From the Hungarian physician Endre Mester to photobiomodulation pioneer Dr. Lew Lim, here's the story behind the study of light and healing—and the Vielight devices this research has birthed.
Lasers with the power to heal and regenerate human tissue. It sounds like science fiction, but researchers from across the globe have spent the better part of a century trying to make it a reality.
Photobiomodulation (PBM) is an emerging scientific field that is studying the potential of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) in the field of medicine. The idea is that non-ionizing electromagnetic energy, coming from red and near-infrared light, can stimulate cellular structures and create photochemical changes that can heal and regenerate tissue.
While research on this technology began with the invention of the laser in the late 1950s, the last decade has seen a massive uptick in interest in PBM. This is many thanks to the work of Dr. Lew Lim, the Founder and CEO of Vielight, the company pioneering this technology as a viable treatment for a wide array of diseases and conditions.
Vielight's Neuro devices, now in their third generation, are designed to enhance cognitive ability and stimulate the brain. Their intranasal devices boost immunity and aid recovery. Both are cutting-edge examples of PBM technology put into a lean, easy-to-use package that allows for in-home treatment.
We're still getting a grasp of this technology's full potential—and it's been a long road to getting where we are today. To date, there have been hundreds of studies on this therapy. Vielight—boasting arguably the most viable and user-friendly PBM devices on the market—has taken the lion's share of attention from researchers.
From potential neurorehabilitative effects found in a study on athletes with traumatic brain injury to pilot trials exploring PBM as a viable home treatment for people with dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases—the implications of Vielight's continued development are huge. Even elite athletes have turned to Vielight devices to boost performance and longevity, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Based on this trajectory, PBM is trending to be an era-defining medical and scientific innovation. Given this, it's useful that we look back and learn the history of how this technology has emerged.
PBM in its earliest form was known as Low-Level Laser Therapy (LLLT) and was discovered by the physician Endre Mester in 1967. Mester was trying to replicate a prior experiment that used a ruby laser to heal rats with malignant tumors—but the results took him by surprise. The tumors weren't cured, but the rodents experienced a heightened rate of wound healing and hair growth.
This unexpected revelation sparked a fascination with LLLT's potential in a wide variety of applications. The rest of the 20th century would see early rudimentary devices for human use of LLLT in addition to studies on applications such as tissue repair and inflammation control.
One such example of these early experiments came out of Russia and China, where researchers were experimenting with bio-infusing the blood by injecting fiber optics directly into the bloodstream. This was an invasive process—one that would never be viable on humans—but the idea had some validity to it. The researchers found that the cells disaggregated from the light—specifically from the pure red light of 633 nanometers—and microcirculation increased. This showed the potential of light therapy for improving blood circulation to key organs and facilitating clotting, but these early experiments were half-baked and needed further revision.
That's where Dr. Lew Lim enters the story. A chartered professional accountant at the time, Dr. Lim saw the results of this early research and wanted to attempt the development of a non-invasive version. This would set him on a totally new trajectory, one that would see him study and become a doctor of natural medicine, neuroscientist, and engineer—in companion to his work in founding Vielight.
Peter Adams, now the VP of Business Development for Vielight, recalls their early meeting and the creation of Dr. Lim's first device—which was an intranasal device powered by AA batteries.
"I was an advisor at Mars Discovery District in Toronto," Adams says, "and we had a friend who was unwell. We pricked her finger to take a blood sample. You could see the platelets were clumping together, and after 30 minutes with that intranasal, the platelets disaggregated."
These early results—which proved a non-invasive PBM approach was possible—motivated Dr. Lim to further develop the device, which started getting word-of-mouth interest from the greater scientific community.
Around the same time, the Wellman Center for Photomedicine—a Harvard Medical School faculty specializing in the study of light—was performing research that built on Mester's early studies with rats and ruby light. In trials with rats, these Harvard researchers found that shaved hair was growing back six times faster than normal.
"That's when the world realized that some kind of regeneration was going on," Adams says.
Near-infrared light emerged as the best option for developing PBM devices, as it's powerful enough to penetrate the brain without burning the skin like infrared light would.
Researchers started to study what happened when this near-infrared light was flashed into the eyes of rats—and at 40 HZ, the light caused beta-amyloid plaques in the brain (which are associated with neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's) to start to disappear.
This discovery was the genesis for Dr. Lim's next device: the Vielight Neuro, which pulsed at 40 HZ and could safely penetrate the brain with near-infrared light. The Neuro was designed with application in mind: Vielight's priority was creating something lean enough for use in at-home settings.
The user-friendly nature of the first Neuro devices made them attractive to researchers conducting both pilot and clinical trials around the efficacy of PBM. To date, Vielight technology has been central to over 200 studies, including research around Alzheimer's, Traumatic Brain Injury, and even Covid-19.
The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic was a critical moment in the history and development of PBM technology. As the world sought new ways of treating respiratory illnesses, one study around Vielight's intranasal technology showed that "patients with up to 7 days of symptoms at moderate-to-severe levels on the first day of Treatment can expect faster recovery for general sickness and several respiratory symptoms" when treated with PBM.
As brain fog emerged as the most common neurological symptom of long COVID-19, researchers once again turned to PBM for solutions. As this goes to press, 36 participants are currently undergoing a study to evaluate if the Vielight Neuro RX Gamma can effectively treat the cognitive impairment felt post-COVID.
This brings us to today, where the ongoing study of PBM sees Vielight pioneering the path forward. This field—which combines neuroscience, medicine, and engineering—now shows unignorable promise in changing many facets of the medical world.
So, is photobiomodulation the era-defining innovation that pioneers like Dr. Lew Lim and Vielight see it to be? Humanity is close to finding its answer.
The history of photobiomodulation is still being written. Visit Vielight's research page to see the latest developments.
