Forget about reducing wrinkles and fighting hair loss.
A new study suggests that a novel form of treatment already popular in the US for skin health, pain relief and faster healing may also offer a surprising benefit: protecting football players’ brains from chronic inflammation caused by repeated hits to the head.
“I would call it incredibly unprecedented,” Dr. Shay Dutta, co-director of the NYU Langone Concussion Center, who was not involved in the research, told The Post.
Although it has not yet been tested, experts hope that red light therapy may one day provide a valuable tool in the fight against a deadly brain disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE.
Degenerative brain disease is caused by repeated head injuries and is most common in contact sports athletes such as football players and boxers, as well as soldiers in war zones.
This can cause a variety of symptoms, including confusion, memory loss, emotional instability, aggression, and eventually trouble walking, speaking, swallowing, and even breathing. There is no cure, and doctors don’t know how to slow its progression.
Right now, the only real way to prevent CTE is to avoid repeated brain injuries by wearing helmets and minimizing injuries to the head.
But after the deaths of more than 100 former NFL players diagnosed with CTE and countless others likely affected, experts say additional tools are needed.
“We don’t have enough information to say that its use can prevent CTE,” Dutta said. “But we can say that if it’s reducing neuroinflammation then that’s a potential use for it, because that’s what’s causing the long-term effects.”
A bright idea for brain protection
In the past, studies have shown that red light therapy, also called photobiomodulation, can reduce inflammation in the body by increasing energy production inside cells and increasing blood flow, helping tissue repair and reducing inflammation.
Curious whether it could also reduce brain inflammation from repeated head injuries — believed to play a key role in the progression of CTE over time — researchers at University of Utah Health tested it.
The team recruited 26 collegiate football players and assigned them either a Vilite Neuro Gamma helmet, which emits near-infrared light into the skull and nasal cavity, or a placebo treatment using a similar device that does not emit light.
The athletes received therapy three times a week for 20 minutes per session throughout their 16-week season.
When researchers performed MRI scans at the end of the study, they found that brain swelling had increased significantly in the placebo group compared to images taken at the beginning of the season.
In contrast, players who used light-emitting helmets did not experience increased inflammation and almost all areas of the brain appeared to be protected.
“My first reaction was, ‘There’s no way this could be real,'” Dr. Hannah Lindsay, a research associate in neurology at University of Utah Health and first author of the study, said in a statement. “It was so amazing.”
Dutta was impressed, but not surprised.
“I have been studying and following this photobiomodulation and red light therapy,” she said. “But I think for people who haven’t been, it’s mind-blowing.”
Dr. Kristen Dams-O’Connor, director of Mount Sinai’s Brain Injury Research Center, is also following the work — and is “enthusiastic” about its potential implications.
“We’re not giving you a drug. Most people aren’t having side effects. But we’re still seeing tangible changes.”
Dr Shai Dutta
“Considering the mechanism of action — inflammation, at least broadly speaking — it makes sense in theory,” he told The Post. “If it can reduce the acute inflammatory cascade that has been documented as the effects of repetitive head impacts in humans and animal models, then perhaps it presents an opportunity to make sports safer.”
Researchers acknowledge that this particular form of red light therapy is still emerging and more research is needed, but after several preliminary studies with head injury patients, they are increasingly convinced that it has real potential.
“When we first started this project, I was extremely skeptical,” said Dr. Elizabeth Wild, professor of neurology at University of Utah Health and senior author of the study. “But we’ve seen consistent results across several of our studies, so it’s starting to be quite compelling.”
An added bonus: It’s completely non-invasive.
“We are not giving you medicine. Most people are not having side effects,” Dutta said. “But we’re still seeing concrete changes.”
But don’t rush to the store to buy a red light mask for your favorite football player.
“It has to be some wavelength of red light that can actually penetrate deep enough into the skin and subcutaneous tissue,” Dutta explained, adding that this is not what you’ll find in red light devices on store shelves.
Still, he said, if more research supports the latest findings, the special red light technology could be something we’ll see college and professional teams invest in.
“I would also like to make sure that it doesn’t have long-term negative side effects, because it certainly has benefited the athletes in whom it has been used, but we have yet to see if there is going to be any kind of outcome,” Dutta said.
“If there’s no risk of harm (which is a high threshold), I can see it being widely adopted,” Dams-O’Connor said.
The research team is already moving forward with their next study testing the effects of red light on the brain.
They’re launching a Defense Department-funded trial with 300 people suffering from persistent concussion or traumatic brain injury symptoms, including first responders, veterans and active-duty service members. Recruitment is expected to begin in February or March 2026.
Dr. Cary Esopenko, associate professor of neurology at University of Utah Health and the study’s second author, says the findings could one day help athletes in all sports.
“We’re trying to figure out how to make sports safer, so that our kids, friends and families can safely participate in sports for longer periods of time, while engaging in activities that bring them joy and happiness,” he said. “And this really seems like part of the hope for brain protection that we’re finding.”
<a href=