Omnilux Light Therapy To Treat Problem Skin

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Brightened skin tone and improved skin texture have been reported during clinical trials using a combination of blue and red LED light therapy. Aside from these general improvements in skin condition LED light therapy has been clinically proven to improve problem skin with known medical causes.

Can Omnilux Light Therapy Treat Vitiligo or Irregular Skin Pigmentation?

Melanin provides the skin colour, it is a brown pigment and although total amount of melanin between individuals is approximately similar the areas where melanin is distributed may be different.  You may have areas of concentrated melanin deposition and other areas free of melanin other people may have all over even melanin distribution. Melanin also has different types/colours and individual skin colour is a mixture of these different types of melanin. Although some colours of melanin are more predominant within specific types such as dark or light skin types. Over production of melanin is called hyperpigmentation and appears as spots of darker skin colour such as those called sun spots/actinic lentigines. LED combination red and blue light therapy has been reported to significantly decrease melanin levels and may therefore representative an effective treatment for hyperpigmentation.

Reduced production of melanin is called hypopigmentation and results with areas of skin lacking pigment. A pilot study in 2011 demonstrated that LED visible light therapy  may be useful for treating for a small percentage of people suffering from vitligo (autoimmune disease causing a lack of melanin). Researchers found that light therapy increased blood flow in the hypo-pigmented regions and following 3 months of light therapy half of the patients had re-pigmentation of greater than 25 %. However narrow band UVB (308-311 nm) treatment has been found to be the most effective of all light therapies for the treatment of vitiligo according to a review produced in 2012.

Can Omnilux Light Therapy Treat Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer?

Non-melanoma skin cancers are of two types either a basal cell skin cancer or a squamous cell skin cancer. Bowen’s disease is a non-malignant, non-melanoma squamous cell cancer. Actinic keratosis (AK) can develop into (SCC) a type of non-melanoma skin cancer. AK is a result of keratinocytes inappropriately increasing in numbers. The use of LED light therapy in combination with chemicals such as methyl aminolaevulinate (MAL) or 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) is termed photodynamic therapy or (PDT)). PDT can selectively kill cancerous cells and this is used as an effective clinical treatment for non-melanoma skin cancers such as AK and Bowen’s disease. PDT kills cancers cells by their preferential uptake of the topically applied ALA or MAL. ALA or MAL is then converted to protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) inside the cancer cells. When these cells are subsequently exposed to red or blue light the outcome is a reaction of PpIX with the light that is toxic to the cells. Therefore the treatment selectively kills cancerous cells.

In fact, LED (red 635nm) light therapy treatment with topical cream treatment was found to be more effective than pulsed laser treatment for the treatment of actinic keratoses (AK) and Bowen's disease (BD). AK has also been successfully treated using blue light (415nm) PDT. However LED as a light source to cause the reaction with PpIX in this treatment is only suitable for skin lesions that are superficial or close to the outermost surface of the skin because the visible light range emitted by LED light therapy doesn’t penetrate deeply into the skin compared to laser generated PDT.

Interestingly psoriasis lesions have been reported to inherently contain accumulated PpIX, without the need for MAL or ALA application. The exposure of areas of psoriasis to blue and red light alone, effectively improved psoriasis, providing the plaque (hardened, thickened areas of skin) size was reduced to allow the light to penetrate into the skin. Blue light in particular was beneficial for reducing redness of plaques.

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