Everything You Need to Know About Red Light Therapy and Inflammation

Everything You Need to Know About Red Light Therapy and Inflammation

March 24, 2025

Article at a Glance

  • Inflammation plays a crucial role in immune defense but becomes harmful when it turns chronic.

  • Chronic inflammation can stem from many causes and often results in pain, fatigue, and long-term health issues.

  • A wide range of inflammatory diseases are linked to persistent inflammation and can impact nearly every part of the body.

  • Scientific research increasingly supports red light therapy as a natural, non-invasive method to help manage inflammation.

  • Red light therapy is easy to use at home and supports cellular health to assist the body in its healing process.

DISCLAIMER:

Uviva red light devices are not clinically proven to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any medical conditions. These products are considered low-risk general wellness tools that may support the body by enhancing cellular function. The scientific references included are intended solely for educational purposes and reflect ongoing research in the emerging field of photobiomodulation. For safety information, contraindications, and warnings, please click here.

Table of Contents

  1. What is Inflammation?

  2. Inflammatory Response

  3. Symptoms of Inflammation

  4. Causes of Inflammation

  5. Chronic Inflammation

  6. Inflammatory Diseases

  7. Red Light Therapy and Inflammation

  8. How Might Red Light Therapy Help Inflammation?

  9. How Is Red Light Therapy Used?

  10. Uviva Red Light

  11. References

What is Inflammation?

Although the word "inflammation" is frequently used in medical conversations, many people don’t fully understand what it means or why it occurs. Inflammation is a natural part of the immune system’s response to damage or infection. It helps the body repair itself, destroy harmful pathogens, and begin the healing process.

However, when inflammation doesn’t turn off properly, it can become chronic—and that’s where problems begin. Prolonged inflammation is linked to numerous health issues, from joint pain and fatigue to more serious conditions like autoimmune diseases and cardiovascular problems.

Inflammatory Response

The body’s first layer of defense is the skin, which acts as a barrier against bacteria, viruses, and toxins. When the skin or underlying tissue is injured, the body triggers an inflammatory response to begin healing and minimize damage.

This response begins when damaged cells release chemical signals like histamine, bradykinin, and prostaglandins. These substances notify the immune system that damage has occurred, attracting immune cells to the affected area.

These chemicals also widen nearby blood vessels (vasodilation) to increase blood flow. This brings more oxygen, nutrients, and clotting factors to the site. The blood vessels also become more permeable (leaky), allowing immune cells and fluids to enter the tissue, which causes swelling, redness, and pain—all classic signs of inflammation.

Inflammation isn’t only triggered by cuts or scrapes. It can also be caused by internal factors like infections, chemical exposure, or autoimmune dysfunctions. While acute inflammation helps heal injuries, long-term inflammation can contribute to lasting tissue damage and disease.

Symptoms of Inflammation

While inflammation happens internally, it often produces visible or physical symptoms. Recognizing these signs can help you identify when your body is in a heightened immune state. The classic symptoms of inflammation include:

  • Swelling: Caused by increased fluid and immune activity in the affected tissue. The area may appear puffy, enlarged, or feel squishy to the touch.

  • Warmth: Inflammation increases blood flow, making the area feel warmer than surrounding skin.

  • Drainage: Clear fluid may drain from a wound during the early stages. In later stages, pus may appear if the immune system is fighting bacteria.

  • Pain: Inflammatory swelling creates pressure in surrounding tissue, activating pain receptors. Pain is the body’s way of signaling that a problem needs to be addressed.

These symptoms serve a purpose: they alert you to injury, infection, or irritation so you can protect and heal the affected area. However, when inflammation becomes chronic, these warning signs can persist or even worsen over time.

Causes of Inflammation

Inflammation can result from many sources, both external and internal. Some of the most common causes include:

🔸 Injury

Tissue damage from cuts, bruises, or internal trauma triggers an immediate inflammatory response.

🔸 Chemical Exposure

Harsh chemicals can damage tissues and provoke inflammation, especially when the skin or lungs are involved. Chemical burns or irritation can also lead to chronic inflammation if the exposure is repeated.

🔸 Burns

Burn injuries—especially severe ones—create an intense inflammatory response. In addition to pain, burns cause swelling and fluid loss, which can lead to complications.

🔸 Infection

Viruses, bacteria, and fungi trigger immune responses that include inflammation. When the infection becomes widespread (such as sepsis), the resulting systemic inflammation can be dangerous and even life-threatening.

🔸 Autoimmune Reactions

In autoimmune diseases, the body’s immune system mistakenly targets its own tissues. These misguided attacks lead to chronic inflammation and tissue damage without an external cause.

Chronic Inflammation

Acute inflammation is temporary and beneficial—it helps your body heal. But when inflammation doesn’t shut off properly, it becomes chronic, putting long-term stress on your system.

Chronic inflammation often results in persistent pain, fatigue, and tissue degeneration. It may be caused by:

  • Unresolved injuries (e.g., a torn ligament that doesn't fully heal)

  • Repeated trauma (e.g., bone spurs or embedded fragments causing constant irritation)

  • Persistent infections (e.g., hepatitis, Lyme disease)

  • Autoimmune disorders (e.g., lupus, rheumatoid arthritis)

Unlike acute inflammation, chronic inflammation keeps the immune system activated unnecessarily. Over time, this can harm healthy tissues and contribute to degenerative diseases and accelerated aging.

Inflammatory Diseases

Chronic inflammation is at the core of many serious and persistent health conditions. These diseases often stem from an overactive or misdirected immune response, and they can affect virtually every system in the body.

While many inflammatory diseases are autoimmune in nature, some are caused by repeated injury, infection, or underlying metabolic imbalances. Below are several common inflammatory conditions, their symptoms, causes, and treatment options.

Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most prevalent form of arthritis. It’s often associated with aging, but it’s not merely the result of “wear and tear.” OA develops when cartilage—the smooth tissue cushioning the ends of your bones—begins to deteriorate.

Symptoms:

  • Joint pain and stiffness

  • Swelling in one or more joints

  • Decreased range of motion

  • A grinding sensation (called crepitus) when moving

  • Discomfort that worsens after activity or toward the end of the day

Cause:

As cartilage breaks down, bones begin to rub against each other, triggering an inflammatory response. While the root cause isn’t fully understood, injury and repetitive movement are major risk factors.

Treatment:

Treatment typically focuses on pain relief and inflammation reduction through anti-inflammatory medication, physical therapy, and, in severe cases, joint replacement surgery.

Rheumatoid Arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune condition where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks the lining of the joints, leading to ongoing inflammation and tissue damage.

Symptoms:

  • Pain and stiffness in multiple joints, often symmetrically (e.g., both hands or both knees)

  • Joint swelling

  • Morning stiffness lasting more than 30 minutes

  • Fatigue, low-grade fever

  • In more advanced stages: joint deformities and reduced mobility

Cause:

The immune system targets healthy joint tissue, particularly the synovium (joint lining), causing inflammation that damages cartilage and bone.

Treatment:

RA is managed through a combination of immune-modulating medications, corticosteroids, lifestyle adjustments, and physical therapy. While it can't be cured, treatment can reduce flares and slow progression.

Gout

Gout is a form of inflammatory arthritis that typically affects one joint at a time—most often the big toe. It’s caused by elevated levels of uric acid, which forms needle-like crystals in the joints.

Symptoms:

  • Sudden, severe pain in a single joint

  • Redness, warmth, and swelling

  • Pain that often starts at night and can be intense enough to wake you

  • Episodes that last days to weeks

Cause:

When the body produces too much uric acid or doesn’t excrete it effectively, it can crystallize in joints and trigger inflammation.

Treatment:

Managing gout involves medication to reduce uric acid, lifestyle changes (especially diet), and anti-inflammatory drugs for symptom relief during flare-ups.

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE)

Often simply called lupus, SLE is a serious autoimmune disease that can affect nearly every organ in the body. It causes the immune system to attack healthy connective tissue.

Symptoms:

  • Fatigue and joint pain

  • Skin rashes—especially a butterfly-shaped rash on the cheeks

  • Swelling around the eyes, legs, or feet

  • Low-grade fevers

  • Cognitive issues (brain fog, memory trouble)

  • Heart, lung, kidney, and central nervous system involvement in severe cases

Cause:

The immune system becomes overactive and attacks tissues throughout the body, particularly connective tissue found in the skin, joints, blood vessels, and organs.

Treatment:

While there’s no cure, lupus can be managed with immune-suppressing drugs, corticosteroids, healthy lifestyle changes, and avoiding triggers like sun exposure or illness.

Chronic Infection

A chronic infection occurs when the body cannot eliminate a pathogen (e.g., bacteria or virus), leading to a prolonged immune response and persistent inflammation.

Symptoms:

  • A wound that doesn’t heal

  • Recurring fever and fatigue

  • Foul-smelling discharge or pus

  • In systemic infections: symptoms specific to the affected organ

Cause:

Infections that evade or overwhelm the immune system—such as hepatitis C, HIV, or Lyme disease—can lead to long-term inflammation. Some pathogens avoid detection, while others cause continuous immune stimulation.

Treatment:

Management depends on the pathogen—antibiotics, antivirals, or surgical removal of infected tissue may be required. Long-term inflammation often persists even after the infection is controlled.

Psoriasis

Psoriasis is a chronic autoimmune skin disorder that causes skin cells to multiply too quickly, resulting in thick, scaly patches that can be itchy, painful, and inflamed.

Symptoms:

  • Red, scaly skin patches (plaque psoriasis)

  • Dry, cracked skin that may bleed

  • Burning or itching sensations

  • Patches commonly appear on elbows, knees, scalp, and lower back

Cause:

An autoimmune response triggers skin cells to reproduce at an accelerated rate, leading to inflammatory buildup on the skin’s surface.

Treatment:

Topical treatments, light therapy, and immune-modulating medications can help manage flare-ups. Red light therapy is particularly promising for reducing redness and inflammation without medication.

Chronic Injuries

Though not technically a disease, chronic injuries like tendon tears, ligament sprains, or cartilage damage can be long-lasting sources of inflammation.

Cause:

When an injury fails to heal completely, or gets repeatedly aggravated, the body keeps the inflammatory process active. This can also occur with physical abnormalities like bone spurs.

Treatment:

Pain and inflammation may be managed with anti-inflammatory meds, red light therapy, rest, or surgery in more severe cases.

Internal Organ Inflammation

Many organs can become inflamed due to injury, infection, or autoimmune attack. These conditions often end in “-itis,” signaling inflammation.

Common examples include:

  • Pancreatitis – Often caused by alcohol use or gallstones

  • Hepatitis – Liver inflammation, typically viral or alcohol-related

  • Endocarditis – Inflammation of the heart’s inner lining, usually bacterial

  • Asthma – Chronic airway inflammation linked to autoimmunity or environmental triggers

  • Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) – Includes Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, both autoimmune-related

Each of these conditions involves local immune activation, which can cause pain, dysfunction, and systemic symptoms. Many are difficult to treat and benefit from approaches that target inflammation holistically—including dietary changes, medications, and supportive therapies like red light therapy.

Red Light Therapy and Inflammation

Red light therapy—also known as photobiomodulation (PBM)—uses specific wavelengths of light (typically between 620 and 850 nanometers) to penetrate deep into the skin and stimulate biological processes at the cellular level. These wavelengths include both visible red light and invisible near-infrared (NIR) light, each capable of reaching different tissue depths.

This form of light therapy is non-invasive, painless, and does not generate heat in the way infrared saunas do. Instead, it works by supporting your body’s natural healing mechanisms, particularly in areas affected by inflammation.

Scientific studies increasingly suggest that red and near-infrared light may reduce inflammation in a variety of tissues—muscles, joints, skin, and even internal organs—by influencing mitochondrial activity, immune function, and cellular signaling.

How Might Red Light Therapy Help Inflammation?

To understand how red light therapy works against inflammation, we need to explore what it does inside your cells—particularly in the mitochondria, the energy-producing centers of the cell.

Here are five key ways red light therapy may help reduce inflammation:

1. Supports Mitochondrial Energy Production

Red light stimulates a photoreceptor in mitochondria called cytochrome c oxidase, which plays a crucial role in the production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP)—the molecule your cells use for energy.

When cells are under stress due to injury, infection, or chronic inflammation, their ability to generate ATP decreases. Red and near-infrared light may help restore energy production, enabling cells to function properly and resolve inflammation more efficiently.

2. Reduces Pro-Inflammatory Cytokines

Cytokines are signaling proteins that help regulate immune responses. Certain cytokines—such as IL-6, TNF-alpha, and COX-2—promote inflammation.

Studies have shown that red light therapy can reduce levels of these pro-inflammatory cytokines, shifting the immune response toward a more balanced, less reactive state.

3. Increases Cellular Antioxidants

Red light therapy stimulates the production of intracellular melatonin—a powerful antioxidant that works inside cells to neutralize reactive oxygen species (ROS).

Excess ROS, also known as oxidative stress, is a major driver of chronic inflammation and tissue damage. By reducing oxidative stress, red light therapy helps break the cycle of inflammation and cellular injury.

4. Enhances Blood Flow and Nutrient Delivery

Red light has been shown to improve circulation, increasing oxygen and nutrient delivery to damaged tissues. Better blood flow helps clear away inflammatory waste products and supports the body’s healing response.

This improved microcirculation is especially beneficial for people dealing with chronic injuries, arthritis, or muscle soreness.

5. Promotes Cellular Repair and Tissue Regeneration

By supporting mitochondrial function, reducing oxidative stress, and modulating immune activity, red light therapy creates a healing-friendly environment in inflamed tissues.

Research has shown that red light can accelerate recovery from exercise-induced inflammation, improve wound healing, and reduce symptoms in inflammatory skin and joint conditions.

How Is Red Light Therapy Used?

One of the most appealing aspects of red light therapy is how easy it is to incorporate into your daily wellness routine. Whether you’re targeting general inflammation, chronic joint pain, or post-exercise soreness, red light therapy is simple to use and requires no medical supervision.

What You’ll Need

To get started, you’ll need a red light therapy device that emits clinically relevant wavelengths, ideally between 620–850 nm. These include:

  • Red light (620–660 nm): Effective for skin-deep applications such as acne, wrinkles, and wound healing.

  • Near-infrared light (810–850 nm): Penetrates deeper tissues and is more effective for joint pain, inflammation, muscle recovery, and internal healing.

Most high-quality devices—like those from Uviva—combine both types of wavelengths for comprehensive coverage.

When to Use Red Light Therapy

Red light therapy can be used once or twice daily, depending on the severity of symptoms and the area being treated. Sessions typically last between 10 to 20 minutes per area.

For inflammation, it’s often recommended to treat the affected area consistently for several weeks. Many users report noticeable relief after just a few sessions, with compounding benefits over time.

How to Use It

  • Position the red light therapy device 6 to 12 inches from the target area.

  • Expose the area directly—no clothing or barriers.

  • Use protective eyewear if directed, especially for facial treatments.

  • Relax during your session—reading or meditating is a good pairing.

  • Stay consistent—daily or near-daily use yields the best results.

Why Choose Uviva for Red Light Therapy?

At Uviva, we design our red light therapy devices with clinical-quality power, precision, and safety, making it easy for you to experience the benefits of photobiomodulation at home.

Our panels deliver optimal wavelengths in the red and near-infrared range, backed by research and trusted by thousands of wellness users. Whether you're looking to ease joint inflammation, accelerate recovery, or simply support your long-term health, Uviva products are built to deliver results—safely, affordably, and consistently.

What Sets Uviva Apart:

  • Medical-grade wavelength range (620–850 nm) for maximum effectiveness

  • High irradiance output for deep tissue penetration and shorter session times

  • Sleek, portable design that fits easily into any home routine

  • Safe and non-invasive, with no downtime or harsh side effects

  • Trusted by wellness professionals and everyday users around the world

Uviva devices are ideal for anyone looking to naturally reduce inflammation, improve recovery, and support whole-body wellness—without relying on medication or expensive clinic visits.

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