We Looked Into Red Light Therapy: Here's What the Science Actually Says

Nowadays there is more attention on what you do after the gym, rather than in it. The recovery market is massive, with fitness enthusiasts looking for any edge in recovery they can find. If you expand recovery into longevity and anti-aging, it is even bigger.

One popular modality is red light therapy.

Red light therapy uses red and near-infrared light to change human biology. It is not UV light, which can be damaging. As a result, red light therapy is generally considered to be safe. It does not burn the skin, it's non-invasive, and the side effects are minor and rare.

The proposed benefits of red light therapy include improved skin health, injury healing, reduced muscle soreness, performance improvements, and even hair regrowth.

That all sounds good, but what people really care about is the hype versus the reality. Supposed benefits mean nothing if there isn't evidence to back it up. While red light therapy is relatively new, there is some research that has been done already.

Strongest Evidence for Red Light Therapy

If we were to break this down into strong, moderate, and weak categories as far as the evidence goes, the strongest would be for skin health, anti-aging, knee pain, and wound healing.

The mechanism for skin health and anti-aging is through red light therapy's ability to increase collagen production.

Wound healing is a bit more comprehensive. It starts with red light therapy stimulating ATP production. This leads to new blood vessel formation, upregulation of growth factors, and a decrease in inflammation. The net effect is faster tissue regeneration and healing.

Pain relief may have the most evidence behind it, particularly in individuals with arthritis. Red light therapy reduces pain signaling by lowering inflammatory chemicals and modulating cellular damage. It should be noted that this doesn't necessarily cure arthritis as much as it makes it more manageable.

Moderate Evidence for Red Light Therapy

There is some evidence that red light therapy may aid in hair regrowth under certain conditions. It can regrow some hair, but is more effective in improving hair density. It seems to help, but is not a miracle worker by any means.

From an exercise perspective, it may help reduce muscle soreness (DOMS) and have a slight impact on performance. A study on high-level cyclists showed improved time to exhaustion using red light therapy, but more research needs to be done to make this more definitive.

Low/No Evidence for Red Light Therapy

When it comes to supposed benefits like fat loss and metabolism, the evidence is relatively weak at this time. Due to red light therapy's effect on blood flow and mitochondrial health, the theory is there, but it has not been shown in the research yet to a high degree.

Final Thoughts and Take Home Points

Red light therapy sits in an interesting place. The science is real, the mechanism is legitimate, and for certain things like wound healing, skin health, joint pain, the evidence is solid enough that it has made its way into clinical guidelines and earned FDA clearances.

At the same time, it's easy to get swept up in the hype. The recovery and longevity market is enormous, and where there's money, there's marketing that tends to run well ahead of the research.

I would say… you could do a lot worse. There's tons of stuff out there with no evidence, and as we laid out here, red light therapy has some solid research behind it. If your gym offers it, try it out, and if you feel like something is happening then you can even invest in your own machine.

It works best when used consistently over time, at the right wavelengths and intensity, on conditions it's actually been studied for.

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This story was originally published April 23, 2026 at 2:42 PM.