Can light actually be beneficial to your acne? A common acne myth: sunlight treats your acne. However, even as a myth, there are some truths to this statement. Sunlight does help treat acne, but overexposure has shown to make acne worse. Many skin doctors ask acne sufferers to stay out of the sun, and with good reason. Also, many of the acne treatments prescribed to acne sufferers require them to avoid sunlight. But, can sunlight be beneficial?
It was a difficult task for scientists to figure out why sunlight initially helped treat acne. If there was a certain aspect of sunlight that could be separated from the rest and used solely to treat acne, this would become a great acne product. After researching the different wavelengths and their effects on acne, scientists concluded that blue light, almost violet light, at 415nm indeed does treat acne. Also, red light at 660nm and above improved skin collagen production, which would be great for other skin defects as well. But, our main concern is the 415nm wavelength and how it treats acne.
Why does blue light treat acne? Acne is caused by bacteria thriving in your clogged pores. By shining blue light at the acne, the light provides an uninhabitable environment for these bacteria, killing them off in just under a week. This allows acne to quickly disappear, sometimes in even less than 24 hours. Blue light therapy works great for even severe acne, because severe acne is packed with bacteria that needs to be destroyed.
The results blue light therapy has shown for the treatment of acne were on an average scale. It is by no means a miracle acne treatment, but it is effective for most types of acne. It is a decent alternate to acne creams and pills if those didn't work for you in the past. Although, since blue light therapy doesn't help treat clogged pores, purchasing a product that keeps the pores clean and the bacteria out will complete your acne treatment regimen if you decide to try out blue light therapy. There are many acne treatments being developed today; one of them just might happen to work for you.
