Illuminating the Possibilities: Exploring Light Therapy and Its Healing Potential

Wondering about the not-so-ordinary ways you could be taking charge of your health and wellness? Tune in to my enlightening conversation with Lee Grove, a board certified light therapist. Today, we illuminate the mysterious corners of light therapy, detailing its origins, evolution, and the science behind its remarkable healing potential. From its initial applications by NASA to its current use in medicine, light therapy proves to be a promising alternative for treating various ailments, making it an indispensable addition to your wellness routine.

 We also delve into the therapeutic benefits of light therapy not only for humans but also for our furry friends. In this captivating discussion, Lee unveils how light therapy—regardless of its many scientific names like low level light therapy, laser therapy, and photo modulation—works wonders on a cellular level. Learn how it aids in the repair and recovery of muscles, skin, bones, ligaments, and tendons. If you're intrigued by unconventional healing methods and yearn to understand their scientific base, you'll find this conversation fascinating and insightful.

Finally, our exploration of light therapy would be incomplete without touching on its rejuvenating powers for skin. Lee shares her knowledge on how the clever combination of different lights, like red and blue, can provide anti-aging effects and reduce age spots. Going beyond the surface, we delve into how light therapy imparts confidence, urging us to feel good, look good and act good. This "illuminating" conversation is sure to ignite your curiosity about alternative healing methods, and equip you with the knowledge to integrate them into your lifestyle.

Shine on friends and thank you for sharing, liking and commenting if you are enjoying these episodes.

To find out more about my sponsor SENSATIONALLY SILVER.....go here:
https://sensationallysilver.com/
Use code SILVERKIM for a special discount.

LEE can be found:
https://www.photonictherapynw.com/

KIM:
https://www.kimduffselby.com/
https://www.instagram.com/kimduffselby/
https://www.tiktok.com/@kimduffselby

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Welcome back, Sparklers, to another episode of Ignite your Spark. Thank you for joining me. As always, and up until now, I have not had any sponsors on my podcast because actually I only want to promote things, people, et cetera, that I really really like, and I'm just not going to do anything right, I'm not going to just take any sponsor. So I wanted to tell you that my first person that is sponsoring me is Sensationally Silver and of course, I love that because it's a shampoo and conditioner line for you guessed it white, silver, gray hair, and I found them and I have been using their shampoo and conditioner and I really love the way it makes my hair feel and I just love the shine. I'm not kidding, but I do love this product. So I just wanted to encourage you, if you have silver, white, gray hair, to try Sensationally Silver products, and you do get a discount if you use Silver Kim altogether. Silver Kim gives you a little discount. You can try it out and I love it.

Speaker 1: 1:15

So now let's get on to our episode. Today we are going to talk all about light therapy and my guest is Lee Grove, and Lee is a board certified light therapist and you all may have heard about light therapy for your skin, like the red light mask, blue light mask. We're going to go into it because it's about so much more than just making your skin look great. It can help us in so many ways and I'm not going to talk about it. I'm going to let Lee join us and I'll ask her a few questions and we'll get started learning about light therapy. Welcome, Lee.

Speaker 2: 1:59

I can thank you. Thank you so much for having me too, and you've seen our studio here, so that's kind of helpful for you to know all the equipment, different types of equipment we use. So I am open to any questions. I could talk about the science and the benefits of light forever.

Speaker 1: 2:17

Okay, I met Lee. Lee is based in Seattle and a good friend of mine goes to Lee and suggested I see her for some issues, and I know about light therapy because I have had my own light what do you call it kit, I guess since 2017, because when I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and I found light therapy and thought it would help, and it has really helped me over the years. I have to ask you a question that I ask all my guests Sure, how do you ignite your spark?

Speaker 2: 2:49

Oh gosh, the thrill is what I do. It's never boring, it's always different and the biggest thing is getting results from my clients, and that's the truth. And igniting my spark outside of work is with my dog, you know, socializing with friends and inspire other people, and a lot of that comes from light because it sounds corny, but it's like a beacon of hope, yeah.

Speaker 1: 3:16

Well, I really like that and my whole thing is ignite your spark, you know, and all that light driven, because I feel like the world needs more light and clearly our bodies need light as well. Why don't we be? Without getting too scientific, because I do know you know all of the specifics around it, but if you can just make it really simple, why light therapy? I know it's hard to say simple, but why should we use therapy and they'll ask a few more questions as we get going so that the lay people can understand it.

Speaker 2: 3:48

And light therapy has been around for a while, but and they've been using it in Europe for quite a while we're just a little slow here in the States, but NASA was actually the one that kicked it off, so we can go into that if you want. But the why is? It provides the missing piece of the puzzle and it's safe, it's effective and you can use it on your body to safely supply the nutrient of light to renew, restore and replenish everything from muscles and tendons to skin, to bone, to ligaments. They're finding amazing things with using light for Alzheimer's, dementia, parkinson's it's all cutting edge right now, but MIT has done studies on it that are pretty significant. So why? I think the big answer to why is because I think people are getting tired of just taking a pill, using drugs and or just surgery to take care of their health, because light is considered a nutrient and it does replenish your body. Your cells require it.

Speaker 1: 5:02

Your mitochondria, which are the little engines of every cell in your body, are stimulated with light and when you say go ahead, oh no, well, I mean, I was just curious when how long like NASA has been using this?

Speaker 2: 5:20

Since about the late 60s, early 70s. They found when astronauts go into space, one of the downsides that happens is if they cut themselves when they're in space, the cuts don't heal. So what they found was any of the people that tended the plants that were under the grow lights that they provided on the spaceship, any of those people that tended the plants, if they had a cut it would heal right away, in fact faster than basically everybody was used to. You know I could use the term faster than here on Earth, but really that was kind of what happened. And so when they got back, nasa started saying I think we need to look at this and see why certain spectrums, certain wavelengths of light have an effect on bacteria and skin and healing.

Speaker 1: 6:16

That is fascinating. I didn't mean to stop your story, but I mean I didn't want to forget to ask you that. So that's incredible Like you could put an open cut next to a light and it would help and facilitate the healing process.

Speaker 2: 6:32

Yes, and different spectrums of light, different wavelengths of light. The cells respond in certain ways, like blue. Blue light, not UV. We only use the visible spectrum of light, but blue light is great for destroying bacteria.

Speaker 1: 6:50

Oh, Is that why it's on your face? It's red and blue light. Is that why you use it? Yeah, red and blue.

Speaker 2: 6:57

Like for acne, you'll find hospitals use blue light. They use blue light. They've been using blue light in hospitals for babies since the 60s, so it's just finally moved and morphed into the study of the different wavelengths and how the body responds. And scientists have known, quote, unquote, known about it for a long time. They've just not given it the recognition and the study that it deserves. And when you start seeing what light can actually do and I'm humbled every day by what happens to people with severe pain or arthritis. Or my youngest client is five years old and she has severe eczema and it's outstanding to see her come in as a little girl who was just so upset about why she couldn't have a normal life, couldn't play on the monkey bars, couldn't show her hands to being able to do everything. It really is life changing for a lot of people.

Speaker 1: 8:07

And I'm curious as to why. Well, a couple of things. How? First, how did you get into light therapy? Is it because you utilized light therapy that you decided to become a light therapist?

Speaker 2: 8:20

Well, I started looking into it because I had I'm a researcher at heart, and so I had a dog that was failing. Her hips were failing and she was 15 years old, so I knew it wasn't a lot of time she had left, but she and she'd had a great life. We used to hike and run and play and jump in the water and all that. But she her back end was failing. And I had heard about a thing called cold laser, and that was in 2014. And some chiropractors were using it. I could not find anybody up here that was even in close proximity to where I lived. So I called the company that manufactured this laser, and the company was K laser, and I had a long talk with them and they said we can't sell it to you. You're not a doctor, you're not a physician, you're not a chiropractor, you're not a veterinarian, and so we can't sell it to you. And I said, well, can you train me on it, so that maybe I mean I don't know and they said, no, we can't. So I gave up my. I didn't learn anything in time to save my dog, but fast forward to 2019.

Speaker 2: 9:34

And I had another dog that I knew was going to need it, started looking at it, found a school in Sonoy Arizona. I called her on Halloween night and said I know nothing other than I think this light therapy thing is amazing from what I've read. And she said that was on Halloween night. And I said and I'm going to use it for a dog. And it says you teach classes about how to use light therapy on pets. She said, well, I've got a class starting November 3rd, but it's in Arizona.

Speaker 2: 10:08

The rest is history. I booked a flight, went down there and then I went. That was in November 3rd, then I went back in December, then I went back in January. Then COVID hit. Um, by then I had done quite a bit of extensive school, so I never looked back and it's uh, it's the best decision I ever made. And we opened up the clinic in 2020, in the middle of a pandemic. Of course it does. But yeah, but here we are three years later and um, it's just, I have so many success stories to share or to tell, or that I witness all the time.

Speaker 1: 10:48

Oh, it's so powerful and I love that it started with your pet, because I know that you do work on pets as well as humans. And what I think is really interesting and at the same time annoying is that it falls light therapy. They call it holistic light therapy. In many cases, I know, falls under the guise of alternative medicine, when NASA it uses it, when traditional doctors use it, you said in hospitals for babies, I'm sure for preemies, and it's really a shame that is not more well known well, this is what we're doing.

Speaker 2: 11:27

This is why we're doing this. This is why we're doing um, you know, talking about it on podcast. That's why we want to get the word out, because it and it's. It's really interesting, kim, because when I first started looking at it, there was approximately 2,000 studies. If you really dug deep and you could find about 2,000 studies. If you typed in photo by modulation, nothing would pop up. You typed in in light therapy, you would get stuff about tanning beds, um, and so, to see it, from 2019 to 2023, there's over 9,000 peer reviewed studies by scientists, doctors, veterinarians on the benefits of light therapy. And there was. It was called by so many names. It was called low level light therapy, laser therapy, and that's whatever it was used to was lasers and we use leds. We don't use lasers, and that is. Leds are a specific type of device that we use, but light therapy as a whole encompasses lasers and leds.

Speaker 2: 12:38

So the scientific community yeah, okay, sorry go ahead the scientific community decided they needed a term that would encompass all of the different names that light therapy had. So they came up with photo by a modulation. A big word with a lot of interesting meanings, but the simplistic explanation is modulating the biological processes of the body using photons or light all right.

Speaker 1: 13:12

So on your website you have a blog and you have a couple of things. You have a lot of information as well, and one of the things I thought was really interesting was something you said do our cells really breathe? Cellular respiration, what is?

Speaker 2: 13:29

that cellular respiration is when everything is stimulated and your cells are actually utilizing everything that they need to keep your body healthy. So when, when your body receives light there's many different processes that happens. It releases nitric oxide, atp. For any guys that work out, athletes, anybody that does anything physical, is very familiar with ATP and how important it is. So light releases that nitric oxide is a vasodilator that gets everything moving. It smooths the muscles of of your arteries and capillaries. It opens everything up and things just start humming and the mitochondria really start going to work and the cells are what respond to all of this and you get the benefit as a whole everything from quick muscle recovery to beautiful skin, to repairing bone ligaments, tendons, those kinds of things.

Speaker 1: 14:36

How exactly? And you kind of talked to it, but how exactly does it work? I know that's a big question, but if I go and I sit under my lights, what is happening? I mean, you kind of explained it, but a little more.

Speaker 2: 14:53

Okay. So it's kind of like. I think everybody is familiar with what photosynthesis is for plants. It takes light from the sun. It absorbs everything. Our cells manifest this beautiful light. Their cells respond by the plant either turning green, growing fruit, doing whatever it does. Light is very much the same. We are very much like plants. We need that fuel because all of our cells have a little thing called a chromophore. There's a lot more to it scientifically, but the chromophore. Every cell has their own source of light. So I'm going to use blue light as because why it works so well for bacteria, the specific source of light for a bacteria. We can use MRSA, for instance, we can use, you know, anything cuts, anything that happens with bacteria. That specific source of light does not resonate with the 470 nanometers of a blue light. The blue light actually then explodes the bacteria and kills it.

Speaker 1: 16:07

I mean, that's just incredible. It is incredible, it is incredible. And what bothers me again is that you know it's certainly not covered by our insurance, Not yet, but we're working on it. It's not like there's a light therapist around every corner.

Speaker 2: 16:21

No, but we hope that that's the case, you know, because there didn't used to be a school until 2019. Yeah, we've been using lights on race horses and horses for 25 years.

Speaker 1: 16:36

Well, that's why we need it. We need to run.

Speaker 2: 16:41

As people. I mean, the horses were benefiting from it. It was. It was not as sophisticated back then as it is now, but now you can incorporate, as you know, everything when you're seeing an energy healing you talk about oh people go in and they do a sound bath. Right, because that's frequencies, it's all frequencies, everything is frequencies. We all vibrate and that's what light therapy is. It's just a specific type of frequency and wavelength of light that resonates with the body.

Speaker 1: 17:16

I mean, who wouldn't rather do this than take medicine that's going to do some sort of strange side effect, like when you said that about the little girl with eczema. My son had eczema a little bit when he was younger. It was a, you know. We didn't have to do anything. But you see those stupid commercials online for take this pill for your eczema Side effects may include, you know, and it's like what?

Speaker 2: 17:38

I know that's the thing is you start taking one pill and that creates another issue. So you take something to fix that, which then creates another issue and pretty soon it's just. You're on so many medications and light therapy is. It also feels great, it's relaxing. We have people that come in. We do a brain helmet because it is so good for the brain and Claire's brain fog, and so we have people that come in and they have their own name for it. They call it. I want to come in for my brain helmet. I want to come in for my happy hat, I want to come in for my mood booster. So they all have their name for whatever they want to call it. But it's also very relaxing and we use a couple of different.

Speaker 2: 18:31

We go beyond just shining a light or putting a pad over something. We go in depth with the nerves of the body. We dig down deep and find out the cause and where to start from there. We don't just slap a band-aid on it with light. Basically you find the cause just by talking to it, dig down deep, you really dig down deep.

Speaker 2: 18:52

If somebody has had it, it depends on if it's chronic pain, if it's acute pain. You ask a lot of questions. We have a pretty lengthy intake form to get to the root of it. We utilize many different modalities to get down to it, but basically the nerves that all come out of the spine. There's an actual map of the body it's called a dermatome map and when your knee hurts like we, somebody might come in with a knee complaint. We will put a pad or do light on their back, because that's where the nerves come out of the spine and we use a thing we call photupuncture, which is acupuncture with light instead of needles using torches. It's very targeted light therapy. So you have different types that you can use, based on what people want to achieve health-wise.

Speaker 1: 19:46

Yeah, I want it all. It makes total sense. You know, it's funny is I was sitting here and of course I'm a big believer in this, but I never really connected the dots until you said that about plants. Well, plants really can't survive in the dark. So we are like plants we can't survive in the dark. You hear about all the horror stories about people who live in countries where it's dark and while the depression, the rates of alcoholism and suicide, they're not getting enough light. And it just makes perfect sense that we need light and we can't always go out into the sun because of the whole skin cancer thing. I mean, we can get a little, but we're not getting the same benefits from the sun, are we?

Speaker 2: 20:39

No, if it were that simple, that's all we'd have to do is go stand in the sun. That's why targeting and specific wavelengths of light that scientists have nailed it within a spectrum of what works with the human body. And the fascinating thing is they started out red light, then it was red and near infrared, now they have, and blue for bacteria, and now there's green, there's amber. I have a quick, cute little story about a woman that made a prediction back in the 70s. Yeah, it's all come true. Her name was Hannah Kroger. She set up the very first herbal shop in Boulder, colorado. She was using her own form of light. It was nothing like what is today, but she's not alive anymore and she was pretty old at that time when she did it, to start all of this. And she was from Germany, a little spitfire. And she made a prediction in the 70s. She said in the future, medicine and healing will be done with color, sound and light.

Speaker 1: 21:49

And here we are, we're headed that way, it is really powerful, and I like that. You have all the scientific backing behind it as well, because there are people who are going to want to know. Unlike me, I just go okay, I'll try that, I'll try this. And I'd like to share these newer ideas with everyone, because the most important thing in our lives as we get older even though people, when you're young, you don't realize it is your health. Your health is the most important thing, and if we can stay on top of it and heal our bodies and start at five years old, you know, it's just only to increase everybody's chances of longevity, and not just longevity, but healthy longevity.

Speaker 2: 22:31

And cognition. I think every person I talk to, one of the greatest fears we all have is cognition going away and you can't help it. I'm gonna use the number age 70. I think that's a game changer for a lot of people because it's a marker. Society has made it a marker. Actuarial tables with insurance companies have made it a marker. So it's like, you know, I forgot my keys, or what are my keys doing in the refrigerator? Oh my God, do I have all you know? Is this the beginning? Part of it could be, but part of it can be is no, you're just run down, or you're? You know you need a nutrient and I think my personal opinion, everybody should have light in their house, everybody. It should be something that we all carry and have to be able to use.

Speaker 1: 23:24

Yeah, I agree. I'm very fortunate that many years ago I did do this, but also you have helped me a lot with that, because when I got my system, as you know, they were very specific you have to do this, this, this and this, whereas you're like, just get the light on your body. And I know that there are ways. You gave me some suggestions to get over jet lag. There are ways that you can place the pads that the normal person like myself doesn't know unless we talk to someone or get guidance from someone who is actually a certified light therapist. This is something that you cannot do unless you are in someone's office or with someone who has the actual device right, we empower people.

Speaker 2: 24:13

We love to have people come to see us. They get the benefit of all of our knowledge and professionalism. And then what we like to do. I mean I would love it if people would just like come to us forever, but travel time, gas everything. If you're at home and you can do it yourself, why wouldn't you do that?

Speaker 1: 24:35

But what I meant is you need the lights. It's not something virtual. You know, yes, we can do energy. You know when people can have psychic readings online and they can do a lot of healing online, but not with light therapy like this. You actually have to physically have the light pads.

Speaker 2: 24:51

Yes, because it does. You do place it next to your skin, Right, right. You need for absorption For every half inch away. That it is. You lose about anywhere from 30 to 50%, depending on the device. But that's why panels are so powerful. But I'm always amused when I see a major panel company showing somebody sitting across the room. I'm like, okay, I mean, they're getting the nutrient of light through their eyes visually, but it's not anything like if you're standing directly in front of it Right now.

Speaker 1: 25:26

do you know? In most states there's got to be light therapists everywhere, right? Or do you know?

Speaker 2: 25:33

It's becoming more and more. It's becoming more and more and, like I said before, there wasn't a specific school, so now there is. I do a lot, in fact 2024,. Part of what I'm gonna be doing is a lot of education. I plan on doing some videos and all of that because I want people to know how to use light. I don't want them to be afraid of it.

Speaker 2: 25:52

A lot of people will say, oh, where do I put it? What do I do with it? How long should I do it? And there's a lot of junk out there that you can buy. That, we have found, makes it a bit unfortunate for us, because people will buy it breaks within a week or it doesn't work because they don't know how to use it, and then they'll say all that light therapy stuff doesn't work. So it's important to find a certified light therapist because right now there are no requirements. You can be a light therapist. That's why we went to the extra time, effort, money to become certified, for credibility, and I couldn't do it if I didn't have the knowledge. I can't fake it like that right, right now.

Speaker 1: 26:42

do you sell light therapy kits as well?

Speaker 2: 26:45

Yeah, we sell. We sell equipment. We definitely do. We have the heavy hitter stuff here, but we do. We do sell handheld Units that you can use at home the pad system like you have I rep a couple different pad companies and the torches panels, all of that yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 27:06

Well, my next purchase is going to be the facial wand. Right it's awesome.

Speaker 2: 27:11

There's yeah, there's a lot of things out there that are making a lot of claims and we get to hear from people who have already gotten those devices and said I don't, yeah, I don't want that. So it's kind of nice because we do have a very broad overview of everything.

Speaker 1: 27:30

I think that's great, because you can find those red light devices probably on Amazon, but you're not. Before we wrap up, though, I want to talk about the face and what the light therapy does for the face, because I know Some of what I've read, but talk to us a little bit about how it helps our skin look younger.

Speaker 2: 27:51

Well, they use a combination some of the best combinations depending on what it is you're going for it. If you have acne or eczema, a combination of red and blue is great for skin rejuvenation, anti aging, cellular repair, reducing age spots, the dark spots on your skin. The best combination is red and then near infrared and amber. Amber breaks up the melasma of the dark spots. It definitely rejuvenates your skin. It's, it works pretty well.

Speaker 1: 28:27

Asking for a friend. I mean right, if that's called right, that's what I've heard. The red light builds collagen, but in the handheld one that you sell does it have all those different lights or does it just?

Speaker 2: 28:40

It has. It has two different shades of red, two different wavelengths of red, and then infrared and then amber Awesome.

Speaker 1: 28:49

I'm asking for that for Christmas. I don't get it.

Speaker 2: 28:53

It's a great Christmas gift. It's two hundred forty nine dollars. You're going to blow that on five or six things to do a stocking stuff or anyway, right, right you know. And it's a company. It's made in in America, in California. Their plant is amazing.

Speaker 1: 29:09

I love the whole idea of light therapy and it's time for us to wrap up. Do you have anything else that you want to add to people? For people maybe I mean I think we've covered it all, but who might go well, what do I do? Do I do it? I don't know. Just maybe like some great words of why you should do light therapy now. Is it also preventative?

Speaker 2: 29:33

Yes, that's why it is because what you're doing is you are giving yourselves what they need to thrive. It also with cellular turnover. I'm going to use the face, since we're going to wrap up, but I'm going to use the face with cellular turnover. That's what keeps all the cells fresh. But you also need there's a thing called cellular senescence, and the dead skin cells can build up and then they collect in. You know that's in frown lines and things like that. But with light you're constantly regenerating, constantly regenerating and bringing new skin cells, rebuilding collagen, elastin, which is what keeps our faces firm, and all of that.

Speaker 2: 30:24

When I see things that are that dermatologists are now recommending that that Women start using Botox at age twenty five, I've out lost it. I mean, you're never more beautiful than you are twenty five. Everything's perfect, right. Nothing is going to completely stop the aging process. We are going to age, but we can age as gracefully as we possibly can. I believe light is the ticket. It is something that is non invasive, it's healthy. The results take about. You'll start seeing results, sometimes instantly. It depends on what it's, what you want it for In your face and in your skin. It takes about six weeks, anywhere from four to six weeks, but I've had people their first session. Their skin, the texture changes, it's just beautiful.

Speaker 1: 31:17

I can attest to that because my with my life device ads that I've had for many, many, many years now and I don't use it religiously on my face because I'm using it on other parts of my body. I'm going to start on my face. I can I really can tell that it is smoother, not just when I put on my stomach. My stomach is smoother, it's.

Speaker 2: 31:35

I know it changes the texture, it keeps everything smooth and lovely, and I'm over seventy and so I use it every day.

Speaker 1: 31:46

People, you need to look at this on YouTube, because Leigh looks a lot younger than me. She's over seventy, as she said, so you will see the benefits of it when you look at her.

Speaker 2: 31:57

It just works and I and I love it and I'm, I am a living testimony to the benefits of light. I have three dogs that are the living testimony to the benefits of light. Not a good prognosis, and they're, they're great.

Speaker 1: 32:11

So good, well, if anybody's in the Seattle area, you must go visit Leigh I. I implore you to do so, leigh. What is your website so that we can send people there? And I will also write it below so that people can look at it, because I know it's not that simple.

Speaker 2: 32:27

Photonic therapy and W P H O T O N I C Therapy. T H E R A P Y N W for Northwest.

Speaker 1: 32:38

Yeah, now I'll put that written down below, but sometimes people want to know while they're listening or something. I just like to give it to them then. Leigh, thank you so much for enlightening us.

Speaker 2: 32:49

Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1: 32:50

I could talk light all day so Well, I could too, because I really feel that the world needs more light and therefore our bodies need more light, because we want to be as healthy as we can, and my whole goal is to help people find their inner spark. But with light therapy, you're going to be doing more than that. I just love the whole light image that's coming you know.

Speaker 2: 33:13

I mean it makes us feel good, and when you feel good, then you look good, you act good, you carry that light and shine it to other people as well. I couldn't agree more.

Speaker 1: 33:26

Thank you, kim, for having me on, thank you Leigh and thank you listeners. I hope you go out and ignite your spark and think about light therapy to help you ignite your spark. So share your light. All right, thanks so much. Sure Shine on everyone.