Near Infrared Light (940nm) Improves COVID Outcomes: Exciting Randomized Control Trial

In this video, Dr. Seheult of MedCram discusses a new trial that utilizes near infrared light.  He reviews a randomized control trial that uses a device that emits in the near infrared spectrum that is applied to the chest as a vest. It has 300 infrared LEDs that emit 940 nm of light with a total optical power of 6 W. The vest size was 36 cm x 58 cm. They used this for 15 minutes a day for 7 days. This light wavelength is part of the near infrared spectrum and is not visible. This near infrared light is actually able to penetrate into the epidermis, dermis and subcutaneous tissue. The longer the a wavelength is, the greater the ability to penetrate deeply into the tissue. This study showed that near infrared light can penetrate up to 8 cm which is enough depth to penetrate into the lung barring severe obesity. It is hypothesized that near infrared radiation may actually modulate oxidative stress possibly through the process of making melatonin.

Near-Infrared light study

In the study, they took 30 patients. They were each given a jacket but only half of them (the intervention group) actually had it turned on and the control had it off.   They took patients that were diagnosed with COVID-19 by PCR, who were not intubated, ages 50-80 years and with BMIs of less than 30 kg/m. Comparison of the two groups showed no significant statistical differences between them except for the pneumonia severity index was worse in the intervention group compared to the control group, but otherwise it appears to have been good randomization.  Researchers found that LED photobiomodulation enhances the effect of conventional therapy on COVID-19 patients providing statistically significant improvement in partial oxygen saturation, tidal volume, respiratory rate, heart rate, systolic blood pressures, maximum inspiratory pressure and maximum inspiratory pressure.  It also showed a reduction of 4 days for the patient’s length of stay.  There were no reported effects or complications associated with the light therapy observed during treatments and no patients died.  The results of this study were promising but further research is needed. The main limitation of this study was the size of the cohort, but even though the size of the trial was small, it still showed statistical significance.

Why near infrared light may work

The question however is why light specifically near the infrared light spectrum is so beneficial  in COVID-19 patients.  MedCram has discussed this previously in Update 65. It has to do with oxidative stress and how COVID-19 causes this. The COVID-19 virus shuts down the ACE-2 enzyme which leads to a build up of pro-oxidants and reactive oxygen species.  Melatonin, however, can help reduce this as it is a powerful antioxidant. In an article from Antioxidants, it discusses how oxidative stress causes damage to the body. When the endothelial  cells become damaged with oxidative stress, they expose tissue that causes blood clots to form from vonWillebrand Factor that is secreted into the lumen of the vessel. This phenomenon was also discussed by MedCram in its previous Update 67. In this article, they found that severe COVID-19 infection was associated with endothelial activation.  Another article links a possible relationship between ABO groups and von Willebrand factor levels. 

How to reduce reactive oxygen species

Some ways that we can decrease reactive oxygen species include getting a good night’s sleep, turning off lights after 9 pm, and getting outside to get near infrared radiation from the sun. We know that melatonin is being produced in the mitochondrial in the cell. The question is if it is indeed infrared radiation that is stimulating it, what wavelength is doing it? Based on the current randomized control trial, this vest being used is directly causing an improvement in hypoxia and blood clots.  Dr. Seheult suspects this is via a melatonin pathway but more research is still needed. When you go out in the sun you will get all of the spectrum of light. Furthermore you don’t need to go out directly in the sun to get infrared radiation as going into a green space can get NIR (near infrared) exposure from reflectance.  Comparing the jacket to the sun showed that the sun was 25.6 times more powerful from the infrared spectrum in terms of near infrared radiation as compared to the jacket. Articles such as this point to latitude as a possible cause pointing to the COVID-19 surges and timing. This article looked to see if UVA could predict COVID-19 mortality. They found that there were higher mortality in areas of low sunlight and lower mortality in areas of higher sunlight exposure. These authors noted with this article that  even though this study was observational, if the relationship proves to be causal it may be that this effect appears to be independent of the vitamin D pathway.

Correlation of latitude with COVID-19 deaths

Dr. Seheult teamed up with Dr. Margaret Skutsch at the National University in Mexico for this article. They looked at COVID-19 death rates around the world and found that in countries with high BMI, COVID-19 deaths correlated with latitude. 

Heliotherapy

Researchers have for years looked at the use of sunlight or heliotherapy as an intervention for disease. Back in the late 1800’s, this was the cutting edge therapy. It wasn’t until 1928 with the discovery of penicillin, that we started to look at randomized control trials for medications. Looking back at the pandemic of 1918, it was found that the army hospitals had a 16% mortality rate vs a 2% mortality rate at the sanitariums. Once patient’s got pneumonia, this worsened to a 6.4% death rate in the army hospital but only 1.1% in the sanitariums. 

Benefit of NIR

Getting near infrared radiation from the sun is important to get melatonin. Turning off the lights by 9 pm also helps with preventing the shutdown of melatonin production by the pineal gland which can affect your sleep.  Today trying to get enough near infrared radiation without going out into the sun is more difficult due to advances in light bulbs and more efficient energy windows which do not allow for infrared light penetration. When fighting infections that are causing reactive oxygen species we need to be sure we are getting enough near infrared radiation to mitigate these oxygen species. 

MedCram advocates for getting outside as much as possible to benefit from near infrared light.

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