ParentsRoom

I have struggled with acne and red skin my entire life. I look back through old photos of myself and realize there was hardly a time when I didn't have bright red skin and acne.

As a teen, my mom took me to the dermatologist and I dutifully took various cycles of antibiotics while cleaning my skin with special solutions and applying topical cremes and ointments. I can honestly tell you, nothing helped.

Now my oldest is reaching his teenage years and his skin is already showing signs of my legacy- the dreaded acne.

So... when I came across research about red and blue leds being an effective treatment for acne, I was interested but skeptical. How can light treat acne?

I've studied up, read some research and while still skeptical, I'm willing to drop some money on finding out more. I'm ordering these red and blue bulbs from Amazon for $74.99. Red LED's are also supposed to be good at healing injuries... I'll try that out as well once I get my lights.

Anti-Aging & Acne Combo Red & Blue LED Light Therapy Bulbs 76 LEDs

Here's some of the research I found if you are interested and want to read more:

• http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16766484
• http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bsc/bjd/2000/00000142/00000005/art00021
• http://www.techbriefs.com/content/view/499/36/
• http://heelspurs.com/led.html

Will it have any effect? I don't know yet but the NASA related research on red LED's and healing has me really interested. I suspect I'll be testing the red LED on a number of things!

Red LED's are being sold as an anti-aging remedy as well, but I don't put much stock in that. Red LED's seem to stimulate the cell activity in damaged cells from what I've read, and aging cells aren't damaged. But who knows... I'd take some anti-aging while we are at it!

I will report back in 4 weeks once I receive the bulbs and start treatments on myself and son #1. If it is worth it, I'll let you know!