{"id":439617,"date":"2026-01-27T00:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T00:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/439617\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T00:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T00:46:11","slug":"red-light-therapy-shows-promise-for-protecting-football-players-brains-theu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/439617\/","title":{"rendered":"Red light therapy shows promise for protecting football players\u2019 brains \u2013 @theU"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reposted from U of U Health<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Punch-drunk syndrome, boxer\u2019s madness, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The name has changed over the years, but the cause is clear: repeated impacts undermine long-term brain health, with symptoms ranging from confusion to memory loss and potentially dementia. More than 100 former National Football League players have been posthumously diagnosed with CTE.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s less clear is how to fix the problem.<\/p>\n

Even impacts that don\u2019t directly affect the head may cause microscopic damage or initiate toxic processes that unfold over time, and current therapies for concussion and head impacts tend to address symptoms, such as headache and balance issues, that can arise well after the initial injury.<\/p>\n

But an unorthodox treatment called red light therapy, which shines powerful near-infrared light at the brain through the skull, may be able to prevent or reduce subtle damage to the brain before symptoms start, by reducing brain inflammation caused by repetitive impacts. A preliminary study with 26 collegiate football players suggests that the therapy could significantly protect players\u2019 brains from inflammation over the course of a football season.<\/p>\n

The study was led by the University of Utah in partnership with scientists from Brigham Young University, which funded the research. The results appear in Journal of Neurotrauma<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Brain-protecting potential
\n\"\"<\/a>Banner image: False-color brain images showing the average change in inflammation from the start to the end of the football season within the group of players receiving the placebo treatment. Red corresponds to the greatest increase in inflammation. Image credit: Hannah Lindsey.<\/p>\n

These findings suggest that red light therapy could protect against brain inflammation. Participating football players received either red light therapy, delivered by a light-emitting headset and a device that clips to the nose, or a placebo treatment with an identical device that did not produce light. The therapeutic device is manufactured by a Toronto-based company, Vielight Inc<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Players self-administered the therapy three times a week for 20 minutes a session, throughout the 16-week season.<\/p>\n

For players on the placebo treatment, brain inflammation increased over the course of the season. Specifically, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans taken at the end of the season showed significantly more signs of inflammation than scans taken at the start of the season. But for players who used the device with an active red light, brain inflammation didn\u2019t increase over the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy first reaction was, \u2018There\u2019s no way this can be real,\u2019\u201d said first author\u00a0Hannah Lindsey<\/a>, research associate in neurology at University of Utah Health. \u201cThat\u2019s how striking it was.\u201d The group receiving red light therapy appeared to be protected from inflammation throughout almost all regions of the brain.<\/p>\n

Use of red light therapy for brain health is still in its infancy, but the researchers emphasize that every new therapy starts somewhere, and the potential mechanism of action makes sense. Sufficiently powerful red light\u00a0can make it through the skull<\/a>\u00a0and into the outer surface of the brain, although the amount of light that reaches the brain is a very small fraction of the total. And some\u00a0previous studies<\/a>\u00a0using human cells and animal models have shown that specific wavelengths of light can reduce the levels of some of the molecules that drive inflammation.<\/p>\n

More research is needed
\n\"\"<\/a>Left to right, study co-authors Hannah Lindsey, Elisabeth Wilde and Carrie Esopenko.<\/p>\n

While red light therapy is still an emerging technology and more data is needed, the researchers are becoming more convinced of its promise over the course of multiple preliminary studies with people who have experienced head impacts. \u201cWhen we first started this project, I was extremely skeptical,\u201d said senior author\u00a0Elisabeth Wilde<\/a>, professor of neurology. \u201cBut we\u2019ve seen consistent results across multiple of our studies, so it\u2019s starting to be quite compelling.\u201d<\/p>\n

An important caveat to the study is its small sample size, which led\u2014due to random chance\u2014to different initial levels of inflammation in the treatment and control groups. This shows that future large randomized clinical trials will be crucial to back up the results in broader populations. The research group is currently starting a Department of Defense-funded randomized controlled trial that will involve 300 people who have persistent symptoms from traumatic brain injury or concussion, focused on first responders, veterans, and active duty service members. The team is expecting to start recruitment in February or March.<\/p>\n

Carrie Esopenko<\/a>, associate professor of neurology and second author on the study, hopes that the results will help keep athletes healthy across all sports and age ranges. \u201cWe\u2019ve been trying to figure out how to make sports safer, so that our kids, friends, and family can participate in sports safely for the long term while they\u2019re involved in activities that give them happiness and joy,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd this really feels like part of the hope for protecting the brain that we\u2019ve been searching for.\u201d<\/p>\n

The results were published Jan. 20 in\u00a0Journal of Neurotrauma\u00a0as \u201cTranscranial Photobiomodulation Promotes Neurological Resilience in Current Collegiate American Football Players Exposed to Repetitive Head Acceleration Events<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n MEDIA & PR CONTACTS\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reposted from U of U Health. Punch-drunk syndrome, boxer\u2019s madness, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The name has changed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,228805,85,32460,32458,32459],"class_list":["post-439617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-red-light-therapy-shows-promise-for-protecting-football-players-brains-theu","tag-sports","tag-the-u","tag-the-university-of-utah","tag-uofu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}