“I am as passionate about red and infrared light therapy as I am about cellulite reduction, which I practise for 24+ years now but despite my love for this therapy I cannot possibly claim cellulite reduction with it, simple because it does not reduce cellulite. However, I can indeed say that infrared/red light therapy is indeed great for cellulite prevention - and only as part of a healthy diet, exercise and lifestyle regime.”
If red light therapy is so good for all types of cells in the body, how come you say that it cannot reduce cellulite?
If red and infrared light improves tissue health then it can surely reduce cellulite, right?
Infrared and red light therapy (RLT / LLLT / PBM) does NOT reduce topical fat (neither green light does, of course…)
Red and infrared light therapy for cellulite: good for prevention, pointless for reduction
Infrared/red light can help other technologies be more effective with cellulite reduction
Effect of low-level laser therapy on abdominal adipocytes before lipoplasty procedures
Advanced, infrared / blue / red light therapy treatments in London at LipoTherapeia
Have a skin tightening/cellulite treatment with London’s cellulite experts
If red and infrared light improves tissue health then it can surely reduce cellulite, right?
This is a very common question at the clinic, especially with all the hype in social media in the last couple of years: “If LED light at red (~630nm) and near infrared (~830nm) frequencies improves tissue health then it can surely reduce cellulite, right?”
To which the instant answer is: “Wrong. You will just have healthier cellulite and that’s it.”
Let me explain. The biggest and most tricky components of cellulite are hypodermal fat accumulation (the elephant in the room) and hypodermal skin ligament (retinaculae cutis) shortening.
Red/infrared light can indeed improve the secondary components of cellulite, such as inflammation and water retention - somewhat.
And I say “SOMEWHAT” because red and infrared light can help improve tissue health but it does not “cure”.
So let’s not exaggerate here. Red/infrared light therapy is a "help all” but not a “cure all”.
Infrared and red light therapy (RLT / LLLT / PBM) does NOT reduce topical fat (neither green light does, of course…)
To go back to our subject now: red and infrared light can help with the secondary components of cellulite, to some extent, but it can not do anything to lengthen the stiffened and shortened hypodermal skin ligaments and, most importantly, it cannot do anything to reduce fat accumulation in the hypodermis.
It just can’t, contrary to all the marketing BS propagated by some low level light therapy (LLLT) manufacturers. The questionable studies those manufacturers rely on were never duplicated by independent researchers and they remain just that: questionable, especially as they were disproven by tens millions of applications worldwide in real people.
Remember the ridiculously called non-surgical ‘laser lipo’ (😆) treatments, which were all the rage about 15 years ago? Exactly. They ended up being sold at 93% discount at Groupon and everyone who offered them abandoned them after a few years. That’s how well they worked for fat reduction.
And let’s not talk about green light therapy here as a method of fat reduction. The whole thing is ridiculous - unless one wants to waste their hard earned money…
Red and infrared light therapy for cellulite: good for prevention, pointless for reduction
So LED light therapy / red light therapy / infrared light therapy / low level light therapy (LLLT) / photobiomodulation (PBM) etc etc etc, can indeed - VERY gradually and VERY slowly - improve the health of the hypodermis, where cellulite is found.
That’s great for prevention. However, without fat reduction and skin ligament relaxation cellulite will not be reduced - not to any significant degree and not soon enough for anyone’s liking, anyway.
All in all, as LED light is quite slow acting and as it has important limitations in its action against cellulite, it is more suited to prevention - and only to SOME extent.
And I say “to SOME extent” here because if one eats like a pig, drinks like a sailor and smokes like a chimney, no red, infrared, green, violet, turquoise or other shade of light can ever help them with cellulite prevention.
Again, beyond prevention, LED light cannot on its own REDUCE cellulite, either significantly and/or soon enough.
In fact, if infrared/red light could help on its own with cellulite REDUCTION, as opposed to mild PREVENTION, we would already use it. At the clinic we have the best red/infrared light LED equipment available, both in terms of light intensity and wavelength accuracy, and it would be the easiest thing in the world to reduce cellulite for our clients without making any more effort than pressing a button.
But unfortunately life does not work that way and so we do not waste our clients’ time and money on red/infrared LED or laser light for cellulite as a stand-alone therapy - and you shouldn’t waste yours with a - far inferior - home use LED panel or laser device for that purpose.
In fact, no LED panel manufacturer makes any claims about cellulite reduction solely with their products and if they would it would be baseless.
Infrared/red light can help other technologies be more effective with cellulite reduction
However, due to its effects in the mitochondria, red and infrared light at about 630nm and 830nm wavelength, respectively, can help maximise the effects of proven, intensive cellulite reduction technologies, such as deep-acting, high-power radiofrequency and deep-acting, high-power ultrasound cavitation.
If used right after those treatments, when the demand for cellular energy in the treated areas is very high, red/infrared light therapy can help maximise the results of those tried and tested cellulite reduction technologies.
And this is exactly what we do at the clinic: since summer 2025 all our radiofrequency and ultrasound treatments finish with a session of high-power LED red/infrared light therapy, for maximum results.
For prevention, and as part of a healthy diet, exercise and lifestyle regime, among other things we recommend a red and infrared LED panel, at around 630-680nm and 810-880nm. wavelength, respectively, and one which can offer a combined 100mW/cm2 of power density, as measured with a solar meter at 15cm from the body.
However, beware: good devices tend to be quite expensive and many manufacturers provide false data for both intensity and wavelength.
But that’s material for another article…
In the meantime, you can find below one of the articles that show that nothing happens when you irradiate the skin with low level light therapy - despite the wild claims and the hype by manufacturer endorsed/financed studies:
“No differences were observed between low-level laser therapy-derived and suction-assisted lipoplasty-derived specimens”
“No consistent observations of adipocyte disruptions were observed in the histologic or scanning electron microscopy photographs. These data do not support the belief that low-level laser therapy treatment before lipoplasty procedures disrupts tissue adipocyte structure.”
Effect of low-level laser therapy on abdominal adipocytes before lipoplasty procedures
Research paper link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15114147/
Abstract: Low-level laser therapy is a new subspecialty for the medical application of lasers that provides therapeutic rather than surgical outcomes for many medical indications. Recently, low-level laser therapy was reported to "liquefy" or release stored fat in adipocytes by the opening of specialized yet not identified cell membrane-associated pores after a brief treatment. Currently, low-level laser therapy is a U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved technology for improving pain alleviation. To explore these data further, a series of in vitro studies on human preadipocytes and institutional animal care and use committee-approved protocols in a porcine Yucatan model and an institutional review board-approved clinical study were performed. Using a 635-nm low-level laser of 1.0 J/cm supplied to the authors by the vendor, these studies were designed to determine whether alteration in adipocyte structure or function was modulated after low-level laser therapy. Cultured human preadipocytes after 60 minutes of laser therapy did not change appearance compared with nonirradiated control cells. In the porcine model, low-level laser therapy (30 minutes) was compared with traditional lipoplasty (suction-assisted lipoplasty) and ultrasound-assisted lipoplasty. From histologic and scanning electron microscopic evaluations of the lipoaspirates, no differences were observed between low-level laser therapy-derived and suction-assisted lipoplasty-derived specimens. Using exposure times of 0, 15, 30, and 60 minutes in the presence or absence of superwet wetting solution and in the absence of lipoplasty, total energy values of 0.9 mW were delivered to tissue samples at three increasing depths from each experimental site. No histologic tissue changes or specifically in adipocyte structure were observed at any depth with the longest low-level laser therapy (60 minutes with superwet fluid). Three subjects undergoing large-volume lipoplasty were exposed to superwet wetting fluid infiltration 14 minutes before and 12 minutes after, according to vendor instructions. Tissue samples from infiltrated areas were collected before suction-assisted lipoplasty and lipoaspirates from suction-assisted lipoplasty. No consistent observations of adipocyte disruptions were observed in the histologic or scanning electron microscopy photographs. These data do not support the belief that low-level laser therapy treatment before lipoplasty procedures disrupts tissue adipocyte structure.
Advanced, infrared / blue / red light therapy treatments in London at LipoTherapeia
At LipoTherapeia we are passionate about phototherapy (also known as photobiomodulation/PBM, red light therapy, infrared light therapy, blue light therapy, LED light therapy etc) and we use the most powerful equipment available today (up to 200mW/cm2), for best results and treatment of large body areas.
We use specialised therapy protocols for skin rejuvenation / anti-ageing, pigmentation / post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation (PIH), moderate/severe acne, skin redness, sensitive/inflamed/irritated skin, wound healing, sports injuries / musculoskeletal pain and overall wellness / well-being.
Our LED phototherapy sessions are comfortable, deeply relaxing and super-safe and are great to enhance our radiofrequency/ultrasound treatments for skin tightening / cellulite reduction.
On our booking page you can book stand-alone phototherapy sessions or combine them with our other treatments, as an add-on.
Learn more or check prices and book an expert LED phototherapy treatment at our London clinic.
Have a treatment in London with the cellulite experts
At LipoTherapeia we have specialised 100% in skin tightening and cellulite reduction for more than two decades and 20,000+ sessions.
This is all we study and practise every day and have researched and tried hands-on all the important skin tightening equipment and their manufacturers.
As strong, deep acting radiofrequency and deep-acting, high-power ultrasound cavitation are the technologies of choice for skin tightening and cellulite reduction, we have invested in the best RF/ultrasound technologies in the world.
(Of course, we keep looking for new technologies every day and if/when a better technology materialises we will be the first to provide it. However, we will never follow the latest ineffective gimmick, just because it’s good marketing to offer the latest hyped up - yet ineffective and/or unsafe treatment.)
Furthermore, over the last two decades we have developed advanced RF and cavitation treatment protocols in order to make the most of our technologies, for maximum results, naturally and safely.
And for even better, faster results, we now combine our RF/ultrasound treatments with high-power red/infrared light LED treatment.
Our radiofrequency/ultrasound/LED treatments are comfortable, pain-free, downtime-free, injection-free, 99.5%+ safe and always non-invasive.
(No unsafe and ineffective RF microneedling or HIFU and no safe but ineffective acoustic wave therapy, superficial RF (bipolar/tripolar/multipolar etc), low power RF/cavitation, electrical muscle stimulation, lymphatic massage, cupping, dry brushing and no ridiculous bum bum creams.)
Our focus is on honest, realistic, science-based treatment, combined with caring, professional service, with a smile.
We will be pleased to see you, assess your cellulite, skin laxity or fibrosis, listen to your story, discuss your case and offer you the best possible treatment.