland could discontinue thyroid hormone medication.

Mind blowing and there are actually again 2 studies that have affirmed this.

So let's discuss what red light therapy is, how it can help your thyroid gland, not only to produce more hormone, but also to fairly significantly lower thyroid antibody levels and some of the other side benefits, if you will, of improved hair health, skin health, mood and energy.

And then we'll button this all up with a at home protocol and device recommendations, because This is an area where sadly there are people who are giving you technology with good marketing at egregious costs.

So I want to give you sort of the straight talk in terms of here's what you need in a device and as you'll see you can get in for a few hundred dollars, but there are some similar devices that are thousands of dollars, same exact technology, just better marketing.

So we want to save you from that pitfall too.

Photo bio modulation is 1 cold laser, low level laser, all pretty much the same thing.

What you're getting is depicted in this image showcasing the spectrums of light from blue to red to near infrared and most of these Devices these red light therapy devices will give you between 600 to about a thousand nanometers of wavelength.

That's gonna matter more when we come to the protocols so that you just understand you don't need a special device because again the 2 different devices will have the same exact irradiance or power and wavelengths but 1 will be 4 times the cost.

So in any case what the light does is really the important part of this story.

Said simply, the red light helps energize your mitochondria or the powerhouse of your cells.

But let's break this down just a little bit because you may take a step back as I think is understandable and say, well, this sounds too good to be true.

If something can improve thyroid hormone production, reduce thyroid antibodies, improve hair health, skin health, mood and energy.

It sounds a little bit like snake oil, but it's due to the mechanism.

So in the mitochondria, you produce your energy.

So every cell of your body is dependent upon the ATP or the energy made by the mitochondria.

Now when a cell has ample energy it has healthy function just like a person.

When you don't have a lot of energy, you probably have not taken out the trash, done your chores, gone to the gym.

So just like people won't have a productive day, your cells can have unproductive days, weeks and months and eventually lead to organ dysfunction including but not limited to the thyroid gland.

And again in this image what you're seeing are the specifics with how the red light actually heals and improves tissue function through the mitochondria.

Now there's this component of the mitochondria known as the electron transport chain.

1 or complexes, 2, 3 and 4 as you're seeing here.

And specifically the red light simulates the production between complexes 3 and 4 the mitochondria this enzyme known as cytochrome excuse me cytochrome c.

The 3 things I just want to quickly earmark here are firstly, like we talked about, increased energy production because you are improving this assembly line, these 1234 complexes that are the assembly line of cellular energy production.

The other that's interesting is when you stimulate cytochrome C, you actually free up nitric oxide, which improves vasodilation or circulation.

And so now we not only have better energy, but better blood flow to various tissues.

And this might be why there's improved mood, there's improved skin, so on and so forth.

And then the final component here is ROS or reactive oxygen species.

So when you make more energy, when those furnaces are burning more hot, they throw off more sparks.

And this is inflammatory in the short term, but actually allows your body to adapt and produce better or higher levels of antioxidants.

Very similar to what you see in exercise as an adaptation short term, exercise is actually pro-inflammatory.

Moderate to longer term, it's actually net anti-inflammatory due to the adaption or adaptation of your body and increased ability to secrete antioxidants.

Now you can't really exercise your thyroid gland but you can have a similar hormetic effect with red light therapy.

This is from a peer-reviewed medical journal.

So we have some degree of assurance that this is not spin with filters and lighting.

A lady in her 70s did 20 minutes of red light therapy every day for 12 weeks and you can visibly see reductions in wrinkles.

Even someone without a trained eye, you can see on the chin, under the eyes, on the forehead, visibly less wrinkles.

And this is not the only study of its kind, but just to sort of tie together, if we can improve mitochondrial function, if we can increase antioxidant production, we will see multiple tissue types have better function and healing, not limited to the thyroid, also including the skin.

Hey there, our podcast listeners, If you wouldn't mind, please leave the show a quick review.

It's super helpful in allowing us to reach more people.

So then let's tie this to sort of the main use case that we're discussing today, which is the thyroid gland.

Hashimoto's and hypothyroid defined as autoimmunity and decreased thyroid hormone output, different conditions with a degree of overlap.

1 of the theories as to what underlies or what's the antecedent to Hashimoto's is that the thyroid gland cannot match repair at the rate of breakdown.

And this is sort of the aging process said simply.

There's a slowing down of repair and the breakdown process is marching along at its appropriate or its normal pace.

And this can lead to aging and dysfunction in all sorts of tissues, including the thyroid.

But when breakdown exceeds repair and regeneration in the thyroid itself.

The theory is that now the barrier between the gland and the blood is leaky or porous triggering an immune response.

This is actually 1 of the ways in which thyroid hormone medication can lower antibodies because the thyroid gland doesn't have to work to produce hormone.

So now it can actually get ahead of breakdown and sort of seal that barrier and dampen the autoimmune process.

But we're seeing through 3 studies that have been published to date that red light therapy can achieve the same thing.

The first study was a 2022 clinical trial.

Now what was interesting about this setup is they did the core supplemental work if you will using iron vitamin D insulinium and then plus or minus red light therapy.

People did 2 sessions per day for 3 days and after 3 months here's what they found.

In the light therapy group they had increased T3, a 500 point decrease in TPO antibodies that is highly significant and 29% no longer needed thyroid medication.

Second clinical trial, 2023, 38 women with Hashimoto's again were given nutrients, selenium and vitamin D plus or minus red light therapy.

They were treated twice per week for 3 weeks.

And here they found in this study, TSH decreased by over 2 points.

Free T4 and Free T3 both increased by about .5 and 1.5.

TPO again decreased in this case by 433 points, which I would consider highly significant, especially when looked at in the context of selenium, vitamin D, my own hospital, you're usually seeing the decrease in TPO antibodies or the thyroid antibodies of about 200 points.

So to see 500 in the 1 study and 433 in the other, that's pretty remarkable.

And then you also saw a decrease in TPO, no change in LEVO, and actually 12 pounds of weight loss, 2 points reduction or a 2 point reduction in BMI.

Now the third study is the 1 I find to be the most compelling because it's a randomized control trial that has a placebo arm.

In this study people were either given red light therapy or a sham light and they compared the results.

And again a remarkable reduction in TPO antibodies after these individuals performed 10 sessions over a 5 week period.

So 2 per week, 600 point reduction in TPO antibodies.

Now the placebo group had a 175 point increase in antibodies.

Also in the group getting the red light, 48% no longer needed their medication, which again is just remarkable in my mind.

And everyone in the placebo group still needed their medication.

Also when performing ultrasound, there was improved what's known as echogenicity or tissue health less hardened and vibrato so there's a better echo from the ultrasound in the red light group and not in the placebo group but here's a key point from this study that influences the protocol and the long-term use.

They performed a follow-up at 6 years and essentially the results between groups were the same.

So we see a short-term benefit from a few weeks of laser therapy or light therapy but it's not a forever result which would make sense but let me give you the quote and then we'll build this consideration into the protocol.

The effects of light therapy are transient and thus new therapy sessions will be necessary over time To maintain the obtained RCT or randomized control trial results The RCT results showed that the effects of light therapy persisted for at least 11 months.

So what I've built into the protocol recommendations, again, all this will come to follow is doing 1 course of treatment per year.

This hasn't been officially concluded, but based upon these results, the best data point that we have looking at the time horizon of the results, I think it's totally practical to do 1 course of treatment per year.

I did wanna briefly just touch on the other benefits.

As I mentioned before, and there are interventional trials documenting all of these improvements, improvements in fatigue in a cohort with fibromyalgia who used whole body red light therapy.

So the red lights can be small hand size or they can be panels that are literally as tall as a person.

So they did whole body application, skin and aging, like we discussed before with improved elasticity, collagen and reductions in wrinkles when applied to the face.

Hair loss, there's a number of studies with different devices showing improvements in hair loss and also improvements in mood when the device was put onto the cranium and applied transcranially.

Side effects are possible but rare and are typically some sort of skin irritation and this can usually be worked around by reducing your dose or taking a break.

I don't know that there's enough data to really answer this question, but usually until something has been studied in pregnancy, the recommendation is avoid until you're no longer pregnant.

And there's contentionary regarding whether or not red light to the eyes is actually beneficial or detrimental.

It might be that a low amount of red light shown directly in the eyes could have some benefit.

And part of this might be that nobody wants to do this study to try to figure this out.

There might even be some issues with IRB approval to study this.

But nevertheless, it's probably advisable not to for the duration of your therapy session to stare directly into the red light and keep your eyes closed at least part of the time.

But again, you know, the other side of that coin is if there is some benefit in stimulating things like the retinal nerve and various other tissues in the eye that may have a potential for therapeutic gain.

We don't really know, so this is something that we would want to take on a case-by-case basis.

Hey everyone, as you've heard me say before, a recent meta-analysis, so 1 of the pinnacle levels of scientific evidence, found that roughly 40% of people on thyroid hormone medication do not need it.

So the appropriate interpretation of your labs and therefore the diagnosis is crucially important.

We've had a number of people reach out to the clinic asking you know what resources are available, do we know someone in their area who might be able to do a or provide a second opinion and because of this I wanted to remind everyone that we do have a thyroid course.

It's a thyroid sort of self-help, self-management course wherein we provide recommendations for lab markers along with a calculator that you can punch your values into and then obtain an interpretation.

Now you always want to check this with your prescribing before you change anything but this at least gives you a very easy method to double check your diagnosis and along with that we provide a number of guidelines for diet and supplemental supports, whether you have Hashimoto's, whether you're hypothyroid, or whether you're not sure and you're just trying to resolve these symptoms with no known cause.

So remember that we do have this thyroid course available.

It's a fairly easy on ramp if you want to double check and start taking some natural supplemental and dietary steps toward improving your thyroid health or preventing a regression of your thyroid health in the future.

The protocol, how to use red light therapy.

The wavelengths that have been used for remembering that these devices are usually going to give you an output between about 600 and about a thousand nanometers.

In the studies looking at thyroid in particular, you're looking at between 800 and 850 nanometers.

However, you can Use a device that includes that range plus goes a little bit wider And this is what a lot of the devices actually do is they'll have an output That's broader and will have multiple sort of tissue benefits.

So because of that I recommend a few products actually to 1 is the Platinum LED.

Their output is between 480 and 1, 000 nanometers.

So you're gonna be right in that sweet spot of hitting the range and also having the 8 to 850 range that's specific to thyroid.

There's a smaller device known as the Bonn Charge Mini Red Light, also FDA approved, smaller, handheld, therefore cheaper.

The wavelength, a little bit narrower between $660 and $850, and the cost is $299.

Now before I had mentioned some of the shenanigans, and this comes courtesy of a friend of mine when I mentioned we were going to be doing a piece on red light, she asked me about a device she was thinking about buying called the Dermalux Flex.

Now this device has outputs at 415, 630 and 830.

So exactly what we've talked about thus far.

No difference in the irradiation or the strength, but the cost $2, 500.

And I think again, this comes back to, is there a market for this?

Can we market this as a special aesthetic skin device?

And you'll see it's sort of this curved dome piece.

What do they say about a fool and his money?

So the sense I get is there are a lot of companies looking to exploit a lack of knowledge of the irradians or the power and more importantly the wavelengths and so they're going to spin these marketing claims for people who really want to improve their skin health where 1 device could give you all those benefits.

Case in point that study I shared a moment ago with the lady who did the red light for 20 minutes a day for 12 weeks.

No special device, nothing super expensive or complicated and really obvious results.

The wavelength, specifically for thyroid, is 800 to 850 nanometers.

However, the devices I'm recommending have a broader wavelength from somewhere starting at about 600 up to about 1, 000 nanometers that will give you thyroid plus other tissue benefits simultaneously.

So again as noted here on the slide for those of you looking at the visual additional wavelengths are okay.

We just want to make sure we include the 800 to 850 so check on that.

Frequency 2 to 3 times per week for about 3 months, a little longer is okay.

And then again, as I mentioned earlier, once per year.

Now some people may elect to do this more.

If you're using red light for overall skin health and anti-aging for sort of systemic mitochondrial function and you're using something like a total body panel, then many people routinely are recommending and using red light therapy devices ongoing.

But if we're talking about the more narrowed use case of just the thyroid gland, especially if you have a smaller device that you're going to apply, let's say, right to your neck, then the thyroid only protocol would be 2 to 3 times per week for about 3 months, 1 treatment cycle per year.

Remembering the other study I mentioned earlier that found the effects for the thyroid specifically maintained for about 11 months.

So my view on this not something that's necessarily been published but 1 3 month treatment cycle per year for thyroid but again if you're using a larger panel and you're trying to get more of a skin anti-aging effect or systemic mitochondrial benefit, let's say for energy and chronic fatigue, then you can do this in an ongoing fashion.

To my knowledge, there have been no studies that have really looked at applications for well over 6 months.

But as long as you're not overdoing it and you're having some days off, I think you're probably OK to continually use red light therapy because remember, the impact does not last forever.

So somewhere between 1 three-month treatment once per year and doing this 2 or 3 times per week regularly is going to be the sweet spot.

And practicality may serve as the answer there, meaning you go through cycles where you're more consistent.

Maybe you take a break for a month or 2 when you just want to do other stuff, what have you.

But anyway, the duration, 10 to 20 minutes per day.

Remembering from that 1 study that 14 minutes may have been the sweet spot for the cytochrome c oxidase but nevertheless anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes is fine and then a distance the distance will impact or dictate the amount of penetration So the closer you are to the device, the deeper the light is going to penetrate.

The farther away from the light, the more superficial or surface level the impact is going to be.

So to get sort of the best of both worlds, somewhere around 8 inches away to 14.

Again, if you're trying to get a little bit deeper, closer, more superficial, more focused on the skin, a little bit further away.

At the end of the day, is it going to make a huge difference if you're technically 7 inches or 12?

But this is just to give you the 1 feedback point of if you're 3 feet away, that may not be ideal, and you may not need to have the device literally touching your skin, okay?

There's always gonna be some nuances depending on the device so cross reference the materials that come with the device that you buy because duration and distance may vary but this is just looking at the devices that we've outlined the general use guidelines.

1 final point here, monitor your thyroid levels.

Not because anything bad's going to happen, but the hopeful yay that's coming is, as these studies have found, 30 to 50% of people may not need their thyroid hormone.

Now how this shows up is important in the sense that people may start having an overdose situation because their thyroid gland, thankfully, is making more hormone.

But if you continue to take the exogenous, the external hormone as the capsule of whatever you're taking, you may end up having thyroid hormone blood levels that are too high.

So if you're noticing, boy, I feel a little bit jittery, hot, I'm not sleeping well, maybe I'm having some palpitations, that is probably not a reaction to the laser or the light.

It's actually the red light healing your thyroid.

Now you don't need as much of the hormone you're taking.

So whether you go direct to consumer and just do your own TSH and free T4 and monitor those or have your doctor monitor you depending on access cost, In any case, make sure to be monitored because from at least the handful of studies that have looked at this, some of you, again, thankfully, will not need thyroid hormone any longer.

Okay, a few caveats because beyond the caution of buying an overpriced device that's just well marketed, there's also a subtle difference between what's technically a laser versus technically an LED.

Now this comes down to 4 things, power, time, safety, and cost.

Lasers, true lasers will be more powerful, you can treat in less time, because of that they're a little bit less safe, Because of the non-diffuse application and the more powerful beam, eye contact is going to be more of an issue and so there's less safety.

And then because they're more powerful, they're typically more expensive.

But look at this wonderful study from 2022 that compared LEDs cheaper, safer to lasers.

Now, remember a moment ago, we talked about that cytochrome C pathway.

So they were measuring comparing laser versus LED, the amount of activation of that cytochrome C within the mitochondria electron transport chain.

And what you see here is it took the LED device about double the time, so 14 minutes to get to what the laser got you to in about 7 minutes.

But you're talking about thousands of dollars of cost difference for a delta of 7 minutes.

So I think it's pretty clear that the LED lights are totally fine and we don't need a laser and the 1 area I would caution you as you will probably see doctors saying well you need to use the laser because it's better it's more powerful And the doctor might be misinformed because the device rep who sold them that expensive laser might be giving them only part of the data that supports why their device is needed and why they should keep using their device and sort of how to market their device.

It's just 1 of the unfortunate occurrences of sort of the influence of money into healthcare and medicine.

But this study again very compelling in that the lasers are not as powerful but the difference here is nominal.

7 minutes as compared to 14, which is why a different review paper commented, advantages of LEDs, so lights, include no laser safety considerations, ease of home use, ability to irradiate or treat a larger area of tissues at once, the possibility of a wearable device, and much lower costs.

LED or light, red light, photo, bio modulation is here to stay.

So the 2 things I want to sort of make you aware of from a consumer advocacy perspective if you will.

1, devices that are marketed well and egregiously overpriced and 2 not necessarily needing to do this at a doctor's office.

So then in close red light therapy or photobiomodulation that's also known improves mitochondrial function by stimulating that cytochrome C inside of the electron transport chain, improves circulation through distributing more nitric oxide, increases antioxidant production, and all of this leads to improved thyroid hormone production, reduced thyroid hormone antibodies, improved hair health, skin health, mood and energy.

Red light therapy seems to be safe and effective, although we do need more research, and I should make this comment, 3 studies is a great start.

However, there is something known as positive publication bias, where studies typically get let into journals, accepted for publication, and published that are positive when there's a new therapeutic.

And then only later on down the line do the negative studies start being relevant enough for journals to want to publish these.

So more Research is needed, although that being said, for the safety and the cost, I think it is more than justifiable for people to consider using these devices at home.

And also just be careful of the overpriced devices or the unnecessary expensive laser treatments that are sometimes recommended in office and there might be a use case I'm not saying no laser is relevant but for these applications we've discussed it does not appear laser offers any benefit over LED and the LED is less expensive, more safe and can be done at home.

Alright guys, well I'm curious in the comments to hear if you've used laser or red light, what you think, if you have any questions And until next time.

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