Blue Light Therapy Helps Treat Acne
Acne isn’t fun at any age. I remember dabbing skin tinted Clearasil all over my face to cover newly sprouted pimples. My brother used a sun lamp to help clear up his skin (as if living in Southern California didn’t expose us to enough UV rays.)
Luckily, science has progressed in the treatment for acne and blue light therapy has been successfully used to treat certain types of acne such as moderate or inflammatory acne vulgaris.
How it works:
Blue light works by killing P. acnes, a strain of bacteria that contributes to acne, on the surface of the skin. There are no harmful UV waves emitted with blue light. Studies have shown that many patients obtain noticeable improvements, 55-65% depending on the type of acne they have from regular treatments with blue light. In one study from Taiwan, 31 patients with inflammatory acne vulgaris who received blue light treatments on only one side of their face showed improvement while patients who had more severe nodulocystic acne actually became worse.
The FDA approved the use of blue light devices in 2002 and dermatologists began offering blue-light therapy treatments in their offices.
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