Respiratory conditions affect the passage that carries air from the nose and throat down the windpipe into the bronchi and the air sacs of the lungs, and they range from lifelong diseases such as asthma to infections that arrive and pass within weeks. Red light therapy (RLT) delivers red and near-infrared light into that tissue, where it acts on the energy supply of the cells lining the airway, the flow in the smallest blood vessels, and the muscles that drive each breath.
Human studies have tested red light therapy on 6 respiratory conditions: asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chronic bronchitis, lung abscess, shortness of breath, and acute respiratory infection. This guide reports what that research found for each, the wavelengths it used, and how the light acts on the airways. COPD scores highest at 98 and asthma 86, both Effective. For the other 4, the evidence is 1 or 2 studies each, too few to score.
The scores mentioned above are defined by the CURE Index (Helio Cure's proprietary scoring system), which needs at least 3 human studies to run. The Index rates every qualifying human study on a condition as Effective, Partially Effective, or Not Effective, and combines those ratings into a score from 0 to 100 and an overall verdict of Effective, Mixed Evidence, or Not Effective. The research ran from 600 to 1600 nanometers (nm), and light at or near 630 nm appears in 4 of the 6 conditions.
Asthma
Asthma is a long-term lung disease in which the airways swell, narrow, and fill with mucus, making each breath wheezy, causing coughing, and causing chest tightness. Allergens, cold air, exercise, smoke, and chest infections can trigger attacks. The attacks disturb sleep, limit exercise, and send children and adults alike to the emergency room.
Red light therapy for asthma earns 86 out of 100 on the CURE Index with an Effective verdict inside the Strong Confidence band. 8 human studies enrolling 522 participants support the research on asthma, returning 7 Effective results against 1 Not Effective. Wavelengths ranged from 630 to 1400 nm, and 630 nm and 780 nm led the citations.
Chronic Bronchitis
Chronic bronchitis is long-term inflammation of the bronchi, the airways carrying air into the lungs, marked by a cough that brings up mucus, a rattling chest, and breathlessness on exertion. Clinicians diagnose it when the productive cough lasts 3 months or more in each of 2 consecutive years. Smoking causes most cases, and air pollution, workplace dust, and repeated chest infections account for the rest. Each flare-up costs sleep and days off work. Inhalers and antibiotics ease the cough, but the inflamed lining beneath it stays damaged.
That damaged lining is what researchers in Novosibirsk set out to repair with red light, and they took the light to it directly. The bronchi sit behind the ribs and the lung tissue, out of reach of light applied to the skin, so the team passed a helium-neon laser at 632.8 nm down a bronchoscope and onto the mucosa of the large bronchi. They propose that light absorbed in the lining cells increases DNA and RNA synthesis, the first step in cell division, and that the dividing cells rebuild the ciliated and goblet layers in their normal form. 2 reports support this, and neither measured cough, mucus, or lung function.
In 1987, Nepomniashchikh and colleagues reported the first in the Bulletin of Experimental Biology and Medicine. They took 98 biopsies from the large airways of 39 men with chronic suppurative lung disease who received the laser, and examined the tissue under an electron microscope. The lining regrew, with ciliated and goblet cells returning in their normal form, and the tissue beneath it filled with new blood flow and immune cells before settling into a thin layer of connective tissue. The authors described the 2 changes as a single repair process. However, the record carries 3 limits: no control group, no laser dose or session count in the published abstract, and no measure of cough, mucus, or breathing.
The second report extended that series. In 1995, Polosukhin and colleagues from the same group published it in the Bulletin of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, now covering 162 biopsies from 63 patients with chronic lung disease. The findings match the first report almost line for line. However, the patient count grew from 39 to 63, and to 76 in a 1996 paper by the same author, so this is one series reported as it grew rather than a second study, and its patients had a mix of chronic lung diseases, including pneumonia and tuberculosis, rather than bronchitis alone.
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a long-term lung disease that makes it hard to move air in and out of the lungs, as the airways narrow and the air sacs lose their stretch. Smoking causes most cases, with workplace dust, fumes, and air pollution behind the rest. The disease brings breathlessness on exertion, a daily cough with phlegm, and chest infections, each of which costs lung function.
We evaluated red light therapy for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease across 5 human studies covering 96 participants, and the evidence on COPD divides into 4 Effective and 1 Partially Effective. That record lifts the CURE Index to 98 out of 100, with Strong Confidence and an Effective verdict. Studies used 620 to 905 nm wavelengths, with 640 nm cited most often.
Acute Respiratory Infection
Acute respiratory infection is a viral or bacterial infection of the airways and lungs that develops over days: the common cold, influenza, COVID-19, and pneumonia all fall under it. Droplets from a cough or sneeze, along with contaminated hands and surfaces, spread it. Fever, sore throat, cough, aching muscles, and breathlessness follow, and most people recover in 2 to 3 weeks. In a minority, the body's own immune response overshoots and floods the lungs with inflammation, and that flood, more than the germ, is what turns a chest infection into respiratory distress.
That inflammation is what 2 clinicians in Toulon aimed red light at, in late 2019 and early 2020. They positioned LED panels at 630 and 660 nm, 7 centimeters above the breastbone, covering the lungs, the heart, and the large vessels of the chest. They propose that red light absorbed by the oxygen-carrying hemoglobin in blood and by the mitochondria of blood cells raises the oxygen the blood delivers and dampens the signals driving the inflammation. They expect easier breathing, less chest tightness, and fewer patients reaching emergency care. A single case report describing 2 patients provides the evidence.
In 2021, Pelletier-Aouizerate and Zivic of the European LED Academy in Toulon, France, published the 2 cases in Clinical Case Reports. A 69-year-old woman in France and a 53-year-old woman in the United Kingdom fell ill in late 2019 with fever up to 40 °C, sore throat, dry cough, exhaustion, loss of taste, and chest tightness; a chest scan of the first, re-read months later, showed the ground-glass changes since recognized in COVID-19. Each received 15 minutes of 630 and 660 nm light from a Triwings LED device at 55 mW/cm², 50 J/cm² per session, 3 times a week for the first patient and 2 to 3 times a week for the second, until symptoms eased in early January 2020. The first also took 3 courses of antibiotics and a steroid nebulizer; the second took no medicine. Both described chest tightness and breathlessness easing straight after each session, and neither needed hospital care. The authors concluded that the light was beneficial and recommended it early in respiratory infections. However, no test ever confirmed COVID-19, no oxygen reading was taken, one patient was also on antibiotics and a steroid, and 2 self-reports cannot separate the light from a recovery that happens on its own in 2 to 3 weeks.
Shortness of Breath
Shortness of breath, clinically termed dyspnea, is the feeling of not getting enough air: a tight chest, breathing that takes effort, or a hunger for air. Clinicians grade it on the modified Medical Research Council (mMRC) scale, from 0, breathless only on hard exercise, to 4, too breathless to leave the house. Asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), heart failure, anemia, and anxiety are the common causes. The breathlessness limits how far a person walks, how many stairs they climb, and how much of daily life they manage alone. Inhalers work on the lungs, but nothing yet works on the feeling itself.
That gap is what sent one Tokyo team to a pain-clinic device. Breathlessness and pain feel alike to the people who have them, and the researchers reasoned that the two might travel the same nerves. Japanese pain clinics aim linear polarized near-infrared light, spanning 600 to 1600 nm, at the stellate ganglion, a cluster of nerve cells at the base of the neck, to ease pain in the head, neck, and arm. The team proposes that light reaching the ganglion quiets the nerve traffic it sends toward the brain, and they expect a quieter signal to make the same breathing load feel lighter. One randomized trial, run against a sham in healthy volunteers rather than patients, has tested it.
In 2019, Izukura and colleagues at Toho University in Tokyo ran that trial on 28 healthy non-smoking adults averaging 29 years and published it in Respiratory Care. Each volunteer attended twice within a week. On one visit, the Super Lizer PX device delivered 7 minutes of light to the ganglion on both sides of the neck, pulsed 2 seconds on and 4 seconds off at 80% of its 10-watt maximum; on the other, the same probe was applied with its output set to zero. Volunteers then breathed through a valve that resisted each breath at 0, 10, 20, and 30 centimeters of water (cm H₂O) and rated their breathlessness on the modified Borg scale, which runs from 0 to 10. Ratings were lower after irradiation at every resistance level (p ≤ 0.003), and breathlessness climbed more slowly as the load rose, with a slope of 0.07 versus 0.11 under sham. All 28 finished without discomfort. The authors concluded that the irradiation eased load-induced breathlessness and called for trials in patients. However, they list 5 limitations, including the use of healthy volunteers, a single session where pain studies use repeated courses, and reporting p-values but not the Borg scores themselves.
Lung Abscess
A lung abscess is a pus-filled cavity that forms when infection destroys a patch of lung tissue. Most begin when a person inhales bacteria from the mouth during heavy drinking, sedation, or a swallowing disorder, and some follow a pneumonia that fails to clear. The infection brings fever, night sweats, weight loss, and a cough that raises foul-smelling sputum, and it takes weeks of antibiotics to clear, with surgery when they fail. Around the cavity, the pus poisons the surrounding lung: the smallest blood vessels leak, the tissue starves of oxygen, and scar forms in its place.
The leaking vessels are where one Novosibirsk pathologist analyzed the effect of red light. The light entered through a bronchoscope: a helium-neon laser at 632.8 nm scattered across the bronchi rather than aimed into the abscess itself. The author proposes 2 routes from there: the light restores the airway lining, and red light passes far enough through air-filled lung to reach the inflamed zone directly, where it settles the vessels. He expects the first to let the abscess drain, and the second to let the surrounding tissue recover and its scarring stop advancing. A single study, published in 2000, carries the evidence.
In 2000, Polosukhin at the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences' Laboratory of Ultrastructural Research in Novosibirsk described that study in Ultrastructural Pathology. 45 patients with acute, necrotizing, or chronic lung abscess were awaiting surgery, and 127 biopsies were taken at operation from the cavity wall, the zone around it, and distant lung. Beforehand, 21 patients received the laser at 3 milliwatts (mW) for 3 to 5 minutes per session, 2 to 6 sessions in all, on top of standard anti-inflammatory care, and 24 received that care alone. Under the electron microscope, the laser group showed far less inflammation, and their abscesses had emptied: a new surface layer lined the cavity in 11 of the 13 open cavities, and clean scar tissue filled the other 8 of the 21. Control abscesses stayed full of pus and dead tissue. The author concluded that the laser "promotes reversion of the inflammatory process and stabilizes fibroplastic processes". However, the surgeons chose who received the laser, it came on top of standard drugs, and every outcome is a tissue finding rather than fever, X-ray, or recovery time.
Does Red Light Therapy Work for Respiratory Conditions?
Yes. Red light therapy returned positive results for most respiratory conditions, especially asthma and COPD, where the CURE Index scores red light therapy 86 and 98 out of 100, both rated Effective. Patients in those trials reported fewer asthma symptoms, better breathing tests, and, in COPD, more exercise before tiring, stronger muscles and less breathlessness. Studies on chronic bronchitis, lung abscess, shortness of breath, and acute respiratory infection also returned a positive outcome, but from 1 or 2 studies, too few for the CURE Index to score.
Researchers trace the results to 4 effects, from more energy in the cells lining the airway to quieter nerve signals that make a breath feel hard. Most trials shone the light onto the skin. The bronchitis and lung abscess studies were an exception: there, doctors passed a laser down a bronchoscope into the airway. Sessions ran from 15 seconds to 15 minutes, repeated over 2 to 60 days. None of these studies reported a serious side effect.
How does Red Light Therapy Work for Respiratory Conditions?
Researchers propose 4 routes, all starting where red light meets the mitochondria that power a cell. First, the extra energy lets the airway lining regrow: the bronchitis and lung abscess biopsies showed the lining's normal cells returning. Second, the light settles the smallest blood vessels, so less fluid and inflammation leak into lung tissue. Third, in COPD, the muscles that expand the chest grew stronger, and patients managed more exercise. Fourth, light on a nerve cluster in the neck quieted the signals that make a breath feel hard. However, which route will be in play is defined by where the light eventually lands.
How Should You Use the Right Red Light Device for Respiratory Conditions?
To use a red light device as the one chest-panel report did (2 acute respiratory infection cases), aim 630 and 660 nm at the bare skin over the breastbone, 7 centimeters (about 3 inches) from the chest for 15 minutes per session. Keep the area uncovered, since fabric blocks the light. However, a panel reaches the chest wall, not the airway: the bronchitis and lung abscess studies needed a bronchoscope, which no home device replaces. In case you develop new or worsening breathlessness, consult a doctor first.
How Frequently should You use Red Light Therapy for Respiratory Conditions?
Use red light therapy 2 to 3 times a week for 2 to 8 weeks. The asthma and COPD trials ran 1 to 6 sessions a week over courses of 2 to 60 days, and the lung abscess study stopped at 2 to 6 sessions. If breathing gets worse during a course, stop and see a doctor.
How Soon Does Red Light Therapy Show a Change for Respiratory Conditions?
In the studies on this page, breathlessness eased within a single session and airway tissue changed within 2 to 6 sessions. However, none of these studies followed patients after the sessions stopped, so how long a gain lasts is unknown. The time to any change also depends on the condition, how far it has progressed, whether the light reaches the target tissue, and what other treatment runs alongside it. So, it only makes sense to evaluate a course at its end rather than after the first week.
Are there Any Risks of using Red Light Therapy for Respiratory Conditions?
The studies on this page reported no serious side effects. The light emits no ultraviolet radiation and little heat. However, the risk lies in what the light replaces. An asthma attack, a lung abscess, or an infection that lowers oxygen needs a doctor, and a panel at home is no substitute for inhalers, antibiotics, or oxygen. Wear protective eyewear near a bright panel, and consult a clinician before beginning sessions, especially if you are on medication that raises light sensitivity.
Do Helio Cure Panels Use the Wavelengths Studied for Respiratory Conditions?
Yes. Helio Cure panels run 630, 660, 810, 830, 850, and 1064 nm, all inside the 600 to 1600 nm range the respiratory studies used. The asthma studies cite 630 nm and 780 nm most often, the acute respiratory infection report used 630 and 660 nm together, while the chronic bronchitis and lung abscess studies used a 632.8 nm laser, close to the panel's 630 nm.
References
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/pmid/33959281/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3689973/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7670344/
- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/01913120050132921
- https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.4187/respcare.06496