Red Light Therapy for Hay Fever: Scientific Evidence

Whether laser acupuncture could ease hay fever in children was tested in a 2019 randomized trial in Egypt. 60 children aged 4 to 18 were split between standard allergy medication, made up of nasal steroids, antihistamines, and leukotriene blockers, and 12 sessions of 904 nm laser at 100 mW and 6 J applied to acupuncture points twice a week over 6 weeks. According to the trial, symptom severity improved significantly in both groups, and a blood marker of inflammation fell in both, more so with laser acupuncture. The authors described laser acupuncture as painless, non-invasive, and a useful add-on treatment.

Among 40 children aged 7 to 18 with year-round nasal allergy, a 2013 randomized trial in Egypt compared LED phototherapy with laser acupuncture. One group received 660 and 905 nm LED light in the nostrils, while the other had low-level laser applied to acupuncture points on the face and body, and both were followed for 1 year. The trial found that symptom-severity scores improved significantly in both groups throughout the follow-up. The authors described both approaches as safe, non-invasive, and effective.

Overall quality-of-life scores improved by 45% in a 2013 clinical trial of low-level laser therapy (LLLT) for year-round hay fever in South Korea. The 42 patients, 28 men and 14 women averaging 43 years of age, had 650 nm light applied inside the nose for 15 minutes twice a day over 4 weeks, at doses of 1.5 to 2.5 J/cm². Blocked nose, runny nose, sneezing, and itching scores dropped by 36%, 34%, 33%, and 25%, and 68% of patients reported relief, the researchers reported. No side effects were found during treatment.

Researchers in Hungary compared intranasal phototherapy with the antihistamine fexofenadine for moderate to severe seasonal hay fever in a 2011 randomized trial. The 31 patients were split between 18 in the light group, 12 women and 6 men, averaging 41 years of age, who received 700 nm light inside the nose at 180 mW and about 1.1 to 1.6 J/cm² 3 times over 14 days, and 13 who took fexofenadine daily. Total nasal symptom scores fell from about 8.6 to 4.6 with phototherapy, a statistically significant drop, whereas the antihistamine showed no significant change. Mild, short-lived nasal dryness was the main side effect in the light group.

72% of hay fever patients reported better symptoms after narrow-band red light therapy in a 1997 double-blind randomized controlled trial in Israel. Of 90 participants, those with hay fever or soft nasal growths received 660 nm light aimed at the lining inside the nose for 4.4 minutes, 3 times a day over 14 days, delivering about 6 J per day, while a smaller group received a matching sham light. Symptom relief and better findings on a camera examination of the nose appeared far more common with light, in 72% and 70% of treated hay fever patients, than with sham, in 24% and 3%. No benefit was seen in participants who had soft nasal growths.

No lasting improvement in nasal airflow followed a single session of red light phototherapy in a 2018 randomized controlled trial in Taiwan. 60 patients with hay fever were assigned to one 650 to 670 nm nasal light session plus standard medication, or to medication alone, and nasal airflow was measured with tests of nasal airflow and space before and after. Symptoms, including a blocked nose, eased 30 minutes after the light but had largely returned 2 days later, with sneezing worse. The treatment appeared to bring no lasting improvement in how freely air moved through the nose.