It’s understandable that people put such a high premium on health skin given it’s a part of their body that is on display. At least to some extent at all times, unless you’re coming off the chairlift in an alpine where it’s minus 15 before the wind chill. In every other instance it’s very likely that the skin of your face and hands are uncovered, and for most folks it’s important that they look good. Hyperpigmentation is when skin darkens in patches, and for a lot of people it’s an immediate source of upset. But does red light help hyperpigmentation?

That’s what we’re going to look at with this blog entry, and it’s an interesting suggestion because red light therapy is being touted for everything from hair regrowth to relief from chronic dermatitis and reducing allergic reactions in the skin. With hyperpigmentation there is increased melanin production in the skin, and it’s safe to assume that whether or not red light therapy will work to reduce hyperpigmentation depends on what’s causing it. The flip side of this would be to ask can red light therapy cause hyperpigmentation.

We can look at that too, although it’s not often that proposed therapies will be the cause of an affliction. It’s not realistic to think you’re going to start to have dark skin patches because of any type of light therapy. In fact it’s just the opposite, and the answer to does red light help hyperpigmentation is that it does. So let’s now turn to focusing on how it can work to lighten skin hyperpigmentation, as we imagine that there’s some of you here reading that are excited about the possibility of an effect hyperpigmentation treatment.

Cell Energizer

There’s only one exception to this, and it is women with Fitzpatrick skin type III that will need to be careful about trying red light therapy for any skin disorder. For everyone else it is very unlikely that hyperpigmentation would worsen because of red light therapy. And the majority of those folks may be very pleased with what they discover around does red light help hyperpigmentation. The type that it is going to be most effective for is melasma, and here is how red light therapy is effective for reducing the color of darkened skin patches.

The long wavelengths of the red light penetrate deep into tissue and far enough to reach the mitochondria in skin cells. As this happens the mitochondria become increasingly active as they are stimulated by the red light and with increased energy they start to promote better collagen production and forcing skin to heal. Breaking up clumps of melanin that is discoloring skin because of hyperpigmentation can be a part of what results from this treatment.

However, there’s no guarantees with does red light help hyperpigmentation. If melasma is occurring for people with naturally darker skin tones it becomes less likely that red light therapy for hyperpigmentation will be effective. This is something your dermatologist will discuss with you before you start down the road towards trying this approach to treatment and preventing pigment disorders.