NASA Discovered.

The Power of LED Light Therapy

During the 1980’s NASA was conducting a research study to grow vegetable’s in space.
LED lights were used, red and blue specifically because these are the most efficient light wavelengths for driving photosynthesis.

LEDs for Plants, Then People

In the late 1980s, engineer Ron Ignatius worked at a company that partnered with the Wisconsin Center for Space Automation and Robotics (WCSAR), which was funded by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. As light-emitting diode (LED) technology entered the commercial market, Ignatius worked with WCSAR to study this new lighting for growing plants in space. In 1989, Ignatius founded Quantum Devices Inc., and Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding from NASA paid the company to complete an LED plant-growth unit that grew potatoes on the space shuttle in 1995.

But the research had a side effect. The LEDs were red and blue because these are the most efficient light wavelengths for driving photosynthesis, and NASA scientists who spent time working with their hands under the lighting found that abrasions on their hands seemed to heal faster than normal.

This was how NASA stumbled into the world of medical light therapy. The agency saw a possible solution to a longstanding problem of space travel: without gravity, astronauts’ muscles and bones atrophy, and any wounds heal slowly, all of which endangers missions.

Ignatius also became interested in possible medical uses for LEDs. When he learned that Harry Whelan, a neurologist at the Medical College of Wisconsin, was investigating medical applications of light, he reached out. Between 1995 and 2003, a series of eight NASA SBIR contracts, funded experimentation on medical uses of LEDs, carried out between Quantum Devices, the Medical College of Wisconsin, and a few other entities.

Near-infrared laser light had recently been shown to speed healing of wounds – particularly those that were starved for oxygen – by boosting the production of growth-factor proteins, collagen, and blood vessels. But lasers had drawbacks, said Helen Stinson, who oversaw the work as a senior engineer in Marshall’s Spacecraft and Vehicle Systems Department. “With lasers, you’ve got to be careful not to damage surrounding tissue, and they also use a lot of energy and they’re expensive,” said Stinson. LED arrays can be designed to emit multiple wavelengths, and they can cover a larger area than a laser.

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