Jumping on the Red Light Therapy Bandwagon!

I purchased a Joovv light recently which is essentially a panel of infrared and red lights at particular and healthy wave-lengths. It’s a very hyped product on podcasts and social media, so, of course, I bought one. There is a lot of research going back decades on the benefits of red-light and infrared red therapies (some details here). But in summary, it’s marketed to help reduce recovery time and generally aid in mitochondrial energy production. I used the Joovv every morning for two weeks for about 15 min a pop. Sometimes I would meditate or do some core exercises to make the most of my time. Roughly every other day I would use it at night before bed at which times I would rest the Joov on the base of the coffee table while sitting naked on the couch, directly the lights directly on my scrotum. As there are many studies which show that infra/red light and significantly improve testosterone levels and libido. I wasn’t able to empirically test my T levels, which are already relatively high. Though overall I found the Joovv to be a mini version of an infrared sauna but without the sweating. And while I’m sure there are many subtle benefits from the Joovv, I didn’t feel a meaningfully noticeable difference to my energy or pain levels while one the Joovv. That said, the Joovv is sold as individual panels that can be connected together to create a whole body red light experience. I used just one of the panels that I would focus on my face, scrotum, stomach or back. I would also note I didn’t have any isolated joint pain which, anecdotally, the Joovv seems to help.

A couple of variations I added to the therapy: 1) Apply liquid magnesium to the area of my body where I would be focusing the Joovv. Supposedly this helps get the magnesium to do it thing (i.e. enter the body more effectively) I would also Joovv my food and liquids before I ate/drank. Don’t think there is any research be behind this but figured the red/infrared light may be causing something beneficial at the atomic level, therefore digesting the Joovv’d contents would be incrementally beneficial to me? Again – this is purely speculative, no idea if it’s worth doing.

Overall – the Joovv is probably helpful to use while one multi-tasks, but if I had 20 minutes to kill I would rather use that time in an infrared sauna. However, given the solid research over the decades on red-light therapy I will continue to use and experiment with the Joovv.