MARCH 2–15, 2020 | THE CUT 67Buthow?Why?Sometimes,tryingtounderstand photo-
biomodulationis socircularit makesmethink of an exasper-
atedLuke WilsoninIdiocracytryingtounderstand the
energydrinkBrawndo.(What are electrolytes? It’s what they
usetomakeBrawndo.Butwhy dothey use it to make
Brawndo?’CauseBrawndo’sgotelectrolytes.) Researchers
whostudylighttherapysay themechanismat work here isn’t
100 percentclear, butbasically, lightsparksa cellular response
because...ourcellsrespondtolight.
Forredandnear-infraredlight,scientists speculate that the
lightinteracts withsomethingcalledcytochrome c oxidase, or
CCO,a photosensitiveenzymefoundwithinthe mitochondria.
Eellsthinksofit aslightgivingthemitochondria a little kick
inthepants.“I’mnotsure themitochondriaare real happy to
gett hes t s is
the pro at t it
willmakeit healthier.” WhenCCOfindslight, it converts it to
energyandusesthat energy todowhateverthat cell is sup-posed to do, only more efficiently. “We have all these damn
creams we try to rub on our face, and this lets your cells do it
naturally,” she said.
It turns out mitochondria and chloroplasts in plants are
“basically evolutionary kissing cousins,” as Eells phrases it.
Chloroplasts absorb light and make energy for plants during
photosynthesis; our mitochondria convert light to energy in a
similar way. I am a plant, sort of, or at least my cells behave
more like plants than I would ever have imagined.CLOSE UP, LIGHT THERAPY is complicated, baffling, impen-
etrable. Take a few steps back, though, and it’s about the most
obvious idea on earth. In a way, light therapy has been a
reminder of how often I overlook the basics, how every few
days I need to force-feed myself similar reminders about how
to be a human: Water is good, sleep is good, socializing with
friends is good, alcohol is not always so good. Light is good.
Still, there are a few claims about light therapy I know not
to fall for. Any at-home device that makes confident prom-
ises about green or yellow light is to be met with skepticism;
the evidence just isn’t there yet. Pulsing red light, a hypnotiz-
ing effect some devices offer, should be regarded with inter-
est mixed with some suspicion. (Dr. Jared Jagdeo, director
of the Center for Photomedicine at suny Downstate Medical
Center, told me firmly of pulsing red light, “Nobody knows
the function of that. Anyone who claims to know the func-
tion of it, they’re just hypothesizing.”) Anything cheaper than
a few hundred dollars is probably ineffective, and prescrib-
ing yourself light therapy for some ailment instead of visiting
a doctor is inadvisable. The scientists who’ve studied photo-
medicine for decades met my questions with excitement and
trepidation; many of them fear the consumer appetite will
outpace the science, as tends to happen with wellness fads.
It does make sense that light therapy is gaining traction as a
wellness practice. It fits right in with the paleo diet, biphasic
sleep, and other theories that assume what is modern is bad
and what is ancient (and therefore natural) is best. Not that
these theories are necessarily wrong. In a viral 2014 interview
with the website Into the Gloss, the actress Shailene Woodley
shared her beliefs about the link between vaginal health and
the natural light of the sun. “If you live in a place that has heavy
winters,” she said, “when the sun finally comes out, spread your
legs and get some sunshine.” Yeast infections in particular, she
explained, are no match for sunlight. She was wrong about the
way it works (she assumed it involved vitamin D), but she was
right that it does work, or at least that it can: There is some
evidence that blue light can destroy fungi like Candida albi-
cans, which can cause yeast infections.
The rise of light therapy also happens to coincide with
increasing paranoia around climate change and real anxieties
over whether we’ll eventually live in a world where it isn’t safe
to be outside for very long. In California this past fall, smoke
and dust storms from the relentless wildfires caused “fine par-
ticulate matter,” which has been linked to heart disease, lung
disease, and premature death, to settle in the air. People living
in the North and East Bay were advised to stay inside; my par-
ents had just moved to Napa Valley, and they sent me photos
of the neighborhood haze. I think about this now and a vague
image comes to mind of a future set even more indoors, me
curling up around my Joovv Mini, soaking up artificial light
like a space-station zinnia. ■DÉESSE PRO LED MASK
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