Red Light Therapy for Pinched Nerve: Scientific Evidence

Among 120 adults aged 44 to 72 treated at a hospital in Heilongjiang Province, China, a 2024 randomized controlled trial tested three-volt moxibustion, which warms points on the skin with burning herb, combined with helium-neon laser irradiation, against traction for a pinched nerve in the lower back. 60 people received moxibustion for 25 minutes a day together with 632.8 nm laser light at 40 mW, held near the skin for 5 minutes at each of several treatment sites across the lower back and at spots that were sore to pressure, once a day for 20 days, while the other 60 received traction that gently stretches the lower back. According to the trial, average pain scores in the moxibustion and laser group finished at 1.74 out of 10 against 3.14 in the traction group, and scores on a standard 0 to 29 measure of lower back function finished at 18.26 against 14.23. Satisfaction with care scored above 90 out of 100 in both groups, with no significant difference between them.

Pain scores on a standard 0 to 10 rating scale dropped from a median of 7 before treatment to 1 afterward in the treated group of a 2022 double-blind randomized controlled trial of low-level laser therapy (LLLT) for a pinched nerve in the lower back. 110 adults with recent lower back pain and a pinched nerve on one side, with a mean age of 38, were divided into 2 equal groups, with 55 receiving LLLT at 830 nm plus conventional physical therapy and 55 receiving conventional physical therapy alone. The light was held against the skin on either side of the affected nerve at 100 mW, 3 J, and 3 J/cm² across 4 points at 5000 Hz for 30 seconds per point, across 18 sessions spread over 42 to 56 days. Both groups improved, but the group given LLLT appeared to gain more in pain, in how much the condition limited daily activities, and in how far the lower back could bend, with the differences between groups reaching statistical significance. No major side effects were observed during or after the use of LLLT.

Whether pain, daily function, and lower back movement shifted in step with one another was examined in a 2022 observational study of low-level laser therapy (LLLT) for a pinched nerve in the lower back. 55 adults drawn from the treated arm of a randomized controlled trial across 3 hospitals in Islamabad, Pakistan, were assessed on their first and last treatment days, having received LLLT at 830 nm held against the skin at 3 J per point alongside conventional physical therapy, across 18 sessions spread over 42 to 56 days. The analysis found that these 3 measures related to one another only weakly to moderately, and none of those relationships reached statistical significance apart from bending forward.