Not Everything Helpful Is a Protocol: Red Light Therapy Benefits Explained

When you’ve lived inside serious illness, your relationship to medicine changes.

You quickly learn what is essential. What is protocol. What is non-negotiable. And then, somewhere along the way, you more slowly start to notice everything else. The possibilities not handed to you within a protocol, but found in late-night searches.

This series is about those things: small, supportive tools that are easy to integrate into cancer care and may help support the body’s healing processes.

These topics are not a replacement for medical care. They merely support the body in what it’s already doing. As always, bring things to your care team when you need to.

Red Light Therapy, Explained

At its core, red light therapy (also called photobiomodulation) uses specific wavelengths of light—usually red and near-infrared—to interact with the body at a cellular level. The technical explanation centers on mitochondria, nitric oxide, and cellular energy, but in real life it’s simpler than that: light, applied to the body, with the intention of supporting how it heals.

It’s not a replacement for medical care. It supports the body in what it’s already doing.

How Our Family Actually Uses Red Light Therapy

Bone healing (short-term, more intentional)

Jude used it this winter on his broken ankle. This one mattered more to me, because it wasn’t just something I was trying on my own- it was actually recommended and encouraged by his orthopedic surgeon as a supportive tool for healing. Jude used it twice daily while healing.

Cold & flu support (as needed)

One of the side effects of Beau’s CAR T-cell therapy is chronically low IgA levels. IgA plays a role in early immune response, especially in the mucosal system (think: throat, gut, lungs).

In real life, that means when Beau gets a cold, it tends to be heavier. More congestion, more mucus, and usually longer than everyone else.

We use red light on his chest twice a day during those stretches. The goal is simple: support blood flow and lower inflammation.

There is emerging research suggesting red and near-infrared light may help reduce lung inflammation and support recovery in respiratory illness, though it’s still considered supportive, not standard care.

Sore throat (as needed, early + consistent)

At the first sign of a sore throat, along the front of the neck, right under the jawline, for about 10–15 minutes, twice a day.

This is one of those uses that feels almost too simple, but it makes sense when you think about what’s happening. The throat is full of lymphatic tissue and constantly responding to inflammation, especially at the start of an illness. The goal isn’t to stop the illness. It’s to support circulation and calm inflammation early, before things fully ramp up.

Thyroid (nightly, consistent)

I use it most nights on my thyroid,² for 15 minutes while laying in bed reading. My thyroid antibodies have been on a bit of a journey: through an antibiotic-heavy childhood and then a parenthood shaped by pediatric cancer.

I’ve given my body many different forms of support over the years, so I don’t claim the LumeBox cured anything. But I do believe it has helped.

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Red Light Therapy requires quiet, consistent use, not a one-time intervention. Which is actually a theme for most non-paharacological supports- it’s in the follow through.

None of these uses are about replacing care. They support the body in what it’s already doing.

Where It Fits (And Where It Doesn’t)

Red light therapy is not a cure. It doesn’t reverse structural damage or replace medical treatment.

What it may do is support circulation, reduce inflammation, help with pain, and create conditions that are more favorable for healing.

The research is uneven, as is the case with non-pharmacological tools.

There is good data around inflammation, circulation, and cellular energy, but not the kind of large-scale, condition-specific trials you see in pharmaceutical interventions. That’s not entirely surprising. Some things are easier to fund and study, and they are usually tied to products with significant commercial upside. A small red light device does not fall neatly into that category.

So it lives in a category I’ve grown comfortable with:

supportive, low-risk, worth understanding.

Why Our Family Uses LumeBox

If you do look into it, the practical side of finding a Red Light device is fairly simple.

However, not all devices are created equal, naturally. Some devices use red light (around 630–660 nm) and near-infrared light (around 800–880 nm). The near-infrared matters more for deeper areas like joints or hips because it penetrates further.

The LumeBox is handheld. Portable. Not something that has to be set up or committed to in a big way. We use it in bed, on the couch, in the car, and yes, we travel with it. It comes with us the same way a heating pad might.

It’s also low EMF, which was important to us. It’s one of those considerations that doesn’t get talked about much, but when you’re using something regularly and close to the body, it starts to matter. LumeBox has been independently tested and comes in very low on that scale, which gave us a level of comfort. (That’s a whole separate rabbit hole, but worth noting.)

The quiet in-between

One thing I’ve learned over the years inside pediatric cancer is that not everything helpful comes with a protocol.

Some things are essential, while some things are optional. But most live quietly in the in-between.

My hope is that you find small, supportive tools here. Things that are easy to integrate and help you feel a little more steady on an otherwise unsteady road.

For us, red light therapy has become one of those things.

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Affiliate note: If you choose to purchase through the link above, it provides a meaningful discount and I receive a small commission. I only share tools that have made sense in our home and that we have used consistently throughout cancer treatment.

1. Photobiomodulation in cardiovascular diseases: molecular mechanisms and pharmacological approaches to enhance the therapeutics effects of light
   
   Photobiomodulation for the treatment of neuroinflammation: A systematic review of controlled laboratory animal studies ↩︎
2. Efficacy of Combined Photobiomodulation Therapy with Supplements versus Supplements alone in Restoring Thyroid Gland Homeostasis in Hashimoto Thyroiditis: A Clinical Feasibility Parallel Trial with 6-Months Follow-Up ↩︎