Inflammation is a natural part of the body’s healing process, but too much inflammation can wreak havoc on the body. Inflammation is typically caused by things that put the body under stress. There are physical causes of inflammation like injuries and wounds, but inflammation also occurs in response to biological factors like infection, poor nutrition, dehydration, inadequate sleep, and stress.

Pain is a result of inflammation. When the body is stressed or injured, pain lets us know that something is damaged and attention is required. Our bodies have a number of biological response mechanisms that are immediately engaged when pain triggers the alarm. Not all inflammation is necessarily bad for your health. Acute inflammation is a normal response to injury where inflammation works to clear the damaged tissue and start the repair process. Once the injury is healed, the inflammation fades away.

Chronic inflammation, on the other hand, is caused by frequent and persistent acute inflammation, typically from viral infections, autoimmune reactions, and recurrent tissue damage. Chronic inflammation can be very painful and may lead to other conditions, like arthritis, damaged skin, poor gut health, and increased risk for cancer and other illnesses.

Inflammation is often treated with powerful anti-inflammatory prescriptions, or milder drugs like aspirin, ibuprofen, or NSAIDs. Unfortunately, these drugs only address the symptoms of inflammation and do not typically impact the root causes like cellular function, tissue repair, and increased circulation.

Lifestyle factors like diet, exercise, and sleep play a major role in keeping the body in proper balance, so acute inflammation doesn’t become chronic. Red and near-infrared light exposure is also important for optimizing cell performance, so cells can repair, regenerate, and make energy efficiently.

Red light therapy also improves blood flow to damaged tissue which helps with chronic inflammation caused by autoimmune disease, infections, or repeat injuries. Improved blood flow and reduced inflammation help the entire body work more efficiently and with less pain. Another key mechanism for how red and near-infrared light therapy work to reduce inflammation is through hormesis. Hormesis works by stressing out the body and temporarily increasing free radicals. When you think of hormesis, think of exercise. Hormesis, just like exercise, is the process by which a stressor stimulates changes that actually improve health.

Red and near-infrared light activates many of the same cell defense systems that exercise does by creating free radicals, which promotes a very low level inflammatory response. This engages our internal cellular antioxidant defense system which eliminates the inflammation and free radicals. The body adapts to that stress with improved cardiovascular efficiency, improved blood delivery to the muscles, and by strengthening and growing the mitochondria.

In much the same way that exercise builds your muscles stronger by temporarily stressing them, red and near-infrared light helps make your cells more tolerant to stress, combats inflammation, eliminates free radicals, and makes your cells healthier, more energetic, and more resilient. The body increases production of internal antioxidant and anti-inflammatory systems and builds up the size and strength of mitochondria.

The bottom line: The combination of red and near infrared light is a powerful tool that doesn’t just temporarily alleviate symptoms like anti-inflammatory drugs, but actually stimulates your body to make lasting improvements at the cellular level that lead to more resilience against stressors and a greater capacity to produce energy.

SmartSun Therapy™ utilizes a combination of targeted light wavelengths, found naturally in sunlight, that have been clinically proven to stimulate positive biological processes supporting the body’s self-healing mechanisms. The carefully engineered combination of Red Light, and Near-Infrared Light found in the SST28 SmartSun Therapy™ device works synergistically to increase blood flow targeting the skin, muscles, organs, connective tissue, and bones.

For more information about the benefits of red and near-infrared light, check out the SmartSun Therapy Operator Training video module at smarttan.com/smartsun-therapy-training.